Download the20s - East Penn School District

The 1920’s
The Roaring 20’s
“Old Culture”
Emphasized production- making resources
Character: substance- dependable/stable
Scarcity- people didn’t have many material things
Religion
Idealized the past
Local culture
“New Culture”
Emphasized consumption- using resources
Personality- image
Abundance
Science
Looked to the future
Mass culture
Why did these changes
occur?
After WW1
Men come home from war
U.S. becomes “isolationist”
U.S. companies increased production during the war, wealth increases
Citizens have more money
New products were available: radios, cars
Henry Ford perfects the assembly line = cheaper cars
Advertising used to get people to buy products
Unions began to form
Economic Boom
People are happy
Begin to use credit to buy items
refrigerators, cars, homes, etc
# Stock market booms
People see they can make money in the stock
market
Buy stocks on a margin
Borrow money to buy stock, hoping to sell
the stock for more than it’s worth- pay off
loan and still make money
Social Changes
Social Effects
Men coming home from warhave seen a lot of different ways
of life
Society more open and free
-flappers
# Some people react negatively
Push for prohibition of alcohol
(make it illegal)
Generally, there is more leisure time
and people wanted more fun.
Flappers
Represented the bold and rebellious spirit of the 20’s
Wanted equality and challenged their roles in society
Women began working (15%) became professionals, 20%
clerical jobs
The 19th amendment gave women the right to vote, many
didn’t use it. Some lacked interest, some had kids and
others lived in rural areas or had families that discouraged
it
Population shifts
Farmers move to cities because costs are too high
Great Migration: African Americans moved North to work
in factories, escape discrimination
Low paying jobs were filled by Canadians and Mexicans
In Los Angeles, Mexican workers formed barrios, where by
neighborhoods spoke mostly Spanish
# Due to the influx into the cities, suburbs began to form
The impact of demographic shift
High school attendance increases
Jobs increase
Cities become crowded and more diverse
Transportation systems develop: trolleys, buses, cars
There is an overall change in society values
People are looking for icons that represent past ideologies
Icons of the day
Charles Lindbergh- first man to fly across the Atlantic
Ocean
Amelia Earhart:- first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic
Ocean
F. Scott Fitzgerald: Wrote The Great Gatsby
Baseball became the national past time
Mass Media
Media created a common
national cultural experience
More people had access to
radios, newspapers and
magazines
Companies begin to
advertise to convince buyers
to purchase their productspeople began to consume
more goods
Jazz
Type of music that evolved from Blues, Slave Songs, and
European music
Became so popular in the U.S. that the decade was called
the Jazz Age, Radios made it more accessible
Featured improvisation and syncopation. Appealed to
younger generation
Mostly performed in speakeasies
Louis Armstrong was the most famous jazz musician
The Jazz Age influence
For some artists and writers, the decade after the war was not a
time of celebration but a time of deep despair. They had seen the
ideas of the Progressives end in a senseless war. They were filled
with resentment and they saw little hope for the future. They
were called the Lost Generation
Influenced Art- American painters focused on realism and
showed the rougher side of life
Many in the Lost Generation felt disconnected from the U.S. and
its new values. They rejected materialism and moved away
(expatriates)
Harlem Renaissance
Called a renaissance because it symbolized a rebirth of
hope for African Americans
Wartime military service and work in war industries had
given African Americans a new sense of freedom
Harlem became the world’s largest black urban community
Harlem became home to writers, musicians, singers,
painters, sculptors, and scholars which explored African
American culture
Harlem’s most famous nightclub was the Cotton Club. It
made stars of many African-American performers, but only
white customers were allowed in the club.
Change = Problems
Rapid social changes caused conflicts between people with
differing beliefs and values
18th amendment: Prohibition of making, distributing or using
alcohol
WHY?
Eliminate drunkedness and abuse
Get rid of saloons = breeding ground for prostitution, gambling
and vice
Reduce absenteeism at work
Prohibition
Volstead Act- enforced the amendment and
made the sale of alcohol illegal
Results: rural areas obeyed more than urban, but
people drank anyway
There were more bars in NYC after prohibition, than before
Bootlegging- sale of illegal alcohol
Speakeasies- bars that operated illegally
Organized crime forms- Al Capone
Organized Crime Increases
WHY? PROFIT!!!!
They joined together to make organizations large enough
to increase bootlegging
Police would take bribes to ignore the illegal activity and
business would pay a “protection fee” (racketeering)
Reaction to Social Changes
Religious Fundamentalism
back to the “old ways”
# Evolution- Charles Darwin
Fundamentalists against
teaching the theory of evolution,
make it illegal
John Scopes- Dayton Tennessee
challenges the law
“Scopes Monkey Trial”
sensationalized
Reactions Continued…
African Americans begin to work towards equality
W.E.B. Dubois, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey
In the South, the KKK reforms and begins a reign of terror
against African Americans
Red Summer
Americans begin to fear Communists & Anarchists
Panic and accusations
Politics
Presidents
Warren G. Harding (R)- 1921Aug. 1923 (died of a stroke)
Calvin Coolidge (R)- Aug. 19231929
Herbert Hoover (R)- 1929-1933
All three took a hands off
approach to the economy
Were warned that not
interfering could cause the
economy to collapse