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18th Amendment (Prohibition)
This unpopular amendment banned the sale and drinking of alcohol in the United States. This amendment took effect in 1919 and was a huge failure. -
Esch-Cummins Transportation Act
The Transportation Act, 1920, commonly known as the Esch–Cummins Act, was a United States federal law that returned railroads to private operation after World War I, with much regulation. -
The Jazz Age (1920's Culture)
The Jazz Age was a post-World War I movement in the 1920s from which jazz music and dance emerged. Although the era ended with the outset of the Great Depression in 1929, jazz has lived on in American popular culture. -
Flappers
Flappers were a generation of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. -
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1920's Literature)
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American fiction writer, whose works helped to illustrate the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age. While he achieved popular success, fame, and fortune in his lifetime, he did not receive much critical acclaim until after his death. -
Lambeth Proposals (Religion)
The Lambeth proposals, which were promulgated by a conference of Anglican and Episcopal bishops from all over the world in August, 1920, proposed for a reunion of the churches on the basis that priests of the Roman and Greek Catholic Churches would be accepted as priests of the Anglican Church if their own communions would reciprocate, while it was asked of the Protestant Churches that they would allow their ministers to submit to reordination by Anglican or Episcopal bishops. -
Creation of the Automobile (1920's Culture)
But the most important consumer product of the 1920s was the automobile. Low prices (the Ford Model T cost just $260 in 1924) and generous credit made cars affordable luxuries at the beginning of the decade; by the end, they were practically necessities. In 1929 there was one car on the road for every five Americans. Meanwhile, an economy of automobiles was born: Businesses like service stations and motels sprang up to meet drivers’ needs. -
Cultural Civil War (1920's Culture)
Prohibition was not the only source of social tension during the 1920s. The Great Migration of African Americans from the Southern countryside to Northern cities and the increasing visibility of black culture discomfited some white Americans. Millions of people in places like Indiana and Illinois joined the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. To them, the Klan represented a return to all the “values” that the fast-paced, city-slicker Roaring Twenties were trampling. -
Red Scare (1920's Culture)
Likewise, an anti-Communist “Red Scare” in 1919 and 1920 encouraged a widespread nativist, or anti-immigrant, hysteria. This led to the passage of an extremely restrictive immigration law, the National Origins Act of 1924, which set immigration quotas that excluded some people (Eastern Europeans and Asians) in favor of others (Northern Europeans and people from Great Britain, for example). -
Ernest Hemingway (1920's Literature)
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American journalist, novelist, short-story writer, and noted sportsman. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and his public image brought him admiration from later generations. -
Roaring Economy (1920's Economy)
The 1920s have been called the Roaring '20s and for good reason. Not only was American culture 'roaring' in terms of style and social trends, but the economy was 'roaring' as well. The decade was a time of tremendous prosperity. -
Harlem Renaissance (1920's African American Identity)
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual, social, and artistic explosion centered in Harlem, New York, spanning the 1920s. During the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after The New Negro, the 1925 anthology edited by Alain Locke. -
Langston Hughes (1920's African American Identity)
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. He moved to New York City as a young man, where he made his career. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry. -
Louis Armstrong (1920's African American Identity)
Louis Daniel Armstrong, nicknamed Satchmo, Satch, and Pops, was an American trumpeter, composer, vocalist and occasional actor who was one of the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and different eras in the history of jazz. -
Jacob Lawrence (1920's African American Identity)
Jacob Lawrence was an African-American painter known for his portrayal of African-American life. As well as a painter, storyteller, and interpreter, he was an educator. -
Rise of Consumerism (1920's Economy)
The rise of prosperity of the United States in 1920 led to the emergence of American Consumerism in the period in history known as the Roaring Twenties. Consumerism is the theory that it is economically attractive to encourage the attainment of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. -
Quota Act (Immigration)
The Emergency Quota Act restricted the number of immigrants admitted from any country annually to 3% of the number of residents from that same country living in the United States as of the U.S. Census of 1910.[3] This meant that people from northern European countries had a higher quota and were more likely to be admitted to the U.S. than people from eastern Europe, southern Europe, or other, non-European countries. -
Conference for Progressive Political Action (1920's Politics)
The Conference for Progressive Political Action was officially established by the convention call of the 16 major railway labor unions in the United States. The idea of joining the "forces of every progressive, liberal, and radical organization of the workers must be mobilized to repel these assaults" originated with the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party, which issued an appeal to unions and progressive political organizations for such a group in September 1921. -
Immigration Act of 1921 (Immigration)
The Emergency Quota Act, also known as the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, the Per Centum Law, and the Johnson Quota Act (ch. 8, 42 Stat. 5 of May 19, 1921) was actually formulated mainly in response to the large influx of Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe and thus successfully restricted their immigration and that of other "undesirables" into the United States. -
William Harding (1920's Politics)
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th president of the United States from 1921 until his death in 1923, a member of the Republican Party. At that time, he was one of the most popular U.S. presidents, but the subsequent exposure of scandals that took place under his administration such as Teapot Dome eroded his popular regard, as did revelations of an affair by Nan Britton, one of his mistresses. In historical rankings of the U.S. presidents, Harding is often rated among the worst. -
Fordney-McCumber Tariff (1920's Economy)
The Fordney–McCumber Tariff of 1922 was a law that raised American tariffs on many imported goods to protect factories and farms. The US Congress displayed a pro-business attitude in passing the tariff and in promoting foreign trade by providing huge loans to Europe. That, in turn, bought more US goods -
Calvin Coolidge (1920's Politics)
John Calvin Coolidge Jr. was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. A Republican lawyer from New England, born in Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor -
