Social Issues of The Roaring 20s

Immigration

• Cause – immigrants wanted a better life in the United States; they were plagued by poverty and religious discrimination.

• Effect – increased population in US; cities became overcrowded; created a large labor force for factories.

Social Darwinism - belief that the problems people had were caused by inherited traits or genetics. 

• Cause – a desire to maintain the economic and social divisions in society due to their belief that some are not fit to compete.

• Effect – increased the popularity of the eugenics movement which is what Hitler would argue to create his master race and caused social conflicts, because opponents argued that people in the lower classes were not capable of economic success. 

Scopes Trial also called the “Monkey Trial”. 

• Cause - Whether evolution could be taught in school.

• Effect -  Illustrated the conflict between modern and traditional values. 

Eugenics (study of human improvement by genetic means)

• Cause – an attempt to better society and the human race

• Effect – discrimination towards those who did not fit the “perfect” human mold

Race relations

• Cause – increase of immigration (especially Asian immigrants) Angel Island- Chinese immigrants were exposed to harsh conditions coming into the US

• Effect – discrimination, Ku Klux Klan flourished, Nativism developed

Nativism - favoritism for native-born Americans.

• Cause – increase of immigration; natives worried that immigrants would take their jobs.

• Effect- Immigration quotas were instilled mainly on Eastern and Southern Europeans although some restrictions were made on Western Europeans.  

Red Scare- 1st Red Scare(1922)

• Cause – the Red Scare was a reaction not only to the communist revolution in Russia, but to the influx of immigrants into the United States in the years leading up to World War I. 

• Effect – deportation of many communists and socialists

Prohibition

• Cause – People thought alcohol was leading to the decline of society by causing violence, crime, financial issues, etc. 

• Effect – passage of the 18th Amendment and increase in organized crime.

Changing role of women

• Cause – because of industrialization, many women left working in the home to become wage-earners. 

• Effect – women became social and political reformers; worked outside of the home; affected the economy; through suffrage (19th Amendment), women gained the right to vote and participate in government.