Fundamentalism In The 1920's

After World War One was over, everyone was happy that they could go back to their country in peace. Everyone was spending, people were working, almost everyone was (relatively) happy. However, there were people that were not so happy. There were those who wanted to stop funding the Germans with the proceeds from their beer. There were those wanted the opportunity to tell differing views on creation in their classrooms. Also, most notably, there were women who were tired of being forced to be housewives and demanded to be treated as equals among the men. The crisis in values that occurred during the 1920's, as insignificant as it might seem today, forced Americans to reshape their way of thinking and make changes that left important effects on the years to come.

Contrary
These people cling to their religion because they had nothing else to hold onto. Fundamentalism was "a caricature of culturally unenlightened individuals bent on preserving tradition at the expense of progress." (religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu) Yet, surprisingly, Fundamentalism was one of the most successful religious movements in the twentieth century. They were behind the temperance movement and the anti-communist movement. However, it was not until Tennessee vs. John Scopes that the fundamentalists had to defend themselves against the Darwinists, and vice-versa.

During the Scopes trial - affectionately know to the American public as "The Monkey Trial" - John Scopes was on trial for disobeying Tennessee's anti-evolution statute, a law that made teaching evolution illegal. Though the entire trial was a publicity stunt, because of its publicity, the result had far-reaching effects and set legal precedent for the nation. The fundamentalists were out to remove evolution from every classroom in America. The Tennessee law was just a technicality and a