Mitchell Palmer
Attorney General who rounded up many suspects who were thought to be un-American and socialistic; he helped to increase the Red Scare; he was nicknamed the "Fighting Quaker" until a bomb destroyed his home; he then had a nervous breakdown and became known as the "Quaking Fighter."
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
Italian anarchists convicted and executed for murder despite scarce evidence against them
Horace Kallen
He defended the immigrants and said they needed their different cultures because they were unique, and stressed the preservation of identity
Randolph Bourne
He advocated greater cross-fertilization between immigrants and then America would become a multi-cultured nation
Al Capone
A mob king in Chicago who controlled a large network of speakeasies with enormous profits. His illegal activities convey the failure of prohibition in the twenties and the problems with gangs.
John Dewey
He was a philosopher who believed in "learning by doing" which formed the foundation of progressive education. He believed that the teachers' goal should be "education for life and that the workbench is just as important as the blackboard."
John T. Scopes
An educator in Tennessee who was arrested for teaching evolution. This trial represented the Fundamentalist vs the Modernist. The trial placed a negative image on fundamentalists, and it showed a changing America.
William Jennings Bryan
United States lawyer and politician who advocated free silver and prosecuted John Scopes (1925) for teaching evolution in a Tennessee high school (1860-1925)
Clarence Darrow
A famed criminal defense lawyer for Scopes, who supported evolution. He caused William Jennings Bryan to appear foolish when Darrow questioned Bryan about the Bible.
Andrew Mellon
Secretary of Treasury under President Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, who instituted a Republican policy of reduced government spending, lower taxes to the wealthy and higher tariffs
Bruce Barton
A founder of the "new profession" of advertising, which used the persuasion ploy, seduction, and sexual suggestion. He was a prominent New York partner in a Madison Avenue firm. He published a best seller in 1925, The Man Nobody Knows, suggesting that Jesus Christ was the greatest ad man of all time. He even praised Christ's "executive ability." He encouraged any advertising man to read the parables of Jesus.
Babe Ruth
"Home Run King" in baseball, provided an idol for young people and a figurehead for America
Jack Dempsey
United States prizefighter who was world heavyweight champion (1895-1983)
Henry Ford
1863-1947. American businessman, founder of Ford Motor Company, father of modern assembly lines, and inventor credited with 161 patents.
Frederick W. Taylor
an engineer, an inventor, and a tennis player. He sought to eliminate wasted motion. Famous for scientific-management especially time-management studies.
Charles Lindbergh
United States aviator who in 1927 made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean (1902-1974)
D.W. Griffiths
The "Inventor of Hollywood", was an American film director who pioneered modern film-making techniques. Directed "Birth of A Nation"
Margaret Sanger
American leader of the movement to legalize birth control during the early 1900's. As a nurse in the poor sections of New York City, she had seen the suffering caused by unwanted pregnancy. Founded the first birth control clinic in the U.S. and the American Birth Control League, which later became Planned Parenthood.
Sigmund Freud
Austrian physician whose work focused on the unconscious causes of behavior and personality formation; founded psychoanalysis.
"Jelly Roll" Morton
African American pianist, composer, arranger, and band leader from New Orleans; Bridged that gap between the piano styles of ragtime and jazz; Was the first important jazz composer
Langston Hughes
African American poet who described the rich culture of African American life using rhythms influenced by jazz music. He wrote of African American hope and defiance, as well as the culture of Harlem and also had a major impact on the Harlem Renaissance.
Marcus Garvey
African American leader durin the 1920s who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and advocated mass migration of African Americans back to Africa. Was deported to Jamaica in 1927.
Edith Wharton
is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author who wrote Ethan Frome
Willa Cather
Was a female American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains. Her works include: O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for "One of Ours (1922), a novel set during World War I
H. L. Mencken
attacked patriotism. prohibition, and other timely topics in his monthly magazine "The American Mercury"
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Wrote literature opposing society, was not famous in his day but is now known for Great Gatsby and many other writings.
Ernest Hemingway
Lost Generation writer, spent much of his life in France, Spain, and Cuba during WWI, notable works include A Farewell to Arms
Sherwood Anderson
An American writer helped Ernest Hemingway into the literary community in Paris. Hemingway later parodied this writer's work, which led to a souring of the relationship between Hemingway and Gertrude Stein.
Sinclair Lewis
American novelist who satirized middle-class America in his 22 works, including Babbitt (1922) and Elmer Gantry (1927). He was the first American to receive (1930) a Nobel Prize for literature.
Eugene O'Neill
20th Century playwright. Desire Under the Elms, The Hairy Ape, and The Iceman Cometh. Nobel laureate in literature
Zora Neale Hurston
African American writer and folklore scholar who played a key role in the Harlem Renaissance
Claude McKay
A poet who was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance movement and wrote the poem "If We Must Die" after the Chicago riot of 1919.
William Faulkner
Twentieth-century novelist, used the stream-of-consciousness technique in his novel The Sound of Fury, whose intense drama is seen through the eyes of an idiot.
nativist
A person who, especially in the United States in the 19th century, favors the interests of established inhabitants over those of immigrants.
red scare
A period of general fear of communists
Bolshevik revolution
1917 uprising in Russia led by Vladimir Lenin which established a communist government and withdrew Russia from World War I.
