AMERICAN CULTURAL
HISTORY
1920-1929
FACTS about this decade.







106,521,537 people in the United
States 2,132,000 unemployed, Unemployment
5.2%
Life expectancy: Male 53.6, Female 54.6
343.000 in military (down from 1,172,601 in
1919)
Average annual earnings $1236; Teacher's
salary $970
Illiteracy rate reached a new low of 6% of the
population.
Gangland crime included murder, swindles,
racketeering
It took 13 days to reach California from New
York There were 387,000 miles of paved road.
ART & ARCHITECTURE





Early modernism in art, design, and architecture, which began at the
turn of the century, continued through to 1940 and the war.
In cities, Skyscrapers (first in 1870s) were erected and hundreds of
architects competed for the work. The first successful design was the
Woolworth Building in New York.
In Chicago, the Wrigley building was designed by Graham,
Anderson, Probst, and White while the Chicago Tribune Tower was
designed by Howells and Hood.
The Art Deco design was exemplified by the Chrysler and Empire
State Buildings (depression projects - the Empire State Building
completed early 1931.)
Frank Lloyd Wright was prolific during this period, designing homes
in California and in Japan.
ART & ARCHITECTURE







The term Art Deco (1925-1950) is derived from the International Art
Exposition in Paris in 1925.
In the 20s and 30s art of that style was referred to as modern. Designers
included Karl (Kem) Weber and Eliel Saarinen.
Art movements included the modernist movement [George Luks, Charles W.
Hawthorne].
Abstract expressionism [Willem de Kooning].
Surrealism, and dadaism [Georgia O'Keeffe, Morgan Russell, Man
Ray], realism [ Thomas Hart Benton, Edward Hopper, Grant Wood, Leon
Kroll].
Landscape [Aldro Thompson Hibbard, N.C. Wyeth].
Horace Pippin is considered one of America's foremost primitive or naive
painters. The best museums featured shows by these important artists.
BOOKS & LITERATURE


Following WWI (the war to end all wars), talented young authors,
some expatriates in France, wrote about their feelings of
disillusionment and alienation. A sense of rebellion developed and
the Victorian idea of decency was considered hypocritical. Writers
began to write frankly about sexuality.
Three important groups during this period were: The Algonquin
Round Table, also called THE ROUND TABLE, informal group of
American literary men and women who met daily for lunch on
weekdays at a large round table in the Algonquin Hotel in New York
City during the 1920s and '30s. Many of the best-known writers,
journalists, and artists in New York City were in this group. Among
them were Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott (author of the
quote "All the things I really like are immoral, illegal, or fattening",
Heywood Broun, Robert Benchley,Robert Sherwood, George S.
Kaufman, Franklin P. Adams, Marc Connelly, Harold Ross, Harpo
Marx, and Russell Crouse.
RESUME
by Dorothy
Parker

Razors pain you; Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give;
Gas smells awful; You might as well
live.
The Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance is considered
the first important movement of
black artists and writers in the
US. Centered in Harlem, NY, and
other urban areas during the
1920s, black writers published
more than ever
before. Influential and lasting
black authors, artists, and
musicians received their first
serious critical appraisal. This
group included Zora Neale
Hurston, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston
Hughes, Jean Toomer, and Alain
Locke , who was considered the
chief interpreter for the Harlem
movement.
Silhouette
by Langston
Hughes

Southern gentle lady,
Do not swoon.
They've just hung a black man
In the dark of the moon. They've hung a
black man
To the roadside tree
In the dark of the moon
For the world to see
How Dixie protects
Its white womanhood
Southern gentle lady,
Be good!
Be good!
The Lost Generation

The Lost Generation, the self-exiled expatriates
who lived and wrote in Paris between the
wars. These writers, looking for freedom of thought
and action, changed the face of modern
writing. Realistic and rebellious, they wrote what
they wanted and fought censorship for profanity
and sexuality. They incorporated Freudian ideas
into their characters and styles. This group included
Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, John Dos Passos,
Henry Miller, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Gertrude Stein
“I am very busy finding out what people mean by
what they say.”
Quote by Gertrude Stein, who coined the phrase, Lost
Generation

