STA NDARD 6 .2 -E X P LA I N T HE CAUSE S A N D E F F E C T S OF T HE
SOC I A L C H A N GE A N D C ON F LI C T BE T W E EN T RA DI TI ONAL A N D
M ODE RN C ULT URE T H AT TOOK P LAC E DURI N G T H E 1 9 2 0 S
Opening:
Complete pages 209212 in your Reading
Study Guide. What you
do not finish should be
completed for
homework.
Work Period:
 Role of women and antiimmigration PPT/Notes
 Activity: Double-Bubble
Map
 Prohibition and Scopes
Trial PPT/Notes
 Activity: Think-Pair-Share
Closing:
Quiz
AMERICAN SOCIET Y IN THE 1920S
 Although the 1920s are
thought of as a care -free
boom time, society was
divided by the trauma of
change. Not everyone
experienced prosperity!
 Social changes were the
result of:
 Industrialization
 Immigration
 Urbanization
 By 1920, more than half of
the population lived in
cities, and there was an
increasing emphasis placed
on science.
 All of these factors led to
social change which led to
conflict between traditional
American conservatism and
modern scientific
liberalism.
THE TWENTIES WOMAN
Chicago
1926
 After the tumult of
World War I, Americans
were looking for a little
fun in the 1920s
 Women were
becoming more
independent and
achieving greater
freedoms (right to vote,
more employment,
freedom of the auto)
WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Chicago
1926
 Women gave up
wartime jobs when
soldiers returned.
 After fighting for
suffrage (the right to vote)
since Seneca Falls in
1848, women gained the
vote through the 19 th
amendment to the
Constitution.
Did not make politics
more moral as they had
promised to do…most
voted the way their
husbands did.
ROLES FOR WOMEN
Early 20th Century teachers
 Women did not gain new opportunities, and many
continued working as nurses, teachers, phone
operators, & secretaries. Also domestic servants,
factory workers and sweatshop laborers.
 Women earned less than men and were kept out of
many traditional male jobs (management) and faced
discrimination
ROLES FOR WOMEN
 Movement to the cities during the war nurtured new
sexual attitudes and aroused public anxiety about
the decline of moral values.
 The iconic image of the flapper represented this
change but posed little threat to the traditional roles
of wife and mother.
POSTWAR AMERICAN WORKERS
 War-time propaganda
of “100 percent
Americanism” turned
American nativism into
xenophobia (dislike of
people from other
countries).
 High inflation,
competition from
returning veterans and
end of wartime
concessions to workers
led to labor unrest.
A TIME OF LABOR UNREST
Strikes (Boston police,
coal miners) frightened
middle and upper class
Americans as did the
Russian Revolution and
growing socialist
movement in Europe.
1920S: TOUGH TIMES FOR
UNIONS
 The 1920s hurt the
labor movement
 Union membership
dropped from 5 million
to 3.5 million
 Why? African Americans
were excluded from
membership and
immigrants were willing
to work in poor
conditions
Ford Foundry workers in 1926; only
1% of black workers were in Unions
at the time
FEAR OF COMMUNISM
 Anarchist bombs
exploded in 8 American
cities in 1919.
 One perceived threat to
American life was the
spread of Communism
 Communism is an
economic and political
system based on a
single-governmental
party, equal distribution
of resources, no private
property and rule by
a dictatorship
SOVIET UNION
COMMUNISM
 Russia was transformed
into the Soviet Union in
1917, a Communist
state
 Vladimir Lenin led the
Bolsheviks and
overthrew the Czarist
regime
 He was a follower of the
Marxist doctrine of
social equality
 A Communist party was
formed in America, too
Lenin
RED SCARE AND THE
PALMER RAIDS
 Taking advantage of
public fear, Mitchell
Palmer led a series of
raids.
 The government arrested
4,000 alleged
communists who were
held without bond.
 Later, hundreds were
deported.
 Palmer later discredited
by an incorrect prediction
about anarchist attacks.
 He brought fear against
dangerous foreigners.
THE KLAN RISES AGAIN
 As the Red Scare and
anti-immigrant
attitudes reached a
peak, the KKK was
more popular than
ever
 By 1924, the Klan had
4.5 million members
 The film “Birth of a
Nation” intensified
racism and the Red
Scare added radicals,
immigrants and
Catholics to those
targeted by the KKK.
THE KLAN RISES AGAIN
 The Klan was now a
national organization with a
following in small towns
and cities of the Midwest
and the South.