Sacco and Vanzetti case
These were Italian immigrants charged with murdering a guard and robbing a shoe factory in Braintree, Mass. The trial lasted from 1920-1927. Convicted on circumstantial evidence, many believed they had been framed for the crime because of their anarchist and pro-union activities.
Ku Klux Klan
This organization was a group of Americans that often engaged in the lynching of African Americans, Jews, Catholics, among many other groups that were not native-born white Protestants.
The Birth of a Nation
A dramatic silent film from 1915 about the South during and after the Civil War. It was directed by D. W. Griffith. The film, the first so-called spectacular, is considered highly controversial for its portrayal of African-Americans. It also glorified KKK members and carpetbaggers.
Immigration Act of 1924
This act abolished the National Origins system; increased annual admission to 170,000 and put a population cap of 20,000 on immigrants from any single nation.
national origins quota system
(1924) limited Europe immigration in 1924. It was widely supported by rural areas and banned all Asian immigrants from coming to the US. It affected the flow of immigrants into the US and hurt diversity. It was also considered the most enduring of the rural counterattacks and lasted until the 1960s
"melting pot"
the mixing of cultures, ideas, and peoples that has changed the American nation. The United States, with its history of immigration, has often been called a melting pot.
Volstead Act
Bill passed by Congress to enforce the language of the 18th Amendment. This bill made the manufacture and distribution of alcohol illegal within the borders of the United States.
Fundamentalists
Broad movement in Protestantism in the U.S. which tried to preserve what it considered the basic ideas of Christianity against criticism by liberal theologies. It stressed the literal truths of the Bible and creation.
Bible Belt
The region of the American South, extending roughly from North Carolina west to Oklahoma and Texas, where Protestant Fundamentalism and belief in literal interpretation of the Bible were traditionally strongest.
The Man Nobody Knows
One of the most successful books of the 1920s due to the advertising executive Bruce Barton. It portrayed Jesus Christ as not only a religious prophet but also a super salesman. Bruce advertised the message that Jesus had been concerned with living a full and rewarding life and that men and women of the twentieth century should do the same.
Model T
A cheap and simple car designed by Ford. It allowed for more Americans to own a car.
Fordism
System of standardized mass production attributed to Henry Ford.
scientific management
a management theory using efficiency experts to examine each work operations and find ways to minimize the time needed to complete it
Amos 'n' Andy
Various regions heard voices with standardized accents, and countless millions "tuned in" to perennial comedy favorites like "Amos 'n' Andy." White actors depicting African Americans in a pejorative way
The Jazz Singer
1927 - The first movie with sound; this "talkie" was about the life of famous jazz singer; Al Jolson.
Equal Rights Amendment
constitutional amendment passed by Congress but never ratified that would have banned discrimination on the basis of gender
Harlem Renaissance
A period in the 1920s when African-American achievements in art and music and literature flourished
United Negro Improvement Association
A group founded by Marcus Garvey to promote the settlement of American blacks in their own "African homeland"
Billy Sunday
American fundamentalist minister; he used colorful language and powerful sermons to drive home the message of salvation through Jesus and to oppose radical and progressive groups.
open shop
A company with a labor agreement under which union membership cannot be required as a condition of employment.
closed shop
A company with a labor agreement under which union membership can be a condition of employment.
Emergency Quota Act of 1921
1921 legislation that limited immigration to 3% of the people of their nationality living in the US in 1910
18th Amendment
Prohibited the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages
Prohibition
A law forbidding the sale of alcoholic beverages
Monkey Trial
Theory of Evolution taught in schools
Assembly Line Production
Arrangement of workers, machines, and equipment in which the product being assembled passes consecutively from operation to operation until completed.
Buying on Credit
People bought with credit and paid later. Many went into debt. "Possess today and pay tomorrow"
Installment plan buying
Paying for goods in small intervals instead of all at once, usually with interest added
Wright Brothers
First to achieve a sustained, controlled flight in a powered airplane
Guglielmo Marconi
invented the radio
KDKA
The first commercial radio station in America (in Pittsburgh).
The Great Train Robbery
A 1903 black and white silent western film that was 14 minutes long and the first film to tell a coherent story. Due to its success it is credited for the creating Hollywood and the success of the movie industry.
Nickelodeons
The first movie houses; admission was one nickel
Talkies
movies with sound, beginning in 1927
Standardization
defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group
Flappers
Young women of the 1920s that behaved and dressed in a radical fashion
Theodore Dreiser
American naturalist who wrote The Financier and The Titan. Like Riis, he helped reveal the poor conditions people in the slums faced and influenced reforms.
T.S. Eliot
wrote "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "The Waste Land" and "The Hollow Men;" British WWI poet, playwright, and literary critic
Louis Armstrong
Leading African American jazz musician during the Harlem Renaissance; he was a talented trumpeter whose style influenced many later musicians.
New Negro
a term popularized during the Harlem Renaissance implying a more outspoken advocacy of dignity and a refusal to submit quietly to the practices and laws of Jim Crow racial segregation.
Frank Loyd Wright
architect - prairie
speculation
An involvement in risky business transactions in an effort to make a quick or large profit.
buying on margin
paying a small percentage of a stock's price as a down payment and borrowing the rest
Andrew Mellon
Harding, Coolidge, & Hoover Treasury Secretary. Reduced the tax burden on the wealthy and contributed to the stock-market boom.