2. Warren G. Harding
• Chosen by political
bosses for his
easiness to control
• Promoted laissez-
faire and ignored
antitrust laws
3. Return to Normalcy
• Harding’s idea of returning the U.S. to
the period of peace and prosperity
prior to World War I
4. Teapot Dome Scandal
• Secretary of Interior Albert B. Fall
secretly leases oil-rich public land to
private companies for drilling
• In return he received money and land
• Caused public to lose trust in the
Harding administration
7. Purchasing Stocks
• Speculation: making high risk
investments in hopes of making high
returns on their money
• Buying on Margin: buying stocks for
only a portion of what they cost and
borrowing the difference
8. Mechanization
• Increase in use of machinery for
production allowed manufacturers to
produce more and charge less
9. Consumerism
• Advertisers convinced Americans that
they not only wanted, but needed
certain products
• Installment Plan: allowed consumers
to pay a little at a time
–Meant people could purchase more
expensive items
10. Economic Boom
• People began to purchase more cars,
clothes, appliances, and other
goods…….on credit
• Easy credit allowed the economy to
boom in the 1920’s
11. Farmers
• During WWI farmers did well because of a
high demand for their products
• After WWI overproduction caused prices
to fall
• Many farmers could not repay their loans
and many lost their homes and land
12. The Red Scare
• After WWI, the Russian Revolution
brought a Communist government to
power in Russia
• Americans feared the spread of
communist ideas to the U.S.
13. Palmer Raids
• A. Mitchell Palmer
and his agents
hunted down
communists,
socialists, and
anarchists
• Deported and/or
jailed suspects
without trial
14. Sacco and Vanzetti
• Italian born immigrants
• Convicted of murder based on
circumstantial evidence
• Became the symbol of nativist
distrust of foreigners during the
1920’s
18. Schenk v. U.S.
• Schenk was arrested for urging
draftees not to report for duty during
WWI
• Supreme Court said government
could silent free speech when “clear
and present danger” was involved
19. Emergency Quota Act of 1921
• Passed to curb the number of
immigrants from Eastern and Southern
Europe
• Restricted newcomers to 3% of the
population for that nationality
20. Immigration Act of 1924
• Dropped the immigration number down
to 2% and based it on the population in
1890
• Old Immigrants vs. New Immigrants
21. Prohibition
• 1920, 18th Amendment passed that
forbade the manufacturing and sale of
alcohol in the U.S.
• Law was controversial and was in
place until 1933
23. Bootleggers
• A person who
smuggled
alcoholic
beverages into
the U.S. during
Prohibition
24. Al Capone
• Chicago gang
leader who
made millions off
bootlegging
alcohol and
running
speakeasies
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32. Fundamentalism
• The belief that everything in The Bible
is true
• Many people saw advances in
technology and science as an attack
on Christianity
33. Scopes Trial
• 1925 court case pitting the teaching of
evolution against fundamentalism
• John T. Scopes was tried for breaking
Tennessee law against teaching
evolution
• Defended by Clarence Darrow
• Prosecuted by William Jennings Bryan
• Drew national attention and controversy
37. Henry Ford’s Innovations
• $5/Day:$5/Day: Paying employee’s this wage was
a way for them to buy his automobiles
• Assembly Line:Assembly Line: Increased efficiency and
production of the automobile
• Model T:Model T: First mass produced car; offered
in “any color, as long as it was black”
38. The Automobile
• Provided freedom
for Americans
• Brought new job
opportunities in road
building, mechanics,
gas stations, motels,
etc..
39. Consumer Society
• Americans began purchasing through
credit or installment plans
• This plunged Americans into deep
consumer debt
40. George Eastman
• Developed the
Kodak Camera
• Amateur
photographers
emerged
• Leads to the
development of
photojournalism
49. Margaret Sanger
• Spread information
about the
controversial birth
control pill
• Started the
American Birth
Control League
50. Changes Surrounding Women
• An increase in women entering the
workforce during the 1920’s
• Women started wearing shorter hair
and shorter skirts
51. Changes Surrounding Women
• Flappers:Flappers: challenged traditional
gender roles, would have men visit
their homes, changed the way women
dressed and looked
52.
53. Sigmund Freud
• Argued that humans
were sexually repressed
and the cause of
societies problems
54. Harlem Renaissance
• A literary and artistic movement
celebrating African-American culture
• Saw the rise of African-American
poets, writers, artists, singers, and the
birth of jazz
57. Louis Armstrong
• Jazz musician
who was
perhaps the
most important
and influential
musician in the
history of jazz
58. “Lost Generation”
• Disenchanted writers from the 1920’s
• Many were disillusioned by WWI
• Wrote about the pitfalls of materialism
and greed of the 1920’s
59. Sinclair Lewis
• Became the first
American to win
the Nobel Prize
for literature
• Criticized middle
America
60. F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Writer who
revealed the
negative side of
the 1920’s excess
• Most famous book,
The Great Gatsby
61. Ernest Hemingway
• Former WWI
veteran
• Wrote books
that criticized
the glorification
of war
• The Sun Also
Rises
