The Roaring Life
of the 20’s
Changing ways of Life
Rural and Urban Differences
-Population growing in cities, many men leaving
the farms
-New York topped the list of biggest cities with
5.6 million people
-Chicago was second with 3 million. Chicago was
an industrial powerhouse as well as a home to
native-born whites, African Americans, immigrant
Poles, Irish, Russians, Italians, Swedes, Arabs,
French, and Chinese.
-Cities could be impersonal and frightening with
strangers and a fast-paced life.
Changing ways of Life
Prohibition
18th Amendment- manufacture, sale, and
transportation of alcoholic beverages were
illegally prohibited
-Reformers had for a long time felt that liquor
was a prime cause of corruption including; crime,
wife and child abuse, accidents on the job, and
other serious social problems
-Support for prohibition came largely from the
south and the Protestants including groups such
as church-affiliated Anti-Saloon and The Women’s
Christian Temperance Union
Changing ways of Life
The Volstead Act- Act that enforced the 18th amendment,
named after Andrew Volstead and said that over .5 percent
alcohol or greater
Drinkers obtained liquor illegally by going to hidden saloons
and nightclubs known as speakeasies (because when inside
you spoke easily or softly to avoid detection) . These
building were everywhere in penthouses, cellars, office
buildings, rooming houses, tenements, hardware stores,
and tearooms.
People started to distill alcohol and make their own.
Religious and medical purposes!
Bootleggers- smuggler’s practice of carrying liquor in the
legs of boots (usually smuggled from Canada, Cuba, and
the West Indies).
http://www.huffenglish.com/gatsby/speakeasies.html
Changing ways of Life
Organized Crime
Prohibition contributed
to organized crime in
major cities.
Al Capone- Gangster of
Chicago who bootlegged
over $60 million a year.
522 bloody gang killings
in the 1920’s.
By the mid 1920’s only
19 percent of Americans
supported prohibition.
Public felt it caused
more problems rather
than solving them. In
1933 Prohibition was
repealed by the 21st
Amendment.
Al Capone.asx
Changing ways of Life
Science and Religion Clash
FundamentalismProtestant movement
grounded in a literal or non
symbolic, interpretation of
the bible. They argued all
important knowledge could
be found in the bible and
that the bible was inspired
by God and therefore its
stories in all details were
true
Charles Darwin- Theory of
Evolution (plant and
animal species had
developed and changed
over millions of years and
that humans had evolved
from apes)
Changing ways of Life
The Scopes Trial
March 1925 Tennessee passed the
nation’s first law that made it a
crime to teach evolution and the
ACLU (American Civil Liberties
Union) promised to defend any
teacher who challenged the law.
John T Scopes (Dayton Tennessee)
read this a quote to his biology
class “We Have now learned that
animal forms may be arranged so
as to begin with the simple onecelled forms and culminate with a
group which includes man himself”
Scope was then arrested
Charles Darrow, most famous
lawyer trial of the time, hired to
defend Scopes
Scopes was found guilty and fined
$100
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/08/2/l_082_01.html
Changing ways of Life
Today……
Still controversy over teaching of
evolution in the classroom
1999 Kansas State School board
voted to eliminate teaching evolution
from the curriculum
The Twenties Woman
Young Women change the
Rules
Flappers- an emancipated
young woman who embraced
the new fashions and urban
attitudes of the day.
Examples: bright waistless
dresses above the knee, skin
toned silk stockings, sleek
pumps, stings of beads
replaced the dark and prim
ankle length dresses, and pea
coats
more assertive young women
smoking and drinking
taking openly about sex
danced many dances (fox
trot, tango, Charleston, etc..)
changing attitudes towards
marriage (equal relationship)
The Twenties Woman
Double Standard- a set of principles
granting greater sexual freedom to
men than to women
-Many people viewed the flapper as
rebellious image rather than reality.
After WWI young men often courted
women (dated women they intended
on marrying) however in the 1920’s
causal dating became accepted
The Twenties Woman
New Roles for Women
More work opportunitiessome college women
turned to “women’s
professions” such as
teachers, nurses,
librarians, and some
women broke old
stereotypes and started
flying airplanes, driving
taxies, and drilling oil
wells.
-By 1930- 10 million
women were earning
wages (although few
were managerial jobs)
The Twenties Woman
The Changing Family
-Lower Birth Rate due to wide
availability of birth control
-Technological innovations simplified
household labor and family life with
ready-made clothes, sliced bread,
and canned foods.
-Women had to juggle the family life
with the working life
Education and Popular Culture
Schools and the Mass Media Shape
Culture
School Enrollments- 1914- 1 million
American Students by 1926- 4
million students which increased
educational standards for jobs
teaching immigrant students
taxes to finance schools increased
(1920- $2.7 billion a year)
Education and Popular Culture
New Coverage expanding
- increased literacy in America
- News papers hooked readers
by sensational stories/tabloids
- National chain news papers
established closing local ones
- Mass circulation of magazines
(Readers Digest/Time)
Education and Popular Culture
Radio Comes of Age
-audiences tuned in to their every
day speech and radio was the most
powerful communication
Example; presidential speeches and
live world series
Education and Popular Culture
New Heroes
Money spent for leisure activities (4.5 billion)
Crossword puzzles/ games
Sports heroes (Babe Ruth, Gertude Ederle, Helen Wills)
Lindbergh’s Flight (1st nonstop flight across the Atlantic
solo)
George Gershwin (jazz concert music composer)
Georgia O’Keeffe (produced intensely colored canvases)
Sinclair Lewis (1st American to win the Nobel prize in
literature in his novel the Babbitt)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (term Jazz age, The Great Gatsby, and
This Side of Paradise)
Edna St. Vincent Millay (poet)
Ernest Hemingway (Novel writer The Sun also Rises)
The Harlem Renaissance
African American Voices in the
1920’s
NAACP- National Association for
the Advancement of Colored
People led by James Weldon
Johnson fought legislation to
protect African American Rights
(Antilynching organizations)
Marcus Garvey- immigrant from
Jamaica felt African Americans
should build a separate society.
He founded the Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA)
1 mil followers by 1920. Left
behind powerful legacy
The Harlem Renaissance
New York Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance- a literary and
artistic movement celebrating
African American culture
-Claude McKay- Novelist poet,
Jamaican Immigrant, verses urged
African American to resist prejudice
and discrimination
-Langston Hughes- Best known
African American Poet
-Paul Robeson-dramatic actor
(Othello)
-Louis Armstrong- Jazz musician
(Henderson’s band of NY)
-Edward Kennedy “duke” EllingtonJazz Pianist/composer
-Bessie Smith- female blues singer