(a.k.a. Trying Really Hard

to Forget World War I)

The Roaring

Twenties

Technology

Changes

Technology extended progress into all

areas of American life.

Transportation

Results of

Improved

Transportation

Brought by

Affordable

Automobiles

1. Greater Mobility

2. Creation of Jobs

3. Growth of transportation-related

industries

Oil…Steel…

…and more

brands of

automobiles

4. Movement to suburban areas

The Airplane

The first successful flight of a motorized

airplane was on December 17, 1903.

The Wright

Brothers –

Orville and

Wilbur

Henry Ford

Inventor of the conveyor belt

Allowed for lower production costs

It is a long, moving belt that carries

materials past workers in a factory.

Communication Changes

1. Increased availability of telephones

2. Development

of the radio…

Early wireless apparatus in 1896

by Guglielmo Marconi

The broadcast industry developed…

By

David Sarnoff

In 1920, RCA, manufacturers of radios, agreed to

put up $2,500 to explore Sarnoff's idea of radios

and broadcasting.

• News was delivered

faster and to a larger

audience.

• Americans heard

the president,

the World Series, radio

shows, and music.

Radio Comes of

Age

3. Development of the movies

The movie projector or movie

machine

By Thomas Edison

Birth of movies

Even before sound, movies

offered a means of escape

through romance and

comedy.

First sound movie: Jazz

Singer (1927)

First animated movie with

sound: Steamboat Willie

(1928)

By 1930, millions of

Americans went to the

movies each week.

Walt Disney's animated

Steamboat Willie marked

the debut of Mickey

Mouse. It was a seven-

minute-long black and

white cartoon.

Ways

Electrification

Changed

American Life

1. Labor-saving products, such as…

washing machines,

…electric

stoves

and

water

pumps

2. Electric

Lighting

Cultural Changes

1920s – 1930s

US II.6b, c

The 1920s and 1930s was a time of change in

manners, culture, and morals in the United States.

1. Changing ways of life

During the 1920s, urbanization continued to grow.

For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than in rural areas.

New York City was home to over 5 million people in 1920.

Chicago had nearly 3 million.

Urban vs. Rural

Throughout the 1920s, Americans found themselves caught between urban (city) and rural (country) cultures.

Urban life was considered a world of anonymous crowds, strangers, moneymakers, and pleasure seekers.

Rural life was considered to be safe, with close personal ties, hard work and morals.

Cities were impersonal.

Farms were innocent.

2. Modern Family Emerges

As the 1920s unfolded, many features of the modern family came about.

Marriage was based on romantic love, women managed the household and finances, and children were not considered laborers/ wage earners but developing children who needed nurturing and education.

Americans were

also happy

because the

difficult years of

World War I were

over……so they

bought lots of

stuff!

3. Consumerism – “Buying”

consumerism = belief that

buying and using lots of

products and services is

good for people and society

How did they pay for it? credit =

money you promise to pay later

They also used credit in the stock

market.

•The stock market is where a piece of a company can be bought or sold

•Borrowing money to buy stock (little bits of corporations) was called buying “on margin”

•Only paid 10% now, 90% later

•Can you see a potential problem with this?

New technology and consumerism helped create a mass culture.

In a mass culture (or mass society), people throughout the society live very similarly. This is because most people depend on big business for food, clothes, entertainment, and other parts of life.

Example: From Virginia and Tennessee, country music goes national.

Example: From Harlem, New York, jazz

goes national.

4. Mass culture - Everyone was following

what was popular.

The new mass culture included the

rise of national celebrities.

People crowded into

baseball games to see their

heroes.

Babe Ruth was a larger-

than-life American hero

who played for the

Yankees.

He hit 60 homers in 1927.

The golfer Bobby Jones

was admired for his talent

and gentlemanly manners.

Famed composers George Gershwin and Aaron Copland merged traditional elements with American Jazz.

Gershwin

Music & Arts

Copland

Georgia O’Keeffe

captured the grandeur

of New York using

intensely colored

canvasses. She

painted city life,

desert scenes, and

flowers.

Georgia O’Keeffe

lived part of her early

life in Virginia.Radiator Building, Night,

New York , 1927

Georgia O'Keeffe

WRITERS OF THE

1920s

Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald coined the phrase “Jazz Age” to describe the 1920s.

