The Roaring Twenties

Chapter 25

Section 1

Background Corruption caused embarrassment for

Harding and may have contributed to his death.

Most Americans thought that the United states should stay out of world affairs.

“Coolidge Prosperity”

Incomes rose and people were able to buy new products.

Many people could afford to invest in the rising stock market.

Section 2:New Ways of Life

For nearly a century, reformers like the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union worked to ban alcoholic beverages.

The 18t

h

Amendment outlawed the sale of alcohol.

Prohibition

The Nineteenth Amendment and Equal Rights

In 1920, women were given the right to vote.The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) called

for men and women to have equal rights. The amendment passed but was never ratified.

Women began working outside the home for the first time.

Life at home also changed because of new time saving inventions.

Examples include Refrigerators, vacuums, and washing machines.

Progress

The automobile industry provided new jobs, and new automobile-related services became part of the economy.

Radio created a new lifestyle as families gathered around it for entertainment and news; movies gave people across the nation a common experience.

Section 3

Flappers Their behavior symbolized women’s expanding

freedom.

Writers of the 1920’s

Writers criticized many aspects of American life. Such as:

Overemphasis on money and fun Small-town narrow-mindedness Racism

The Harlem Renaissance

"If We Must Die“

If we must die, let it not be like hogsHunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,Making their mock at our accursed lot.

If we must die, O let us nobly dieSo that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defyShall be constrained to honor us though dead!

O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one death blow!What though before us lies the open grave?

Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

Claude McDay

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”

By Langston Hughes

I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow

of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans,

and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers: Ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Section 4: A Nation Divided

Farmers could not repay loans when farm prices dropped. Unions failed to gain wage increases.

Quotas controlled the number and country of origin of immigrants.

Controversies of the 1920s

The Scopes Trial John Scopes, a biology was on trial for teaching

Darwin’s theory of evolution. The trial pitted evolution, a new scientific theory, against Bible teachings.

The Ku Klux Klan was revived in response to fear of change.

Racial Tension

African Americans fought racism in many ways. They rioted Joined the Universal Negro Improvement Association

to build unity and pride.

President Hoover

Americans hoped that he keep the country prosperous and save Prohibition.