Topic.07 Concept Guide

1925 The Scopes Trial:

-John Scopes, a high school Biology teacher who was put on trial for teaching evolution.
-Found guilty, but verdict was later overturned.
-Creation/Evolution controversy demonstrated a contradiction to the Bible.

1920 Prohibition:
-This was to stop alcohol in the United States because husbands would come home drunk and abuse their families.
-Pushed by women's organizations (drinking increased domestic violence and child abuse in 1920's)
-Hard to enforce because:
           1. Did not ban:
                 -Possession
                 -Consumption
                 -Transportation
-IRS enforced prohibition.
-1933, 21st Amendment past, repealing 18th Amendment (FDR).
-18th Amendment: banned manufacture and sale of alcohol.

Flappers:
-A "new breed" of women who had short hair, smoked and drank in public.
-She wore sleeveless, short dresses and showed cleavage and legs.
-Wild ladies of the 1920's.
-"New Americans"
-Did not follow societal sexual norms.
-Jazz music
-Redefined women's roles
-Advocated for women's rights.

1920 Economic Issues:
-Demand
      -Credit for consumers
      -Low interest rates
      -Introduction of the "installment plan"
-Credit cards, building up debt
-Stock market speculation
      -Buying on a margin, if stock market goes down, people would be in lots of debt with stock  brokers.                  
-Immigration also became limited, reducing the number of workers in the economy.
-No discretionary rates

Dust Bowl:
-Severe dust storms
-Caused by severe drought, extensive farming without crop rotation, and mechanization.

-Over 500,000 Americans left homeless
-Americans migrated west (largest migration in American history in the shortest period of time)
-FDR created government organizations to aid

Agriculture Issues:
-Collapse in prices
-No crop rotation an deep plowing caused dust storms
-Long term agricultural depression
-The farmers were overproducing with new machnery after the war, so they no longer needed much food.

Immigration Policies:
-Opposition of quotas disappear (restrictions on # of immigrants)
-Emergency Quota Act of 1921: ethnic groups limited to 3% of 1910 population
-National Origins Act of 1924: ethnic groups limited to 2% of 1890 census (no Asians)
-Laws became more strict.
-US could thrive without immigrants

Nativism:
-Americans were for isolationism following the end of WWI
-Immigrant restrictions
-Afraid of Communism spreading
-KKK used nativist, reemerges with 3 million people
  

1920 Significant Literary Works:
-Main Kampf (Hitler)
-The Jungle (Sinclair)
-The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) , life during the 20's
-Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)
-Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)
-How the Other Half Lives (Riis)
-The Ways of White Folks (Hughes)
-Unsafe at Any Speed (Nader)

The Great Migration: 
-Appx. 7 million African Americans move North.
-Escaping widespread racism of the South
-Better education and employment opportunities
-Rapid increase in African American population
-Migrated form SOUTH------>NORTH

Harlem Renaissance: 
-African American artistic movement
-New York City
-Music
-Writing
-Dance

-A new black identity
-Explosion of culture
-Caused by the great migration

Sacco and Vanzetti: 
-Italian Anarchists
-Accused and charged with robbery and murder
-Sentenced to death
-During the Red Scare
-Controvery (confusing evidence)
-Foreign= Bad (attitude of USA)

1920 Labor Issues: 
-Unions were suppressed
-Welfare
-Wages increased, work time decreased
-LOTS of strikes
-Unemployement rate = 5%
-Lack of leadership in labor movement

The Red Scare: 
-Afraid of communism
-Bolshevik revolution cleans up all of the corruption.
-Lenin comes to power in Russia (Soviet Union: USSR)
-Afraid of un-American behavior and foreigners
-Palmer Raids: arresting un-americans without evidence (Espionage and Seditiion Acts)

Schneck vs. the United States:
-Upheld Espionage Act
-Schenck's conviction was a constitutional decision
-Schenck sent letters to draftees saying that the draft was motivated by capitalists