 Thought they were moral
regulators and targeted
bootleggers and gamblers
by burning crosses, public
beatings and lynchings.
 However, Klan leaders
involved in sex scandals
and corruption undermined
“moral leadership”.
ANTI-IMMIGRATION
 Congress, in response
to nativist pressure,
decided to limit
immigration from
southern and eastern
Europe and Asians
barred entirely.
 The Emergency Quota
Act of 1921 set up a
quota system to control
and restrict
immigration based on
Social Darwinism and
Anglo Saxon
superiority.
America changed its formally
permissive immigration policy
ACTIVIT Y ONE
 Double Bubble Map comparing the Klan from Reconstruction
to the Klan of the 1920s.
PROHIBITION
 One example of the clash
between city & farm was
the passage of the 18 th
Amendment in 1920 due to
anti-German sentiment and
grain shortages during the
war years.
 This Amendment
launched the era known as
Prohibition
 The new law made it
illegal to make, sell or
transport liquor, but not to
consume it.
Prohibition lasted from 1920 to
1933 when it was repealed by
the 21st Amendment
SUPPORT FOR PROHIBITION
 Reformers had long
believed alcohol led to
crime, child & wife abuse,
and accidents
 Supporters were largely
from the rural south and
west
 The church affiliated
Anti-Saloon League and the
Women’s Christian
Temperance Union helped
push the 18 th Amendment
through
Poster
supporting
prohibition
SPEAKEASIES AND BOOTLEGGERS
 Many Americans did not
believe drinking was a sin
 Most immigrant groups
were not willing to give up
drinking
 To obtain liquor illegally,
drinkers went underground
to hidden saloons known as
speakeasies
 People also bought liquor
from bootleggers who
smuggled it in from Canada,
Cuba and the West Indies
ORGANIZED
CRIME
Al Capone was finally convicted on tax
evasion charges in 1931
 Prohibition
contributed to the growth
of organized crime in
every major city
 Chicago became
notorious as the home of
Al Capone – a famous
bootlegger
 Capone took control of
the Chicago liquor
business by killing off
his competition
GOVERNMENT FAILS TO
CONTROL LIQUOR
 Eventually,
Prohibition’s fate was
sealed by the
government, which
failed to budget
enough money to
enforce the law
 The task of
enforcing Prohibition
fell to 1,500 poorly
paid federal agents --clearly an impossible
task
Federal agents pour wine
down a sewer
SUPPORT FADES, PROHIBITION
REPEALED
 By the mid-1920s, only
19% of Americans
supported Prohibition
 Many felt Prohibition
caused more problems
than it solved
 The 21 st Amendment
finally repealed the 18 th
amendment and ended
prohibition in 1933
SCIENCE AND RELIGION CLASH
 Another battleground
during the 1920s was
between fundamentalist
religious groups and
secular thinkers over the
truths of science
 The Protestant
movement grounded in
the literal interpretation
of the Bible is known as
fundamentalism
 Fundamentalists
found all truth in the
Bible – including
science & evolution
SCOPES TRIAL
Scopes was a biology teacher who dared to
teach his students that man derived from
lower species
 In March 1925,
Tennessee passed
the nation’s first law
that made it a crime
to teach evolution
 The American Civil
Liberties Union
(ACLU) promised to
defend any teacher
willing to challenge
the law – John
Scopes did
SCOPES TRIAL
 The ACLU hired
Clarence Darrow, the
most famous trial
lawyer of the era, to
defend Scopes
 The prosecution
countered with
William Jennings
Bryan, the three-time
Democratic
presidential nominee
Darrow
Bryan
SCOPES TRIAL
 Trial opened on July 10,1925 and became a national sensation
 In an unusual move, Darrow called Br yan to the stand as an
expert on the Bible – key question: Should the Bible be interpreted
literally?
 Under intense questioning, Darrow got Br yan to admit that the
Bible can be interpreted in dif ferent ways
 Nonetheless, Scopes was found guilty and fined $ 100
The conflict between social conservatives who advocate
conformity to a traditional moral code and liberals who advocate
individual rights took place in the 1920s and continues today.
Bryan
Darrow
Despite the guilty
verdict, Darrow
got the
upperhand
during his
questioning of
Bryan
ACTIVIT Y TWO
Think-Pair-Share:
 Explain how the conflict between social
conservatives who advocate conformity to a
traditional moral code and liberals who advocate
individual rights continues today.
CLOSING
 Quiz