Name: ___________________________________________________ Due Date: _________________ Period: _________________
Chapter 9—Technology and Culture in the 1920s—(pp. 394-427 )
Section 1—Technology Transformed American Society-- ID’s and Questions: (pp 394-400)
1. Frederick W. Taylor (396) champion of mass production—an engineer who advocated scientific
management—(see below)
2. scientific management (396) a business approach that focused on efficiency and speed—workers could
produce goods more quickly and efficiently.
3. Henry Ford (397) organized Ford Motor Company and used the assembly line method to produce cars
quicker and more efficiently
4. Where was the auto industry centered in the 1920s? Detroit, Michigan
5. In what ways did electricity change the American home and workplace? Electrical appliances such as the
refrigerator and vacuum cleaner became more common. In industry electrically powered machinery
began to dominate manufacturing.
6. What was Henry Ford’s contribution to the auto industry? Ford, using the assembly line, produced an
automobile that was inexpensive enough for the average American to own. In so doing he spurred the
rapid growth of the automobile industry and related businesses.
7. In what ways did the automobile change American culture and geography? Cars affected where people
lived and worked and how families and teenagers spent their leisure time. They also changed the look of
the countryside and towns with the building of roads and highways and the addition of gas stations,
roadside restaurants, and other businesses that depended upon automobile travel.
Section 2—A New Consumer Society Arose-- ID’s and Questions: (pp. 401-407)
1. installment plan (402) a plan that was developed in the 1920s to get more people to purchase new
“expensive” products—a customer made an initial down payment and then spread the balance out over
several months or years—people with modest incomes could afford to purchase goods that otherwise
would have been too expensive
2. Babe Ruth (403) the New York Yankee home run king—1927 hit a record-breaking 60 home runs in
one season (154 games)
3. Gertrude Ederle (403) swam the British Channel in the fastest time yet recorded—14 hours and 31
minutes—the first woman to accomplish this feat—she was a 19 year old 1924 Olympic gold medal
winner
4. tabloid (404) a new kind of newspaper that had sensational headlines—revealing photos and plenty of
stories about sex and violence
5. Charles Lindbergh (405) became the first person to solo fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean from
New York to Paris in 1927
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6. Charlie Chaplin (406) a very popular film star and film producer/director in the 1920s (silent
pictures)—the main character that he played was the “little Tramp”—films included: The Gold Rush,
City Lights and later Modern Times
7. The Jazz Singer (406) 1927—first movie with sound-8. Paul Robeson (407) a former All-American football star—who became a very popular and renowned
singer—he later lost some of his popularity when he became involved in “radical” causes
9. What city was the center of the moviemaking business? Hollywood
10. How did new marketing techniques create more customers for products in the 1920s? Advertising
persuaded people that certain products would improve their lives and social status; easy credit on the
installment plan gave ordinary people a way to afford these products
11. Why did sports heroes become popular in the 1920s? Americans had more money and more leisure
time, and they used both to pursue new forms of entertainment including sports—the media—radio,
newspapers, and magazines—popularized sports heroes
12. How did newspapers and radio contribute to the creation of a national media culture? Newspapers and
radio created a national audience for information and entertainment, presenting the same shows,
advertisements, and sporting events around the country. News and entertainment thus became
standardized.
