Chapter 20: The Jazz Age, 1921–1929
This chapter follows the new social attitudes and cultural changes that defined the 1920s.
Section 1 explains how the 1920s saw clashes between Americans' traditional and modern values. In the early
1920s, economic recession, increased immigration, and racial and cultural tensions led to a general rise in
nativism and racism. A pseudo-scientific belief reinforced nativism, and a new Ku Klux Klan targeted groups it
considered "un-American." Many Americans who worried that immigration would threaten traditional social
orders applauded new laws that limited immigration and heavily discriminated against certain groups. Other
societal changes swept through the nation during the 1920s. A new morality glorified youth and personal
freedom, and women enjoyed new economic, social, and intellectual freedoms that were reflected in their
fashions and behaviors. As Americans responded to what some saw as a decline of American morality, a new
religious movement emerged, and interest in the temperance movement renewed. The Eighteenth Amendment
and the Volstead Act made prohibition a federal cause, but public response to the laws ended up encouraging
organized crime.
Section 2 describes how the modern age of the 1920s strongly influenced American art, literature, and popular
culture. During the 1920s, writers, artists, and intellectuals challenged traditional ideas as they searched for
meaning in an industrialized world. Artists worked in a diverse range of styles, each trying to express the
individual, modern experience. The works of many poets, playwrights, and novelists often had tragic
underpinnings as they described the human experience with concise, realistic images. The 1920s offered many
Americans more time and money to enjoy leisure activities. They eagerly attended movies and sporting events,
participated in sports, and listened to radio broadcasts. Sports figures, movie stars, and aviators emerged as
the new American heroes. During the 1920s, mass media not only helped broaden Americans' interests, but
they also enhanced Americans' feelings of a shared national culture.
Section 3 discusses how the African American voice found new expressions during the cultural renaissance of
the 1920s. During the Great Migration, hundreds of thousands of African Americans escaped segregated
Southern society and poured into the industrial cities of the North. One neighborhood in New York City stood
out as the center of African American cultural rebirth and expression. The artists of the Harlem Renaissance
expressed their frustrations and their dreams in an explosion of literary, musical, and theatrical works. Artistic
achievements of the Harlem Renaissance reinforced racial pride and fueled interest in community and political
involvement. African Americans found a political voice with the vote and in organizations such as the NAACP.
While some worked to improve the political and economic positions of African Americans, other groups
emphasized black pride and advocated African American separation from white society.
Section 1:
1. The 1920s in America was a clash between ______________ and _________________ values. Describe;
what are examples of these two types of values?
2. Immigration, racial, and cultural tensions all led to rises in what two terrible things?
3. “Many Americans who worried that immigration would threaten traditional social orders
applauded new laws that limited immigration and heavily discriminated against certain groups.”
What was an organization that became popular in the 1920s to combat these groups?
4. How were women behaving in the 1920s?
5. What were some of the reactions to the new behaviors of women and the youth in the 1920s?
Section 2:
1. What were writers and artists challenging in the 1920s?
2. Overall, the 1920s afforded people with more time off of work because of Progressive Era
legislation. What are some things people did with their new leisure time?
3. Describe the impact of the mass media in the 1920s.
Section 3:
1. Why were many African Americans leaving the rural South for the urban North in the Great
Migration?
2. What was the name of the cultural, literary, artistic movement that occurred in the African
American community of the 1920s?
3. How were women and African Americans similar in the 1920s? How did both groups—women
and African Americans—begin to think about their importance in American Society, did they feel
more or less empowered?
4. **Based off the title, what was the style of American music that was most popular during this
period, 1921 to 1929?