-
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism is the idea that the concept of natural selection could be applied to human society. Social Darwinism has its origins in Imperialism and colonialism but had still lingered into the 1900's. Minorities were thought of as naturally inferior to white people and were put into social Darwinism. -
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an extremely successful businessman that founded the Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford was also the sponsor of the assembly line, forever changing the manufacturing industry. Ford's focus on consumerism had allowed the making of a franchise system that had allowed more dealerships to be made across the country. -
Federal Reserve System
The Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. Also known as the Fed, they control the amount of money that is in the economy by buying or selling government bonds. They also act as a lender of last resort for smaller banks throughout the country. -
The Great Migration
The Great Migration was when 90% of rural African Americans had moved away from the South. This equated to about 1.6 million people that had migrated. The reason that so many had migrated was so they can get jobs in industrial cities. The Great Migration occurred from 1916-1970. -
Jazz Music
With origins in New Orleans, jazz had migrated and spread through the country even both rural and urban areas. Jazz music was also very popular with African Americans, contributing to the Harlem Renaissance. Although it had made the racial tensions between African Americans and Whites much worse. -
1st Red Scare
As World War 1 was ending, Americans had become more afraid of communism spreading. This was due to Russia undergoing the Bolshevik Revolution, established a communist government, and had withdrawn troops out of World War 1. Americans had thought that Russia had let its allies down and had ultimately gained a rejection towards them. -
William Jennings Bryan
Bryan was an American orator and politician that had worked around the country giving paid speeches. Later on, he had become a Democrat that had thought Prohibition was a local problem and didn't think there should've been an amendment to it. Later on, however, Bryan was advocating for women's suffrage and the Prohibition to be added to the Constitution. -
Marcus Garvey
Marcus was a big advocator of Black Nationalism in both the United States and Jamaica. Garvey was also the leader of a movement called the Pan-African movement and had founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. Garvey had also founded the Black Star Line , which had wanted African Diaspora to head back to their origins. -
Warren G. Harding's "Return to Normalcy"
During the 1920 US Presidential Election, Warren Harding had expressed that he was going to bring America back to the "pre-war" mentality. He wanted to make sure that Americans wouldn't be worried about the prospect of war and would focus on being isolationism. Although many people had thought that the speech was heavy in neologistic attitudes. -
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural explosion that mainly started in New York City. The Renaissance had spread to urban areas across the country and had given African Americans a whole new identity. It had even affected African and Carribean colonies. -
Prohibition and 18th Amendment
Alcohol was a rampant problem across the US and many people, especially mothers and wives, had wanted to get rid of it. The 18th Amendment had officially outlawed all possession, distribution, manufacturing, or use of alcohol. The Prohibition was the period after alcohol was outlawed, and during this time organized crime was much more commonplace. -
Tea Pot Dome Scandal
The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribing scandal that involved Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Hall. Bacon Hall had been convicted of accepting bribes from oil companies to sell them Navy reserved oil at low prices. Hall became the first Cabinet member in US history to go to prison. -
Clarence Darrow
Darrow is an American lawyer and leader of the American Civil Liberties Union. One of Darrow's most infamous cases was defending John Scopes during the Scopes Monkey Trial. Although he wasn't able to win the case for John Scopes, he was still known as one of the best attorneys in the nation. -
Scopes Monkey Trial
During this time, there was a law passed called the Butler Act, where teachers wouldn't be allowed to teach evolution in schools. A high school teacher named John Scopes challenged this law and went to court over it. The court case was seen as a dialogue on whether religion should take precedence over science. -
Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin. Hughes was the person who created jazz poetry. Hughes is also credited with being one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance. -
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to a collection of New York songwriters and song publishers that dominated music at the time. The name used to refer to a real street in Manhatten. Some of the most famous songwriters in Tin Pan Alley were George Gershwin, Harry Warren, Vincent Youmans, and Al Sherman. -
