Assignment #11

ACIE American History - Cambridge International Examinations

Mr. Anthony Perno and Mr. Victor Wisniski – American Senior High School – 2009/2010 School Year

Syllabus Excerpt: V Boom and Bust, 1920-1941

Post-war reaction against internationalism and progressivism, the election of Harding and the cult of ‘normalcy’. Prohibition and its consequences. Corruption scandals. The Coolidge presidency and the business boom. American society in the ‘Jazz Age’. . . .

· Reading Assignment: America, Past and Present, Chapter #25, Transition to Modern America, pages 719-741

· Reading Assignment: Law and Society, “The Scopes ‘Monkey’ Trial,” pages 743-747

· Assignment: Using the above reading assignment, the student will prepare to answer the following essay questions. (One question will be chosen randomly the day of the exam.) The essay should encompass all pertinent syllabus topics.

· Essay Questions:

1. Which were the more typical of 1920s America: Prohibition and intolerance or the Jazz Age and increasing social freedom?

2. ‘The revolt of rural and small town Americans against the cities’. Discuss this assessment of the 1920s.

3. Account for the Republican ascendancy in the 1920s.

4. ‘The business of America is business’; ‘The ideal of America is idealism.’ How far do these sayings of Calvin Coolidge reflect the policies of his Presidency, 1923-9?