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The 1920's Dbq

1920’s DBQ

Question:

The 1920’s were a period of tension between new and changing attitudes on the one hand and traditional values and nostalgia on the other. What led to the tension between old and new AND in what ways was the tension manifested?

Analyze these documents in pairs. You can use their textbooks and/or the power point we used in class to help build their understanding of the material. You should write a thesis statement, intro paragraph and outline a proposed answer. The outline should indicate how you would use the documents to support their argument.

Document A

Just as he was an Elk, a Booster and a member of the Chamber of Commerce, just as the priests of the Presbyterian Church determined his every religious belief and the senators who controlled the Republican Party decided in little smoky rooms in Washington what he should think about disarmament, tariff, and Germany, so did the large national advertisers fix the surface of his life, fix what he believed to be his individuality. These standard advertised wares—toothpastes, socks, tires, cameras, and instantaneous hot water heaters—were his symbols and proofs of excellence; at first the signs, then the substitutes, for joy and passion and wisdom.

Source: Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, 1922

Document B

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Source: Georgia O’Keefe, The Radiator Building at Night (NYC) , 1927 (painting)

Source C

[pic]

Source: Ethel Walker, singer and actress, 1925 (photograph)

Document D

[pic]
Source: The First Measured Century (PBS)

Document E

Mr Darrow: Do you claim that everything in the Bible should be literally interpreted?

Mr. Bryan: I believe everything in the Bible should be accepted as it is given there; some of the Bible is given illustratively. For instance: “Ye are the salt of the earth.” I would not insist that man was actually salt, or he had flesh of salt, but it is used in the sense of salt as saving God’s people

Mr. Darrow: But when you...