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EQ: What were the key
developments in the U.S. in the
aftermath of World War I?
The 1920s
• Period of social and cultural changes
• Characterized by economic prosperity,
new ideas, changing values, personal
freedom, and important developments in
art, literature, and music
• Social and cultural changes stay, but
economic prosperity ends soon
Red Scare
• Rising communism and socialism made
many Americans fear a communist
takeover in America
• Began in 1919, after Bolsheviks took over
Russia
• Americans were highly suspicious of
communists, socialists, and anarchists
Sacco and Vanzetti
• Anarchists
• Italian immigrants
• Convicted of robbing and murdering a factory
paymaster in May 1920
• They said they were innocent and provided
alibis, but were convicted and executed
anyways
• “In all my life I have
never stole, never
killed, never spilled
blood … we were tried
during a time … when
there was hysteria of
resentment and hate
against the people of
our principles, against
the foreigner … I am
suffering because I am
a radical and indeed I
am a radical … I have
suffered because I was
an Italian and indeed I
am an Italian”
-Vanzetti
Emergency Quota Act of 1921
• System that
established the
maximum number
of people that
could enter the
U.S. from each
foreign country
18th Amendment
• Prohibition of Alcohol
Effects of Prohibition
• Speakeasies and Bootleggers
• Organized Crime
19th Amendment
• Women gain the right to vote
Henry Ford
• Makes the
automobile
affordable
• He created
the Model T
and built
them on an
assembly
line
Harlem
Renaissance
• A growth of AfricanAmerican artistic creativity
during the 1920s, centered
in Harlem, New York
• Why did it happen in
Harlem? During the Great
Migration, black people
settled in Harlem and
immigrants from the
Caribbean settled there
Jazz
• Began in New Orleans in the early 20th
century
• Blend of ragtime and blues
Louis Armstrong
• Trumpet player
• Made personal expression a key part of
jazz
Langston Hughes
• Best known poet of the Harlem
Renaissance
• His poems described the difficult lives of
working-class African Americans
Irving Berlin
• Great American songwriter
• Tin Pin Alley
• Wrote God Bless America, White
Christmas, There’s No Business Like
Show Business, Anything You Can Do (I
Can Do Better)
• Jewish immigrant
How does economic prosperity
impact America?
• Leisure time
• Entertainment
– Radio
– Movies
– Sports
• New products
– Automobiles
What social changes occur during
the 1920s?
•
•
•
•
•
•
More freedom for women
Prohibition
Scopes Trial
Immigration
Red Scare
Harlem Renaissance
– Jazz
What political changes occur during
the 1920s?
• 18th Amendment
• 19th Amendment
• Emergency Quota Act (limiting
immigration)