Problem
I. On page 111 Meacham writes about the rise of a new KKK, "At a time when industrialization and urbanization were transforming the old agrarian world, the Klan promised racial solidarity and cultural certitude. 'The Klan offered structure, position, and brotherhood to many restive or disoriented men from small towns and big cities in the America of the 1920s,' the historian David H. Bennett wrote. 'It was a movement so remarkably suited to its time and place that its growth matched the boom of the larger nation.'" Describe some of the social and economic conditions of the 1920s Meacham calls out as catalysts for the rise of the Klan. Do you see similar conditions in America today? Do you think it helps to explain the apparent increase of nativism in contemporary America? Explain.
II. Compare and contrast the poems on pages 117 and 118. What do they tell us about the era addressed in this chapter? What is your response to each?
III. On page 125 Meacham writes, "One legacy of Dayton was that religion and science had joined race and ethnicity as a theater of war in the fight within the American soul." What exactly is Meacham talking about in this instance? Can you connect this with contemporary politics? Explain.
IV. From my point of view this Chapter about the United States in the 1920s is eerily reminiscent of the United States today. Do you agree or disagree (you don't have to agree with the professor)? Why or why not? Does this Chapter contain a lesson for Americans of today? What is it?