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Henry Ford and Fordism
His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. As the owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with "Fordism": mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. -
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an expatriate American poet and critic, and a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement. His contribution to poetry began with his development of Imagism, a movement derived from classical Chinese and Japanese poetry, stressing clarity, precision and economy of language. -
T.S. Eliot
T.S. Eliot, American-English poet, playwright, literary critic, and editor, a leader of the Modernist movement in poetry in such works as The Waste Land -
Ernest Miller Hemingway
An American journalist, novelist, short-story writer, and noted sportsman. -
Louis Armstrong
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. Louis Armstrong is one of the most appreciated jazz artists of the Harlem Renaissance, and of all times. -
Langston Hughes
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. -
The Great Migration
The Great Migration was the relocation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest and West from about 1916 to 1970 -
The Eighteenth Amendment
The Eighteenth Amendment declared the production, transport, and sale of intoxicating liquors illegal, though it did not outlaw the actual consumption of alcohol. -
The Palmer Raid
Raids conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1919 and 1920 in an attempt to arrest foreign anarchists, communists, and radical leftists, many of whom were subsequently deported. -
Modernism
A general movement in the late 19th and 20th cent. that tried to reconcile historical Christianity with the findings of modern science and philosophy. In reformed Judaism, especially among Americans, there developed a modernist movement resembling Protestant modernism. -
Installment Plan
The installment plan enabled people to buy goods over an extended period of time, without having to put down very much money at the time of purchase. With this plan people could purchase automobile, household appliances, homes, furniture, and other items. -
Mass Culture
Between the years of 1920 and 1929, a new movement was beginning to emerge in the United States. The production of Hollywood films, popularity of sports, radio broadcasts, and advertisements were seeping into the homes of millions Americans across the country. -
Radio Broadcasting
Radio broadcasting began in 1920 with the historic broadcast of KDKA. Few people actually heard the voices and music which were produced because of the dearth of radio receivers at that time. The public, however, was overcome by a radio craze after the initial broadcast. -
Jazz Age
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. -
The Harlem Renaissance
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". Marked a moment when white America started recognizing the intellectual contributions of Blacks and on the other hand African Americans asserted their identity intellectually and linked their struggle to that of blacks around the world, -
Black Pride Movement
Black pride is a movement in response to dominant white cultures and ideologies that encourages black people to celebrate black culture and embrace their African heritage. -
Fundamentalism
Christian fundamentalism, movement in American Protestantism that arose in the late 19th century in reaction to theological modernism, which aimed to revise traditional Christian beliefs to accommodate new developments in the natural and social sciences, especially the theory of biological evolution. -
Volstead Act
Volstead Act, formally National Prohibition Act, U.S. law enacted in 1919 (and taking effect in 1920) to provide enforcement for the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. -
Americanization
The process of an immigrant to the United States becoming a person who shares American values, beliefs, and customs by assimilating into American society. -
The Red Scare
Many in the United States feared recent immigrants and dissidents, particularly those who embraced communist, socialist, or anarchist ideology. -
Consumerism
Consumerism can be thought of as the culture surrounding the buying and selling of products. Consumerism came into its own throughout the 1920s as a result of mass production, new products on the market, and improved advertising techniques. With more leisure time available and money to spend, Americans were eager to own the latest items. -
Protectionism
Policy of protecting domestic industries against foreign competition by means of tariffs, subsidies, import quotas, or other restrictions or handicaps placed on the imports of foreign competitors. ... It can also serve as a means of fostering self-sufficiency in defense industries. -
The "New Women"
The term used at the end of the nineteenth century to describe women who were pushing against the limits which society imposed on women. -
19th Amendment Grants Women The Right To Vote
The Nineteenth (19th) Amendment to the United States Constitution granted women the right to vote, prohibiting any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920 after a long struggle known as the women's suffrage movement. -
Fordney – McCumber Tarriff Act
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. -
The 1924 Democratic National Convention
The 1924 Democratic National Convention, held at the Madison Square Garden in New York City from June 24 to July 9, 1924, was the longest continuously running convention in United States political history. It took a record 103 ballots to nominate a presidential candidate. -
Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. The quota provided immigration visas to two percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census. -
The Great Gatsby
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 New Negro
An Interpretation is an anthology of fiction, poetry, and essays on African and African-American art and literature edited by Alain Locke, who lived in Washington, DC and taught at Howard University during the Harlem Renaissance. -
Kellogg-Briand Pact
The Kellogg–Briand Pact is a 1928 international agreement in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them". -
Stock Market Crash
The stock market crash of 1929, which began with 'Black Tuesday,' (October 29) led to this widespread situation across the United States in the early 1930s. Business in the country was slowing, and the economy had stalled, but investors kept pouring money into the stock market. -
Herbert Hoover Elected President
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. -
Laissez-Faire Economic Theory (Herbert Hoover's Policy)
Laissez Faire is the belief that economies and businesses function best when there is no interference by the government. -
Trickle-Down Economics (Herbert Hoover's Policy)
Trickle-down economics, also called trickle-down theory, refers to the economic proposition that taxes on businesses and the wealthy in society should be reduced as a means to stimulate business investment in the short term and benefit society at large in the long term. -
The Great Depression
The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. -
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. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt Elected President
The election took place against the backdrop of the Great Depression. Incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover was defeated in a landslide by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Governor of New York. -
The Farm Credit Act of 1933
Made it possible for many farmers to keep their farms and survive the Great Depression. It did so by offering short-term loans for agricultural production as well as extended low interest rates for farmers threatened by foreclosure. Small farmers were able to refinance their mortgages with the aid of twelve district banks, called Banks for Cooperatives. -
21st Admendment
The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited. -
National Industrial Recovery Act
The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) 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. -
Agricultural Adjustment Act
The AAA (Agriculture Adjustment Administration), established in 1933, a relief, Its purpose was to help farmers by reducing production of staple crops, thus raising farm prices and encouraging more diversified farming. It raised the value of crops. -
Glass-Steagall Act
In 1933, in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash and during a nationwide commercial bank failure and the Great Depression, two members of Congress put their names on what is known today as the Glass-Steagall Act (GSA). This act separated investment and commercial banking activities. -
Home Owners’ Loan Act
The Homeowners Refinancing Act (also known as the Home Owners Loan Act of 1933 and the Home Owners' Loan Corporation Act) was an Act of Congress of the United States passed as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression to help those in danger of losing their homes. -
Fireside Chats
The fireside chats were a series of 30 evening radio addresses given by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944. FDR used these speeches to comfort Americans who were reeling because of the devastating effects of the Great Depression. Because he wanted to extend his economic recovery program to the people, FDR used the Fireside Chats to complement his successful New Deal -
The First 100 Days
The first 100 days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency began on March 4, 1933, the day Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States. During this period, he presented a series of initiatives to Congress designed to counter the effects of the Great Depression. -
The New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs and projects instituted during the Great Depression by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that aimed to restore prosperity to Americans. When Roosevelt took office in 1933, he acted swiftly to stabilize the economy and provide jobs and relief to those who were suffering. -
Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933
To address the banking panic and the overall banking crisis of the early 1930s, the Roosevelt administration passed the Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933. This measure ordered a bank holiday, during which the federal government came to regulate large sectors of the financial sector. -
Tennessee Valley Authority Act
President Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act on May 18, 1933, creating the TVA as a Federal corporation. The new agency was asked to tackle important problems facing the valley, such as flooding, providing electricity to homes and businesses, and replanting forests. -
Public Works Administration
Public Works Administration (PWA), 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. -
The Second New Deal
The Second New Deal is the term used by commentators at the time and historians ever since to characterize the second stage, 1935–36, of the New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
