The Roaring and the
Not So Roaring 1920s
1920s Slang
What caused the spread of slang
- Radio
What is the significance of slang
- It demonstrates a common national identity
- Slang is unique to America--shows how
Americans became isolated
Why was there slang?
- a way to speak without the cops knowing
- especially in response to Prohibition
Fear and Paranoia in the 1920s
- Failed Peace
- A desire for “normalcy” after the war and a fear
of communism and “foreigners” led to post war
isolation
-Harding will go back to the era of big business
First Red Scare
-Fear of communism
-There were a lot of Russian immigrants
-The Bolsheviks took over Russia in 1917, led by
Vladimir Lenin
-Communist party forms in the US and many radicals
join
-When mail bombs were being sent to the government
and business leaders action was then taken.
- response to First Red Scare: Palmer Raids (search for
conspiracy against US/arresting anyone suspicious)
- Palmer uses fear to gain national popularity.
Limitations on Immigration
- Nativism-prejudice against foreign born people
- The national origins act of 1924: established
immigration quotas that discriminated strongly
against people from outside Western Europe. (antiCatholic, anti Judaism)
- limited the amount of foreigners could come to
America
- contrasting to the previous decade when Ellis Island
was open to immigrants
- Foreign born radicals were deported without trial
- Xenophobic (anti-foreigner)
Nativism/KKK
- Return of the KKK- Ignorant people used anticommunism as an excuse to harass groups unlike
themselves. They only liked people who were white,
protestants, and Anglo-Saxon(British). Anti
Catholic/Anti Black/Anti Jewish
- Nativist-people who have been in America so long
that they feel they are true Americans not
immigrants. They feel they have the rights/only
American sentiment
Xenophobia - irrational dislike or fear of people from
other countries
Sacco and Vanzetti
- wrongly convicted of murder they did not commit and
were killed
- BECAUSE.... the judge hated immigrants and they
were framed and also they were anarchists. The jury
had a subjective attitude towards Sacco and Vanzetti.
- Were discriminated against by Nativists
Fundamental Religion
Scopes Monkey Trial
- John Scopes: teacher who was put on trial for
wanting to teach evolution to his students
- should evolution be taught?
- goes against some fundamentalist religions
- Schools were restricting the teaching of
evolution
CONTRAST: science vs. religion
- shows the tension within America (strict divide
between rural and urban setting)
Urban Modernists VS…
·
More money in the cities
·
Farm life was too slow and a backwards way to live
·
A new way of thinking/ living
·
Drinking, gambling, casual dating
·
Fast paced
Rural Fundamentalists
·
Slower pace, more intimate way of life
·
Strong sense of family and religion
·
Small town world of close ties, hard work, and strict morals
Cause and Effect of Prohibition (18th Amendment)
- When you tell Americans they cant have
something...they want it more!
- Men would come home from work drunk with no
money.
- Blamed everything on alcohol
- Impossible to legislate morality
- Stop the manufacture, sale, or transportation of
intoxicating liquors.
- This would seem patriotic because of America’s
entry to WWI because many breweries were owned
by German Americans
- This would also save grain for the war effort
- bootlegging occurred, other illegal ways to sell it
also.
- Did not work: not self-enforcing. There’s no penalty
for violating it. It simply sets up a policy and then tells
Congress and the states they can enforce it however
they see fit.
- Mobs became prevalent in American Society
because people relied on them for Alcohol
- The effect was the rise of the American Gangster
- Prohibition fostered corruption of law and law
enforcement among large segments of the
population.
- Al Capone made most of his money by
bootlegging (underground economy)
- Speakeasies were people who sold alcohol in the
backs of bars. You would go to them and then have to
hide your alcohol while you were in the bar.
- Volstead Acts
- Enabling legislation for the 18th amendment
- It enforces the 18th amendment
- Clearly defined an alcoholic beverage as one
with an alcoholic content great than .5 percent.
Ends in 1933--during the Depression
What made the 1920s roar?
- Consumerism
- credit?
- luxury goods
- Celebrities
- actors, actresses, sports players, etc
- new role models
- sex appeal
- Sports -- Famous athletes
- Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig transcended their
time and became stars
- Jack Dempsey was a famous boxer at the
time.
- Theater/Film
- first animations came out in this time
(Disney)
- theatre began to flourish
- Movie theatres
- Innovations
- New Cars (Henry Ford/Mass Production)
- Radios
- Automobiles
- Allowed people to travel more
- More vacation/free time
- Horse trails were replaced with roads
- Also led to the growth of other industries-insurance, road building, rubber industry,
gas stations.
