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Changing Ways of Life

Changing Ways of Life . The New Urban Scene. American life was moving more and more into the cities Urban life much different from rural life Much more competition, faster pace of life City dwellers tolerated drinking, gambling, casual dating – considered shocking and sinful in small towns .

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Changing Ways of Life

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  1. Changing Ways of Life

  2. The New Urban Scene • American life was moving more and more into the cities • Urban life much different from rural life • Much more competition, faster pace of life • City dwellers tolerated drinking, gambling, casual dating – considered shocking and sinful in small towns

  3. Prohibition • 18th Amendment, followed by the Volstead Act (January, 1920), made alcohol illegal in the United States • Purpose was to do away with the evils of drinking (crime, wife and child abuse, accidents, social problems), but it had many unintended effects • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiYqFXmVAFg&feature=related

  4. Problems with Prohibition • Many immigrant groups did not consider drinking a sin • Federal government did not adequately fund prohibition – not enough enforcement agents • Canada, Mexico, Caribbean – no prohibition, easy to get alcohol into United States

  5. Speakeasies and Bootlegging • Drinkers went underground to get alcohol • Speakeasies hidden saloons where one spoke quietly to avoid detection and used a special card or password to get in • Speakeasies could be found in penthouses, cellars, office buildings, tenements, hardware stores • People bought liquor from bootleggers who smuggled it in from Canada or other countries by carrying it in the legs of boots

  6. Organized Crime • Prohibition generated disrespect for the law and people began to find ways around the law • Prohibition became a huge source of income for gangsters and organized crime • Al Capone – operated a bootlegging empire in Chicago that brought in almost $60 million a year • By the mid-1920s, most Americans believed Prohibition did more harm than good

  7. Science and Religion Clash • Protestant fundamentalists rejected Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and did not want it to be taught in schools • In March 1925, Tennessee passed the first law that made it a crime to teach evolution • The Scopes Trial • Teacher John T. Scopes with the support of the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the law and was arrested and put on trial • Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, later verdict was changed but law against evolution remained

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