SECTION 3: Social and Cultural Tensions
WITNESS HISTORY 
AUDIO
Kicking, Fighting, Butting, and Biting
In a time of rapid social change, with a deadly war behind them, many Americans sought a return to more traditional values. They found comfort and strength in the words of preachers such as Billy Sunday. A former pro baseball player, Sunday never lost the dynamic energy of an athlete. Arms flailing, fists punching the air, he railed against the evils of greed, card playing, dancing, and, especially, drinking. He liked to tell audiences:
“I’m against sin. I’ll kick it as long as I’ve got a foot, and I’ll fight it as long as I’ve got a fist. I’ll butt it as long as I’ve got a head. I’ll bite it as long as I’ve got a tooth. And when I’m old and fistless and footless and toothless, I’ll gum it ’till I go home to Glory.”
—Billy Sunday, sermon
Objectives
- Compare economic and cultural life in rural America to that in urban America.
- Discuss the changes in U.S. immigration policy in the 1920s.
- Analyze the goals and motives of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.
- Discuss the successes and failures of the Eighteenth Amendment.
Terms and People
- modernism
- fundamentalism
- Scopes Trial
- Clarence Darrow
- quota system
- Ku Klux Klan
- Prohibition
- Eighteenth Amendment
- Volstead Act
- bootlegger
NoteTaking
Reading Skill: Contrast As you read, look for issues that divided Americans in the 1920s.
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| Education |
Why It Matters In the 1920s, while many city dwellers enjoyed a rising standard of living, most farmers suffered through hard times. Conflicting visions of what the nation should be heightened the urban-rural division. Some of these issues, such as immigration policy and teaching the theory of evolution, still divide Americans today. Section Focus Question: How did Americans differ on major social and cultural issues?
Traditionalism and Modernism Clash
The 1920 census reported that, for the first time in American history, more people lived in urban areas than in rural regions. This simple fact had profound consequences. The nation had been divided before, but usually along north-south or east-west lines. In the 1920s, however, the split was between urban America and rural America. On virtually every important social and cultural issue, the two groups were divided.
Urban Americans enjoyed new consumer products and a wide array of leisure activities. They generally showed an openness toward social change and the new discoveries of science. The growing trend to emphasize science and secular values over traditional ideas about religion became known as modernism.
By contrast, rural Americans did not participate fully in the consumer bonanzas, and they missed out on many of the new forms of leisure. People in the country generally embraced a more traditional view of religion, science, and culture.
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