- Fashion and Fads
- Flappers
- loose clothing
- Short hair
- women wear clothes that don’t show off
their figures
- easier to move/dance/get work done
- showing women’s equality
- Alcohol, Speakeasies
- Owners of speakeasies made a profit
because everyone wanted alcohol.
- Speakeasies were usually secretly built in
behind bars.
- People used hoses, hip flasks, etc. to hide
alcohol.
- Music
- Radio allowed musicians to reach a larger
audience
- inspired new dance/fashion (Flappers)
- Jazz, Gershwin.
- Literature
- The Harlem Renaissance caused a surge of
- African American literature
- ii. Themes included racial pride and racial
equality
- iii. Also the Lost Generation - Ex patriots
(people who left America and lived a
bohemian lifestyle in France)
- “Lost” their innocence from seeing
brutalities of war
- wrote about their disillusionment
Bohemian - a person who has informal and unconventional
social habits, esp. an artist or writer
The Harlem Renaissance
- What was it?
- A cultural movement in the 1920s America
during which black art, literature, and music
experienced renewal and growth, originating
in New York City’s Harlem district.
- The Great Migration
- Most African American communities were
centered in the South
- The rise of the KKK led to lynching’s
- African Americans escaped the lynching’s
by going North because there were
opportunities in industry
- 1.6 million of them ventured North
- Why New York?
- Opportunities in industry
- Why Else: The rise of the KKK
- The Great Migration
- Notable individuals
- Langston Hughes - writer/poet
- Zora Neal Hurston - novelist
- Themes include racial pride and racial
equality
Jazz
i. Originated with African American communities
ii. Reminiscent of West Africa, sound that defined
the era
iii. Flappers danced to it-- defied the tradition
IV. Popular among the younger generation
Henry Ford and Mass Production
- (Assembly Lines) more efficient and faster way to produce
items
- parts were made the same each time and could easily be
replaced
- Henry Ford allowed automobiles to become cheaper, and
therefore, easier for the consumer to obtain access to.
Knocked out small businesses. Revolutionized production
Revolutionized the industry.
The return to normalcy--A Republican
Resurgence/Conservative Politics
•
Warren G. Harding, Ohio Senator turned President
•
1920 Republican Presidential Nominee that
promised a “return to normalcy”
▪ After the war, he wanted everything to
go back to the way it was prior to the
war
▪ Wanted to return to more conservative
economic policies that would enable big
business to prosper
▪ Isolationism = foreign policy
▪ High tariffs
▪ US was weary after fighting a world war
▪
Wanted a president to take care of the country
▪
Disillusioned by Wilson’s failure to create new
world order
▪ Americans sought stability
▪
Return to laissez faire economics
▪
Against progressive movements
In what way was the 1920s an era of contrasts?
- The depression vs. the roaring 20s
- False Prosperity--most of the wealth
concentrated in the hands of a small group
of people (1%/Businesses).
- Fundamentalist religious groups vs. science
(evolution)
- Scopes Monkey Trial
- the trial was based off of John T. Scopes’
teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution in his
science class in Dayton, Tennessee.
- In Tennessee it was illegal to teach
anything, but creationism
- So clearly, he did commit a crime
- In trial, Scopes’ was represented by
Clarence Darrow, a Chicago attorney
that was known for winning lost cause
cases. The state of Tennessee was
represented by William Jennings
Bryan. He was a strict believer in the
bible, a populist, a fundamentalist, and
a creationist.
- Clearly, Scopes’ broke the law, but his’
and Darrow’s point for going to trial was
to convince the bible belt and the nation
that it was an unjust law and that both
sides could be taught
- By the end of a long, hot, and
rigorous trial Scopes’ was only
fined a $100 and went on through
the court system to get the law
overturned. He did eventually get
it overturned and his fine was
repealed although he paid it
anyway.
- Bryan died a few days after the
completion of the trial
Rural vs. Urban
- there was a big contrast between people
that lived in cities and people on farms.
To what extent was the 1920s a “roaring” decade?
- Big business was thriving and it seemed that the economy
was doing well, but…
- …There was a false view of wealth which led to over
spending
Large debts led to the Great Depression
credit = bad
FALSE PROSPERITY
12.
Possible Essay Topics in my mind (don’t take my word
for it):
What made the 1920s roar and not roar?
In what way was the 1920s an era of contrasts?
Explain the causes and effects of Prohibition (18th
Amendment)?
Why did America become isolationist and why was
their a fear of immigrants?