Critical Thinking Questions for life in the 1920’s

Instructions: After looking at the slides answer the following questions.

1. How do the actions of these women represent a break from the past? Do you think this is a positive or negative social change for women? Explain.
2. What does this photograph suggest to you about the difficulty of enforcing Prohibition? Why do you think the 18th amendment was added to the Constitution in the first place? What happens to laws which are unenforceable?
3. Why did sports become so commercialized in the 1920’s? Do you think the commercialization of sports helped or hurt individual athletes? Explain. What about sports in general? Explain.
4. How does this advertisement differ from and/or resemble present day advertisements? Why did consumerism become such a strong part of American society in the 1920’s?
5. Why did Charlie Chaplin become a star in the 1920’s? How did the advent of talking movies change the motion picture industry?
6. Why were people in the United States during the 1920’s so quick to fall in love the automobile as a form of transportation? What conveniences did the auto bring? What problems did the auto create?