Traditionalist Modernist

People who embraced new styles, ideas and social trends

Traditionalist Modernist

Prohibition

Rural v. Urban Living

Youth Culture

Creation v. Evolution

What is Prohibition?• 18th Amendment – “illegal to

manufacture, sell, or transport alcoholic beverages in the U.S.”

• Led by women’s and religious groups (Anti-Saloon League)• Volstead Act – Provided

enforcement for the 18th

Amendment• Thought to improve society, curb

crime and limit alcoholism

Prohibition

Prohibition

“Wets” v. “Drys”

Prohibition

• Opposition starts in cities, leads to increase in illegal behaviorBootlegging – the transport, production and sale of illegal alcoholSpeakeasies – secret drinking clubs spring up in place of closed bars and pubs

Bootlegging

Prohibition

• Leads to more organized crime• Al Capone:

• Drove a $300,000 Cadillac• Graft, kickbacks, bribery• Made about $100 million/year (2014 money)• “Bought” off judges, police, lawmakers• Never paid taxes• Busted in 1932 for tax evasion – that’s it.

Al CaponeGangster Hideaway

Clip: Al Capone

FBI.gov Website on AL CAPONE

“In the end, it took a team of federal, state, and local

authorities to end Capone’s reign as underworld boss.

Precisely the kind of partnerships that are

needed today as well to defeat dangerous criminals

and terrorists.”- FBI

Youth Culture

• College enrollment grows for young people

• More people move away from the home school, clubs, sports, music, dances, dating, movies, fads

Youth Culture

• Flappers: an emancipated young woman who embraced new fads, fashion and urban attitudes of the 1920s

Adults viewed the youth culture as reckless and

immoral.

Hays Office – 1920s agency that promoted censorship

in books, film, etc.

Flappers

Mass media made flappers more of an image than a reality

Social morals loosened…but not that loose

A double standard was created for woman, even in urban society

She smoked, danced, drove cars, dated, drank during Prohibition

Mass media made flappers more of an image than a reality

This

or

This?

Rural v. Urban Life

Rural communities face problems in the 1920s:

- Post war prices falling- Farmers unable to pay back

loans

Cities:- Hubs of economic

growth- Urban workers see the

standard of living improve

Cities:- CPI: Consumer Price

Index remains the same (food, housing)

Cities:- Sense of personal

freedom- Urban workers saw their standard of living

improve

Creation v. Evolution

Fundamentalism: Literal interpretation of the Bible (called for the end of teaching evolution)

• Claimed man could not have evolved from apes (believe in Biblical creation theory)

• Belief held widely in rural communities (urban v. rural clash)

• Butler Law (1925) Tennessee law that forbids the teaching of evolution in the classroom

Creation v. Evolution

Theory of Evolution (ideas of Charles Darwin)• ‘The Origin of Species’• Belief that man has evolved from apes• Increasingly accepted idea, especially in

urban areas (urban / rural divide)

The Scopes Monkey Trial

Biology teacher John Scopes challenges the Butler Law, arrested

Attorney: Clarence Darrow

Verdict:

Scopes is guiltyFined $100

Law stays into effect until 1967

Who Would Support This?

Theory of Evolution

The US is Voted “Dry”

Fundamentalism

Laws to drive up crop prices

Dating, going out at night, dancing

Books about rebellious youth by Fitzgerald and Hemingway

Chaperoned dates, courtship

The passing of the Volstead Act

The verdict of the Scopes Trial: Creationism

Bootlegging and Speakeasies

“Alcoholism leads to crime”

Crazy fads such as marathon dances and flagpole sitting

“The city has more job opportunities”

Women learning how to drive

“Prohibition makes society worse”

Farms make America strong.

Clarence Darrow’s argument