Prohibition and the Crazy 1920s

I. Prohibition Law:
A. 18th Amendment
(prohibiting manufacture, sale, transport)
B. Volstead Act
(making the 18th a “bone dry” amendment)
C. "Five and Ten Law"
(1929, 5 year, $10,000 penalty)

III. Prohibition Failure:
Why Not More of a Success?
A. Minimal Enforcement:
B. Unrealistic Expectations:
C. Corruption:
D. Policy without Authority:

III. Repeal:
A. 21st Amendment (Dec. 5, 1933)
B. The Constitution and Federal Intervention

IV. Progress and Decline in the 1920s:
A. 20s as Decade of Cultural/Economic Flowering:
1. Consumerism:
Lowest 40%=$725
190-housing
110-clothing
290-food
=135 left

Edward Bernays=father of modern pr

2. Movies:
3. Harlem Renaissance
4. “Lost Generation” =Great Literature
5. The “New Woman”

B. 1920s as a Decade of Ignorance, Cultural Decay
1. Influenza
2. Urban Racial Unrest: Chicago, 1919
…48 recorded lynchings in 1917
…78 recorded lynchings in 1919
3. Nativism:
a. National Origins Act of 1924
b. Sacco and Vanzetti
4. The KKK
5. Scopes Monkey Trial

VII. Significance: