The document summarizes major social, political, and economic developments in the United States during the 1920s. Politically, Warren G. Harding promoted business interests and laissez-faire policies. The Teapot Dome Scandal eroded trust in his administration. Socially, the period saw conflict between fundamentalism and modernism, as well as intolerance towards immigrants and minorities. Economically, it was a time of prosperity, consumerism, and speculation fueled by installment buying and easy credit. New technologies like the automobile, radio, and movies also transformed American life during the Roaring Twenties.

1. American Life in the Roaring 20’s

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

6. Calvin Coolidge
• Supported big
business and
laissez-faire
economics
• The economy did
very well

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

15. Sacco and Vanzetti

16. Ku Klux Klan
• Originally targeted African Americans
• In 1920’s they began to attack Jews,
Catholics, and immigrants

17. Ku Klux Klan

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

22. Speakeasies
• Places where
alcohol could be
purchased and
consumed
illegally during
prohibition

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

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

36. Henry Ford’s Innovations
• Saw his workers
as consumers
and potential
customers

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

41. Jack Dempsey
• Became the
heavy weight
boxing champion
and a U.S. hero

42. Babe Ruth
• Baseball star who
captured America
with his massive
home runs
• Helped make
baseball America’s
game

43. Orville and Wilbur Wright
• First to achieve
successful flight
• Airplanes would
be used for
military and
commercial
travel

45. Charles Lindbergh
• Became an
American hero
when he flew a
solo flight across
the Atlantic
Ocean

46. Radio
• New form of
entertainment
and
communication

47. Motion Pictures
• The Great Train
Robbery, the first
motion picture
• Soon, every city
had movie
theaters

48. Talkies
• Motion pictures
with sound
became popular
• The Jazz Singer
was the first motion
picture with sound

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

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

56. Langston Hughes
• Harlem
Renaissance's
best known poet
who wrote about
the difficult lives
of working class
African-
Americans

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