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Postwar Social Changes
Chapter 13
Section 1
Society and Culture
As a reaction to WWI, society and culture in the USA
and elsewhere underwent rapid changes
During the 1920s, new technologies helped create a
mass culture and to connect people around the world
American culture was characterized by a greater
freedom and willingness to experiment
Jazz Age
Women Liberation
One symbol of this new age was jazz
Another symbol was the liberated young woman
called the flapper, a woman who rejected old ways
in favor of new freedoms
Labor-saving devices freed women from household
chores
In this new era of emancipation, women pursued
careers
Louis Armstrong
A Well Known Jazz Musician
The term flapper in the 1920s
referred to a "new breed" of young
women who wore short skirts,
bobbed their hair, listened to what
was then considered unconventional
music and flaunted their disdain for
what was then considered "decent"
behavior. The flappers were seen as
brash in their time for wearing
excessive makeup, drinking hard
liquor, treating sex in a more casual
manner, smoking cigarettes, driving
automobiles, and otherwise flouting
conventional social and sexual
norms.
Prohibition
Speakeasies
Not everyone approved of the freer lifestyle of the
Jazz Age
For example, Prohibition (period of banned
drinking, manufacturing, and selling of alcohol) was
meant to keep people from the negative effects of
drinking
Instead, it brought about organized crime and
speakeasies (illegal bars where patrons had to
speak [and drink] “easy” or softly to avoid being
heard by the authorities)
Prohibition
Prohibition In the United States (1920–1933) was
the era during which the United States Constitution
outlawed the manufacture, transport, and sale of
alcoholic beverages. The term also refers to legal
prohibitions against alcohol imposed by its various
states, and the surrounding social-political movements
advocating the passage of prohibition. Selling,
manufacturing, or transporting (including importing and
exporting) alcohol for beverage purposes was prohibited
by the Eighteenth Amendment.
Prohibition
Speakeasy
A speakeasy was an establishment
that was used for selling and drinking
alcoholic beverages during the period
of United States history known as
Prohibition (1920-1933, longer in
some states), when the sale,
manufacture, and transportation of
alcohol was illegal. The term comes
from a patron's manner of ordering
alcohol without raising suspicion — a
bartender would tell a patron to be
quiet and "speak easy".
Literature
New literature reflected a powerful disgust with war
To some postwar writers, the way symbolized the
moral breakdown of Western civilization
Other writers experimented with stream of
consciousness – a writer presents a character’s
random thoughts and feelings without imposing any
logic or order
Some notable authors of this period include T.S.
Eliot, James Joyce, and Langston Hughes
Harlem Renaissance
In the cultural movement called the Harlem
Renaissance, African American artists and writers
expressed pride in their culture and explored their
experiences in their work (a cultural “awakening”)
Christian Fundamentalism
Christian fundamentalism support traditional Christian
ideas about Jesus and believe that all of the events
described in the bible are literally true
Fundamentalist preachers traveled around the USA
and held spiritual revival meetings
The radio was used to spread fundamentalist
teachings in the early 1900s
Some people, however, did not believe that the
events in the bible are literally true
Scopes Trial
A biology teacher, John Scopes, was placed on trial
for teaching evolution in his classroom instead of
creationism in 1925 in violation of a Tennessee law
Scopes was found guilty in this famous trial (aka
“The Scopes Monkey Trial”)
The Scopes Trial showed the strength of Christian
fundamentalism sweeping across the country
The case was thus seen as both a theological
(religious) contest and a trial on the veracity of
modern science regarding the creation-evolution
controversy
The Scopes Trial
Scientific Discoveries
New scientific discoveries challenged long-held ideas
Marie Curie and others found that atoms of certain
elements spontaneously release charged particles
Albert Einstein argued that measurements of space
and time are not absolute
Italian physicist Enrico Fermi discovered atomic
fission
Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming discovered
penicillin in 1928, a nontoxic mold that killed bacteria
to treat infections and diseases
Alexander Fleming (1881-1955)
Albert Einstein
Scientific Discoveries
Sigmund Freud pioneered psychoanalysis, a
method of studying how the mind works and treating
mental illness
Dr. Sigmund Freud
Western Artists
In the early 1900s, many Western artists rejected
traditional styles that tried to reproduce the real
world
For example, Vasily Kandinsky’s work was called
abstract
It was composed of only of lines, colors, and
shapes—sometimes with no recognizable subject
In his own words, "Composition VII" was the
most complex piece he ever painted
(Kandinsky 1913)
Composition X. For the background of his last great
composition, painted during WWII, Kandinsky selected black,
the colour of death. (Kandinsky 1939)
Western Artists
Dada artists rejected tradition and believed that
there was no sense or truth in the world
Another movement, surrealism, tried to portray the
workings of the unconscious mind
In architecture, Bauhaus buildings based on form and
function featured glass, steel, and concrete, but little
ornamentation
Surrealism
Dada
Dada thought that reason and logic had led people
into the horrors of war (World War I), so the only
route to salvation was to reject logic and embrace
anarchy and irrationality
If the world was so logical and rational, how can it be
that the world became involved in such a destructive,
terrible war?
Bauhaus Architecture
Powerpoint Questions
1. What term was given that banned the
manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol?
2. What were women called who challenged
traditional norms of behavior and sought new
freedoms in society?
3. “Shhhh….don’t speak so loud in here…speak and
drink softly….because you are in a ________”
4. a method of studying how the mind works and
treating mental illness is called ___________.
5. Bacterial infections were reduced by the discovery
of _______________.
Powerpoint Questions
6. Identify the cultural movement that expressed
pride in the African-American community.
7. What did Marie Curie discover?
8. What did Dada artists reject and believe about the
world?
9. How would you describe abstract art?
10. Which new popular musical style emerged in the
post-World War I era?
The End