Consumerism has become so pervasive a feature of American life that students may not even notice it. Students may be encouraged to be more observant by studying the advertising of the 1920s. See the section on "Material-History Studies" in this Instructor's Guide. Have students select the half-dozen "new" products, perhaps such things as automobiles, cigarettes, fashionable clothing, and cosmetics. Send several students to the library for a microfilm review of three advertisements in selected newspapers of the time. Have them prepare a careful description of the nature of the ads, their pictorial elements, and their texts, and have them draw conclusions regarding the nature of the ads' emphases. A hard copy of one advertisement might be shown to the class by means of an opaque projector. Some of the ads will unmistakably promote the idea of freedom in order to sell cars, or they will promote sophistication to sell cigarettes. When class discussion regarding conclusions drawn by students begins, the instructors will have to take care to permit reference to today's advertising while preventing wholesale abandonment of the topic of the 1920s. The instructor may wish to prepare for the discussion by consulting Edgar R. Jones, Those Were the Good Old Days: A Happy Look at American Advertising, 1880-1930 (1959), a work with a very positive attitude toward advertising; and the more critical contemporary essay by Collis A. Stocking, "Modern Advertising and Economic Theory," American Economic Review 21 (March 1931): 43-55. Jackson Lears, Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America (1994), takes up both themes.

What do students think about legislation designed specifically to protect the special interests of "weaker" elements in American society? Do children need special protection? Do women need special protection? Should liberty of contract be infringed by law? Ask students to read excerpts from Supreme Court majority opinions and dissenting opinions in West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937), concerning minimum wages for women and minors; Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923), concerning a minimum wage for women; and Lochner v. New York (1908), concerning limiting hours for bakery workers. The instructor may wish to read Alpheus Thomas Mason and William R. Beaney, The Supreme Court in a Free Society (1968), for an excellent survey of the issues. Excerpted decisions can be found in a number of compilations, notably Robert F. Cushman, Leading Constitutional Decisions (eighteenth edition; 1991).

Some students may be interested in reading about some of the court trials of the 1920s that so excited public opinion. Ask the students to answer three questions: What was the issue in the eyes of the law? What was the issue in contemporary public understanding? What is the historical significance of the trial? Suggestions for reading include Eliot Asinof, Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series (1963); David A. Yallop, The Day the Laughter Stopped: The True Story of Fatty Arbuckle (1976); Louis Joughin and Edmund M. Morgan, The Legacy of Sacco and Vanzetti (1948); Ray Ginger, Six Days or Forever? (1958), on the Scopes trial; and two books by Francis Xavier Busch, Guilty or Not Guilty? An Account of the Trials of the Leo Frank Case, the D. C. Stephenson Case, the Samuel Insull Case, the Alger Hiss Case (1952) and Enemies of the State: An Account of the Trials of Mary Eugenia Suratt, the Teapot Dome Cases, the Alphonse Capone Case, the Rosenberg Case (1954). A discussion of ten important trials, many with revealing excerpts of court testimony, can be found in Robert Grant and Joseph Katz, The Great Trials of the Twenties: The Watershed Decade in America's Courtrooms (1998).

The era was filed with interesting characters as well, some of them quite colorful. Have the class draw up a list of such people: Babe Ruth, Rudolf Valentino, Mary Pickford, Al Capone, Charles Lindbergh, Al Smith, Bessie Smith, Ernest Hemingway, Sam Goldwyn, Clara Bow, Helen Ederle, and so on. The instructor will probably have to help create the list. Ask students to do a bit of research, enough to provide material for a formal introduction such as one given at a banquet honoring the character's accomplishments. Students will thus have an opportunity to explore further some popular figures of the day. Barbara McNeil and Miranda C. Herbert, editors, The Historical Biographical Dictionaries Master Index (1980), will lead the inquirer to John A. Garraty, editor, Encyclopedia of American Biography (1974); Charles Van Doren, editor, Webster's American Biographies; Who Was Who in America; or other appropriate sources. See also Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston, editors, Dictionary of American Negro Biography (1983); Darlene Clark Hine et al., editors, Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia (1993); and Dorothy C. Salem, editor, African American Women: A Biographical Dictionary (1993).