Social Changes 1920s AMERICA Activity 1.1 • Use the first 10 minutes of this class to finish your eulogy from last lesson, completing it on a person from this list: Learning Intention • To understand the the major changes in social life in the 1920s Overview Cultural expression was varied and rich. Fashion, literature, music, film and art both influenced and reflected social, economic and political change. It was an era of creative expression, full of loud laughter, Social & cultural changes in USA • The changing role of women & flappers • Literature • The Jazz Age • Film (Walt Disney 1901-1966) • Film • Artistic styles Women • The 19th Amendment in 1920 meant women had finally won the right to vote. • The economic boom required more and more jobs to be filled. • Many middle-class women held steady jobs. (phone operators, sales assistants, clerks and secretaries were needed) • ‘Flapper’ culture = women who wore the new fashions of the 1920s such as short dresses and bobbed hair • Flappers redefined gender relations, they went to all-night parties without a male partner to look after them, smoked cigarettes in public, drove motor cars and held men’s hands without wearing gloves. • The President of Florida University said the new fashions Literature • The Roaring Twenties had popular authors emerged who are still considered to be among the greatest US authors of the twentieth century. • F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) - Fitzgerald’s most famous novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), is argued to be the story that best captures the culture of the 1920s. • Ernest Hemingway was another of America’s greatest novelists (1899– 1961) The Jazz Age • ‘The Jazz Age’ was a term coined by F. Scott Fitzgerald. • It represented a major shift in social norms after World War I. Music was for pleasure not propaganda. • It was a rebellion against the restrictions on alcohol. • Jazz represented a racial breakthrough as African American performers, such as King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, were in demand at white venues. • Jazz was influenced in a positive way by Prohibition and the Great Depression. Controlling cultural expression: Prohibition of alcohol, 1920–33 • Prohibition: The period from 1920-33 when alcohol was banned by the US Government: Made illegal by the 18th Amendment • Alcohol was described as the ‘national curse’ and it was believed that banning alcohol would fix many social problems and: • Help the economy • Crime would be lowered • Corruption reduced • National character would be enhanced. Homework: Due Monday 29th of May. • Using Chapter 7, create a 50-word summary for each of the following: • Why did the economy ‘boom’ in the 1920s? • The ‘New Deal’ program • ONE cultural/social aspect from PPT (i.e Film) • Due Monday 29th of May.
