The Roaring Twenties
Ashley, Catherine, Erik, Arsalan
Music
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The 1920s is known as the Jazz Era
Jazz, Blues, and Ragtime were the most common
genres
Some well known artists were Ma Rainey, Fiddlin’
John Carson, Bessie Smith, King Oliver, Louis
Armstrong, and Blind Lemon Jefferson
Music was used as an attempt to banish horrific
memories of the war
Dances
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Charleston – most well known
Black Bottom
Foxtrot
Shag
Waltz
Shimmy
These were all highly energetic dances done by the
younger more spoiled generation
Danceathons were often held
Fashion
• Vogue, The Queen and Harper’s Bazaar were
women’s magazines which influenced fashion
greatly
• Early 1920s – waistline at the waist, skirt loose, not
fitted, long hemlines, somewhat full skirts
• 1923 – waistline between natural waist and hips, still
loose and baggy
• 1924 – waistline dropped to hips
• 1925 – dresses with no waistline, dresses worn with
straight bodies, knife pleated skirts with a hem one
inch below the knee
More Fashion…
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1928 – hemline up to the knee and
dresses become more fitted
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Many garments fastened with
buttons
Cotton and wool were the most
abundantly used and silk was a
luxury
Fascination with Egyptian style
Men’s – two toned spectators with
knickers
Wide trousers
Raccoon coats for college aged
men
Art
• The Group of Seven is formed and in 1920, and are
ready to hold their first exhibition.
– Painted Canadian Landscapes
• Emily Carr, an unofficial member takes place in
exhibitions, which is a radical invitation for the time.
• Precisionism was an art movement that emerged after
the Great War (The movement had no presence outside
the United States)
• Precisionist artists have also been referred to as "CubistRealists", "Sterilists", and "Immaculates". Their art would
have an influence on the magic realism and pop art
movements
More Art…
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Picasso and non-representational art
The Harlem Renaissance, also
known as The New Negro
Movement, was a time of
outstanding creative activity and
flowering of African American art,
literature, music and culture in the
United States
American scene painting is a
naturalist style of paintings and art of
the 1920s through 1940s in the
United States
Literature
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A sense of rebellion developed and the Victorian idea of decency was
considered hypocritical, people wrote frankly about things (sexuality,
profanity, etc.)
New age of naturalism
Harlem Renaissance is considered the first important movement of
black artists and writers in the US
black writers published more than ever before
Influential and lasting black authors, artists, and musicians received their
first serious critical appraisal.
Important novelists
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Edith Wharton
Willa Cather
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Sinclair Lewis
Historical Events
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Insulin is discovered by Sir Frederick Banting during
the winter of 1921-1922
Albert Einstein wins Nobel for photoelectric effect.
(1921)
Niels Bohr wins Nobel for work on atomic theory.
(1922)
Penicillin is discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming
(1928)
Great advances in quantum mechanics
– Wave mechanics and the Schrödinger equation
– Werner Heisenberg formulates the uncertainty
principle
Historical Events cont….
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Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly
solo non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean (20 May-21
May 1927)
The Ku Klux Klan – revival of old hatreds
John Logie Baird invents the first working
mechanical television system (1925). In 1928 he
invents and demonstrates the first colour television.
Prediction and discovery of the expanding universe
Prohibition
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January 1920 the U.S. Federal Prohibition law was enacted,
also known as the Dry Law
The law prohibited the manufacture, transportation, and sale of
alcoholic beverages
Crime rose in this period of prohibition
Canada actually began to repeal their prohibition laws in the
1920s upon realizing they were unenforceable
Communities of all sizes had "speakeasies," where both
imported and homemade alcohol could be purchased.
Al Capone was the most notorious gangster who trafficked
alcohol
The Ku Klux Klan supported prohibition
Economy
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Economic prosperity lasted
throughout the entire decade
following WWI
Some European countries
faced extreme economic
devastation due to war
debts, which lead to
desperation and paved the
way for the rise of the Nazis
The stock market collapsed
during October 1929 ending
economic prosperity
Ideas and Values
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The percentage of Americans with a high school diploma
doubled. Daily eating habits were changing too: the average
American ate seventy-five pounds a year less than in 1910.
Thin was in
Americans took to the road in the 1920's as the number of
automobiles soared from six million to twenty-seven million.
Liberal and Progressive ideas
More traditional peer group
This new generation expressed themselves through music,
enhanced sexual promiscuity, and technology
Smoking was considered a leisurely activity
Traditional value began to be challenged and questioned
Gender Roles
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After the WWI, a lot of men lost their lives in the battlefields; so
the women of the house had to accept a job outside of their
house.
This gave women self confidence and resulted in changing of
the Person’s Act.
The women who were behind this action were The Famous
Five, which included Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise
McKinney, Irene Parlby, Nellie McClung and Emily Murphy.
The changes in the Person’s Act gave women more rights
including running for elections and divorce.
Women were officially “equals.”
Class Structures
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The class structure can be divided into racial and
social structure.
Racial Structure during the twenties:
The Whites still had dominance over minorities but
new rules were being imposed to the Act but still the
minority suffrage in the Southern states were at its
high rate because of the formation of KKK (Ku Klux
Klan).
Social Structure:
The rich were superior to poor people.
Leisure Activities
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The new rule of 8 hours of work, 8 hours of
sleep and 8 hours of leisure activities was
established after WWI by the public.
Since people had lots of free time they
turned towards sports, fashion shows,
drinking, gambling, smoking big cigars –
probably Cuban – and other vulgar media.
Listening to the radio, reading books can
also be considered as leisure activities.