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Perfection of the Assembly Line
Perfected by Henry Ford and widely adopted shortly after, the assembly line functioned by having one person trained specifically to do a single task at high speeds, and then pass the project down the line, thus increasing productivity -
Marcus Garvey
Advocate for black separatism, nationalism, and self sufficiency, and founded the first major black nationalist organization. -
Business doctrine
Business flourished as the conservative Republicans once again regained control, except now they supported the idea that government should interfere with the economy in order to stabilize business. -
Volstead Act
A federal law that the government used to enforce the 18th Amendment -
A New Culture
According to the census of 1920, for the first time at least half of the US population resided in urban areas, who's culture was based on new popular trends and habits of mass consumption and was often at odds with the established strict and religious moral code of rural America. -
Revolution in Morals
The younger generation shifted their views on sexual taboos and gender roles away from the previous generation, and with it came new fashions, music, art, and dances, and while contraceptives were still outlawed, the work of Margaret Sanger and others came to be accepted and validated, -
Education in the 20's
During the 20's, compulsory education became widespread and by the end of the decade, graduation rates rose to 25% of high school students. -
The Lost Generation
A generation of American authors who either were adults during WWI or reached adulthood soon after, and who's writings commonly expressed disillusionment with previous ideals and the current environment. -
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Author of the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald was an author part of the Lost Generation and commonly wrote about life in the 20's -
Ezra Pound
Prolific poet during the 20's, Pound was a major figure in the Imagism and Modernists movements. -
T. S. Elliot
Popular playwright during the 1920's and member of the Lost Generation of authors. -
The Harlem Renaissance
Named after Harlem, this neighborhood became a hotspot for African American artists and authors, which gained enough widespread attention to be called a renaissance. -
Louis Armstrong
An influential musician, Armstrong's music reached all audiences of all races. -
Besse Smith
A renowned and influential vocalist during the Harlem Renaissance -
Modernism
New religious movement that sought to accept scientific fact such as Evolution and reconcile it with their faith using critical and historical views on the Bible. -
Ernest Hemingway
Popular novelist in the 1920's, based his works off his own experiences and commonly expressed his disillusionment with the world, which was common for authors in the Lost Generation -
Sinclair Lewis
Author of the novels "Main Street" and "Babbit," both of which went on to earn awards, Lewis commonly satirized life in the middle class. -
Duke Ellington
Highly successful musician during the Harlem Renaissance, and one of the most influential figures in jazz history. -
Fundamentalism
Antithesis to Modernism, they believed that the bible should be taken literally, word-for-word, and that modernists were responsible for the moral decline in America -
Quota Laws
The fist quota act limited overseas immigration by a total of 3$ of the immigrant population based on the census of 1910, and the second further reduced it to 2% based on the census of 1890, before the arrival of "new" immigrants -
Case of Sacco and Vanzetti
Sacco and Vanzetti were tried and sentenced to death for murder, yet Liberals criticized it and stated that they were simply blamed for the deaths since they were immigrants, leading to a series of appeals and international debates that lasted until 1927, which is when Sacco and Vanzetti were executed. -
President Harding's Domestic Policy
Other than sign into law measures that the Republican Congress adopted, such as a lowered income tax and increased tariff rates, Harding did little else during his presidency. -
President Harding's Scandals and Death
Despite never being implicated in any wrong doing by the time of his death in 1923, Harding's administration experienced scandals much like the post war Grant administration, such as his Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall and Attorney General Harry Daugherty accepting bribes. -
Election of 1924
Coolidge won the presidency for the Republicans, yet the newly reformed Progressive Party did very well for a third party in a conservative era with 5 million votes. -
Coolidge Vetoes and Inaction
Only keeping an eye on the budget, nothing was done in the White House during Coolidge's administration, and he commonly even vetoed Republican legislation, all due to his belief in a limited government. -
Radio Networks
Due to the efforts of NBC and CBS, radio listeners could listen to the same programs from coast to coast, replacing the newspaper as the favored method of news and entertainment, and leading to hastened spread of new music, political ideas, and news. -
Election of 1928
Hoover won by a landslide in this election in the hopes that he would extend "Coolidge Prosperity," and Hoover even ironically said that poverty would be ended all together. -
Impact of Automobiles
Replacing the rail road industry as the main driver of the economy, all other industries such as steel, glass, and oil all relied on the automobile industry for sales. -
Oil
By this point, oil accounted for 35% of the US energy production, and was used to power factories and produce gasoline for the new automobile industry. -
Divorce
As a result of women's suffrage, more liberal divorce laws were enacted to allow women to leave abusive marriages, and the divorce rate increased to 1/6 marriages by 1930. -
Hawley-Smoot Tariff
Signed by President Hoover, these were the highest tariffs in US history and were meant to give higher revenue to the US, yet in return, European countries raised their own tariffs on US goods, leading to both the national and international market declining -
Debt Moratorium
Hoover proposed a moratorium on war debt collections, which was readily accepted by Great Britain and Germany, yet refused by France, and banks on both sides of the Atlantic struggled to meet the demands of investors withdrawing their money. -
Bank Holiday
FDR declared that all banks would take a holiday and those that would reopen would be considered safe for the public to use -
Federal Emergency Relief Agency (FERA)
Offered grants of federal money to state and local governments who were operating soup kitchens and other services for the poor, homeless, and unemployed. -
The Public Works Administration (PWA)
Directed by the Secretary of the Interior, allotted money to state and local governments for building infrastructure as a source of jobs. -
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
Employed young men on federal projects and provided their families a small monthly income -
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
A massive federal experiment; A government corporation that employed thousands of people to build and operate dams, power stations, control erosion and flooding, manufacture fertilizer, and provided electricity to those in the surrounding area of the Tennessee Valley for cheap rates. -
National Recovery Administration (NRA)
Despite being declared unconstitutional in 1935, the NRA experienced limited success by setting codes for wages, hours, conditions, and prices all while the anti trust laws were temporarily suspended. -
Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
The AAA was the equivalent of the NRA, but for agriculture; The AAA encouraged farmers to reduce production in order to boost prices, and gave government subsidies to those who actually planted less. -
21st Amendment
Repealed the 18th Amendment -
The Glass-Steagall Act
Increased regulations on how banks could invest client's money, established the FDIC, and made it so the gold standard only applied to international trade. -
The Civil Works Administration (CWA)
Added to the PWA, this agency hired laborers for temporary federal construction projects. -
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Still in place today, the SEC was created to regulate the stock market and put limits on the practices that led to the crash in 1929 -
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
This gave the construction industry and consumers a boost by insuring bank loans for building new houses and repairing old ones. -
Soil Conservation Service
Created in order to educated farmers in the Midwest on soil conservation techniques such as planting trees for windbreaks, crop rotation, contour plowing, and more. -
Works Progress Administration (WPA)
Spent billions of dollars between 1935 and 1940 by employing men and women on construction projects, and people such as artists were paid to paint murals or perform plays. -
The Grapes of Wrath
Detailed the hardships of those from the Midwest that were affected directly by the Dust Bowl.