Charles A. Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh was a US Air Mail pilot that won the Orteig Prize. He did this by making a nonstop flight from New York to Paris, France in 33 hours. Although he had received fame, he eventually went down in infamy as many people had called him a Nazi-sympathizer when WW2 had started. -
Frances Willard
Willard was a teacher, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Willard had become president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in 1879. She had brought up the age of consent, eight-hour workday, and advocated for women's rights. -
The Great Depression
The Great Depression was an economic depression that had affected the entire world throughout the 30's. Unemployment in the US had dropped to almost 50% and GDP had dropped 15%. The Great Depression was mainly onset from Black Tuesday and is considered one of the worst depressions of the 20th century. -
Stock Market Crash "Black Tuesday"
The prices on the stock market had plummeted down to zero, and going down as the most devastating stock market crash in US history. Black Tuesday was the main reason that the Great Depression had occurred. Black Tuesday had mostly been caused by banks using other people's money to buy stocks. -
The New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs and reforms that were enacted in response to the Great Depression. Franklin Roosevelt had brought this deal up in order to stimulate the economy back. The new programs were targeted towards helping the youth, elderly, and towards refining the banking system. -
The Dust Bowl
The Dustbowl was a series of sandstorms that had greatly damaged the farmlands in the Midwest. Failure to properly take care of soil had ultimately caused the Dust Bowl to occur. The total amount of money lost due to the Dust Bowl was 44 million dollars. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt had won the people of the United States over with his policy to get the country out of the Great Depression. He had brought a lot of programs and deals but one of the most famous is the First New Deal. Roosevelt had established the PWA, FERA, CCC, and had brought jobs and stability to the country. -
Relief, Recovery, and Reform
When Franklin Roosevelt had been voted into office, he wanted to instill hope into the population and had come up with the three R's. The three R's were also the heart of what Keynesian economics was about and had generated jobs. Afterwards, Franklin Roosevelt had made a series of reforms, also called an "alphabet soup" of reforms. -
Eleanor Roosevelt
When Eleanor Roosevelt become First Lady, she had gotten cold feet at the prospect, considering how women were traditionally set to home life. Taking inspiration from Lou Henry Hoover, Eleanor had decided to set out and change the role of women. She had started attending and holding press conferences and had started to write daily articles for magazines. -
Civillian Conservation Corp
The CCC was a public relief program that was aiming towards young men.The CC was able to give young men jobs to be able to support their families and teach them new skills. Over the 9 years that it was active, it was able to employ 3 million young men. -
20th Amendment
The 20th amendment had moved the terms of the president and congress members from March 4 to January 4. Section 2 of the 20th amendment made it so that Congress would have to meet at least once a year. The 20th amendment also made contingencies for when the President dies and would allow the Vice President to take the President's place. -
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
The FDIC was an organization that was able to give money to US bank depositors. The purpose of the FDIC was to have people have faith in the banking systems.The FDIC was one of the programs that were established in the First New Deal. -
21st Amendment
After the Prohibition Congress had decided to add an Amendment that would disregard the 18th amendment. By passing the 21st Amendment, the Prohibition had been effectively ended. After the ratification of the 21st Amendment, the 18th amendment became the only Amendment in the Constitution to be "repealed". -
Securities and Exchange Commission
The SEC is primarily responsible for enforcing and proposing security rules. The SEC had passed the Securities Act of 1933 in order to increase trust in markets by making companies disclose about public securities offerings. The Securities Act of 1934 was passed to regulate trading between companies and markets. -
Social Security Administration
The Social Security Administration is a federal agency that deals with social insurance. It deals retirement, disability, and survivor's benefits. The SSA also deals with veteran's benefits. -
1936 Summer Olympics
During the 1936 Summer Olympics had taken place in Germany and was considered to be one of the most offensive things to have happened in televised history. At the time Hitler had become Chancellor and brought up the Nazi party, during the games Hitler pushed his antisemitism towards all of the countries participating. He prevented Jews from playing in the games.
