SAQs for APUSH Topic 7.7 — The 1920s (Innovations in Technology)

Ten questions designed to help students review for the annual exam and that relate to the impact of new technology in the 1920s.

1. In the 1920s, innovations in technology resulted in better communications systems. Name and briefly describe one innovation in technology that resulted in better communication.
2. In the 1920s, innovations in technology resulted in an improved standard of living. Name and briefly describe one innovation in technology that resulted in an improved standard of living.
3. In the 1920s, innovations in technology resulted in greater personal mobility. Name and briefly describe one innovation in technology that resulted in greater personal mobility.
4. In the 1920s, innovations in technology resulted in the creation of a national consumer culture and an economy focused on the production of consumer goods. What is a “national consumer culture?” What are “consumer goods?”
5. In the 1920s, innovations in technology resulted in scientific management (aka Taylorism?) What is scientific management? What is the main objective of scientific management?
6. In the 1920s, innovations in technology resulted in advertisers beginning to use modern marketing and psychology to sell items. Name one famous product that was created in the 1920s that advertisers convinced Americans to buy . . . this by claiming that the product could solve a problem Americans needed to address, though the problem was invented by advertisers to sell the product?
7. In the 1920s, innovations in technology resulted in the spread of a national culture. In other words, as a result of new technologies, the US was more united in its culture than ever before. People from coast to coast listened to the same radio shows, wore the same fashions, read the same stories, followed the same celebrities, and enjoyed watching the same sports. Name one sport that most, if not all Americans followed. Clue: It’s sometimes called America’s Great National Pasttime.
8. In the 1920s, innovations in technology resulted in the spread of a dark side of our national culture. Name and briefly describe a racist film that spread images of Southern racism. Clue: It’s sometimes referred to as “the most controversial film ever made in the United States.”
9. In the 1920s, innovations in technology resulted in the birth of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Name and briefly describe a movie of the 1920s that heralded the commercial ascendance of sound films and ended the silent film era.
10. In the 1920s, innovations in technology resulted in the invention of the “conveyor belt” which resulted in the development of the assembly line. This in turn resulted in a drive towards educational models based on the principle of mass production assembly lines, where efficiency and cost control are essential to doing business successfully. In simpler terms, explain the impact that innovations in technology had on K-12 schools.