1) What does it mean? What is it referencing? 2) What does it tell us about businesses in the
era we are learning about?
Analyze this Primary Source…
Politics and Economy of 1920s
Teapot Dome Scandal
Isolationism as a policy
Mass Production and Consumerism
Henry Ford and the Model T
What to look for today!!!!
What was the Teapot Dome Scandal?
Most famous scandal of the Harding Admin
Secretary of Interior Albert Fall accepted bribes & allowed private companies to lease govt land
Land had oil reserves
Led to arrests & distrust of govt
Teapot Dome
What was the American policy of Isolationism?
Isolationlism = policy of avoiding world affairs
After WWI many Americans favored staying “isolated”
But….US was a world power now and had too many economic interest with other countries to isolationists
US tries to use peace treaties and arms controls
Turn and Talk – The Kellogg-Briand Pact tried to ban war, saying that it was only justified
in defense. Do you see any problems with this policy? Try to think of a few problems, we
share out in 1 minute
What is consumerism? How did it affect 1920s America?
Americans became focused on acquiring consumer goods
More “disposable income” meant more things to buy (deodorants, perfumes, electric razors, washing machines, vacuums, etc)
Credit becomes popular (debt had been seen as bad) making it easier to buy cars /radios / appliances
Who was Henry Ford? Owner of Ford, he developed
the moving assembly line
Assembly line make production cheaper and faster
Model-T became affordable for Americans and millions were sold
Ford’s methods led to more manufacturers and spurred the growth of steel, oil, rubber and other industries.
Today’s Activity Pick 2 topics from the WORD
WALL the you find interesting and influential to the time period (or need extra help with)
You are going to do one of the following activities associated with your topics: #1 – Create a political cartoon
based on your topics #2 – Pretend you are alive in the
1920s and you are writing a letter home describing life in a northern city (include your 2 topics)
#3 – Use your 2 terms to create an ACROSTIC POEM (when you use each letter to start a sentence to explain the era)
Poster Creation
In your groups create a poster that highlights key elements of each of the following categories:
African American Experience
Red scare New Culture Politics and Economy