The Expansion of Mass Culture and Mass Leisure
Roaring Twenties of the 1920’s, Berlin, entertainment center of Europe.
Radio and Movies: Technological inventions of the late nineteenth century. Radio:
Mass Communication, mass audience, permanent broadcasting 1920’s, mass
production of radios. Movies: 1890’s short movies, full length films shortly before
WWI, 40% adults in industrial world attended the movies once a week. Shared
experiences….
1. What are the examples of political purposes of mass communication
through radio and film?
Mass Leisure: increase in free time due to an 8 hour work day in northern and
western Europe. Sports, stadium building, mass sporting events. World War I
extended opportunities for the masses to travel, air travel (rich) trains, buses,
private cars to the beaches, paid vacations for salaried workers or in fascist nations
to promote state needs.
2. Describe organized mass leisure in Italy’s Dopolavoro and Germany’s Kraft
durch Freude.
The movement towards mass leisure and mass culture (mass production and mass
consumerism) was a continuation of the mass politics, development of a nation
state during the late 19th century.
3. Describe this change from before the 1850’s.
4. Analyze how industrialization and imperialism contributed to the
development of consumer culture in the period 1850 – 1914.
5. How do the cultural and intellectual trends of the 1920’s and 1930’s reflect a crisis of confidence in western
civilization?