Flappers
The dynamic 1920's revealed women notorious for their risky attire and dance styles. Referred to as "wild abandons," these girls exemplified the new sexually frank generation.
Modernists
believed that God was a "good guy" and the universe a pretty chummy place; these were the people who believed in God but were also able to except evolution and modern science
Sacco and Vanzetti Case
Nicola Sacco was a shoe-factory worker and Bartholomew Vanzetti was a fish peddler. They were both convicted of murdering a Massachusetts paymaster and his guard in 1921. They were supported by Liberals and Radicals. The case lasted 6 years and resulted in execution based on weak evidence. Mainly because Americans were xenophobic (afraid of foreigners).
Ku Klux Klan
In the 1920s this group was very anti-foreign. It was against all groups which did not have a protestant background. They were most prevalent in the Midwest and the south. They eventually became less popular when Klan officials were caught embezzling money.
Emergency Quota Act 1921
This law restricted immigration to 3% of each nationality that was in the United States in 1910.
Immigration Quota Act 1924
was passed in 1924--cut quotas for foreigners from 3 % to 2% of the total number of immigrants in 1890--purpose was to freeze America's existing racial composition (which was largely Northern European) --prevented Japanese from immigrating, causing outrage in Japan.
Volstead Act
The Volstead Act implemented the 18th Amendment. It established illegal alcohol at above .5%.
Fundamentalism
A movement that pushed that the teachings of Darwin were destroying faith in God and the Bible. It consisted of the old-time religionists who didn't want to conform to modern science.
Sinclair Lewis
Lewis was the chief chronicler of Midwestern life. He was a master of satire and wrote "
Main Street
" in 1920. Then he wrote "Babbit" which describe a materialistic middle-class American businessman.
William Faulkner
He was a writer. In 1926 he wrote a bitter war novel called "Soldier's Pay". He also wrote many other powerful books about the lives of Southerners during the Civil War.
Buying on Margin
This kind of buying stocks was usually only used by poor and middle class people. They would buy the stock, but only pay for part of it and borrow money from the stockbrokers to pay the rest. Then when they sold the stock for a higher price, they would pay the broker off and keep the rest of the profit. This practice led to the great depression, because the banks couldn't get their money back when the stock market crashed.
Red Scare
The Red Scare erupted in the early 1920's. The American public was scared that communism would come into the US. Left-winged supporters were suspected. This fear of communism helped businessman who used it to stop labor strikes.
Sigmund Freud
The Viennese physician that believed sexual repression was responsible for a variety of nervous and emotional diseases. He argued that health demanded sexual gratification and liberation. His writings seemed to justify the new sexual frankness of the 1920s.
H. L. Mencken
H.L. Mencken was a patron to many young writers in the 1920's. He criticized many subjects like the middle class, democracy, marriage and patriotism in his monthly AMERICAN MERCURY.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
He belonged to the Lost Generation of Writers. He wrote the famous novel "The Great Gatsby" which explored the glamour and cruelty of an achievement-oriented society.
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway fought in Italy in 1917. He later became a famous author who wrote "The Sun Also Rises" (about American expatriates in Europe) and "A Farewell to Arms." In the 1920's he became upset with the idealism of America versus the realism he saw in World War I. He was very distraught, and in 1961 he shot himself in the head.
Margaret Sanger
She led an organized birth control movement that openly championed the use of contraceptives.
Andrew Mellon
Mellon was the Secretary of the Treasury during the Harding Administration. He felt it was best to invest in tax-exempt securities rather than in factories that provided prosperous payrolls. He believed in trickle down economics. (Hamiltonian economics)
Bruce Barton
A founder of the "new profession" of advertising, which used the persuasion ploy, seduction, and sexual suggestion. He was a prominent New York partner in a Madison Avenue firm. He published a best seller in 1925, The Man Nobody Knows, suggesting that Jesus Christ was the greatest ad man of all time. He even praised Christ's "executive ability." He encouraged any advertising man to read the parables of Jesus.
Henry Ford
Henry Ford - he made assembly line production more efficient in his Rouge River plant near Detroit- a finished car would come out every 10 seconds. He helped to make car inexpensive so more Americans could buy them.
Frederick W. Taylor
Taylor was an engineer, an inventor, and a tennis player. He sought to eliminate wasted motion. Famous for scientific-management especially time-management studies.
Margaret Sanger
she organized a birth-control movement which openly championed the use of contraceptives in the 1920's.
A. Mitchell Palmer
Attorney General who rounded up many suspects who were thought to be un-American and socialistic; he helped to increase the Red Scare; he was nicknamed the "Fighting Quaker" until a bomb destroyed his home; he then had a nervous breakdown and became known as the "Quaking Fighter."
John Dewey
He was a philosopher who believed in "learning by doing" which formed the foundation of progressive education. He believed that the teachers' goal should be "education for life and that the workbench is just as important as the blackboard."
John T. Scopes
In 1925 Scopes was indicted for teaching evolution in Tennessee. His trial was watched all over the country. This trial represented the Fundamentalist vs. the Modernalist. In the outcome Scopes was only fined $100.00 dollars. While it seemed the Fundamentalists had won, the trial made them look bad.
William Jennings Bryan
Joined the prosecution in the " Monkey Trials" (Scopes Trial) against the teachings of evolution in schools, he was supposed to be an expert on the Bible, but was made to look silly in the case and died soon afterward
Clarence Darrow
A famed criminal defense lawyer for Scopes, who supported evolution. He caused William Jennings Bryan to appear foolish when Darrow questioned Bryan about the Bible.
