Chapter 13: The Roaring
Life of the 1920s
City Slicks and Country Hicks
A.
Rural and Urban Differences
1. 1920 census- 51% lived in communities
w/ population of 2,500-1 million
2. New Urban Scene:
a. New York, Chicago, Philadelphia
b. 65 cities w/ 100,000 +
c. changes in thinking and livingcompetition, change, drinking, gambling,
etc.
d. fast paced; impersonal
e. rural- safe, small-town, hard work,
strict morals
b. Volstead Act of 1919- est. Prohibition
Bureau
c. ineffectiveness of prohibition
4. Speakeasies and Bootleggers
a. underground
b. bootleggers: smuggled it in from
Canada, Cuba, and West Indies
http://youtu.be/xIF_WdPUBFo
5. Organized Crime:
a. gangs took opportunity to make and
sell liquor = profits
b. Chicago and Al Capone
c. Late 1920s- 19% of Americans
supported prohibition
d. 1933- 21st Amendment: ended
prohibition
B. Science and Religion Clash
1. American Fundamentalism:
movement grounded in literal
interpretation of the Bible
a. skeptical of science
b. denied evolution
2. Scopes Trial
a. Dayton, Tennessee, 1925
b. ACLU: hired Clarence Darrow to defend
Scopes
c. William Jennings Bryan acted as special
prosecutor
3. Bryan Takes the Stand:
a. stand-off b/w science and religion
b. Do you think the earth was made
in 6 days?
1. “Not six days of 24 hours”
c. Scopes found guilty and fined
$100
II. The Twenties Woman
A.
Young Women Change the Rules
1. The Flapper
a. more image than reality
b. change in style- clothes, hair, etc.
c. more assertive- smoking, drinking,
d. attitudes toward marriage changedequal partnership
2. The Double Standard
a. “courting” v. casual dating
b. set of principles allowing greater
freedom to men than women
B. Women Shed Old Roles
1. New Opportunities
a. teachers, nurses, librarians, social
workers, lawyers, bankers, etc.
b. clerical workers
c. 1930- 10 million earned wages
1. Still made less than a man
2. No managerial jobs, etc.
2. The Changing Family
a. birthrate dropped
b. divorce rate doubled
c. affects of child labor laws and
compulsory education
III. Education and Popular
Culture
A.
Schools and Mass Media Shape
Culture
1. School Enrollment
a. 1926- 4 M attended H.S.
b. emergence of modern H.S.
c. cost of education
2. Radio Comes of Age
a. most powerful mass medium to emerge
in 1920s
b. hearing news as it happened
B. America Chases New Heroes and Old
Dreams
1. 1929- spent $4.5 B on entertainment
http://youtu.be/W6YNHq1qc44
http://youtu.be/zdA__2tKoIU
2. Sports Heroes of the 1920s
http://youtu.be/-OeeCfbahwQ
1. $25,000 prize
b. 33 1/2 hrs. to land in Paris, France
4. Movies
a. 1925- 4th largest industry
b. Hollywood as movie capital
1. Charlie Chaplin
2. Rudolph Valentino
c. 1927- The Jazz Singer
d. 1930s- “talkies” doubled movie
attendance
http://youtu.be/BBgghnQF6E4
http://youtu.be/PIaj7FNHnjQ
5. Theatre, Music, Art
a. George Gershwin
b. Ashcan painting
6. Writers of the 1920s
a. Sinclair Lewis
b. F.Scott Fitzgerald
c. Earnest Hemmingway
Georgia O’Keeffe- produced
colored canvasses capturing
grandeur of NYC
F. Scott Fitzgerald- coined
term”Jazz Age”
-
revealed negative side of period’s
gaiety and freedom
-
Great Gatsby and This Side of
Paradise
Sinclair Lewis- 1st American to
win Nobel prize in literature
Ridiculed Americans for conformity and
materialism
Ernest Hemmingway- critical of
the glorification of war
-
tough, simplified style of writing that
set new literary standard
The Sun Also Rises; A Farewell to
Arms
IV. The Harlem Renaissance
A.
African-American Voices in the 1920s
1. The Move North
a. Great Migration
b. 4.8 M of nation’s 12 M lived in cities
c. 1919- 25 race riots nation wide
2. African-American Goals
a. NAACP made anti-lynching laws a
priority of 1920s
b. est. anti-lynching organizations (Ida B.
Wells)
3. Marcus Garvey and the U.N.I.A.
a. Back to Africa movement
b. Universal Negro Improvement Assoc.
1. Promoted Af. Am. Businesses
2. Black Star Line
B. Renaissance Flowers in New York: literary
and artistic movement celebrating African
American culture
1. African American Writers and “the
New Negro”
a. expressed pride in African
American experience; celebrated
heritage
b. Poet Langston Hughes
c. Zora Neale Hurston
The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.
The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people
Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.
2. African American performers won large
followings
a. Paul Robeson
3. African Americans and Jazz
a. instrumental ragtime and vocal blues
b. Jazz born in New Orleans
1. Louis Armstrong- most influential jazz
musician in history
2. Duke Ellington and the Cotton Club
3. Bessie Smith- highest paid black artist in
world
Bessie Smith
Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington and the Cotton
Club