The Jazz Age A Clash of Values

Immigrants In the early 1920’s many Americans saw the millions of immigrants as a threat to stability and order and a threat to the four million demobilized servicemen searching for work in an economy with soaring unemployment and rising prices As anti-immigration fever rose, nativists emboldened their arguments against immigration with Eugenics, a pseudo-science that emphasized that human inequalities were inherited and warned against breeding the “unfit” or “inferior” The “science” fueled the nativists’ argument for the superiority of the “original” American stock – White Protestants of Northern Europe

Immigrants According to the 1921 Emergency Quota Act, only 3% of the total number of people in any ethnic group already living in the United States, as indicated in the 1910 Census, could be admitted in a single year. The 1924 National Origins Act tightened the quota system, setting the quotas at 2% of each national group residing in the country in the 1890 Census The immigration acts of 1921 and 1924 greatly reduced the labor pool in the United States

Changing Culture Many groups that wanted to restrict immigration also feared the “new morality” that glorified youth and personal independence The flappers were young women who personified this new independence While flappers pursued social freedoms other woman sought economic freedom by entering the work force To many Americans, the modern consumer culture, relaxed ethics, and growing urbanism symbolized America’s moral decline

Changing Culture Fundamentalists focused on defending the Protestant faith against ideas that implied that human beings derived their moral behavior from society, not God Many people believed that prohibition of alcohol would help reduce unemployment, domestic violence and poverty The 18th amendment specifically granted the federal government, as well as state governments, the power to enforce prohibition