Fitzgerald wroteParadise Lost and The Great Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby reflected the emptiness of New York elite society.

John Steinbeck

wrote about migrant

workers and their

struggles during the

Dust Bowl.

WRITERS OF THE

1920s

US II.6b, c

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was passed

giving women the right to vote.

5. Modern Women

US II.6b, c

Change: In the 1920s prosperity and leisure time

increased, and so young women led the youth craze

by dressing in a different fashion…

…and were nicknamed “Flappers”

1. How did they dress differently?

2. How were their hairstyles different?

3. How were their behaviors and attitudes

different?

The Great Migration and Harlem

Renaissance began the rebirth of African-

American culture.

US II.6b, c

Harlem in New York City was a place where African

American artists, writers, and musicians revealed the

freshness and variety of their culture.

US II.6b, c

The leaders of the Harlem Renaissance drew upon

the heritage of black culture…to establish

themselves as powerful forces for cultural

change.…

US II.6b, c

The Cotton Club was a famous place in Harlem

during this time…

US II.6b, c

…and people from everywhere filled the club

every night to listen to the African-American jazz

bands.

MUSIC

Duke Ellington

and Louis

Armstrong were

two of the jazz

musicians of the

era. Ellington was

also a jazz

composer and

band leader.

Louis Armstrong (“Satchmo”) was a famous trumpet

player and singer…

US II.6b, c

…and Bessie Smith

was a famous jazz

and blues singer.

Her nickname was

“the Empress of

Blues.”

She was one of the

first major female

African American

recording artists.

US II.6b, c

The popularity of these artists spread to the

rest of society.

US II.6b, c

ART - Jacob Lawrence was a

painter who…

US II.6b, c

…chronicled the experiences of the

Great Migration north through art

LITERATURE

Langston Hughes…

a famous poet who

wrote about the

African American

experience in the

U.S.

Wanted Equality

I, Too, Sing America

I, too, sing America

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well, and grow strong.

Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed

I, too, am America.

“Democracy” by Langston Hughes

Democracy will not come

Today, this year

Nor ever

Through compromise and fear.

I have as much right

As the other fellow has

To stand

On my two feet

And own the land.

I tire so of hearing people say,

Let things take their course.

Tomorrow is another day.

I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.

I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.

Freedom

Is a strong seed

Planted

In a great need.

I live here, too.

I want freedom

Just as you.

from http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/langston_hughes/poems/16957

Prohibition

1920 - 1933

The

Temperance

Movement

convinced

Congress and

the United

States that the

country would

be better off

with NO

alcohol to

drink.

USII.6b

What was the

Temperance

Movement? It

was a campaign

against the sale

or manufacture

of alcohol.

USII.6b

The

18th Amendment

Prohibition was imposed by the

18th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution…

…that made it illegal to manufacture,

transport, and sell alcoholic beverages.

Prohibition

was intended

as a

“noble

experiment”…

USII.6b

…to reduce poverty, unemployment, and

violence in the home.

Drugstores could legally sell alcohol to

people with a doctor's prescription. Those

stores that sold alcohol illegally could be

shut down .

USII.6b

Explain or describe this cartoon

Prohibition

Led to

Problems

USII.6b

1. Speakeasies were created as places for

people to drink alcoholic beverages.

What were

speakeasies?

illegal bars

or

clubs

USII.6b

People started to make “bathtub gin”…

USII.6b

…or “homemade” alcohol

2. Bootleggers made and smuggled

alcohol illegally and promoted

organized crime.

USII.6b

People like Al

“Scarface” Capone

began to smuggle

alcohol in from

Canada and the

Caribbean.

He was the Chicago

crime boss. (like the business version of

political bosses…except they

often paid off the political

bosses)

USII.6b

3. Federal agents could not enforce the

law. For the whole country, there

were only 1,500 agents.

USII.6b

The Results Were…

USII.6b

The

experiment of

the 18th

Amendment

failed.

The 21st Amendment

This amendment repealed or cancelled

the 18th Amendment.

WHY?

Reforms could not legislate how people

behaved.

USII.6b