Changes in American Culture in the 1920s

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Changes in American Culture in the 1920s

• The New School Values

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The Roaring 20s

• An era of prosperity,
• Republican power,
• and conflict

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• 1920's collectively known as the "Roaring 20's",
  or the "Jazz Age"
• a period of great change in American Society -
  modern America is born at this time
• for first time the census reflected an urban
  society - people had moved into cities to enjoy a
  higher standard of living

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Age of Prosperity

• Economic expansion
• Mass Production
• Assembly Line
• Age of the Automobile

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But NOT for Farmers!!!!

• an agricultural depression in early 1920's
  contributed to this urban migration
• High tariffs for Europeans goods meant no one was
  buying US farm products U.S. farmers lost
  markets in postwar Europe
• at same time efficiency increased so more food
  produced - more food lower prices) overall
  profit was less
• Still had to pay off loans but didnt have
  money banks began to repossess

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The New Morality

• Ideas about relationships change
• Now more about personal satisfaction
• Became popular through media and magazines
• Reproductive freedom
• Women in the Workforce
• More single women
• More women are attending college
• Encouraged women to pursue careers
• More people owned cars more freedom

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Art and Literature

• Changes in life were illustrated strongly in art,
  literature and culture
• Many artists and writers challenged old school
  values
• Greenwich Village in NYC became hotbed of
  artists, writers, musicians and new lifestyle

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Poets and Writers

• Many different styles some writers had great
  impact on culture - Lost Generation
• Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, TS Eliot
• Playwright Eugene ONeill
• Plays filled with realistic characters and
  situations real vision of life
• Ernest Hemingway famous novelist
• Created new style of fiction direct, simple
  prose
• F. Scott Fitzgerald most famous writer of era
• Great Gatsby

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Republican Power

• President Harding
• Elected 1920
• Return to Normalcy
• Not a Progressive did not like government
  intervention
• Legacy of Scandals
• Teapot Dome
• Died in office

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President Coolidge The business of America is
business.

• Fordney-McCumber Tariff
• Smoot-Hawley Tariff
• No help for farmers
• Isolationist Foreign Policy

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Culture of the Roaring 20s
Radio KDKA Pittsburgh GE, Westinghouse, RCA form
NBC
Silent Movies Charlie Chaplin Talkies The Jazz
Singer Starring Al Jolson Mary
Pickford Americas Sweetheart
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Celebrities
Babe Ruth Ty Cobb
Charles Lindbergh The Spirit of St. Louis
Jack Dempsey
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The 20s is The Jazz Age
The Flappers make up cigarettes short skirts
Musicians Louis Armstrong Duke Ellington
Writers F. Scott Fitzgerald Ernest Hemingway
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Popular Culture

• Economic prosperity created more money and
  leisure time
• People spent more time having fun
• People watched sports, enjoyed music, theater and
  other entertainment
• Baseball and Boxing reached new popularity
• Babe Ruth worldwide celebrity on and off the
  field

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Popular culture

• Movies most popular form of entertainment
• Most people also had radios
• Radio shows very popular
• Helped bring people the news
• Role of Mass Media beginning to grow
• Can help shape public opinion, interests etc.
• Helped unify country and spread new ideas

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A Society in Conflict

• Anti-immigrant
• National Origins Act limits immigration
• Discrimination
• Sacco-Vanzetti Trial

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The Ku Klux Klan
Great increase In power
Anti-black
Anti-immigrant
Anti-Semitic
Anti-Catholic
Anti-womens suffrage
Anti-bootleggers
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Scopes Monkey Trial
Evolution vs. Creationism
Science vs. Religion
Dayton, Tennessee
Famous Lawyers
John Scopes High School Biology teacher
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Prohibition
18th Amendment
Volstead Act
Gangsters
untouchables
Al Capone
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• PROHIBITION - on manuf. and sale of alcohol
• adopted in 1919 - 18th AMENDMENT
• WWI, temperance became a patriotic movement
• a difficult law to enforce... organized crime,
  speakeasies, bootleggers were on the rise
• Al Capone
• Prohibition finally ended in 1933 w/ the 21st
  Amendment