American Culture
1900 -1949
Equal Opportunity
Not discriminating between individuals on the basis of certain characteristics or group membership such as sex, race, age, religion, class, sexual orientation, or national origin.
Immigration (1900-20s)
In the early 1900s through 1910s, immigrants flocked to America from Europe, seeking the opportunity to prosper through hard work. These immigrants perceived the U.S. as a place where the prevailing value of Equal Opportunity meant that their previous social status would not be held against them.
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Women's Suffrage (1920)
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Tuskegee Airmen (1940s)
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Freedom
Possessing the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.
The Labor Movement (1900 -1930s)
The Labor Movement of the early 20th Century was an effort by workers to get better wages and working conditions by banding together to negotiate with their employers which was often met with violent resistance from businesses and the government. The union organizers upheld the value of Freedom by advocating ideas through speech, print, and action until many were persuaded and unions became a part of everyday life.
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Harlem Renaissance (1920s)
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WWII (1940s)
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Science
Henry Ford & Mass Production (1900 - 1920s)
Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, but what he did invent was the production line. In order to more efficiently make automobiles, Ford adapted technologies from many fields and applied scientific methods to develop his mass production assembly lines. Ford’s lasting contributions upheld the value of Science by applying systematic analysis of complex problems -- in this case, breaking the manufacture of an automobile into small steps -- to yield incremental improvements in efficiency which were proven effective by the low price he could charge for his cars.
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Scopes Trial (1920s)
The Scopes Trial of 1925 was staged to pit Biblical Fundamentalists against Scientific Modernists in a trial that attracted attention to the argument between creationism and evolution. Despite a verdict upholding a Tennessee law banning the teaching of evolution, the work of the ACLU and Clarence Darrow in arranging the trial and defending John Scopes demonstrated the value of Science in American life by showing that a law intended to restrict its role would be challenged.
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Manhattan Project (1940s)
Convinced that Nazi Germany was working to develop a weapon based on nuclear fission, the U.S. War Department assembled America’s top mathematicians and physicists to create atomic bombs which were ultimately dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Manhattan Project, as it became known, demonstrated American commitment to the value of Science by focusing massive fiscal and material resources on a pair of questions: is a sustained fission reaction possible? and could one be used as a weapon?