13. What forms of entertainment did Hollywood and Broadway provide? Hollywood made movies and
Broadway produced live theater-14. Who were some of the leading stars? Cecil B. DeMille was a famous film director; Charlie Chaplin was
a popular filmmaker and star; Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino were all famous
actors who starred in silent films—and Paul Robeson was a famous stage actor and singer
Section 3—Young Women Took the Lead in the 1920s-- ID’s and Questions: (pp. 408-410)
1. flapper (408) a young 1920s woman who had abandoned all older views of femininity and women’s
roles—she preferred to be sexy and daring rather than shy and innocent—she smoked in public, drank
liquor, swore, and flirted openly with men
2. Sigmund Freud (409) the Austrian-born scientist and doctor who had developed a new method for
treating troubled patients—a method based upon the theory that abnormal behavior was often the result
of unconscious and suppressed fears or desire –by examining a person’s thoughts and feelings through a
process called psychoanalysis, Freud hoped to cure certain mental disorders—flappers and other Jazz
Age young people often used his ideas—though incorrectly
3. Grand Ole Opry (410) a musical hall in Nashville, TN that held Saturday night performances of singing
groups such as the Carter Family and others—music that kept alive the ballad tradition of the English,
Scottish, and Irish settlers of the mountain regions of the Americas
4. In what city was the Grand Ole Opry located? Nashville, Tennessee
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5. What was the significance of the flapper as a new image for women? She was a rejection of an older ideal
of womanhood. The flapper symbolized the general mood of rejection of the pre-war culture, its
progressive social conscience, and its more rigid morality
6. In what ways did technological innovations affect women’s lives during the 1920s? Technology affected
woman’s activities in two major ways—by introducing electrical appliances to household work and by
making available inexpensive birth control
7. What evidence is available that America was becoming an urban culture in the 1920s? The 1920s census
shows that for the first time, more Americans lived in urban than rural areas.
8. How did rural America respond to this phenomena (question no. 7)? Many rural groups, especially
Protestant churches, defended what they considered to be more traditional American values. Some rural
groups, however, used the media themselves and thus introduced their country traditions to the urban
population (i.e. the Grand Ole Opry).
Historians and writers have said that the national mood of the 1920s was one of disillusionment and selfindulgence. How might you characterize the past decade (1992-2002)?
Section 4—Art and Music Shaped the Jazz Age—ID’s and Questions: (pp. 411-417)
1. F. Scott Fitzgerald (411) novelist—wrote This Side of Paradise (1920), The Great Gatsby (1925), and
Tender is the Night (1934)—he painted the tragedy and disillusionment that underlay the lavish wealth
and glitter of the Jazz Age.
2. Ernest Hemingway (412) served during WWI as an ambulance driver in Europe, was badly wounded at
age 19 in Italy—was profoundly disillusioned by what he saw occurring in the war—established a selfimposed exile in Europe—wrote The Sun Also Rises (1926) about American refugees in Paris
3. Sinclair Lewis (413) wrote critically about small-town life in America in Main Street (1920) and Elmer
Gantry (1927)—he became the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature
4. William Faulkner (413) southern writer who wrote The Sound and the Fury (1929)
5. T.S. Eliot (413) American poet who captured the loneliness and alienation he found in modern life—
wrote “The Waste Land” (1922)
6. Georgia O’ Keefe (413) American female artist who painted the natural environment using a powerful
simplicity of form and dramatic colors—one of her areas of interest was the American southwest
7. Edward Hopper (413) American male artist who painted starkly lighted scenes of lonely roads, vacant
rooms, and women seated alone, lost in thought—his most famous work: “Nighthawks” (1942) that
showed the feeling of isolation the artist saw in American big-city life
8. Harlem Renaissance (414) a period of artistic creativity by African American writers and artists living
in New York City’s Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s—movement spread to other African American
population centers by end of the decade
9. Langston Hughes (414) most famous Harlem Renaissance African American writer
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10. Louis Armstrong (415) a jazz musician who specialized in the trumpet and “scat” singing
11. Duke Ellington (415) a jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and pianist
12. Bessie Smith (416) an African American blues singer
13. Ma Rainey (416) another blues singer
14. In which city did Jazz originate? New Orleans
15. Who were the Lost Generation artists and what did they represent? F. Scott Fitzgerald described the
tension and anxiety that underlay the carefree and frenzied life of the flapper generation; Ernest
Hemingway focused on the disillusionment of his generation and on the lonely isolated lives of heroic
men; Sinclair Lewis was critical of mainstream American society, portraying its members as banal,
materialistic, hypocritical, and smug
16. What were the central themes of the works produced by the Harlem Renaissance? Artists of the Harlem
Renaissance stressed the tragedy of poverty and the immorality of racism and offered a portrait of daily
life in black society. They stressed the dignity of African Americans and the universal humanity of all
American people.
17. What forms of music and dancing shaped the culture of the 1920s? Jazz was the principal music form to
enjoy a golden age in the 1920s. It originated with African American musicians in New Orleans and
moved northward through St. Louis to Chicago. Young people learned such dances as the Charleston,
the fox trot, and the tango.
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