The Roaring Life of the 1920s
Changing Ways
of Life
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Rural and Urban Differences
• The 1920 census showed that for
the first time, more people lived
in cities than in rural areas
Rural and Urban Differences
• Cities were places of change and
excitement
• Rural areas remained conservative
and traditional
• Urban culture was based on
popular tastes, morals and habits
of mass consumption that were
increasingly at odds with the strict
religious and moral codes of rural
America
Rural and Urban Differences
• City dwellers drank, read about
new scientific discoveries and
debated social ideas
• Small town dwellers were shocked
by the behavior in the cities and
frightened of so many people who
were strangers
Prohibition
• The prohibitionists had been
fighting to end liquor since the
early 1800s
• In Jan 1920, the 18th Amendment
outlawed the buying, selling,
making and using alcohol
Prohibition
• This did not mean that Americans
stopped drinking
• Speakeasies, bars who served
patrons who knew the secret code,
opened
• Other made homemade liquor,
bathtub gin.
• Some were deadly concoctions
Bootleggers
• Others found that they could
make a lot of money by providing
illegal liquor to speakeasies
• Al Capone was one of many
gangsters who smuggled
liquor from Canada to
Chicago
• He was arrested only for tax
evasion
Prohibition
• A secret knock
or word allowed
entrance into
liquor clubs
• If police
arrived, they
would leave
through a
secret exit
Twenty-three skidoo
Prohibition
• Different mobs
fought over
territory
• Gun battles
ensued
• Ironically, 81% of America
opposed Prohibition
Science and Religion
• Dominant social and political
issues of the 1920s expressed
sharp divisions in US society
between young and old; urban
modernists and rural
fundamentalists; prohibitionists
and anti-prohibitionists; nativists
and foreign born
Science and Religion
• The Protestant movement in rural
areas was fundamentalism
• Fundamentalists believe in the
literal meaning of every word in
the Bible
• Numerous preachers took to the
road and radio to preach the
“good book”
Religion
• While there were always
rifts between the individual
religions, the 1920s saw
rifts between Protestants
– Modernism
– Fundamentalism
– Revivalists on the radio
Religion - Modernism
• Large numbers of Protestants
changed their views of religion
because of the changing roles of
women, the Social Gospel, and
scientific knowledge
• They took an historical and
critical view of the Bible
• They believed evolution did not
conflict with creationism
Religion – Fundamentalism
• Preachers in rural areas taught
every word of the Bible as literal
fact
• Fundamentalists believed that God
created the universe in 7 days
and Genesis explained the origin
of life
• They believed that liberals caused
the moral decay of society
Religion – Revivalists
• Revivalists in the past traveled
the region to spread their word
• Now they used the radio
– Billy Sunday – attacked drinking,
gambling and dancing
– Aimee Semple McPherson –
condemned communism and jazz
Religion – Revivalists
• Sunday was a
professional
baseball player
until he found
religion
• He gave up the
sport and spend
the rest of his
life opposing
alcohol
Religion – Revivalists
• McPherson – using the
automobile and radio, her
flock totaled 2 million
• She is remembered more
for the scandal, than her
religious convictions
• She disappeared in 1926
and then claimed she was
kidnapped
Religion – Revivalists
• Her radio producer
disappeared at the same
time and she was sighted
at a resort in Mexico
• When she returned, she
was more popular than
ever
• She was widowed once and
divorced twice
Science - Evolution
• Charles Darwin’s book,
Origin of the Species”
taught people about
evolution among plants
and animals
• That idea carried over
to human evolution
Science - Evolution
• Some states, like TN, made it
illegal to teach evolution because
it was anti-religious teachings
• High school biology teacher,
John Scopes, was arrested
before he could teach his
planned lesson on evolution
Scopes Trial
• Scopes was
defended by
Clarence Darrow, a
famous trial lawyer
from Chicago
• The prosecutor was
William Jennings
Bryan, a devout
fundamentalist
John Scopes
Scopes Trial
• Darrow put the Bible on trial and
called Bryan as an expert on the
Bible
• Bryan looked oldfashioned, feeble
and naïve
• Darrow was
sophisticated
• Darrow
Bryan
and smooth
Scopes Trial
• Darrow asked about the age of
earth
• Bryan replied that he was more
interested in the rock of ages
than the age of rocks
• He believed that creation
occurred in 4004 BC
John Scopes
Scopes Trial
• When asked if the world was
created in 7 24-hour days, Bryan
admitted that there may be some
flexibility in the actual 24 hour
time period
• Scopes was
found guilty
and fined
$100
The Roaring
Life of the
1920s
The 20s Woman
Young Women in the 20s
• The emancipated
woman arrived in
the 1920s
• They cut their hair
short, wore short
dresses, smoked,
drank in public,
earned their own
money, and danced.
