UNIT 5 – THE
ROARING 20’S
UNIT 5
Chapter 20 – Postwar Social Change
Chapter 21 – Politics and Prosperity
America: Pathways to the Present
Chapter 20: Postwar Social Change (1920–1929)
Section 1: Society in the 1920s
Section 2: Mass Media and the Jazz Age
Section 3: Cultural Conflicts
 UNIT OBJECTIVE: Explain the social, political, and economic
events of the 1920’s.
 Objective 5.1: How did urbanization, mass media, jazz, and
literature affect American life in the 1920’s?
 THEME: American society changes in many ways following World War I
as the Jazz Age introduces new styles, taste, and manners. Conflict arose
between Americans ready to adopt change and those who resisted.
Presidents of the United
States
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George Washington; Federalist (1788) #21 - …
John Adams; Federalist (1796)
Chester A. Arthur; Republican (1881)
Thomas Jefferson (1800)
Grover Cleveland; Democrat (1884)
James Madison (1808)
Benjamin Harrison; Republican (1888)
James Monroe (1816)
Grover Cleveland; Democrat (1892)
John Quincy Adams (1824)
William McKinley; Republican (1896)
Andrew Jackson; Democrat (1828)
Theodore Roosevelt; Republican (1901)
Martin Van Buren; Democrat (1836)
William Howard Taft; Republican (1908)
William Henry Harrison; Whig (1840) Woodrow Wilson; Democrat (1912)
John Tyler; Whig (1841)
Warren G. Harding; Republican (1920)
James K. Polk; Democrat (1844)
Calvin Coolidge; Republican (1923)
Zachary Taylor; Whig (1848)
Herbert Hoover; Republican (1928)
Millard Fillmore; Whig (1850)
Franklin Pierce; Democrat (1852)
James Buchanan; Democrat (1856)
Abraham Lincoln; Republican (1860)
Andrew Johnson; Democrat (1865)
Ulysses S. Grant; Republican (1868)
Rutherford B. Hayes; Republican (1876)
James Garfield; Republican (1880)
Chapter 20 SECTION 1 –
Society in the 1920’s
American society changes in many ways following World War I as the
Jazz Age introduces new styles, taste, and manners. Conflict arose
between Americans ready to adopt change and those who resisted.
DIFFERENCES?
 What are the
differences in
dress?
 What are the
differences in
mood or attitude?
THE FLAPPER
 Flappers were a "new breed" of young fun-loving women in the
1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz.
 Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, smoking,
driving automobiles, and working outside the home. They desired more equality.
 Flappers challenged ideals
of female behavior &
symbolized a revolution in
1920’s manners.
 Many Americans disapproved of
flappers’ free manners (685 p. 2)
 Only about 20% of women
worked, many had a hard time
gaining professional posts
Suburbs
Grow
 Many moved from cities to
suburbs due to transportation
improvements. (cars/buses)
 Improvements in transportation made travel between the cities and
suburbs increasingly easy. (Buses & cars replaced trolleys and buggies)
 Over the decade, 6 million move from farm to city
 This shift in population was one example of changing demographics,
or statistics that describe a group of people, during the 1920s.
 Many in the cities were abandoning traditional values,
rural populations wanted to keep these values.
AMERICAN HEROES
 Charles Lindbergh
 The first to fly nonstop across the Atlantic
 Flew from New York to Paris in May of 1927 in the Spirit of St. Louis
 was hailed as an American hero and a champion of traditional values.
 Amelia Earhart
 Born in Atchison, KS (1897)
 Amelia Earhart set records as the first woman to fly solo
across the Atlantic and the first person to fly solo from Hawaii
to California.
 She and her navigator mysteriously disappeared while attempting to fly
around the world in 1937.
HOW DO PEOPLE GET SO FAMOUS?!?!
GOLDEN AGE OF SPORTS
 More people begin to follow the
events due to the increase in
media outlets. (RADIO!)
 What were the top sports in the
1920’s?
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BASEBALL: “America’s Pastime”
BOXING
HORSERACING
Football is a minor sport but Knute Rockne
is building Notre Dame into a powerhouse
 New stadiums built to attract more
fans.
 Would fill with the largest crowds at a
sporting event since the fall of Rome.
Most famous baseball player of
1920’s: George Herman “Babe”
Ruth
 B 1895 – D 1948
 When he retired in 1935 he
held 56 major league
records, including most
home runs in a season and
most HR all-time (714)
 Known as the “Sultan of
Swat,” is perhaps the most
well-known sports figure in
any sport ever.
Society in the 1920s—
Assessment
Why were some Americans opposed to flappers?
(A)Flappers opposed the Nineteenth Amendment.
(B) Flappers challenged traditional values.
(C) Americans preferred sports heroes.
(D)Americans thought that flappers encouraged
immigration.
Which of the following was a migration pattern in the 1920s?
(A)From cities to suburbs
(B) From suburbs to cities
(C) From suburbs to rural areas
(D)From the United States to Canada and Mexico
Society in the 1920s—
Assessment
Why were some Americans opposed to flappers?
(A)Flappers opposed the Nineteenth Amendment.
