Social Studies Assignment Sheet:
The Roaring Twenties: 1919 - 1929
**Key IDs are optional (but recommended) for all assignments for this unit.**
HW #22-1
Read pp. 736–740 Adjusting to Peacetime
Key IDs: • recession • Teapot Dome Scandal • disarmament • isolationism
• Kellogg-Briand Pact • Red Scare • Sacco and Vanzetti
1. Immediately following World War I what problems did the nation experience?
2. Why was Warren G. Harding’s presidency so controversial?
3. Why were Calvin Coolidge and Republicans in general popular during the 1920s?
4. How did the United States pursue a policy of isolationism in the 1920s?
5. Why did so many people in the United States fear communism?
6. How did the Red Scare show anti-Communist feelings of many Americans?
7. How did anti-immigrant bias allow nativists to control immigration during the 1920s? Be
specific in your answer.
8. Re-read both: “Why It Matters” at the beginning of the section and “Looking Back and
Ahead” at the end of the section. In your own words summarize the “story” you just read and
what you will learn next.
HW #22-2
Read pp. 741–745 Changes in American Society
Key IDs: • Prohibition Eighteenth Amendment • bootleggers • speakeasies
• Twenty-first Amendment • Nineteenth Amendment • flappers • “talkie”
• Great Migration
1. Why did the United States prohibit the “sale, manufacture, or transportation of intoxicating
liquors” at the start of the 1920s?
2. How did women rebel against their traditional roles during the 1920s?
3. How did the Scopes Monkey Trial reflect some Americans’ concerns over modern ideas?
4. How did the Great Migration during WW I lead to racial tensions in the north?
5. What do you think was most appealing about Marcus Garvey’s message? Justify your
reasoning.
6. Why do you think the Ku Klux Klan revived at the start of the 1920s? What were its targets?
7. Re-read both: “Why It Matters” at the beginning of the section and “Looking Back and
Ahead” at the end of the section. In your own words summarize the “story” you just read and
what you will learn next.
Assignments #22-3 and #22-4 are on the next page.
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HW #22-3
Read pp. 746-751 The Jazz Age
Key IDs: • fad • jazz • Louis Armstrong • The Harlem Renaissance • Langston Hughes
1. Which fads of the 1920s do you find the most appealing? Why?
2. What fads can you recall in your lifetime? (I remember many fads from days at the Middle
School. Regrettably, though, I now consider many of them to have been quite absurd.**)
3. Why was Charles Lindbergh treated as a hero both in America and internationally?
4. Why is Jazz considered a uniquely American form of music?
5. What themes did writers of the Harlem Renaissance address in their works?
6. Re-read both: “Why It Matters” at the beginning of the section and “Looking Back and
Ahead” at the end of the section. In your own words summarize the “story” you just read and
what you will learn next.
**Here are some of the big fads from my middle school days. Feel free to ask me about any of them.
• Fanny packs
• Slap bracelets
• Neon
• Koosh balls
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Hyper-Color t-shirts
• Bubble tape
• Jelly Belly jellybeans
• Nintendo Entertainment Systems
• String cheese
• Braided leather belts
• The word, “like”
• “Weird” Al Yankovic
• Vanilla Ice
• Billy Joel’s “We Didn't Start the Fire”
• Bowl haircuts
• Wearing jeans with a French roll
HW #22-4
Read pp. 752-755 The Economy of the 1920s
Key IDs: • installment buying • bull market
• buying on margin • Herbert Hoover
1. Why was there industrial growth during the 1920s?
2. What is installment buying? How does installment buying allow individuals to buy goods even if they
cannot afford the full price of an item at one time?
3. Explain what it means to buy a stock on margin.
4. During the 1920s, many Americans bought consumer goods on credit and stocks on margin. How
would this make economic conditions worse if the economy began to slow down?
5. What economic problems did farmers face during 1920s? Why did they face these difficulties?
6. What economic problems did laborers and workers faced during the 1920s? Why did they face these
difficulties?
7. What was the economic outlook after Herbert Hoover’s presidential victory in 1928?
8. Re-read both: “Why It Matters” at the beginning of the section and “Looking Back and Ahead” at
the end of the section. In your own words summarize the “story” you just read and what you will learn
next.
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