Charleston
Women
• Women entered the
workforce in greater
numbers but were limited to
certain categories of jobs
• They were usually clerks,
nurses, teachers, and maids
• They were paid less than men
Women and Men
• One of the
biggest
changes was
the revolt
against sexual
taboos
Women and Men
• Some were
influenced by
Sigmund Freud
who stressed
the role of
sexual
repression in
mental illness
Women and Men
• The use of
contraceptives was
still illegal in almost
every state but
Sanger and other
advocates achieved
growing acceptance in
the 20s
Women and Men
• Flappers danced
dances, like the
foxtrot and
Charleston,
encouraged
greater sexual
promiscuity
Women and Men
• This conflicted with the older
generation’s ideas of what
women should do
– Get married
– Have children
– Clean house
– Obey their husbands
Women and Men
• This double standard, requiring
a different set of behaviors for
men and women, continues today
• Women of the 1920s used more
efficient electrical appliances to
make their jobs easier or hired
cheap immigrant help
Women and Men
• There are also studies that show
that as more appliances came
available for women, the level of
expectation also rose
• Example – 4 burner stoves meant
4 course meals
• Vacuum cleaners meant floors
cleaned daily
Women and Men
• The divorce rate
was 1 in 8 in 1920
• By 1930, it was 1
in 6
• Birthrates declined
Women
• New child labor
laws kept most
children out of
factories or at
home or in
schools
Youth in the 1920s
• Young people
acted as if they
did not have a
care in the world
• Pole sitting, eating goldfish, dance
marathons, going to speakeasies
were all the ‘bees knees’ of the
Roaring 20s
The Roaring
Life of the
1920s
Education and
Popular Culture
Youth in the 1920s
• As the economy improved,
more children attended more
years of school
• New immigrants learned
English and became
‘Americanized’
• Taxes rose to meet the needs
of the growing school systems
News in the 1920s
• Radios brought news into almost
every home
• Local papers were bought out
by large chains
• Magazine circulation increased,
tailoring their articles to
specific readers
Entertainment in the 1920s
• In the 20s, the radio and a few
radio stations appeared
• By 1930 there were 800
stations broadcasting to 10
million radios
• The movie industry
made stars of Rudolph
Valentino and Greta
Garbo
Entertainment in the 1920s
• Glamorous movie theaters were
constructed
• Talkies were introduced in 1927
and by 1929, over 80 million
tickets were sold each week
Little
Rascals
Steamboat
Willie
Entertainment in the 1920s
• Americans shifted
their view of heroic
figures from TR
and Wilson to
people celebrated
on sports pages or
on the movie
screen.
Entertainment in the 1920s
•
•
•
•
•
Jack Dempsey
Gertrude Ederle
Jim Thorpe
Babe Ruth
Bobby Jones
•
•
•
•
•
Boxer
Swimmer
Football
Baseball
Golf
Entertainment in the 1920s
• The most popular ‘hero’ of the
day was Charles Lindbergh
• He flew from New York to Paris
in the Spirit of St.
Louis in 1927
Entertainment in the 1920s
• American literature included works
by F. Scott Fitzgerald, an
unflattering view of the 1920s in
The Great Gatsby
• Jazz was born with George
Gershwin
• Ernest Hemingway left America
and wrote A Farewell to Arms and
The Sun Also Rises
Automobiles
• Cars changed every aspect of
society from
– Traffic jams, accidents and death
– Shopping
– Dating
– Commuting to work
The Roaring
Life of the
1920s
Harlem
Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
• By 1930 almost 20% of African
Americans lived in the North
• Still facing discrimination in
jobs and housing, some improved
their economic standing for
their skill in acting, music, art
and writing
Harlem Renaissance
• The African American
community of Harlem, in NY,
had a high concentration of
talented men and women
• Their collective
achievement was
called the Harlem
Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
• Poets – Countee
Cullen, Langston
Hughes, James
Weldon Johnson
and Claud McKay
– expressed
emotion from
bitterness to joy
Langston Hughes
Harlem Renaissance
• Musicians – Duke Ellington, Louis
Armstrong, Bessie Smith and
actor Paul Robeson entertained
white audiences but had to use
the back door to enter the
theaters
Marcus Garvey
• His “Back to Africa”
plan was in opposition
to WEB DuBois
• Advocated individual
and racial pride
• His ideas will come
alive again in the
equality movement of
the 1960s