Chapter 23:
Any exuberance Americans may have felt about the triumph in World War I was quickly replaced by fear and intolerance resulting from wartime patriotism and postwar political and economic turmoil. The immediate postwar period saw restrictive government legislation aimed at dissent, a "Red Scare," and a resurrection of the Ku Klux Klan. Later, immigration restrictions were introduced to limit southern and eastern European immigration. As the 1920s progressed, however, the economy improved and American life transformed once again with the rise of the modern corporation, the birth of car culture, electrification, and the emergence of radio, the telephone, movies, and spectator sports as popular entertainment. Correspondingly, though, such rapid change invited backlash from those who felt their traditional values threatened as seen in fundamentalism and exemplified in the Scopes trial and the Prohibition movement. Culturally, the 1920s spawned the Lost Generation and the Harlem Renaissance. In government, the administrations of Harding and Coolidge sought to assist business and reduce the risk of international conflict. The prosperity of the 1920s, on shaky ground to begin with and bypassing for the most part many Americans such as farmers and minorities, evaporated in the Great Crash of 1929, which affected virtually all Americans.
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