(B) Flappers challenged traditional values.
(C) Americans preferred sports heroes.
(D)Americans thought that flappers encouraged
immigration.
Which of the following was a migration pattern in the 1920s?
(A)From cities to suburbs
(B) From suburbs to cities
(C) From suburbs to rural areas
(D)From the United States to Canada and Mexico
CHAPTER 20
SECTION 2
Mass Media and the
Jazz Age
MASS MEDIA
 Mass Media helped form a common American
culture during the 1920’s.
 Mass media is methods for communicating with large numbers of people
 Radio was the fastest growing 20’s media source.
• An Italian physicist invents means of communication by radio waves in
1896
• The first radio station is KDKA in Pittsburgh, which transmitted sports
scores and recorded music
• By 1922, more than 500 stations are on air
 Newspapers grew in both size and circulation.
 Tabloids, compact papers which replaced serious news with
entertainment, became popular.
 Magazines also became widely read.
SILENT FILM!
 The popularity of motion pictures grew throughout the 1920s
• Films in the early 1900’s were “silent”, with captions and music added in
 “TALKIES,” or movies with sound, were introduced in 1927.
 Charlie Chaplin
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpjEyBKSfJQ
 Disney’s Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (EXIT TICKET)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbMW51SLFX8&list=PL1244
68B90E7A43EC
 Jazz, a style of music that grew out of the African American
music of the South, became highly popular during the 1920’s.
 Harlem, a district in Manhattan, New York, became a center of jazz.
 A purely American creation, relied on traditional themes from
southern communities and improvisation.
 Spread throughout America and be adopted by white musicians and
audiences.
 The Jazz Age is a period in the
1920’s when upbeat music and
dance became popular
• The spread of jazz was encouraged by
the introduction of large-scale radio
broadcasts in 1922
DANCE
 Flappers and others heard jazz in clubs and dance halls; the Charleston,
considered by some to be a wild and reckless dance, embodied the Jazz
Age.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNAOHtmy4j0&index=9&list=PL
ZG4xTRkahQOp6cdH8XHfbNKGKlicHwf9
 The Charleston was the
most popular dance of
the era
 Every generation has a
“dance”:
•
•
•
1990’s: Hammer Time, Tootsie
Roll
2000’s: Superman, Harlem
Shake
Current: Whip/Nae Nae
 Writers who disconnected from
their country and its values.
 Critical of American society for it’s
WWI values and materialism.
 Disillusioned by the society and politics of
the 1920s.
 Lost Generation was a nickname given to a group of American writers after
World War I.
• Gertrude Stein remarked to Ernest Hemingway that he and other American
writers were all a “Lost Generation”
Flocked to Paris or Greenwich Village, NY to escape &
live cheaply.
• Wanted to “escape the conspiracy against the individual.”
 Popular writers were F. Scott
Fitzgerald and Ernest
Hemingway
 Fitzgerald:
 From Minnesota, attended Princeton,
and served in WWI.
 The Great Gatsby, 1925.
 Most famous work of Fitzgerald,
described the life a modern
millionaire as being coarse,
unscrupulous, and in love with
another man’s wife.
 Wastes his money on parties and
women.
 Written by Ernest
Hemingway (1929)
• Is considered one of the
greatest American novels ever.
 Discussed the confusion and
horrors of World War I.
 Summed up in the following passage: “I was embarrassed by the words
sacred, glorious, and sacrifice…We had…read them, on proclamations, now
for a long time, and I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were
glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards in Chicago,
if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it….Abstract words such as
glory, honor, courage were obscene.”
The Harlem
Renaissance
 In addition to being a center of jazz, Harlem emerged as an overall cultural
center for African Americans.
 An African American literary awakening took place in Harlem
in the 1920s that was known as the Harlem Renaissance.
 Why Harlem?
• Largest African American city in the
world, would become the cultural
capital of African Americans, as well
as a place for Whites to flock to
experience jazz and other forms of
African-American culture.
 Expressed a range of emotions
from bitterness to joy and hope.
 Expressing the joys and
challenges of being African
American
•
Writers such as James Weldon
Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, and
Langston Hughes enriched African
American culture as well as
American culture as a whole.
 Langston Hughes “Democracy”
I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.
“The Postman”, Malvin Johnson
Mass Media and the Jazz Age—
Assessment
Which of these best describes how the growth of mass
media affected American culture?
(A)It allowed local cultural traditions to flourish.
(B) It made learning the Charleston easier.
(C) It spread the work of Lost Generation writers.
(D)It helped create a common American popular culture.
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
(A)A style of jazz music
(B) An African American literary awakening
(C) An increase in the popularity of newspapers and
magazines
(D)A type of jazz club found in Harlem
Mass Media and the Jazz Age—
Assessment
Which of these best describes how the growth of mass
media affected American culture?
(A)It allowed local cultural traditions to flourish.
(B) It made learning the Charleston easier.
(C) It spread the work of Lost Generation writers.
(D)It helped create a common American popular culture.
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
(A)A style of jazz music
(B) An African American literary awakening
(C) An increase in the popularity of newspapers and
magazines
(D)A type of jazz club found in Harlem