Manifest Destiny, Progressivism, War, and the Roaring Twenties 209In American literature a number of distinctive, talented voices were
heard. The most important literary trend provided venturesome styles
of writing in the novels of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, and Sherwood Anderson. They
completed the full development of the naturalistic school of literature.
In drama Eugene O’Neill virtually single-handedly created the Amer-
ican theater tradition. And such writers as T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, e. e.
cummings, Robinson Jeffers, Robert Frost, and Carl Sandburg added
outstanding and uniquely American works of poetry. A celebration of
black culture known as the Harlem Renais sance, by such gifted writers
as Langston Hughes, W. E. B. DuBois, James W. Johnson, Alain Locke,
and Claude McKay emphasized both the joy and the pain of being
African-American. Painters like Georgia O’Keeffe produced works that
had a definite American cast, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s “prairie- style”
architecture was so distinctive that it drew international attention.
The Roaring Twenties generated an economy that seemed unstop-
pable in its growth and strength. Actually, it was headed for a resound-
ing crash. In addition, this period witnessed the renewed growth of the
Ku Klux Klan throughout the South; then it migrated northward and
established itself in many northern states. A “Red Scare,” emanating
from a fear of communism and foreign influence in American life and
culture, not only increased isolationism throughout the country but
resulted in the arrest of hundreds of individuals suspected of subversive
activities. The Red Scare intensified after June 2 , 1919 , when an assas-
sin attempted to kill the U.S. attorney general, A. Mitchell Palmer.
The courts dismissed any concern they should have had about the le-
gality of such arbitrary arrests as they too were caught up in the excite-
ment over fear of foreign radicals. Such disdain for the law and the
rules of society engulfed the nation and seeped into the operation of
government on the local, state, and national levels. Corruption became
widespread.
In Washington this corruption reached monumental heights. At its
head was the President himself, Warren Gamaliel Harding. His per-
sonal tastes ran to booze, gambling, and sex—not necessarily in that
order. His immoral behavior was soon reflected in the many scandals
that permeated his administration. The most notorious of these scan-
dals occurred in 1921 , when two naval oil reserves, at Teapot Dome in