2. Rural and Urban Differences
• US changes from
RURAL to Urban
• By 1920 51% of
Americans lived in
Towns or Cities
• New challenges
between secular
urban societies and
traditional rural
societies.
3. New Urban Scene
• New York, Chicago,
and Philadelphia all
have populations
greater than 1 million.
4. Prohibition
• Clash between the secular and
the moral traditional.
• 18th Amendment –
Manufacture, Sale, and
Transportation of Alcohol was
illegal.
• Advocates believed drinking
led to abuse, crime, accidents,
and other social conditions.
• Volstead Act (1919)
established the Prohibition
Bureau in the Treasury
Department.
• Only 1500 officers responsible
for entire country.
5. Opposition to Prohibition
• Alcohol ingrained in
American culture
• Immigrants don’t
believe that it is a sin
to drink.
• Many hidden saloons
– Speakeasies
• Bootleggers bring in
large quantities of
alcohol.
6. Organized Crime
• Every major city had
organized crime to
“regulate” the
production and
distribution of alcohol.
• Gangs would often go
to war over the
territory that they
could sell alcohol.
7. End of Prohibition
• By the mid 1920s, prohibition had minimal
support in the US.
• Prohibition ends with the passage of the
21st Amendment in 1933.
8. Science and Religion Clash
• The traditional and
modern clashed over
the validity of
scientific discovery.
• Fundamentalism – a
protestant movement
grounded in the literal
interpretation of the
bible.
9. Scopes Trial
• Biology Teacher John
Scopes is arrested for
teaching evolution.
• ACLU hires Clarence
Darrow to defend
Scopes.
• Nick named “The Monkey
Trial”
• Found guilty and fined
$100
• Overturned
10.
11. The 1920s….
• With clashes over evolution, the
Prohibition experiment, and the emerging
urban scene all were evidence of the
changes and conflict occurring during the
1920s.
• During that period, women also
experienced conflict as they redefined
their roles and persued new lifestyles.
