The Roaring Twenties: Politics
This treaty ending World War I was signed on June 28, 1919, but many Americans and observers worried its harsh terms would destabilize Europe.
What is the Treaty of Versailles?
This new invention helped create a shared national culture by broadcasting news, music, sports, and advertising into homes across America, though it also promoted conformity.
What is radio?
This affordable, mass-produced automobile, introduced by Henry Ford, symbolized the consumer boom and helped drive economic growth in the 1920s.
What is the Model T?
This group of World War I veterans marched on Washington in 1932 demanding early bonus payments and was forcibly dispersed, damaging Hoover's image.
What is the Bonus Army?
This New Deal initiative built dams, controlled floods, and brought electricity to rural areas throughout the American South.
What is the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)?
By the 1920s, this California city had become the capital of American filmmaking, home to major studios like MGM and Paramount.
What is Hollywood?
This president campaigned in 1920 on a promise of a "return to normalcy" after the disruptions of war and progressivism, which resonated with voters seeking stability.
Who is Warren G. Harding?
The 1920s "golden age" of sports featured heroes like this Yankee outfielder, whose power hitting helped turn baseball into a national spectacle.
Who is Babe Ruth?
On paper, this president seemed ideal in 1928 due to his engineering background, humanitarian record, and association with prosperity, but his ideological commitment to progressive economic policies differed from conservative predecessors.
Who is Herbert Hoover?
This future president's background included overcoming polio, serving as New York governor, and projecting optimism; his 1932 campaign message emphasized action and hope over fear.
Who is Franklin Delano Roosevelt?
This New Deal program sent young men to work on conservation projects like reforestation and park building to combat unemployment.
What is the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)?
In his March 4, 1933, inaugural address, FDR used this reassuring line to calm Americans facing bank failures and unemployment at the Depression's peak.
What is "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"?
This amendment banning alcohol was largely ineffective due to public disregard, speakeasies, and bootlegging, leading to the unintended rise of organized crime.
What is the 18th Amendment?
This 1927 Warner Bros. film starring Al Jolson introduced synchronized dialogue and marked the shift from silent movies to "talkies."
What is The Jazz Singer?
This date marks Black Tuesday, when the stock market crashed, signaling the start of the Great Depression.
What is October 29, 1929?
FDR used these informal radio addresses to explain policies, reassure Americans, and build public support directly.
What are Fireside Chats?
This agency employed millions in public works, infrastructure, arts, and theater projects to provide jobs and improve public spaces.
What is the Works Progress Administration (WPA)?
This aviator's 1927 solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic made him a national hero and embodied the era's spirit of innovation, adventure, and celebrity.
Who is Charles Lindbergh?
This wave of postwar fear of radicals and communists led to government raids, deportations, and heightened nativism in 1919–1920.
What is the Red Scare?
This 1925 trial in Tennessee, featuring William Jennings Bryant and Clarence Darrow, pitted modern science against religious fundamentalism, symbolizing cultural clashes in the decade.
What is the Scopes Trial?
This severe drought and poor farming practices in the Great Plains created massive dust storms, displacing farmers and worsening migration during the Depression.
What is the Dust Bowl?
This early New Deal program set industry codes for fair competition and wages but was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.
What is the National Recovery Administration (NRA)?
This 1935 act created old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, and aid for dependents, becoming a cornerstone of social welfare.
What is the Social Security Act?
In 1937, FDR proposed this controversial plan to add up to six new justices to the Supreme Court to secure favorable rulings on New Deal legislation after several programs were struck down.
What is court-packing?
This British economist warned in his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace that harsh reparations would lead to future conflict by crippling Germany's economy.
Who is John Maynard Keynes?
These young women of the Roaring Twenties bobbed their hair, wore short skirts, and embraced jazz music, dancing, and smoking as symbols of independence.
Who are flappers?
This event triggered bank runs, massive unemployment, business failures, and widespread homelessness across the U.S.
What is the stock market crash of 1929?
Signed by Hoover, this protective tariff aimed to shield American farmers and industries but provoked foreign retaliation and deepened the Great Depression by shrinking global trade.
What is the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act?
This New Deal reform insured bank deposits to restore confidence and prevent future bank runs.
What is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)?
This 1937 document, authored mainly by Senator Josiah Bailey, rallied conservative Democrats against further federal expansion and emphasized private enterprise.
What is the Conservative Manifesto?