Introduction The progressive era was a period of social activism and political reform in the United States that flourished from the 1890’s through the 1920’s. This was a very significant time period due to the fact that it included purification of the government, modernization, focus on family and education, prohibition, and women’s suffrage. Key Vocabulary The most important vocabulary words to know and understand are KKK, Scopes Monkey Trial, xenophobia and immigration, development of consumer culture, inventions, jazz, modernism, organized crime, Woodrow Wilson, Harlem Renaissance, prohibition, isolationism, bureaucracy, Red Scare. During the 1920s, America was going through several changes, such as Jazz music, new inventions being made, something big to the entire idea of reformation, and cultures changing the Harlem Renaissance which was when African-American achievements in art, music and literature began, also Consumer Culture, where people are focused on …show more content…
Crime also seemed to be on the rise, with organized crime on the rise, such as gangs, and the Mafia. Americans also afraid of the rise of communism, and the infiltration of soviet spies, otherwise known as The Red Scare. The Modern Temper: American Culture & Society in the 1920’s is a book by Lynn Dumenil, on that goes to explain as the subtitle itself says, “American Culture & Society in the 1920’s. The Progressive era is important in the sense of all the changes it brought to both the certain time period, and it also shaped the future of the United States from that moment on forward, if there were not the change there was then, the United States now would have been considerably different than it is