Introduction Lesson: America Goes Wild

Unit 4: Introduction Lesson

AMERICA GOES WILD!

The Roaring Twenties Overview

LESSON TARGET

I can list the major issues and events in the 1920s.

READ ABOUT IT

Directions: The first thing you need to do is read about the Roaring Twenties. Make sure that you are looking for the major issues and events of the 1920s during the reading.

The Roaring Twenties

The Spanish Flu Pandemic killed more people than both World War I and World War II combined

The 1920s are called the Roaring Twenties because America went wild! When the Great War ended in 1918, Americans were excited that it was over. But, before Americans could celebrate, they were faced with a new war. This war was not fought in a battlefield but from a hospital bed. This war was against the Spanish Flu Pandemic. Millions of people got a type of flu that not only killed infants, the elderly, and those who were already sick. It also killed perfectly, healthy young people.

Can you imagine life before the electric refrigerator?

America did recover from World War I and the Spanish Flu Pandemic. After two devastating events, Americans were ready to really live! America innovated the manufacturing process. This lowered the cost of many products and allowed people to afford more. It also allowed the many new inventions of the 1920s to be manufactured for the public to buy. Companies popped up to advertise new electric inventions that made household chores easier and quicker. Automobiles became affordable and allowed people to travel greater distances in shorter amounts of time. New medicines and advancements in science improved the quality of life for many people. Manufacturers began making products affordable and that the consumers wanted. The change in the economy during the 1920s is called consumerism. Consumerism is the belief that the nation's economy gets better when more goods are sold.

Babe Ruth, baseball, and Coca-cola were all pop culture icons

Free time was perhaps the biggest impact that these innovations and new inventions had on people in the U.S. With their free time, Americans begin to go to clubs to enjoy music and dancing. They saw shows and plays. They visited art museums and went to the movies. Americans became intrigued by the lives of actors, musicians, and other celebrities. People took on new hobbies. They followed new trends and participated in new fads. All of the new interest in society during the Roaring Twenties began what we know today as popular culture or pop culture.

Women finally learned to make the men do some of the work!

Life changed for women in the 1920s. When women took on jobs to help the war effort in World War I, they learned how good it felt to be self-sufficient. They enjoyed freedoms that they had not before the war. They showed that they could do anything that men could do and they wanted the same rights as well. In 1920, the 19th Amendment was finally passed. It gave women the right to vote. Women began taking charge of their lives. They started going to college. They cut their hair and shortened their dresses. They went out and began to really enjoy life. This type of woman in the 1920s was called the new woman.

African Americans moved away from the South in droves during the Great Migration

After World War I, African Americans left the South in droves to find new and better opportunities in the big cities of the North. This huge move became known as the Great Migration. When African Americans loaded into trains and boats to move to the North they brought more than their luggage with them. They brought their musical style with them as well. This music was called jazz and it took America by storm. Jazz began in New Orleans, Louisiana. It spread all over the nation and the world. Jazz music became America's first truly original art form.

King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band

Writers, artists, and actors were inspired by jazz. Some of these people moved to a district in New York City called Harlem. Harlem became the center of African American music, art, and writing. African Americans created new art styles and wrote books about black people and plays that were performed by black actors. The new music, art, and literature created by African Americans became known as the Harlem Renaissance.

The KKK terrorized anyone who was not white or protestant

There were people who were not happy about all the new changes that occurred before the Roaring Twenties. In the South, law makers created Jim Crow Laws. These laws created segregation of blacks and whites in the South. African Americans could not eat in the same restaurants or go to the same public restrooms as whites. African Americans had to sit in the back of trains and busses and could not attend white schools. A hate group called the Ku Klux Klan began to publicly terrorize African Americans and Jews.

Liquor is poured out at the beginning of Prohibition

Some people felt that the new changes were making America's young adults too wild. They felt the clubs and music halls were bad influences. They worried that the alcoholic drinks sold in the clubs and music halls caused people to become out of control and destructive. They believed the jazz music played in these clubs made people dance and behave wildly. Many of these people supported the temperance movement to make alcohol illegal and in 1920 the 18th Amendment was passed making it illegal to sell, produce, import, or transport alcoholic beverages in the U.S. This ban on alcohol became known as Prohibition.

