Liberal Youth Culture in the Roaring

Twenties

Essential Question: What cultural conflicts arose in 1920s America? What role

did the emergence of a new liberal youth culture play in these conflicts?

Urban v. Rural America1920s: first time US population is more urban than rural

Urban – city (New York City is an urban area)Urban Life: movies, concerts, speakeasies, museums, good wages (more freedom and change)

Rural – countryside (farmers live in rural areas)Rural Life: farming, less $, more traditional, more religious (less freedom and change)

Urban stereotypes about rural Americans: they are stodgy, backwards, and need to be more open to changing views

Rural stereotypes about urban Americans: they lack morals and family values, they are materialistic, and fickle

Traditionalism v. Modernism

Traditionalism – the belief that it is usually best to keep things the way they are

Traditionalists in the 1920s often…Lived in rural areas and favored religion over scienceFavored prohibition and found jazz and flapper culture distastefulViewed material culture and new technology as damaging to society

Modernism– the belief that it is often best to try new ways of doing things

Modernists in the 1920s often…Lived in urban areas and favored science over religionDisliked prohibition and found jazz and flapper culture excitingViewed material culture and new technology as representing progress

Youth v. the Older Generation

YouthCars, music, dances, dating (for fun, not just to marry), radio

“Flappers” – women who wore their hair short, colored it, and wore short dresses and make-up

Men often dressed as Rudolph Valentino’s “Sheik” character

Older GenerationOften viewed youth culture as reckless and immoral

Tried to control behavior in clothing, movies, books, etc.

Even some young writers and intellectuals believed this new society was cold, materialistic, and impersonal -

without opportunities for personal fulfillment

Ernest Hemingway’s novel, A Farewell to Arms, tells about his generation’s contempt for war and

its desire to move on from it

F. Scott Fitzgerald explores the shallowness of the youth culture in novels like The Great Gatsby and

The Other Side of Paradise

“The parties were bigger… the pace was faster… the shows were broader, the buildings were higher, the morals were looser and the liquor was cheaper.”

-F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)

Anything Goes

Who were these wild young women?

How could you recognise them?

Why did people disagree about them?

Origins

In 1920, Frances Marion produced a movie called "The Flapper.” Other movies using the flapper name and image followed. Young women in America and Europe adopted this new look and attitude. Prohibition created a gray area between the law-abiding citizens and those who had a disdain for authority. The work of writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald also helped to popularize this new “look” for women.

Behavior Flappers behaved quite differently than their mothers. They took jobs outside the home and danced in provocative ways. They smoked cigarettes, rode bicycles, and drove cars. They drank alcohol openly and dated anyone and everyone, which was very uncommon for the time period. They flirted and went out all the time.

The musical innovation of the decade!

Started in New Orleans with African rhythms and songs, followed the Mississippi to

northern cities

Both black and white music lovers frequented nightclubs to hear Louis Armstrong, Duke

Ellington, Billie Holiday and others

18th Amendment

Prohibits manufacture, transport, and sale of

all liquor after January 16, 1920

The Volstead Act was enacted by

Congress to ensure the proper

enforcement of Prohibition

There was a place in America during Prohibition, where people gathered to drink and dance and forget their woes.

Would-be customers were often met at the door of an unmarked building by steely eyes peering through a small slot.

Once inside, these ordinary folks carried on with reckless abandon and rubbed shoulders with notorious gangsters like Al

Capone and John Dillinger.

They called this place a speakeasy.