The Roaring 20s: Changing Ways

•1920 census indicates majority of Americans live in urban areas

•New urban based lifestyle quickly clashes with traditional rural culture:

–Slow paced vs. fast paced

–Industrial vs. agricultural

–Strangers vs. families

–Religion based culture vs. new looser culture

–Ethnically similar vs. melting pot

Prohibition Era

Prohibition

By far the biggest culture clash of the 1920s was prohibition

January 1920, 18th Amendment goes into effect which bans sale, manufacture, or transport of alcohol

Much of the support for this comes from the rural areas. Alcohol seen as the primary cause of many social ills

Prohibition

Volstead Act creates Prohibition Dept. to enforce the laws, however this is doomed to fail due to under-funding and being understaffed

Ways people got around laws: Bootlegging, making their own, relied on organized crime

for speakeasies, and bribing officials

Prohibition Figures:The Bad Guys

Prohibition Era:The Good Guys

End of Prohibition

By mid 1920s fewer than 20% of Americans support Prohibition

1933, 21st Amendment will repeal the 18th

Outcomes of Prohibition Era: Increased disrespect for law, all criminals were given a

new source of almost unlimited income, rise of organized crime in US

Fundamentalism

• Another example of the culture clash in America was based on fundamentalism• Protestants who interpreted and followed the Bible

literally

• This group quickly come into conflict with the new urban thinkers who embrace new scientific ideas and principles

Scopes Monkey Trial

This reached a boiling point in 1925 when Tennessee passes a law forbidding the teaching of evolution in public schools

John Scopes violates law, goes to trial ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) sends Clarence Darrow to defend him

Scopes Monkey Trial

William Jennings Bryan will prosecute in the first Trial of the Century (Scopes-Monkey Trial)

During the trial, Bryan admits to flaws in his argument

However, Scopes is still convicted but it is later overturned

Shift to an urban society brings about a culture clash between city dwellers and traditional rural folks that will affect many Americans!