The Cotton Club (1920's African American Identity)
The Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub located in Harlem on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue from 1923 to 1935, then briefly in the midtown Theater District from 1936 to 1940. The club operated most notably during the United States' era of Prohibition. -
Coolidge Prosperity (1920's Economy)
The prosperity of the Coolidge years led to a renewed emphasis on the notion of "thrift." Always associated with self-restraint, moderation, and frugality, thrift now came to acquire the meaning of "wise spending." -
Scopes Trial (Religion)
The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case in July 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which had made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. -
The Great Gatsby (1920's Literature)
The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional towns of West Egg and East Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. -
The Old Man and the Sea (1920's Literature)
The Sun Also Rises, a 1926 novel by American Ernest Hemingway, portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. An early and enduring modernist novel, it received mixed reviews upon publication. -
Black Thursday (Stock Market Crash)
Black Thursday refers to October 24, 1929, when panicked sellers traded nearly 13 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange (more than three times the normal volume at the time), and investors suffered $5 billion in losses. -
Black Tuesday (Stock Market Crash)
October 29, 1929. On this date, share prices on the New York Stock Exchange completely collapsed, becoming a pivotal factor in the emergence of the Great Depression. -
A Farewell to Arms (1920's Literature)
A Farewell to Arms is a novel by Ernest Hemingway set during the Italian campaign of World War I. First published in 1929, it is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army. -
Herbert Hoover (1920's Politics)
Herbert Clark Hoover was an American engineer, businessman, and politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933. A member of the Republican Party, he held office during the onset of the Great Depression. -
The Great Depression (1920's Economy)
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place in the 1930's, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations; in most countries it started in 1929 and lasted until the late-1930s. -
Dust Bowl Event (Dust Bowl)
The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s; severe drought and a failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent the aeolian processes caused the phenomenon. -
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (Herbert Hoover Policies)
The Tariff Act of 1930, commonly known as the Smoot–Hawley Tariff or Hawley–Smoot Tariff, was an Act implementing protectionist trade policies sponsored by Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis C. Hawley and was signed into law on June 17, 1930. The act raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods. -
Revenue Act of 1932 (Herbert Hoover Policies)
The Revenue Act of 1932 (June 6, 1932, ch. 209, 47 Stat. 169) raised United States tax rates across the board, with the rate on top incomes rising from 25 percent to 63 percent. The estate tax was doubled and corporate taxes were raised by almost 15 percent. -
21st Amendment (Prohibition)
The 21st amendment repealed the 18th amendment which banned the sale and consumption of alcohol. -
National Recovery Administration- NRA (New Deal Programs)
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was a prime New Deal agency established by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in 1933. The goal was to eliminate "cut-throat competition" by bringing industry, labor, and government together to create codes of "fair practices" and set prices. -
Civil Works Administration- CWA (New Deal Programs)
The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a short-lived job creation program established by the New Deal during the Great Depression in the United States to rapidly create manual-labor jobs for millions of unemployed workers. -
Tennessee Valley Authority- TVA (New Deal Programs)
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter on May 18, 1933, to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development to the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected by the Great Depression. -
Public Works Administration- PWA (New Deal Programs)
Public Works Administration, part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression. -
National Industrial Recovery Act- NIRA (New Deal Programs)
The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 was a US labor law and consumer law passed by the US Congress to authorize the President to regulate industry for fair wages and prices that would stimulate economic recovery. It also established a national public works program known as the Public Works Administration -
Federal Emergency Relief Administration- FERA (New Deal Programs)
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was the new name given by the Roosevelt Administration to the Emergency Relief Administration (ERA) which President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had created in 1933. ... Prior to 1933, the federal government gave loans to the states to operate relief programs. -
Emergency Banking Relief Act- EBRA
The Emergency Banking Act (the official title of which was the Emergency Banking Relief Act), Public Law 1, 48 Stat. 1 (March 9, 1933), was an act passed by the United States Congress in March 1933 in an attempt to stabilize the banking system. -
Securities and Exchange Commission- SEC (New Deal Programs)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent federal government agency responsible for protecting investors, maintaining fair and orderly functioning of securities markets and facilitating capital formation. -
Federal Housing Administration- FHA (New Deal Programs)
The Federal Housing Administration is a United States government agency created in part by the National Housing Act of 1934. The FHA sets standards for construction and underwriting and insures loans made by banks and other private lenders for home building. -
Social Security Act (New Deal Programs)
The Social Security Act of 1935 created Social Security in the United States, and is relevant for US labor law. It created a basic right to a pension in old age, and insurance against unemployment. -
National Youth Administration-NYA (New Deal Programs)
The National Youth Administration (NYA) was a New Deal agency sponsored by the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States that focused on providing work and education for Americans between the ages of 16 and 25. -
Works Progress Administration- WPA (New Deal Programs)
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency, employing millions of people (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. -
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act- FDC (New Deal Programs)
The United States Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, is a set of laws passed by Congress in 1938 giving authority to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to oversee the safety of food, drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics. -
Grapes of Wrath (Dust Bowl)
The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962.