Books and Literature

Others who were important during this decade include
e. e. cummings experimented with language (and
punctuation!), William Faulkner was an important part
of the Southern Renaissance, Edna St. Vincent Millay
expressed the defiance and desires of her generation
from Greenwich Village, and Eugene O'Neill drew
attention to a serious American stage. AND, we can't
leave out the beginning of the Golden Age of
Mysteries. and introducing America's own contribution to
the mystery novel, the hard-boiled, with writers such as
Raymond Chandler and Dashielle Hammett and paving
the way for the future.
e.e. cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear; and
whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)
i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and
it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and
whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest
secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the
bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called
life;which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can
hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Books That Define the Time








The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot | The ultimate indictment of the modern world's loss
of personal, moral, and spiritual values.
The New Negro by Alain Locke | A hopeful look at the negro in America
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald | The American dream that anyone
can achieve anything [ Connect to a Fitzgerald index. ]
Strange Interlude by Eugene O'Neill | A look at 30 years in the life of a modern
woman
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway | The lost generation of expatriates
Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis | A satirical look at small town life
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner | Details the moral decay of the
Old South
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston | Black life in a Black
community
FADS & FASHION











Fads and slang of the day:
A period of slang: slang used for "girls or women": a broad, a bunny, a canary (well, one who
could sing), a charity girl (one who was sexually promiscuous), a dame, a doll, cat's meow, cat's
whiskers
Jazz age jargon included: Joe College - better yet a Joe Yale - or a Joe Zilch , jazzbo,
jellybean, blind date, upchuck, jazz babies, pos-a-loot-ly, and the real McCoy.
Games included mah-jngg, ouija boards, and crossword puzzles
Endurance races of all sorts gained popularity and included Marathons and flagpole sitting
Dance marathons - began in 1923 and really became the rage.
Harry Houdini was the great escape of the 1920s.
American Baseball! and other sports were very popular.
Miss America contest began in Atlantic City in 1921. Margaret Gorman (16 years old) was the
first winner with measurements of 30-25-32
Dance crazes included the Charleston, the Black Bottom, and the Shimmy.
Dining at Sardi's.
Costumes / Fashion



Men: Clothing for men became a bit more conservative in the 1920s. Trousers widened to as
wide as 24 inches at the bottomes. Knickers grew in width and length and were called 'plus
fours'. White linen was popular during the summer. And during the winter, an outstanding
American coat was popular - the racoon coat. These were very popular with the college men.
The slouch hat was made of felt and could be rolled up and packed into a suitcase. A wool
suit was only $15.85. Garters were 40 cents. All this and a 12" long cigarette holder.
Cigarettes were 10 cents a pack.
Women: By 1921 the longer skirt was back - some long and uneven at the bottom. The short
skirt was popular by 1925. This period was called the Flapper Age. No bosom, no waistline,
and hair nearly hidden under a cloche hat. This decade began the present hey-dey for the
manufacturing of cosmetics. Powder, lipstick, rouge, eyebrow pencil, eye shadow, colored
nails. They had it all! AND pearls.
This period marked the spread of ready-to-wear fashion. More women were wage earners
and did not want to spent time on fittings. The status symbol aspect of fashion was losing its
importants as class distinctions were becoming blurred. Inexpensive fashion became
available. America moved ahead of other countries mass production of contemporary style
clothing for women. America even produced several designers of this fashion including Jane
Derby.
HISTORIC EVENTS AND PEOPLE


Thanks to Henry Ford and mass production, one could buy a ford for $290.
The Volstead Act became effective Jan 16, 1920 and made the sale of a drink
containing as much as one half-ounce of alcohol unlawful. This one unsuccessful act
brought about much of the flavor of the Jazz Age or Roaring Twenties as we know
them. This was a period of prohibition and intolerance, speakeasies, flappers,
gangsters, and crime. Hootch was supplied by Dutch Schultz and Al Capone. The
Nineteenth Amendment had passed the previous year allowing women the right to
vote in national elections. At the beginning of the decade the US was paralyzed by
the grip of the red scare . Racial tensions were high and quotas were set for
immigrants coming into America. The Ku Klux Klan was very active during this
period. The decade was a wonderful one for all of the arts and literature in
America. Technology grew - the country shrunk - as popularity of automobiles,
radios, and movies exploded. Buying on credit or installments was an outcome of
the industrial age. In the fall of 1929, the New York Stock Exchange was more
active than it had ever been. Economists predicted a permanent high plateau. By
October 24, 1929, Black Thursday, the stock market crashed and panic broke out.
Banks closed. The nation stayed in this depression through the end of the twenties
and most of the thirties. Check out the Regulatory environment of the 1920s.