The Roaring ‘20s
and the
Great Depression
Economics
The United States
• Became the world’s
top economic power
following WWI
• German & British
economies had been
wrecked by WWI
• The world economy
became completely
tied to the American
economy
Economic Boom
• A rise in the standard of
living during the 1920s led
to increased sales of
consumer goods which in
turn created more jobs
• Mechanization of factories
led to greater efficiency and
a drop in prices for
manufactured goods,
further encouraging
consumerism
Economic Imbalances
• Industrialized nations were
producing more goods
than were needed
• Demand for raw materials
dropped after WWI,
hurting non-industrialized
nations and farmers
• Factory workers won
higher pay, causing the
price of manufactured
goods to rise
Stock Speculation
• A long period of growth in the
stock market convinced
millions to take a risk and
invest in stocks
• Investors began “buying on
margin” – borrowing the
money to buy stocks, believing
those stocks would grow in
value and allow them to easily
repay the loans; but, if prices
dropped, they panicked and
sold quickly to avoid taking
large losses
“Black Tuesday”
• In late October, 1929 stock
prices began to slip,
triggering a mass sell-off as
investors panicked
• On Tuesday, Oct. 29 the
bottom fell out – the market
lost $15 billion in a single
day
• The market continued to
plunge for the next 3 years
and didn’t recover until
after WWII – a period
known as the “Great
Depression”
Banking Collapse
• Banks had made numerous loans
to stock speculators and had also
invested heavily themselves in
the stock market
• When the market collapsed,
banks lost big and had to stop
lending
• With credit restricted, the
economy went into a recession
• Many banks could not absorb
their losses and closed; people
who had deposited their money
in these banks lost everything –
this caused further panic and
people began to withdraw their
money from banks
Scientific Discoveries
Medical Advances
• Canadian scientists
discovered how to treat
diabetes using insulin
• British scientists
discovered penicillin for
treating infections
• French scientists
discovered how to treat
tuberculosis
Sigmund Freud
• 1856 – 1939
• Austrian doctor who pioneered
the field of psychoanalysis
• Developed the “talking therapy”
for treating simple neuroses
• Attempted to explain how
dreams develop
• Believed that all human
motivation was driven by
unfulfilled sexual desires
• Developed idea of ego & id
• Almost all of his theories were
incorrect, but they led to more
research into psychology
Marie Curie
• 1867 – 1934
• Polish-French scientist
• Won Nobel Prizes in
physics and chemistry
• Discovered 2 new
radioactive elements
(radium & polonium)
• Unfortunately, her
research also killed her –
she died from radiation
poisoning
Albert Einstein
• 1879 – 1955
• German / American
• Non-practicing Jew who left
Germany for the US due to
growing anti-Semitism
• Developed his theory of
relativity (E=mc²) which
explains the relationship
between time and space
• His theories helped in the
development of the atomic
bomb
Visual Artistic
Movements
Cubism: art made up of many broken
angles and planes
Pablo Picasso
• 1881 – 1973
• Spanish artist
• Known for painting in a
multitude of styles, but is
perhaps most famous for
his development of cubism
• 10 of his paintings have sold
since his death for over $60
million EACH, including two
for over $100 million
Abstract Art: art made up of lines, colors, & shapes
with no recognizable subject
Paul Klee
• 1879 – 1940
• Swiss artist
• Experimented with many
different forms of art,
including music – he even
“painted” music
• Deeply affected by the
death of many of his friends
in WWI
• Forced out of Germany by
the Nazis, moved back to
Switzerland
Dadaism: art “without discipline or
morality” which is designed to shock
Hans (Jean) Arp
• 1886 – 1966
• French-German
• Born in territory
disputed by France &
Germany
• Faked insanity to avoid
