“We have seen man at his lowest,
woman at her lightest, in the terrible
moral chaos of Europe. We have been
forced to question, and in many cases
to discard, the religion of our
fathers…We have been forced to live
in an atmosphere of ‘tomorrow we die,’
and so, naturally, we drank and were
merry.”
~John F. Carter, Jr., Atlantic Monthly
Mass Media
•Literacy increases
-schooling is expanded to
educate the masses
•Prosperous times and higher
education standards
-new coverage of events began
to shape public opinion
•Newspapers and magazines
-invention of radio became a
powerful influence
•Shared experience of hearing
things as they happen
Radio shows became the most popular
form of mass media in the 1920s. Many
people were required to record a radio
show, and those people showed up to work
dressed in their best attire. Radio shows
also included many different sound effects
to give the listener a feeling of actually
being “in” the show.
Cultural Arts
-George Gershwin
“Rhapsody in Blue”
•Merged traditional elements
with jazz; truly American sound
-Georgia O’Keefe
•Painted colorful canvases to
capture grandeur of NY
In Radiator Building—Night, New York (1927),
Georgia O’Keefe showed the dark buildings of
New York City thrusting into the night sky.
Literature
-many writers felt alienated by
the 20’s
•Too much materialism and loss
of values
-Sinclair Lewis
•Nobel prize winner who
criticized Americans for
conformity and materialism
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
•“Jazz Age”
•Negative side of 1920s
“A sensational event was changing from the brown
suit to the gray the contents of his pockets. He was
earnest about these objects. They were of eternal
importance, like baseball or the Republican Party.
They included a fountain pen and a silver
pencil…which belonged in the right-hand upper vest
pocket. Without them he would have felt naked. On
his watch-chain were a gold penknife, silver
cigarette cutter, seven keys…and incidentally a good
watch…”
~Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt
Literature
-Gertrude Stein
“Lost Generation”
“THE ROAD NOT TAKEN”
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and II took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
•Group of American writers who
hated 1920s life
-Ernest Hemingway
“For Whom the Bell Tolls”
“Farewell to Arms”
•Hated glorification of war
-T.S. Eliot
“Wasteland”
-Robert Frost
“Road not Taken”
Heroes
-increased leisure time allowed
people to pursue pastimes
•Power of the individual
-Babe Ruth
•Famed baseball player
-Jack Dempsey & Gene Tunney
•Boxers
-Red Grange
•Football player
-Notre Dame
-Bobby Jones
•Golfer
New York Yankee slugger Babe Ruth smashed
home run after home run during the 1920s.
When this legendary star hit a record 50 home
runs in 1927, America went wild.
Lucky Lindy
-trans-Atlantic flight
-Charles A. Lindbergh
•Wants to win $25,000
-Spirit of St. Louis
-American hero
•Stood for honesty and bravery
America’s most beloved hero of the time wasn’t an
athlete but a small-town pilot named Charles
Lindbergh, who made the first nonstop solo flight
across the Atlantic. Lindbergh decided to go after
a $25,000 prize offered for the first nonstop solo
transatlantic flight. On May 20, 1927, he took off
near NYC in the Spirit of St. Louis, flew up the
coast to Newfoundland, and headed over the
Atlantic. The weather was so bad, Lindbergh
recalled, that “the average altitude for the
whole…second 1,000 miles was less than 100
feet.” After 33 hours and 29 minutes, Lindberg
landed just outside of Paris, France, amid
beacons, searchlights, and mobs of enthusiastic
people.
-Amelia Earhart
•First woman to fly across the
Atlantic
Motion Pictures
-Hollywood emerges
-Charlie Chaplin
“Little Tramp”
-Clara Bow
“It Girl”
-Rudolph Valentino
-talking films, 1927
“Jazz Singer”
-Mickey Mouse, 1930
African American Goals
•Black is Beautiful
•NAACP fights for anti-lynching
laws in Congress
-Black Nationalism
•Build a separate black society
-Marcus Garvey
-Back to Africa movement
“In view of the fact that the black man of
Africa has contributed as much to the world as
the white man of Europe, and the brown and
yellow man of Asia, we of the Universal Negro
Improvement Association demand that the
white, yellow, and brown races give to the
black man his place in the civilization of the
world. We ask for nothing more than the
rights of 400 million Negroes.”
~Marcus Garvey
•Help native Africans fight
colonial rulers and build an
empire
Harlem Renaissance
•World’s largest black
community
Writer of Their Eyes
Were Watching God,
Zora Neale Hurston
-literary and artistic movement
-celebrated African American
culture
•“New Negro” with pride in black
experience
-Langston Hughes
-Claude McKay
-Zora Neale Hurston
“If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, . . .
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!”
~Claude McKay
“If We Must Die”
“Children’s Rhymes”
~Langston Hughes
By what sends
the white kids
I ain't sent:
I know I can't
be President.
What don't bug
them white kids
sure bugs me:
We know everybody
ain't free.
Lies written down
for white folks
ain't for us a-tall:
Liberty And Justice-Huh!--For All?
“I, too, Sing America”
~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.
“Dinner Guest, Me”
~Langston Hughes
I know I am
The Negro Problem
Being wined and dined,
Answering the usual questions
That come to white mind
Which seeks demurely
To Probe in polite way
The why and wherewithal
Of darkness U.S.A.-Wondering how things got this way
In current democratic night,
Murmuring gently
Over fraises du bois,
"I'm so ashamed of being white."
The lobster is delicious,
The wine divine,
And center of attention
At the damask table, mine.
To be a Problem on
Park Avenue at eight
Is not so bad.
Solutions to the Problem,
Of course, wait.
“Democracy”
~Langston Hughes
Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.
I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.
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.
Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.
I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.
Black Artists
-Paul Robeson
•Actor
-Louis Armstrong
•Jazz Musician
-Duke Ellington
•Jazz Musician and Composer
-Bessie Smith
Jazz was born in the early 20th century in New
Orleans, where musicians blended
instrumental ragtime and vocal blues into an
exuberant new sound. Famous for his
astounding sense of rhythm and his ability to
improvise, Louis Armstrong made personal
expression a key part of jazz. Armstrong went
on to become perhaps the most important and
influential musician in the history of jazz. Jazz
was centered in Harlem, and people from all
around would come to hear Louis Armstrong,
Duke Ellington, and Bessie Smith.
•Blues singer