In this lecture, Professor Totten argues the Roaring Twenties were in fact the First Culture War, where Americans debated the separation of church and state and the government's intrusion into citizen's private affairs. The 1920s saw the expansion of spectator sports through the use of technology to reach new audiences. The decade witnessed an new flourishing of African American intellectual movements, ranging from Black Nationalism to Pan Africanism. Many reformers disagreed about how to best fight inequality, with some, like Marcus Garvey, arguing for black separation and even a return to Africa. In addition, a culture of consumerism swept the nation, as Americans were convinced by advertising to buy an ever expanding selection of leisure goods that equated self-worth with your possessions. At the same time, ideas about eugenics proliferated and the sterilization of non-white women drastically increased. This pseudo-scientific thought would eventually inform one man, Adolf Hitler, of eugenic ideology, which he put into effect with ruthless efficiency, during the Holocaust. Americans, as they do today, debated high school science curriculums that taught evolution, illustrating that the First Culture War, still rages to this day.

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