serving in the German
army in WWI
• Fled to Switzerland
during WWII
Surrealism: art that attempt to portray
the workings of the unconscious mind
Salvador Dali
• 1904 – 1989
• Spanish artist
• Eccentric, liked the
attention of fame
• Kicked out of art school
• Disowned by his family
over his art, sexuality,
and religious views
Bauhaus Architecture
Frank Lloyd Wright
• 1867 – 1959
• American architect
• Also designed
furniture, stained glass
windows
• Designed over 500
buildings, mostly
private homes, many
of which have been
preserved as historic
landmarks
Dorothea Lange
• 1895 – 1965
• Photojournalist
• Lange's photographs
humanized the tragic
consequences of the
Great Depression and
profoundly influenced
the development of
documentary
photography
Lange’s Photos
Literary
Movements
The Lost Generation
• Term used to describe
the generation which
reached adulthood
during the 1920s
• These young people
were “lost” in that they
felt trapped by the
corrupt, greedy society
in which they lived and
their own experiences
in WWI
Erich Maria Remarque
• 1898 – 1970
• German, served in WWI
• All Quiet on the Western
Front (1929)
• Eventually moved to U.S. in
1930s after Nazis banned
his work
• His sister was executed by
the Nazis just for being
related to him
F. Scott Fitzgerald
• 1896 – 1940
• Author of The Great
Gatsby (1925)
• Wrote numerous shortstories (including The
Curious Case of Benjamin
Button) and screenplays
in addition to his 4 novels
• Died from a heart attack
induced by alcoholism
Ernest Hemingway
• 1899 – 1961
• Author of novels such as
The Old Man and the Sea,
A Farewell to Arms, The
Sun Also Rises, and For
Whom the Bell Tolls
• Rugged adventurer who
liked bullfighting, hunting,
mountain climbing, and
other dangerous hobbies
• Committed suicide due to
depression and alcoholism
T.S. Eliot
• 1888 – 1965
• American author,
playwright, and poet
• Famous works include
the play Murder in the
Cathedral, and poems
The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock, and The
Waste Land
Eugene O’Neill
• 1888 – 1953
• American playwright
• His plays were among the
first to include speeches in
American vernacular and
involve characters on the
fringes of society, engaging
in depraved behavior,
where they struggle to
maintain their hopes and
aspirations, but ultimately
slide into disillusionment
and despair
John Steinbeck
• 1902 – 1968
• Author of The Grapes of
Wrath, a Pulitzer Prize
winning novel about the
tragedies which befell his
fictional family of Oklahoma
farmers during the Dust
Bowl
• Also wrote Of Mice and
Men, a story about the
tragic relationship between
two poor migrant farmers
William Faulkner
• 1897 – 1962
• Nobel Prize winning novelist
and short-story writer
• Nearly all of his works are
set in the South
• His unique style often
included using stream of
consciousness and focused
on a wide range of
characters
Motion Pictures
1920s Hollywood
Silent Films
• Motion pictures initially did
not have sound, so audiences
had to be able to understand
plots through entirely visual
means; this forced actors to
use highly exaggerated
motions
• Many early films were
comedies because “slapstick”
provided effective visuals
• Most successful actor of the
1920s was comedic star
Charlie Chaplin
Metropolis (1927)
• Silent film made in
Germany which many
consider to be the first
significant “science
fiction” film ever made
• Silent movies, since
they used no spoken
language, could be
effectively played
anywhere in the world
The Jazz Singer (1927)
• First “talkie” or film
which had a
synchronized
soundtrack for
dialogue
• This film’s success
spelled the end of
the silent picture era
Hollywood Escapism
• As the Great Depression set
in, people desperately
wanted to escape their
troubles, even if only for a
few hours
• Movies offered a cheap
form of escapism (most
theaters were also heated
and air-conditioned as well,
allowing people to escape
the chill or swelter of their
apartments!)
