CHAPTER 13 SECTION 3
Education and Popular
Culture
MAIN IDEA:
The mass media, movies,
and spectator sports played
important roles is creating
the popular culture of the
1920s-a culture that many
artists and writers criticized.
EDUCATION BEFORE THE 1920s
1.
2.
3.
4.
Enrollments- 1 million high school
students
Types of Courses-high school
courses centered to college bound
students
Immigrants- Many immigrant
students spoke some English (English
and Irish)
Financing- costs doubled from
1913-1920
EDUCATION DURING THE 1920s
1.
2.
3.
4.
Enrollments- 4 million high school
students
Types of Courses-Catered to broad
range of students including those
interested in vocational training and
home economics
Immigrants- Many spoke no English
Financing- Costs doubled again
totaling $2.7 billion a year between
1926
MAGAZINES
TIME (1923)
READERS DIGEST
(1922)
Circulation of 2
million each
 Most
RADIO
powerful form of
communication to emerge
 KOKA-Pittsburgh-first
commercial radio station,
listeners tuned in for news,
entertainment, and
advertisements
 MELODY MAKER (page 447)
SPORTS
Babe Ruth-record 60 homeruns in 1927
 Jack Dempsey-heavyweight champ
 Gene Tunney-defeated Dempsey in
1927
 Helen Wills-dominated women’s tennis;
won singles at Wimbledon 8X; US Open
7X
 Gertrude Ederle-at 19 became first
woman to swim the English Channel
 Andrew Foster-1920 founded the Negro
National League; “The Father of Black
Baseball”

The
MOVIES
Jazz Singer-1927 the
first major movie with
sound
Steamboat Willie- Walt
Disney’s first animated
film with sound (1928)
Movies called “talkies”
Theater, Music and Art
O’Neill- Famous play The Hairy
Ape; forced Americans to reflect upon
modern isolationism, confusion and
family conflict
 George Gershwin-Concert Music
Composer; influenced by Louis
Armstrong and traditional music
 Edward Hopper-Painter
 Georgia O’Keeffe-produced intensely
colored canvases that captured New
York
 Eugene
 Sinclair
Literature
Lewis-first American
to win a Nobel Prize in
literature; novel Babbitt
 F. Scott Fitzgerald-coined the
term “Jazz Age”; The Great
Gatsby (revealed the negative
side of the period’s freedom,
portraying wealthy and
attractive people leading
imperiled lives
 Edith Whatton-clash between
traditional and modern values
Literature
 Edna
St. Vincent Millay-wrote
poems celebrating youth and
life
 Ernest Hemingway-wounded in
WWI; most well-known author;
criticized the glorification of war
Introduced a simplified style
of writing
 T.S. Elliot-poem The Waste Land
CHARLES LINDBERGH
st
1 non-stop
flight across
the Atlantic
Ocean