Roaring Twenties VocabUS History Honors

Conservative: those less willing to bring about or accept change; preferred tradition

Liberal: open minded; willing to accept new ideas and bring about change; challenged tradition

flapper: a young woman, who shows bold freedom from conventions in conduct and dress

rural: country areas with few people living there

Red: a radical, anarchist, or communist

anarchist: people who want to do away with government

installment plan: a system in which a consumer may buy and take possession of goods, paying for them at agreed-upon intervals while having use of the goods

Consumer Revolution: flood of new, affordable goods in the decades after World War I

Prohibition: 1920-1933; when the 18th Amendment made it illegal to make, sell, or transport alcohol in the US

bootlegger: one who produces, reproduces, or distributes alcohol illicitly or without authorization

speakeasy: illegal bar during prohibition

Wet vs. Dry: wets were against prohibition; drys were in favor of prohibition

Fundamentalists: a movement in 20th century Protestantism emphasizing the literally interpreted Bible as fundamental to Christian life and teaching

xenophobia: a fear of immigrants

Ku Klux Klan: a secret society whose purpose was to ensure white supremacy over blacks; also opposed to Jews, Catholics and foreigners

intolerant: the unwillingness to put up with something or someone

corruption: inducement to do wrong by unlawful or improper means

Lost Generation: term for American writers of the 1920s marked by disillusion with World War I and a search for a new sense of meaning

Great Migration: movement of African Americans in the twentieth century from the rural South to the industrial North

Harlem Renaissance: period during the 1920s in which African American novelists, poets and artists celebrated their culture