Speakeasies were secret clubs where you had to "speak easy" at the door to get in so that law officers did not hear you

Prohibition did not stop people from drinking alcohol and created several problems. Rumrunners smuggled alcohol into the country and across state borders to bootleggers who sold the alcohol to secret clubs called speakeasies. Some people began making their own alcohol called moonshine. Smuggling alcohol into speakeasies became big business and it required many different groups of people working together to make it happen. This became known as organized crime and led to a war between the mobsters involved in organized crime and law enforcement officers trying to stop them.

The Red Scare caused such a panic that people were arrested just for saying they wanted Socialism or Communism and movies were made that made things worse.

Prohibition wasn't the only thing that stirred up things in America. Many workers were unhappy with the way America ran its government and economy. They felt that another type of government and economy would be better. Some of these people supported the idea of Socialism. Socialism is a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies. Others even supported communism. Communism is a way of organizing a society in which the government owns the things that are used to make and transport products such as land, oil, factories, and ships and there is no privately owned property. The people who felt this way scared Americans who liked America's system of government and economy. Fear of socialism and communism caused a panic. This panic was called the Red Scare.

18th Amendment: the law passed in 1920 making it illegal to sell, produce, import, or transport alcoholic beverages in the U.S.

19th Amendment: the law passed in 1920 that gave women in the United States the right to vote

bootlegger:  people that smuggled illegal alcohol to clubs and other buyers using cars, trucks and other land transportation

Calvin Coolidge: the second president of the 1920s who was a quiet, stern president that believed in laisseze-faire economics

Charles Darwin: the scientist that came up with the theory of evolution

Communism: a way of organizing a society in which the government owns the things that are used to make and transport products such as land, oil, factories, and ships and there is no privately owned property

consumerism: the belief that the nation's economy gets better when more goods are sold

evolution: the theory by scientist, Charles Darwin, that states living things gradually change over a long period of time into a different and better form

Great Migration:   the time period from roughly 1910 - 1940 where African Americans left the rural south in great numbers looking for jobs in the big cities of the North and West

Harlem Renaissance:  a time in the 1920s of great achievements by African-Americans in art, music, and literature

Herbert Hoover: the president at the end of the 1920s during the Stock Market Crash of 1929

jazz: a type of music developed by African Americans in New Orleans, Louisiana that travelled with them during the Great Migration to big cities in the North and West and became America's first original art form

Jim Crow Laws: segregation laws in the South that separated whites and blacks from each other

John Scopes: a high school science teacher in Tennessee who was arrested and tried for teaching the theory of evolution in school

Ku Klux Klan:  a hate group, found mainly in the South, that used violence mainly against African Americans, but would do violence to anyone that was not a white, protestant Christian

Laissez-faire economics:  the belief that the government should not interfere in the economy of a nation in any way

mobsters: members of secret organizations that are involved in organized crime

moonshine: homemade whisky, that is made illegally and usually has a very high alcohol content

new woman: a woman that believes she does not have to have a husband or father to take care of her because she feels that she is strong enough and smart enough to provide for herself

organized crime: when groups of people plan and work together to gain money in an illegal way

pop culture: anything type of interests, trends, or entertainment in a culture that is enjoyed by the majority of common, ordinary people, rather than experts or very educated people

Prohibition: the period of time in U.S. history from 1920 - 1933 when it was illegal to make, sell, produce, import, or transport alcoholic beverages in the U.S.

Red Scare: the panic caused by fear of socialism and communism in the United States

rumrunner:  people that smuggled illegal alcohol to bootleggers or other buyers using ships or boats

Scopes Monkey Trial: a big court case in 1925 when a high school science teacher broke a Tennessee state law by teaching evolution; the case ended with a guilty verdict in 1924, but was overturned in 1925

Spanish Flu Pandemic: a strand of the flu that became a pandemic killing more people than died in World War I

Socialism: a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies

speakeasy: a secret night club that sold alcohol during Prohibition

Stock Market Crash of 1929: when many companies' stocks suddenly lost money causing widespread bankruptcies that led to the Great Depression

Tea Pot Dome Scandal: a scandal during Warren G. Harding's presidency where government officials secretly allowed a private oil company to drill oil on a United States Navy oil reserve in Wyoming

temperance movement: an attempt by groups of people to make alcohol illegal

Warren G. Harding: the first president of the 1920s that was involved in several scandals including bootlegging alcohol and the Tea Pot Dome Scandal

John Scopes

Another controversy during the Roaring Twenties was the idea of evolution. Evolution is a theory of the scientist Charles Darwin. Darwin believed that living things gradually changed over a long period of time into a different and better form. One of the things Darwin suggested is that humans evolved from apes. This controversy brought national attention to one high school teacher named John Scopes. Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution to high school students and, the Scopes Monkey Trial would determine whether teachers in the future could teach Darwin's theory or not.

