“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”(F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby). The 1920s was a time of drastic change and intense cultural conflicts. It is an era known for unprecedented economic prosperity, the evolution of jazz music and flapper culture, advancements in communication, shaping a mass culture, bootlegging and speakeasies. The changes in people's ways of living caused rural Americans to fear what their futures held. This new modern world of bright lights and comforts seemed to hold no place for the small towns of America. The urban-rural culture wars of the 1920's were fought over issues such as evolutionists against fundamentalists, nativists against immigrants, and provincials against city-dwellers. In the 1920's people became more aware of the world around them with the widespread use of radios and newspapers. People were more educated than they had ever been and literacy rates were still rising. Some, however, were against the new information that was being distributed. This disparity was seen more clearly than anywhere else in the Scopes trial in 1925 that had fundamentalists and evolutionists contending for success."The trial was a battle between Fundamentalism on the one hand and twentieth-century skepticism (assisted by Modernism) on the other.... Into the …show more content…
People migrated from across Europe and East Asian countries to America, hoping it would be a land of opportunity. Regrettably, once they arrived they would face many prejudices and obstacles on their way to reaching the "American dream". They were often depicted as criminals and gangsters, as in a letter to the chairman of a committee investigating prohibition."Investigate the condition of an Italian joint, where children are sold rum for ten cents a drink... I am alone trying to rear an honorable American but how can I when this foreigner is allowed to ruin my boy" (Doc.