Ufier's Terms (The 1920's) Flashcards
Warren Harding
Republican Presidential nominee in 1920 who ran under the campaign promise “return to normalcy” and seen as a “new era” politician (someone who believed in minimal government, individualism, and isolation policies). He believed the American people needed time to recover from the Progressive Era reforms with a period of contentment with the status quo. He won with victory of 60.3% of the popular vote, but his campaign was plagued by fraud and corruption until his death in 1923.
Calvin Coolidge
The Vice-President under Warren Harding, remained unscathed from Harding’s scandals and restored public confidence in the presidency when he was sworn into office. He won the presidential election of 1924.
Teapot Dome
Albert Fall, the Secretary of the Interior, leased the oil at Teapot Dome in Wyoming to private companies without taking competitive bids while skimming money off the top for himself. This created a huge scandal that displayed the corruption within Harding’s administration.
Model T Ford/Fordism
Henry Ford developed an affordable automobile for the modern family. To meet the rising demand Ford utilized mass production or “Fordism” that used conveyor belts to speed the process of production.
Ku Klux Klan
The Klan reformed during the 1920s and became devoted to 100% Americanism, meaning, they discriminated against anyone who was not white, not born in America, and not Protestant.
Al Capone, “Scarface”
The most celebrated organized criminal of the 1920s. He represents hundreds of crime bosses that rose to prominent positions in society during the Prohibition era.
New Negro
A term used for African Americans in the 1920s to reflect a new sense of freedom as blacks moved from rural areas to urban centers. The “new Negro” had a deep sense of racial pride. Marcus Garvey epitomized this by founding the Universal Negro Improvement Association that focused on African American pride and self-help, as well as establishing an independent nation in Africa, while the NAACP focused on political rights.
John Scopes
A high school biology teacher who taught his students evolution. The revelation caused a media frenzy to catch a glimpse of the Christian fundamentalist lawyer William Jennings Bryan fight for teaching divine creation against Scopes’s liberalist attorney Clarence Darrow.
Margaret Sanger
A “new woman” and a nurse, Sanger advocated the use of birth control for women, a radical idea that had her arrested for handing out contraception. She established the first birth control clinic in 1916 and her American Birth Control League evolved into Planned Parenthood.
Sigmund Freud
A psychoanalyst from Vienna who researched and theorized about sex and sexuality. His theories became popular quickly and people in the 1920s began talking about sex in scholarly analysis and in popular culture.
New Woman
This is the historical term for the “flapper.” These women were independent, assertive, attended school, voted, and had careers, as well as being sexual and having desires of her own.
Andrew Mellon
Secretary of Treasury under Hoover who attempted to demilitarize the nation through lower taxes (which increased stock market speculation), higher tariffs, and the collection of foreign debt. At the onset of the depression, he advocated “purging the system” by cutting support to individuals and weak banks.
19th Amendment
This amendment allowed woman the right to vote. Women had been advocating for this opportunity since Reconstruction with increasing fervor in the early twentieth century. The amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920.
Herbert Hoover
The Secretary of Commerce under both Harding and Coolidge. He promoted “associationalism,” or the voluntary cooperation among business trades to make production more efficient. However, companies did not agree to this and cited American individualism.
