Transcript No Slide Title

9/2008
Society in the 1920s
• Men came back from the war
disillusioned
• Women gained some independence
during the war
–many had entered the workforce
–all were given the right to vote
Society in the 1920s
• Hemlines rose from 9 inches above the
ground to knee-length
• Amount of fabric in dresses changed
from 19.5 yards to 7
• Women ‘bobbed’ their hair
Society in the 1920s
• Women began wearing make-up
• Women began smoking and drinking in public
• 15% of working women worked
in professional careers
• 20% of working women worked
in clerical positions
• Women were expected to quit when
they married or became pregnant
• Women earned less than men in the
same positions
• Women were still closed out of many
professional positions
• Example - women doctors were only
allowed to treat female patients
• Women won the right to vote in 1920
• Only about 35% of women initially voted
• Increased as women became used to the idea
• Demographics
–1920 census showed over 50% of
Americans lived in cities
–Rural farmers faced severe
economic problems
–Manufacturing plants increased
production and hired employees
• Demographics
–Attendance in public schools
doubled to 4.4 million by
1930
–Americans moved to the
suburbs as transportation
systems improved
Society in
the 1920s
• African Americans continued to
migrate north
• Mexicans and other Latinos also
moved to the USA and worked on
American farms and factories
Society in the 1920s
• Lucky Lindy flew across the Atlantic in
1927
• His flight was 33 1/2 hours long
• He inspired a generation of aviators,
including Amelia Earhart
Society in the 1920s
• Professional and amateur sports
flourished in the 1920s
• Babe Ruth set home run records of 60 in
a single season and 714 in his career
• Jim Thorpe, a Native American, became
a professional football player after
having his Olympic medals stripped
Mass Media & the Jazz Age
• Prior to the 1920s most people had very
parochial, or narrow views
• Largely due to the mass media, an
American culture emerged
Mass Media & the Jazz Age
• Cecil B. DeMille rented a barn and began to
produce silent movies
• The barn expanded into a huge movie studio
• It was located in a little known suburb of
Los Angeles named Hollywood
Mass Media & the Jazz Age
• Between 1920 - 1930 the number of movie
theaters quadrupled to 22,500
• Tickets sales averaged 80 million each
week; the countries population was 125
million
• The countries first ‘talkie’ was The Jazz
Singer in 1927
Mass Media & the Jazz Age
• Newspapers and magazines became
larger, averaging over 50 pages in some
• Tabloids were popular for entertainment;
they concentrated on sports, movies, and
scandals
• Many newspapers merged or were
bought out by conglomerates
• In 1920 an engineer from
Westinghouse began
broadcasting recorded music
and baseball scores
• The world’s first radio station,
KDKA of Pittsburgh, soon
followed
• The National Broadcasting
System (NBC) formed to link
individual stations together
The Jazz Age
• Jazz music came to symbolize the freedom
of the 1920s
• Jazz…….“an expression of the times, of the
breathless, energetic, superactive times in
which we are living”. (Leonard Stokowski)
• The 1920s came to be called The Jazz Age
The Jazz Age
• Jazz began in New Orleans before
the turn-of-the-century
• With the radio playing to millions, it
would sweep the nation in the 1920s
• Duke Wellington wrote and
performed over 1000 original songs
• You are currently listening to Louis
Armstrong
The Cotton Club of Harlem was the
most famous Jazz Club
Black performers played
jazz
for white
audiences
The Jazz Age
• Paintings by Edward Hopper and
literature by Sinclair Lewis depicted a
different view of the 1920s
• Lewis wrote The Babbit in 1922 about
conformity in the middle class
• Hopper concentrated on ordinary
people
The Jazz Age
• The “lost generation” was a group of
artists and writers that were disillusioned
with America
• Disliked conservative politics,
prohibition, consumerism, and
conformity
• Most of them spent the 1920s in Europe
• The Great Gatsby was written about the
self-centered, shallow people in the USA
The Jazz Age
• In the Harlem Renaissance, people
like Langston Hughes wrote about
the difficulties of being black, being
human, and being an American
• The following poem is entitled Cross, by
Langston Hughes
My old man's a white old man
And my old mother's black.
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.
If ever I cursed my black old mother
And wished she were in hell,
I'm sorry for that evil wish
And now I wish her well
My old man died in a fine big house.
My ma died in a shack.
I wonder were I'm going to die,
Being neither white nor black?
Cultural Conflicts
• Prohibition
• Religion
• Racial Conflicts
Prohibition
• The 18th amendment outlawed the
sale, use, and manufacture of alcohol
• People used homemade stills and made
“bathtub gin”
• Bootlegging, or smuggling alcohol,
became very profitable
Prohibition
• Did not stop people from drinking
• Helped to establish organized crime
in the USA
• Was repealed with the 21st
amendment in 1933
Religion
• Science and religion were in conflict
• Scientists believed in evolution, or the
development of the world over time
• Fundamentalists interpret the bible
literally; the bible says that the world was
created by God in 6 days
• Clashes between the 2 groups
continue to this day
Scopes Trial
• John T. Scopes was arrested for
teaching evolution in the classroom in
1925
• He was found guilty and fined $100
• This ‘trial of the century’ was the 1st to
be broadcast on the radio
• This sparked an intensive debate on the
roll of religion in public education
Racial Tensions
• Race riots killed hundreds of
people in northern cities
• The KKK, which had died out after
Reconstruction, was revived in
1915
• Between 1922-1924 its
membership grew to 4 million
Racial Tension
• NAACP and other groups fought for antilynching legislation
• Marcus Garvey called for a separation of
the races and urged African-Americans to
return to Africa
Postwar Social Change
In spite of the many societal conflicts, the
mood of the country was upbeat and
hopeful, giving rise to the nickname
Music Credits:
• It Don’t Mean a Thing by Duke
Ellington and Irving Mills
• Stormy Weather by Billie Holiday
• Mack the Knife by Louis Armstrong
• Dream a Little Dream of Me by Ella
Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
The End!