1920s Study Guide

Vocabulary

1. Henry Ford -  American industrialist who revolutionized factory production with his assembly-line methods.

2. Mass production -  Mass production - a manufacturing process where goods are produced in large quantities using standardized designs, machinery, and assembly line techniques.

3. Model T - The vehicle was one of the first mass production vehicles, allowing Ford to achieve his aim of manufacturing the universal car.

4. Assembly line -  a manufacturing process that allows for finished and almost finished parts to be installed in sequence to automate and reduce the time needed to assemble a finished good.

5. Consumer revolution - An increased supply of consumer goods from England that became available in the eighteenth century

6. Installment buying - the process of purchasing an asset over time.

7. Bull market - a sustained rise in stock prices over an extended period of time.

8. Buying on margin - occurs when an investor buys an asset by borrowing the balance from a bank or broker.

9. Herbert Hoover - was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933.

10. Calvin Coolidge - the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929.

11. Dawes Plan - a report on German reparations for World War I

12. Modernism - Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and subjective experience.

13. Fundamentalism - a form of a religion, especially Islam or Protestant Christianity, that upholds belief in the strict, literal interpretation of scripture.

14. Scopes Trial - 

15. Clarence Darrow -was one of America's most famous and controversial defense attorneys,

16. Ku Klux Klan -.

17. Prohibition - a nationwide ban on the sale and import of alcoholic beverages that lasted from 1920 to 1933.

18. Eighteenth Amendment - established the prohibition of alcohol in the United States.

19. Bootlegger - a person who makes or sells alcoholic liquor illegally.

20. The Jazz Singer - 

21. Babe Ruth - the greatest baseball player in the history of the sport.

22. Charles Lindbergh - In 1927 he became the first man to successfully fly an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean.

23. Flapper -   young woman known for wearing short dresses and bobbed hair and for embracing freedom from traditional societal constraints.

24. Jazz - 

25. Louis Armstrong - the leading trumpeter and one of the most influential artists in jazz history, who helped develop jazz into a fine art.

26. Bessie Smith - blues and jazz singer from the Harlem Renaissance who is remembered as the Empress of the Blues.

27. Harlem Renaissance - The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s.

Notes Questions

1. How did the automobile drive American prosperity? It revolutionized production, wages, working conditions, and daily life

2. What techniques did Henry Ford use to revolutionize production? Mass Production, Scientific Management, and the Assembly line

3. What was the consumer revolution? New, affordable goods became available to the public

4. How did the credit system work?  not enough ready cash led to installment buying

5. How can a bull market be characterized? Rising stock prices, then buying on the margin

6. How did the expansion of cities affect rural America and farmers? Farming incomes declined, growing debt, falling farm prices

7. What types of economic policies did President Harding approve? Laissez Faire 

8. Describe Laissez - Faire economic policies. No Government control in the economy

9. What problems faced the Calvin Coolidge administration? Farmers struggled as prices fell, Labor unions demanded higher wages/better working conditions, African Americans faced severe discrimination, Mexican American faced low wages

10. What was the largest cultural split in 1920s America?  Transition from rural to modernism

11. Why was formal education more important for urban Americans than rural Americans?  They needed formal education for higher paying jobs

12. What was a major difference between urban and rural lifestyles in the 1920s?

Urban - Consumer products and leisure activities , open to social change 

Rural - Couldn't participate in same leisure activities, kept traditional view of religion, science, and culture

13. Why did most Americans oppose the Ku Klux Klan?  High rates of crime and lawless times. And the split of rural and modernism

14. Who were “bootleggers?” People who made alcohol in homemade stills, smuggled it in from other countries

15. What other types of “businesses” rose during Prohibition? Speakeasies arise as secret drinking establishments. Others including prostitution, drugs, gambling, and murder

16. What type of music became popular during the 1920s?  Jazz Music

Video Questions

1. What was the condition of the American economy following World War I? There was a brief recession, followed by economic growth

2. What was the condition of American farmers? Not good, the market was falling

3. What amendment became the law of the land in the 1920s?  What did this amendment state?  Which amendment repealed it? The 18th amendment, no alc, 21st amendment

4. What were the places called that sold liquor? Speakeasies

5. In what major city was the modern age born? New York City

6. Where did more people live during the 1920s? Urban Areas, and cities

7. Where was the capital of jazz? Harlem

8. What was “the other America?” The poverty side of America 

9. Along with advertising came the expansion of what brand new concept?  Radio advertising, installment buying

10. What item was desired the most in the last years of the decade? The radio

11. In 1920, women achieved which right?  What amendment was this? The right to vote, the 19th amendment

12. The more daring women in the 1920s were called what term? Flappers

13. Which event in the 1920s most represented the conflict between rural and urban America?  The Scopes Monkey trial

14. Which hate group rose in the 1920s and specifically targeted African Americans, Catholics, and Jews? The KKK

Primary Source Readings

1. Who would have been shocked by flapper’s bare legs?    Older Women

2. Where did the term “flapper” come from?    The UK

3. Why would activities such as riding bikes and driving automobiles have been considered scandalous?  It wasn't considered ladylike

4. Why did many people become skeptical of scientific discoveries and technological advancements?   The rise of fundamentalism

5. What was the Fundamentalist movement built around? strict, literal interpretation of scripture 

6. Why did biology textbooks eliminate references to evolution?    To avoid controversy