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SOCIAL & CULTURAL
TENSIONS
TRADITIONALISM VS. MODERNISM
RISE OF MODERNISM
• Modernism:
• 1920 Census:
• Primarily in more urban parts of the country
• American divided by “human geography”
DIFFERING VIEWS OF EDUCATION
• Rural/Traditional
• 3 R’s:
• Vocational education over “book learning”
• Urban/Modern
• Emphasis on formal education
• Mastery of mathematics and language
• Record numbers of teens graduating from high school and
attending college
RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM
• Founded from perception that traditional religion
was under attack
• USSR, Mexican Revolution
• Perceived secularization of public life in US
• Emphasized “fundamental truths” of religion
• Protestant teachings
• Bible as literal fact
• Particularly influential in rural US
SCOPES MONKEY TRIAL (1925)
• Collision of scientific modernism and fundamentalist
traditionalism
• Tennessee law forbade teaching scientific theory of
evolution in schools
• John Scopes, biology teacher in Dayton TN contacted by
ACLU to intentionally break law
• Scopes arrested
• Case drew national attention
• ACLU involvement
• Darrow vs. Bryan
• Courtroom as Theatre
• Scopes convicted of breaking law, fined $100
NATIVISM
• Nativism definition:
• Prior Successes (Chinese Exclusion Acts of 1882,
literacy law at outset of WWI)
• Immigration concerns inflamed by Red Scare
• Influx of leftist immigrants from Eastern Europe
QUOTA LAWS
• Emergency Quota Act & National Origins Act
(1924)
• Quota Formula: 2% of 1890 population
• Prior to the wave of “new immigrants” in last decade of 19th
century
• Ex. Up to 65,721 from England; 5,802 from Italy
THE MEXICAN EXCEPTION
• Quota system did not apply to Mexico
• Immigrants continued to move northward
• Drawn by agricultural jobs, especially in low population
areas of the Southwest (Texas, California)
• Faced discrimination and open hostility
• Competition with native-born citizens for jobs