A Clash of Values

A Clash of Values
The Roaring 20s
Presidents
Wilson suffered from a stroke in late 1919
He remained secluded from the public until the end of his presidency
On the promise for a “return to normalcy”, Warren G. Harding won the election of
1921
Harding died of a sudden fatal heart attack in 1923 and Calvin Coolidge, his vice
president, was sworn into office
Coolidge was president until 1929 and had the nickname “Silent Cal”
Harding
Coolidge
Teapot Dome Scandal
Albert Bacon Fall
Edward Doheny
Harry Sinclair
Nativism and Immigration Policies
Nativism -emphasis on traditional or
local customs, in opposition to outside
influences.
Anti-immigration sentiment
National Origins Quota and Emergency Quota Act
Emergency Quota Act signed by
Harding in 1921
Restricted annual admission to 3%
of the population of each ethnic
group from the 1910 census
National Origins Act passed in
1924
Set quotas at 2% of each national
group represented in the U.S.
census in 1890
Also included the entire population
of a group, not just immigrants
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
Italian immigrants
Anarchists
Found guilty of a
crime they most
likely did not
commit
Executed
Return of the Ku Klux Klan
William J. Simmons
Pledged to preserve America’s
white, Protestant civilization
Targeted Catholics, Jews,
immigrants, and others
1924 membership was close to
4,000,000 (about 4% of the
population)
What is this poster trying to
convey?
The Birth of a Nation
First true blockbuster movie -1915
About the Civil War and
Reconstruction
Glorified the Ku Klux Klan
Was very popular for many, very
controversial for others
Was screen in the White House
under Wilson
Clash of Cultures
Women gained the right to vote in
1920
Took jobs to gain fiscal independence
New ideas of romance and marriage
Fashion changed
“New Morality”
Eugenics
Buck v Bell –mother and daughter who were determined to be “feebleminded”
An estimated 65,000 Americans were sterilized without their own consent or that of a
family member.
“Flappers”
Religious Fundamentalism
Many Americans feared that
the country was losing its
traditional values
Creationism vs. Evolution
Scopes Monkey Trial
John T. Scopes, William
Jennings Bryan, and
Clarence Darrow
Prohibition
The Eighteenth
Amendment
The Volstead Act
U.S. Treasury Department
had the power to enforce
Prohibition
540,000 arrests made
Americans still ignored the
law
Speakeasies
Secret Bars
Bootlegging
Smuggling liquor from Canada and
the Caribbean
Organized crime became huge
Al Capone
Al Capone
Repeal of Prohibition
The battle to repeal
Prohibition began almost as
soon as the Eighteenth
Amendment was ratified
Twenty-first Amendment
1933
Let’s Review -Choose one of the questions below
Why did Nativism strengthen during
the 1920s, and how did the government
deal with the tensions?
Nativism: emphasis on traditional or
local customs, in opposition to outside
influences.
Why do you think some Americans
feared the “new morality”?
New Morality: The trend that glorified
youth and personal freedom particularly to the status of women.