The 1920sMon. 3/6 and Tues. 3/7

Warm-Up: Mon. 3/6 & Tues. 3/7● Pick up papers and turn in 1920s Preview + Questions

(some of you turned it in last class.. They are not yet graded!)

● Test grades are in, check Phoenix

Agenda - Mon. 3/6 & Tues. 3/7● Turn in 1920s Classwork/Homework● Consumer revolution and Politics of the 1920s notes● 1920s Video + Questions (these are your notes for this

topic!!)● If there is time… we will start America, the Story of Us

(Boom)

Postwar Issues● Post-World War I● We have Veteran’s Day on

November 11 to commemorate the service of Americans in the armed forces in any war

● Even though after WWI, Americans celebrated, it was an adjustment period → decade of amazing economic growth → prosperity → Great Depression

Postwar IssuesWhat evidence in the graphs supports the idea that the United States had become a world economic power after WWI?

Women & Minorities● Significant social and economic

advancements for women and minorities during the war

● By 1920, there were fewer women in the workforce than there had been in 1910

● Northern cities: job competition for African Americans with returning white soldiers

● Tensions = boiling point with race riots in the 1920s

● Example: Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921

Impact of Henry Ford & the Automobile● Economy = growth after WWI● This economic book changed the lives of

people and helped create the modern consumer economy○ Mainly due to the automobile industry○ Henry Ford revolutionized the way goods

were produced and corporations were managed (assembly line)

○ Growth in production, wages, and better working/living conditions for Americans

Economic Growth in the 1920s● A consumer revolution

○ Flood of new, affordable goods became available to the public

● Widespread availability of electrical power○ Electric washing machines, vacuum

cleaners, irons

● Accessible electricity also contributed to radio and refrigerator sales

1920s Politics: Post-Progressive Era

An Unsettled Society● Even though city dwellers’ lives improved,

farmers suffered through hard times○ Urban-rural division○ Issues include: immigration policy and teaching the

theory of evolution (still have conflicting ideas of this today)

● Rise of modernism (with emphasis on urbanism, intellectualism, individualism), threatened traditionalists

● Americans feared the spread of communism to the US○ The Red Scare

Prohibition Divides Americans● Temperance movement with the 18th Amendment● When prohibition began, federal agents destroyed millions of gallons of

alcohol

The Roaring 20s● American society and culture

reshaped○ New forms of recreation ○ Easy form of travel (automobile)○ Listen to radio, went to the movies

● Rate of technological advancements, combined desire for modernity and change led to a rapidly changing, consumer society