Examples Of Dualism In The 1920s

Dualism in the 1920s World War I rocked the Western world. A collective innocence was lost, along with the lives and financial stability of millions. Trade and farming were disrupted; the number of men in Europe had dropped; and extraordinary amounts of money was expended for weapons and other wartime staples. However, in America, economic stimuli designed for the war, such as the Naval Construction Act of 1916 and the Food Administration Act, were just beginning to take effect. The government had the capacity for a significantly larger budget due to the new income tax — implemented by the 16th amendment. Societal changes that occurred during the war, such as the Great Migration, also seemed to cause greater social conflicts. This combination

The growing contrast between urban and rural lifestyles led to a surge in religious fundamentalism. Those in rural america believed that city life was full of sin, materialism, and temptation — a veritable spiritual wasteland. Some of this disdain was driven by jealousy, but not all of it. Fundamentalism, although religious in origin, was first and foremost a conservative state of mind that served as a check on the liberal, city point of view. Fundamentalists considered discoveries, such as evolution, blasphemous, and that lead to the beginning of the battle over the inclusion of evolution in the classroom. Tennessee passed a fundamentalist law forbidding the teaching of anything but creationism, and the American Civil Liberties Union financed a test case to prove the unconstitutionality of the law through the famous “Monkey Trial”. The law was deemed constitutional, signifying the triumph of the religious fundamentalists over the science of the cities (Garraty

The politicians of the period were infamous for their nepotism, and the police for their responsiveness for bribes. Politicians often gave lip-service to Prohibition and the dry lobbyists by passing legislation, but showed their true hands by failing to grant adequate funds and means of enforcement of this legislation. There was a bare 200 prohibition agents for the entire state of New York, which made enforcement effectively impossible. The Prohibition Bureau was notoriously underfunded and the enforcement agents poorly qualified — mostly as a result of poor funding and bureaucratic organization. Thus the onus of enforcement fell on the local police forces. The willingness of the officers to enforce the law varied significantly, but in many places officers were willing to turn a blind eye for a friend or a bribe. This hypocrisy was not just limited to the government, but to many other American entities. Grape juice manufacturers would place labels on containers of concentrate with oddly specific warnings, stating that it should not be left in a dark, cool cupboard with yeast for three weeks. Medicinal and sacramental wine were still legal, and consumption of these rose significantly in the first few years of Prohibition. Druggists would generously hand out whiskey prescriptions (often with a small price tag) and people would obtain certification as religious