**The Roaring 20s**

Question 1

Scopes Trial

Answer 1

• Fight over evolution and the role of science and religion in public schools and in American society
• Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, evolution law not changed

Question 2

Harlem Renaissance

Answer 2

-A literary and artistic movement celebrating African American culture

Question 3

Langston Hughes

Answer 3

• Many of his 1920s poems described the difficult lives of working-class African Americans
• Also wrote about civil rights issues

Question 4

Flapper

Answer 4

• Young woman who embraced the new fashions and urban attitudes of the day
• Bright waistless dresses an inch above the knees
• Hair: bobs, dyed yet black
• Assertive

Question 5

Prohibition

Answer 5

-The manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages were legally prohibited

Question 6

Speakeasies

Answer 6

• Obtain liquor illegally, drinkers went underground to hidden saloons and nightclubs
• When inside, one spoke quietly to avoid detection
• Could be found everywhere

Question 7

Ku Klux Klan

Answer 7

-

Question 8

Buying on margin

Answer 8

• Paying a small percentage of a stock’s price as a down payment and borrowing the rest
• Pay rest off later when you sell

Question 9

Margin call

Answer 9

-You are ordered to pay your margin

Question 10

Black Tuesday (Oct 29)

Answer 10

• Shareholders frantically tried to sell before prices plunged even lower
• The number of shares dumped that day
• Additional millions of shares could not find buyers
• People who had bought stocks on credit were stuck with huge debts as the prices plummeted, while others lost most of their savings

Question 11

Run on the banks

Answer 11

• Large groups of customers withdraw their money from banks simultaneously before bank failed
• Banks don’t have enough money

Question 12

Dust Bowl

Answer 12

• Farmers had exhausted the land through overproduction of crops, the grasslands became unsuitable for farming
• Drought and winds - few grass and trees left to hold down soil
• Dust traveled hundreds of miles
• Region hit hardest: Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado

Question 13

Herbert Hoover

Answer 13

• Tried to reassure the nation
• More Laissez-faire – felt that the government could play a limited role in helping to solve problems
• Opposed direct relief to people
• Said that individuals, charities, and local organizations should pitch in to help care for the less fortunate
• Don’t cut wages
• Boulder/Hoover Dam: provided the region with electricity, flood control, and regular water supply - growth of economy

Question 14

Hooverville

Answer 14

-

Question 15

How did the attitudes of the younger generation change during the 1920s? Why did they change?

Answer 15

• Many men died during WWI, so women were left without future husbands, so they decided they were going to enjoy life instead of waiting around for a man
• Men: live for today

Question 16

List some new consumer products that were invented during the 1920s? How did many Americans pay for these things?

Answer 16

• Films, washing machine, toaster, radio, car

- Payed for with credit

Question 17

What was the pro and con of paying for luxuries with credit?

Answer 17

PROS: you don’t have wait until you have the money to buy something
CONS: debt

Question 18

Describe the generational fight between the “traditional” and “modern” views of the 1920s. What terms can you associate with this struggle?

Answer 18

-

Question 19

How were the policies of President Hoover different from the Progressive presidents?
Why did he adopt these policies?
Why were his policies seen as a reason that the economic downturn became a massive depression?

Answer 19

-

Question 20

Normalcy

Answer 20

• The simpler days before the Progressive Era and the Great War
• Words of peace and calm comforted the healing nation

Question 21

Why did many people not like Hoover?

Answer 21

• They believed he permitted the economic crisis to continue/deepen
• He refused to help the poor – he did not want people to depend on the gov. for help every time they hit hard times

Question 22

Why did the 1920’s economy boom?

Answer 22

• The use of loans and other forms of credit
• Invention of labor-saving appliances for home (washing machines, vacuums, dishwashers), popular, affordable
• The high demand for US-made goods in Europe

Question 23

Similarities between farmers and factories/businesses during 1920s

Answer 23

• Both employed people with few skills and little or no need for education
• Both hurt by overproduction of products – drove down prices and profits

Question 24

Why did the banks fail?

Answer 24

• Gave out loans, once economy tanked couldn’t pay them back
• Bought stocks that then became worthless when the stock market crashed
• After run on banks, no money left to give customers

Question 25

Why did farms fail in the late 1920s?

Answer 25

• New tech, more production
• Overproduction – supply outpaced demand, had to lower prices, lost money
• Default on loans

Question 26

Why did the stock market crash?

Answer 26

• Industry success drives stocks up
• Stocks boom, people buy on margin
• Speculation increases, stock prices start to outpace value of companies / economy
• Everything falls
• Few can pay off margin – sell off

Question 27

How did life change for industrial workers?

Answer 27

• New jobs in factories, better wages
• Spend more on luxuries, stocks
• Factories overproduce, prices fall
• Cut workers to save money
• Loans