Marx Brothers
• Popular comedic act of
the period, they starred
in such films as Animal
Crackers (1930), and
Duck Soup (1933)
• Made feature films from
1921 to 1957
• 13 of their films were
included in the top 100
comedies ever made
Walt Disney
• 1901 – 1966
• Created Mickey Mouse
who first achieved
success in the cartoon
short Steamboat Willie
(1927)
• Disney would go on to
grow an animation,
film, and theme park
empire
http://youtu.be/BBgghnQF6E4
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
The Wizard of Oz
Gone With the Wind
Dracula & Frankenstein
Sports
• Many spectator sports were
extremely popular,
including golf, tennis,
boxing, and swimming
• Baseball had become
“America’s pass time”
• Football began to gain
prominence with the
founding of the National
Football League (NFL) in
1920
“Red” Grange
• 1903 – 1991
• “The Galloping Ghost”
• The first American
football star, Grange
played for the
University of Illinois and
then for the NFL’s
Chicago Bears as a star
running back
Jack Dempsey
• 1895 – 1983
• World Heavyweight
champion from 1919
to 1926
• First boxer to draw
more than $1 million
in ticket revenues for
a fight
“Babe” Ruth
• 1895 – 1948
• Played for 21 years (1914 –
35), mostly for the NY
Yankees
• Hit 714 home runs (still 3rd
most ever)
• Lived a celebrity lifestyle –
drank heavily, smoked, and
womanized – a trend he
started that lives on today
with many professional
athletes
Harlem Renaissance
• African-American cultural
movement of the 1920s and
1930s, centered around the
Harlem neighborhood of
NYC
• Included new literary,
artistic, and musical styles
which would go on to
heavily influence American
culture of the mid and late
20th century
Claude McKay
• 1889 – 1948
• Writer and poet who wrote
novels Home to Harlem, Banjo,
and Banana Bottom
• One of the first authors of the
Renaissance, McKay
represented a new AfricanAmerican voice, one which
rejected the ideals of Booker T.
Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois,
and Marcus Garvey, in favor of
taking pride in his culture and
pursuing full civil rights and
racial solidarity
Langston Hughes
• 1902 – 1967
• American novelist,
playwright, short story
writer, and magazine
columnist
• Pioneered new form of
poetry known as “jazz
poetry”
• Much of his work focuses
on the theme “black is
beautiful” and takes pride
in the diversity of AfricanAmerican culture
The Cotton Club
• 1920 – 1940
• Famous Harlem
nightclub which
featured jazz and blues
music
• Catered to a mostly
white audience, so
marked the first
significant exposure for
many whites to black
musical styles
The Apollo Theater
• Harlem theater which
originally opened in 1914,
but didn’t become a
predominantly black venue
until 1934
• Fell into decline in the
1960s and even became
just a simple movie theater
before being revived in
1983; today it has
protected federal
landmark status
Music
Louis Armstrong
•
•
•
•
1901 – 1971
Nicknamed “Satchmo”
Jazz trumpeter and singer
Popularized “scat” or
singing using disjointed
syllables instead of words
• Rose to fame quickly during
the 1920s and was equally
popular with both black and
white audiences
Duke Ellington
• 1899 – 1974
• Orchestra leader, pianist,
and song writer
• Elevated jazz from an
urban musical form to a
nearly classical level with
his “big band” style
• Led his orchestra for
over 50 years
Billie Holiday
• 1915 – 1959
• Crossed jazz over to
standard “pop” (popular
music)
• Also a song writer,
helping write such hits as
“God Bless the Child” and
“Lady Sings the Blues”
• Unfortunately, she
became a lifelong drug
addict and died from liver
failure after years of legal
troubles
Josephine Baker
• 1906 – 1975
• Dancer, singer, and actress
• Baker was the first African
American to star in a major
motion picture, to integrate an
American concert hall, and to
become a world-famous
entertainer
• Extremely popular in Europe,
her exotic stage show featured
her scantily clad or even nude
• In later years she became
heavily involved in the Civil
Rights movement
Charlie Poole
• 1892 – 1931
• North Carolina musician
who, along with his band
the North Carolina
Ramblers, became the first
major national country
music recording act
• When not recording, he
earned money as a textile
mill worker and as a
moonshiner
• Died of an alcohol induced
illness at just 39
Radio Serials
• Many people’s chief form of
entertainment was the
radio, which featured
episodic programming
much like television does
today, including such action
characters as the Green
Hornet and Lone Ranger, as
well as numerous “soap
operas” (dramatic
programming aimed at
women and usually
sponsored by laundry soap
companies)
Flappers
• Many young women
rebelled against the
mores of their parents
by wearing shorter
skirts, shorter
hairstyles, smoking,
drinking, dancing, and
dating without “adult”
chaperones
The Charleston