WU: Roaring 20s

1
WU Roaring 20s

• Why were the 1920s considered Roaring? Give at
  least two reasons the 20s earned this positive
  nickname. Based on what we learned yesterday
  about the tensions of the 20s, do you think this
  nickname is accurate? Why or why not?

2
The Roaring Twenties

• Mrs. Housenick
• APUSH
• 2/18/10

3
On a Lighter Note What did make the 20s roar?

• Prosperity
• New industriesespecially automobile
• Consumerism and with it, advertising and buying
  on credit
• Sports mania
• Advances in transportationespecially
  flightLindbergh
• Radio
• Movies especially talkies

4
The Automobile Explosion

• Frederick W. Taylors theory of scientific
  management sped up car production
• Henry Ford applied these principles to his
  assembly line production
• Led to huge new industries car production,
  gasoline, highway construction, rubber and glass

5
The Effects of Car Culture

• New mobility
• Damaging effect to railroad
• Countless new roads
• Rise of credit to purchase cars (installment
  plan)
• Sprawling suburbs
• Huge number of car accidents

6
Entertainment in the 1920s

• Radio
• Center of family life
• Led to standardized American culture
• Increased popularity of sports
• Movies
• First talkie Jazz Singer in 1927
• Rise of movie stars
• All part of mass culture in 1920s

7
Changes in Values and Lifestyles

• By 1920, most Americans in urban areas
• New opportunities for womencareers, birth
  control, whole new style of dress and behavior?
  THE FLAPPER
• Movement for birth control and Equal Rights
  Amendment
• New sexual mores
• Jazz
• Harlem Renaissance

8
Artistic Culture of the 1920s

• New vitality and rebelliousness of traditional
  values
• The Lost Generation
• HL Mencken
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Ernest Hemmingway
• Sinclair Lewis

9
About to Crash?

• Clear economic boom couldnt last!
• Speculation meant wealth wasnt based on anything
• Too much credit? buying on margin
• Tax policies under Andrew Mellon favored the rich