THe 1920s
...limbed. Other major events of the decade contributed to increased tensions as with the Tennessee Evolution Case of 1925 ( Scopes monkey trials) this case rocked the fundamentalists and challenged the very core of traditionalism. It led many people to question the roots of which they had once believed so strongly in. If the Bible was wrong about this, what else could it be wrong about? Other advances in science led many people to doubt what they had been taught by their parents and to contest the morals of which they had been raised, WW1 also generated many new feelings that changed the way people thought about God. If one could die in a pointless war, why not just live for the moment and let loose? The destruction led people to feel as if the old morals had failed them. Increased standards for education also led many people to question what they had once thought to be life truths. The government spent 4 times as much money on schools and high school graduation rates doubled from the previous decade. Women began to speak out with a more educated voice, demanding more things then ever, and making themselves known as a strong force. It was the very actions of the W.C.T.U. (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) that led to the amendment to the constitution that outlawed alcohol. Nationalism and feelings of nostalgia for the old ways cause several extreme movements throughout the decade. As a way of rejecting the changing society the KKK was revived in a major way as it reached the height of its power with 5 million members, specifically in Indiana where almost half of the males were members. It was a movement to put the power back into the hands of the average citizen. They felt that the intellectuals had betrayed Americanism and that the Klan was necessary to return things to normal. New immigration waves cause many others to swell with newfound nationalism. Many people felt that the immigrants were the source of new ideas and where the root of the changing problems, and that they were not really American. These ideas help with the immigration restrictions between 1921 and 1924. The “roaring twenties” as it sometimes called was indeed a time of great change and advancement. It was not however full of scandalous women and drunken men as many people thought. There were in fact more fundamentalists then those who would be considered loose. A lot of things changed in the twenties, and naturally with change comes resistance. Before a society can fully embrace the change, it is expected to have people on both ends of the extreme, from the KKK to the flappers. The only real lasting product of the twenties was too much spending and too many fun times. The excess spending laid the foundation for one of the hardest times in the history of the United States, and a time that would be very hard to climb out of. During the late 1920s the stock market was booming with trade. From 1928 to 1929 the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose from 191 to 381. This profit was irresistible and investors s...