13.1 Cities v. Countryside

Cities• More Immigrants and

African Americans• Large mix of religions, esp.

Catholic, Jewish, etc.• Allowed gambling,

drinking, “casual dating”• AGAINST Prohibition (they

wanted to drink)

Countryside• More “native-born”

“white” people• Protestant Christian• Stricter morals and social

rules• FOR Prohibition (wanted

to stop others from drinking)

Women in the 1920s• Young “flappers” showed off new fashions

and joined men in the speakeasies– New forms of birth control allowed women

some sexual freedom

• But most women were still expected to be good wives and mothers

Prohibition• 1920-1933, Producing and distributing

alcohol was illegal in the U.S.– But could have it as a prescription, could make

your own wine/ hard cider– Many people broke the law anyway

Prohibition• The Volstead Act set up the Prohibition

Bureau to crack down on smugglers– But the govt. didn’t spend enough money to

really stop people from making/selling

Prohibition• People made moonshine in the backwoods,

smuggled liquor in from Canada, etc.• Gangs like Al Capone’s in Chicago fought each

other to gain control of the smuggling business

The Scopes Trial• 1925 court case where a

Tennessee teacher (John Scopes) was arrested for teaching biological evolution– This clashed with his town’s

Fundamentalist belief that humans did not evolve from monkeys

– Scopes lost the case, small-town values were victorious over big-city science