Roaring Twenties Overview

The Roaring Twenties

After WWI:

1. Soldier returning from the war needed jobs = high unemployment

2. More people wanted goods = high prices

3. Wages stayed the same = strikes

4. Anti-immigrant feelings increased as a result

Multiple Choice

What caused unemployment after WWI?

• Soldiers returning home meant an excess of laborers

• Anti-immigration sentiment was high

• More people wanted goods

• Workers were striking for higher wages.

• Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer

  • Raided people's homes without warrants to find evidence of Communism, Socialism, or anarchists

  • Targeted labor unions, and immigrants

  • Found nothing major

​Palmer Raids

• Russia became Communist in WWI (Red=Communism)

• US feared the same result because of economic issues.

• Series of bombings blamed on Communists

​Causes

The Red Scare

Multiple Select

What were the Palmer Raids meant to uncover?

• Anarchists

• Communists

• Fascists

• Socialists

• Kept Harding policies

• Created a treaty making war illegal (didn't work, surprise

​Calvin Coolidge

• Believed in small government, tax cuts, high tarriffs

• Teapot Dome Scandal:

  • Secretary of the Interior accepted bribes for right to drill in Wyoming.

• Died of heart attack

​Warren Harding

Republican Presidents

Multiple Choice

What did Harding and Coolidge both believe in?

• Low taxes and high tariffs

• Increased government spending and reduced regulations

• Strict immigration policies and free trade

• Balanced budgets and deregulation

"Roaring"?

• (Those with work) had shorter work days, more free time, and created excitement and modernity that give the decade its nickname.

• Radios became common in peoples homes and big radio networks were created (NBC CBS)

• "Talkies" opposed to silent movies were created

• Athletes and pilots like Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart became celebs

• Women celebrated new freedom (voting, working, education)

  • Flappers rebelled against ladylike behavior

• Jazz (influenced by traditional African American music) becomes widely popular

  • Started in New Orleans

Multiple Choice

Why were the twenties "Roaring"?

• The economy was failing

• There was a decline in technological advancements

• American culture was full of excitement

• Social norms were staying the same

Multiple Choice

What were the origins of Jazz?

• European classical music

• South American folk music

• Indian classical music

• African American influences from New Orleans

• Neighborhood in NYC where many people settled in GM.

• ​Center of vibrant artistic/intellectual development

• Langston Hughes, Nora Neale Hurston, Duke Ellington

​Harlem

• During WWI African Americans moved from South to North for jobs

  • Brought jazz and blues with them

• Inspired a return of the KKK

  • Fought by the NAACP and other groups

​Great Migration

The Harlem Renaissance

Multiple Choice

Why did Harlem become a thriving neighborhood of African American artists?

• The area was known for its dull nightlife.

• The area was home to no jazz clubs.

• The area was not a thriving neighborhood for art.

• many African Americans settled there in the Great Migration

• Alcohol was made illegal in 18th Amendment

  • Many changes (jazz/flappers) occurred in/around bars

  • Hard to enforce

    • Speakeasies sold illegally

    • Bootleggers supplied illegally

• Led to organized crime

  • Gangsters like Al Capone created organizations to sell alcohol

​Prohibition

• Upset at the level of change, people pushed back

• US set quotas on immigration in 1921 and 1924

​Nativism

Backlash

Multiple Choice

How did Prohibition support the spread of organized crime?

• People who wanted to drink relied on illegal speakeasies and booteggers

• Prohibition decreased the demand for smuggled goods

• Prohibition led to increased law enforcement

• Prohibition caused a rise in the production of homemade alcohol