Major Concepts:

1. Changes in technologies of transportation and communication, in values and habits, and in economic life transformed the face of American life in the 1920s, confirming that the United States had become decisively an urban nation with a diverse population and spectrum of values.

Objective: The student will be able to:

1. Trace the development of society and politics within one city between 1921 and 1933 and analyze the changes in terms of how they transformed American life while confirming American urbanization and diversity.

Suggested lesson/activities:

1. Distribute a list of the following four Content and Concept statements for Unit IX. Indicate that this lesson emphasizes the first statement.

   Unit IX Content and Concepts

   1. Changes in technologies of transportation and communication, in values and habits, and in economic life transformed the face of American life in the 1920s, confirming that the United States had become decisively an urban nation with a diverse population and spectrum of values.
   2. Though Prohibition was supposed to make Americans more virtuous, sober, honest, and industrious, it actually led to lawlessness and corruption in American public and private life.
   3. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 was both the culmination of political, social, and economic forces that had gone out of control in the 1920s and the harbinger of a vast and deep economic slump that would dominate the 1930s.
   4. The Great Depression dramatically changed the lives of most Americans, and began to change both their understanding of the economic system and the place of government in American life.

2. Briefly explore through discussion the understandings and perceptions that students have about this period in American history. From the discussion/review, develop a list of possible topics that students wish to explore in more detail.

3. Point out to students that this was a period of remarkable changes and that most Americans recall the "good" or spectacular things -- the 1927 Lindbergh flight, the silent films, the dramatic aspects of Prohibition, and the advent of the Great Depression -- rather than the lives of ordinary people. This lesson is one which extends throughout the unit and is to be completed on an independent basis.

4. Distribute the Unit IX: Boom and Bust, 1921-1933, Independent Study Activity resource. (The sheet indicates how the first day's activity is to continue as well as subsequent activity.)