Matakuliah : G0862/American Culture and Society
Tahun
: 2007
The Reconstruction, Jazz and
Depression (1865 – 1929)
Meeting 5
Contents
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The reconstruction after the war
The prosperity decade (1920 - 1928)
The Ragtime era: Negroes on the spot
World War I
The Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties
Babe Ruth: baseball and Material culture
The Dust Bowl
The economic Crash: The great Depression 1929
The reconstruction
The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 freed African
Americans in rebel states, and after the Civil War, the
Thirteenth Amendment emancipated all U.S. slaves
wherever they were. As a result, the mass of Southern
blacks now faced the difficulty Northern blacks had
confronted--that of a free people surrounded by many
hostile whites. One freedman, Houston Hartsfield
Holloway, wrote, "For we colored people did not know
how to be free and the white people did not know how to
have a free colored person about them."
African American Population Distribution in 1890
African American population distribution and migration patterns can
be traced using maps published in the statistical atlases prepared by
the U. S. Census Bureau for each decennial census from 1870 to
1920.
The atlas for the 1890 census includes this map showing the
percentage of "colored" to the total population for each county.
Although the heaviest concentrations are overwhelmingly in
Maryland, Virginia, and the southeastern states, there appear to be
emerging concentrations in the northern urban areas (New York City,
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Toledo, and Chicago), southern
Ohio, central Missouri, eastern Kansas, and scattered areas in the
West (Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California),
reflecting migration patterns that began during Reconstruction.
Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance, an African American cultural movement of the
1920s and early 1930s that was centered in the Harlem
neighborhood of New York City. Variously known as the New Negro
movement, the New Negro Renaissance, and the Negro
Renaissance, the movement emerged toward the end of World War
I in 1918, blossomed in the mid- to late 1920s, and then faded in the
mid-1930s. The Harlem Renaissance marked the first time that
mainstream publishers and critics took African American literature
seriously and that African American literature and arts attracted
significant attention from the nation at large. Although it was
primarily a literary movement, it was closely related to developments
in African American music, theater, art, and politics.
The Ragtime Era
The Ragtime era was a fast paced transformation where the
pioneers of the American Dream tapped into successes of the selfmade man and the music of Scott Joplin woke the nation.
E.L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime embraces the "New America" -- one
that was filled with immigrants and those seeking to obtain the
promised fortune in the land of dreams.
Less fortunate people, mostly immigrants, had to deal with the
pressures of racism and often tried to escape the barriers imposed
on them by society.
The issues of immigration and achieving the American Dream
conflicted as the immigration rates rose and society became
naturally selective about who could and could not achieve the
idealized American Dream.
The Brooklyn Bridge (1900)
The Brooklyn Bridge (1932)
The Jazz Age
The Jazz Age
Facts about the Jazz Age
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Prohibition and temperance
Al Capone – Organized Crime Chicago
Charles “Charlie” Chaplin “Silent Movie”
Flappers : new culture (Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby)
African American artists emerge to the public: Langston Hughes,
Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, etc.
Jazz, blues becomes the most popular music in America.
Sacco and Vanzetti trial
The Monkey Scopes trial
Freud and the psychology of the unconscious
The most favorite sports: Base Ball
Baseball
Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth and Baseball
• George Herman Ruth, Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948),
also known as "Babe", "The Great Bambino", "The Sultan of
Swat", and "The Colossus of Clout", was an American Major
League baseball player from 1914-1935. He is widely regarded as
one of the greatest baseball players in history. Many polls place him
as the number one player of all time.
• He helped change baseball from a low-scoring, speed dominated
game to a high scoring, power game. He became the first true
American sports celebrity superstar whose fame transcended
baseball. Off the field he was famous for his charity, but also was
noted for his often reckless lifestyle that epitomized the hedonistic
1920s. Ruth became an American icon, and even though he died
nearly 60 years ago his name is still one of the most famous names
in all of American sports.
Jackie Robinson
The Dust Bowl
Stock Market Crash 1929