AP U.S. History Flashcards: 1920s: Cultural and Political Controversies
Written by AP Content Team, Verified for 2026 AP Exams, Last updated: May 2026
Review key ideas with interactive flashcards. This set includes 11 cards to help you master important concepts.
Harlem Renaissance
A movement in which migration gave rise to new forms of art and literature that expressed ethnic and regional identities.
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Harlem Renaissance
A movement in which migration gave rise to new forms of art and literature that expressed ethnic and regional identities.
What was the primary effect of post-WWI nativist campaigns on immigration policy?
Nativist campaigns led to the passage of quotas that restricted immigration, particularly from southern and eastern Europe.
What were the key topics of cultural and political controversies in the 1920s?
Americans debated gender roles, modernism, science, religion, and issues related to race and immigration.
What was the relationship between migration and cultural expression in the 1920s?
Migration gave rise to new forms of art and literature, such as the Harlem Renaissance, which expressed ethnic and regional identities.
How did U.S. immigration policy toward Asians change after World War I?
Following World War I, nativist sentiment led to increased barriers to Asian immigration.
Identify two major effects of migration patterns in the 1920s.
Migration led to a majority of the population living in urban centers and gave rise to new forms of art and literature like the Harlem Renaissance.
What major demographic shift occurred in the U.S. by 1920?
By 1920, a majority of the U.S. population lived in urban centers for the first time in the nation's history.
A family from Italy seeking to immigrate to the U.S. after World War I would have likely faced what new government-imposed obstacle?
They would have faced new immigration quotas specifically designed to restrict people from southern and eastern Europe.
Immigration Quotas (1920s)
Restrictions on immigration passed after WWI due to nativist campaigns, which particularly targeted people from southern and eastern Europe.
What new opportunities did the growth of urban centers offer in the 1920s?
Urban centers offered new economic opportunities for women, international migrants, and internal migrants.
An African American poet moves from the rural South to a northern city and writes celebrated works about their experience. This is an example of what cultural movement?
This is an example of the Harlem Renaissance, where internal migration led to new forms of literature expressing ethnic identity.