1. Dancing With The Devil In The Pale Moonlight
Ch 21
Sec 1 & 2 Notes

2. The 1920’s as a tug-of-war decade
Competing elements fought for the nation’s attention throughout the decade
Illustrated America’s split personality
Puritan “City on a Hill” vs. recreation & consumer culture
A world power mentality of trying to have everything at once
The resistance against progressive technology and thinking

3. City vs. Country
1920’s—10 million people moved from rural areas to cities
Sin City vs. Country morals
The diversification of work force led to the rise of entertainment culture leading to a challenge of Victorian social norms (movies, Vaudeville, music, bars, etc.)
Evangelicals
Protestant ministers preaching to thousands to turn away from temptations the city offered (Billy Sunday)
Offered a place and a voice for rural newcomers to publicly voice displeasure with urban society

4. Prohibition vs. Speakeasies
18th Amendment (1920)—banning possession & transportation of all alcoholic goods
An effort to legislate morality (supported by Evangelicals & temperance movement and recent rural pop. in cities) & also to lower crime, poverty, etc.
Initially tolerated by population, after WWI, city people wanted to party
Speakeasies
Secret nightclubs catering to upper and middle class customers wanting to drink

5. Bootlegging Organized crime
Homemade production and distribution of liquor (ex. Moonshine)
Smalltime smuggling of alcohol from Canada (whiskey), Mexico (Tequila) & West Indies (Rum)
Organized crime
Large scale illegal smuggling, distribution & production of alcohol
Al Capone
Ran bootlegging empire like corporation & stopped at nothing to protect investment (522 murders attributed to Capone’s empire)

6. 21st Amendment (1933)—repealed prohibition
1930—19% of Americans favored Prohibition
President FDR wanted to tax legal alcohol sales to bring country out of Depression

7. Science vs. Religion
Evangelicals bring about rise of Christian fundamentalism
Supporters of a strict or literal interpretation of the Bible
Ex. Creationism—disregard Darwin’s Theory of Evolution & favored the Garden of Eden theory
Led to rapid rise in religious revivals in the South & West warning against immoral modernization
Scopes Trial (1925)
Tennessee becomes 1st state to ban the teaching of evolution…leads to John Scopes test case
William Jennings Bryan (Tenn.) vs. Clarence Darrow (Scopes)
Scopes convicted and fined $100 (minimum sentence)

8. Girl vs. Girl
Women torn between traditional values & struggling for equality
Flappers
An emancipated women asserting her sexuality
Dresses above knee, short hair, smoking, dancing
Challenged the “Double Standard”
Sexually aggressive women resisted the notion that men could subscribe to different social freedoms

9. At Work
Women began to enter into more professional careers (teaching, nursing, librarians, office workers) instead of sweatshops
At Home
Consumer culture continued trend that shopping was a “woman’s job”
Women gained more power over household as primary purchasing agent
Led to continuation of early women’s liberation movement
More control over household led to equality in marriage
1920’s sparked the idea of marrying for romance