Guided Reading Activity Answers
The Charleston
Sweeps the Nation
And that was just the
beginning. In quick
succession, dances like the
Lindy Hop, the Black
Bottom, and the Breakaway
all came and went as the
most fashionable dances.
Crazy fads like flag pole
sitting, marathon dance
competitions, and mahjongg spread from coast to
coast. And occasionally,
people decided that
teaching their pet monkeys
to dance the Charleston
seemed like a pretty good
idea, too.
George Herman
“Babe” Ruth
The Sultan of Swat
smashed 7114 homeruns
during his career.
Originally a pitcher for
the Boston Red Sox, he
was sold to the New
York Yankees in 1919 –
and went on to win
seven pennants and
four World Series
during his time in
Yankee Stadium –
“The House that Ruth
Built!”
Charles Lindbergh – “Lucky Lindy”
Jazz
Jazz music is defined as a
musical form which
combined the rhythms from
West Africa and the
Caribbean, work chants and
spirituals from slaves and
sharecroppers in the rural
South, an the harmonies
from Europeans styles of
music into a new form. It is a
distinctly American form of
music – and an AfricanAmerican form of music at
that – which was brought
into popularity during the
1920s.
Jazz was created in the South, and
particularly in New Orleans, LA.
New Orleans Jazz Festival
Louis Armstrong
Jazz Musicians of the 1920s
Bessie Smith
Duke Ellington
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was perhaps the
most beloved composer of the
1920s and 1930s. While his pop
music was probably most well
known, he was also a classical
composer and accomplished as
both a performer and an
entertainer. Some of his greatest
hits include:
 Strike Up the Band
 I Got Rhythm
 Funny Face
He died of a brain tumor in 1937 at
the young age of 39.
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was a composer of
the 1920s and beyond who was
strongly influenced by Jazz but
eventually found his own niche in
the American musical spectrum.
He was bald and rather feeble
looking by the height of his
popularity, but his music spoke for
him. His most famous scores,
soundtracks, and songs include:
Fanfare for the Common Man
Billy the Kid (a ballet)
The Red Pony
Copland began his career in the
1920s, but was much more
productive during the 1930s and
1940s.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald, like many of the
“Lost Generation” of American
authors, was a critic of the
empty lives led by wealthy
Americans during the 1920s.
Many of these young and
influential authors found
Americans to be hypocritical
in their daily lives – banning
alcohol by Prohibition, but
visiting speakeasies – claiming
to be virtuous Christians, but
never visiting a church – the
list went on and on. Fitzgerald
himself led a very dubious sort
of lifestyle – perhaps he was
the hypocrite...
Ernest Hemingway, American Literature’s
20th Century Standard Bearer
The Sun Also Rises
A Moveable Feast
The Harlem
Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was
a literary movement which
took place in Harlem, a New
York City neighborhood
during the 1920s. AfricanAmerican poets, authors,
playwrights, artists,
musicians, and actors found
a forum for self expression
through their various arts.
In doing so, the black
community in the United
States was able to find a
literary and artistic voice to
express their own unique
experiences as Americans.
Langston Hughes
I, Too, Sing America
by Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed-I, too, am America.