The Roaring Twenties Quiz

Grade 11 · Social Studies · Quiz

Test your knowledge of 1920s America — prosperity, prohibition, cultural change, and underlying tensions.

Questions

1. Which constitutional amendment established Prohibition?

   1. 16th Amendment
   2. 17th Amendment
   3. 18th Amendment
   4. 19th Amendment
   Show answer

   Answer: 18th Amendment

   Ratified January 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors, effective January 1920.

2. The Harlem Renaissance was primarily centered in:

   1. Chicago, Illinois
   2. Washington D.C.
   3. Harlem, New York City
   4. Atlanta, Georgia
   Show answer

   Answer: Harlem, New York City

   Harlem became the cultural capital of Black America in the 1920s, attracting artists, writers, and musicians from across the country.

3. What was the primary purpose of the National Origins Act of 1924?

   1. To welcome WWI refugees
   2. To restrict immigration by favoring northern Europeans
   3. To increase immigration from Latin America
   4. To grant citizenship to Asian Americans
   Show answer

   Answer: To restrict immigration by favoring northern Europeans

   The act used 1890 census quotas to drastically limit immigration from southern/eastern Europe and effectively banned Asian immigration.

4. The Ku Klux Klan declined in membership throughout the 1920s.

   Show answer

   Answer: false

   The KKK experienced a dramatic resurgence in the 1920s, reaching an estimated 4–5 million members by 1924, targeting Catholics, Jews, and immigrants alongside Black Americans.

5. The term 'buying on margin' refers to:

   1. Purchasing goods on installment credit
   2. Buying stocks with borrowed money
   3. Trading currency on international markets
   4. Purchasing farmland with government loans
   Show answer

   Answer: Buying stocks with borrowed money

   Investors could buy stocks by putting up as little as 10% of the price and borrowing the rest, amplifying both gains and losses.

6. Which writer is most closely associated with the 'Lost Generation' and novels critiquing 1920s materialism?

   1. Langston Hughes
   2. Upton Sinclair
   3. F. Scott Fitzgerald
   4. John Steinbeck
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   Answer: F. Scott Fitzgerald

   Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925) is the defining novel of the era, exploring the hollowness beneath the 1920s glittering surface.

7. The Scopes Trial of 1925 centered on a Tennessee teacher's prosecution for:

   1. Teaching communism in public school
   2. Teaching evolution in violation of state law
   3. Distributing birth control information
   4. Advocating for women's voting rights
   Show answer

   Answer: Teaching evolution in violation of state law

   Tennessee's Butler Act banned teaching human evolution; John Scopes was convicted (fined $100) in a trial that became a national media spectacle.

8. Prohibition was effective at eliminating alcohol consumption in the United States.

   Show answer

   Answer: false

   Prohibition drove drinking underground into speakeasies and created a massive bootlegging industry; alcohol consumption actually rose in major cities.

9. Jazz music, which became the cultural soundtrack of the 1920s, originated primarily in:

   1. New York City
   2. Chicago
   3. New Orleans
   4. Memphis
   Show answer

   Answer: New Orleans

   Jazz emerged from New Orleans' unique mix of African American, Creole, and European musical traditions, then spread to Chicago and New York via the Great Migration.

10. The stock market crash that ended the 1920s boom occurred in:

    1. September 1927
    2. March 1928
    3. October 1929
    4. January 1930
    Show answer

    Answer: October 1929

    'Black Thursday' (Oct. 24) and 'Black Tuesday' (Oct. 29) 1929 marked the crash; the Dow fell nearly 90% from its 1929 peak by 1932.

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