This political cartoon makes fun of the people involved in the Teapot Dome Scandal

The presidents of the 1920s all had different ideas about how the government and economy should be handled in the United States. Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover all were very different presidents who took the country in different ways during their presidencies. Warren G. Harding was involved in several scandals from bootlegging alcohol to the White House during Prohibition to the shocking Tea Pot Dome Scandal involving illegal use of federal oil reserves.

Many Americans lost everything they owned in the Stock Market Crash of 1929

Calvin Coolidge was a quiet, stern president that believed in laisseze-faire economics. Laissez-faire is a french words that means, let people do as they choose. Laissez-faire economics is the belief that the government should not interfere in the economy of a nation in any way. Herbert Hoover was the president at the end of the 1920s during the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 sent the nation into the Great Depression.

EXPLAIN IT!

Directions: The second thing you need to do is show that you understand what you have just read. Let's do the discussion polls below. I will read each question and its answer choices aloud. Then, you choose which answer you believe is correct. Then, we will look at the poll results and discuss the answers as a whole class.

Traditional roles are jobs, behaviors, attitudes, and activities that certain groups of people are expected to have or do. Which two groups of people broke awa

John Scopes taught the theory of evolution even though it was illegal under Tennessee law to do so. What can you infer about John Scope based on this statement

ANALYZE IT!

Directions: The third thing you need to do is break down what you have read. In your small groups, create a list of the major issues and events of the Roaring Twenties in your Introduction Lesson - America Goes Wild Lesson Chronicles, under the Analyze It Header. We will discuss these as a whole group when you have completed these in your small groups.

CREATE IT!

Directions: The fourth thing you need to do is create something with what you learned. In this activity, you will create word art, like the one below, using vocabulary words, issues, and events in this lesson. To get started, first read all of these directions completely!

1.) Create a Pages Document

Open a Pages document on your macbook to type your list.
Choose vocabulary words, issues, and events that you feel play an important role in the Roaring Twenties.
Type each word, term, or phrase and then press enter after each one.
When you are finished, save the document as your first name, last name, and the word tax. For example, if your name is John Cena. You will click save and type in: johncenatax.

2.) Convert your Pages Document to a Plain Text Document.

In your Pages Document, Click on File.
Scroll down to export as and select Plain text.
Save the plain text document to your desktop, the same way you saved the Pages document, first name last name, tax.

3.) Create your Word Art

After reading all the directions, click on the Tagxedo icon below.
On the Tagxedo site, click on the word Create.
Then click on the word Load.
When the box opens, click on the word Browse.
Find your word list that is saved as a Plain Text Document and select it to load the list.
When your words appear in the screen, you can begin designing.
Click on shape to change the shape of your word art. You can find a black image on Google images to insert your own image. Raise your hand if you want to do this and need help.
Click on theme to change the color scheme of your word art.
Click on font to change the way the words look on your word art.
When you are finished designing your art, click on save/share.
Select 1MP JPG and save your art the same way you saved the other things. First name, last name, tax.
It takes a few minutes to download.

4.) Save your Word Art

Insert the group flash drive.
Move the icon of your word art the plain text word list to the icon of the flash drive on your desktop.
Your list and word art are now saved to the flash drive.
Move the icon of the flash drive to the trash icon on your desktop.
When the icon of your flash drive disappears from your desktop, it is safe to remove the flash drive and give it to a neighbor.

You can now click on the icon below and get started.

PROVE IT!

Directions: The last thing you need to do is to prove that you have met the lesson target. Click on the lesson target icon below to complete the Prove It Activity.

CHALLENGE COMPLETE

Congratulations!
You have completed the Unit 4 Introduction Lesson - America Goes Wild.