CHANGING WAYS OF LIFE

p.434-439

Objectives
Explain how urbanization created a new way of life that often
clashed with the values of traditional rural society

Describe the controversy over the role of science and religion in

American education and society in the 1920s

RURAL AND URBAN DIFFERENCES

The New Urban Scene
US Cites in 1920

51.2% of Americans lived in

larger communities

0.7

Cleveland

0.9

2,000,000 people were leaving the

farms and small towns each year

Detroit

1.8

Philadelphia

2.7

Chicago

5.6

cities were the place to be, not to

get away from

NYC

3
Millions

RURAL AND URBAN DIFFERENCES

The New Urban Scene (cont.)
65 other cities had
populations of over
100,000

The Prohibition Experiment

Prohibition
Manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages was
legally prohibited
18th Amendment

Alcohol seen as the prime source of corruption

City life

Faster
More educated
Competitive
Looser morals

The Volstead Act

Established a Prohibition Bureau in the Treasury Department
Poorly funded, near impossible job

RURAL AND URBAN DIFFERENCES

Speakeasies and Bootleggers

Organized Crime

Speakeasies

Al Capone

Underground hidden saloons and

nightclubs
Presented a card or password

Gangster with a $60 million a year empire.

Chicago
Killed off his competition
522 gang related killings in Chicago

Bootleggers

19% of Americans supported prohibition

Smugglers who brought in alcohol from

Canada, Cuba, and the West Indies

18th Amendment repealed in 1933 by the 21st

Amendment

SCIENCE AND RELIGION CLASH

American Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism
Movement grounded in a literal, or non-symbolic,
interpretation of the bible

Skeptical of some scientific discoveries

Rejected Darwins Theory of Evolution
Creation vs Evolution

Billy Sunday

Former baseball player

Used emotion to preach
Radio broadcasts
Called for prohibition of teaching evolution

SCIENCE AND RELIGION CLASH

The Scopes Monkey Trial

The Scopes Trail

A fight over evolution and the role of
science and religion in public schools
and in American society
John T. Scopes
Biology teacher in Dayton, TN
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Clarence Darrow
ACLU hired lawyer, defended Scopes

William Jennings Bryan

Special prosecutor

Court was held outside to handle the number of Bryan

supporters
Found guilty and fined $100

What was life like in cities during the

1920s?
What were some of the causes and effects
of Prohibition?

What did fundamentalists believe about

the biblical account of creation?