Transcript No Slide Title

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 tradition
– People starting questioning tradition
Flappers
came to
symbolize
a new era
of freedom
and
creativity
They were rebellious and
energetic
they were bold
Grandma????????
• They disapproved of the way people
behaved
• They disliked the way men flocked to them
1920s
Fashions
1920s Fashions
How do we change teens?
• Change for women started in WW I
• When the 19th amendment was passed
women will get the right to vote
Society in the 1920s
• Hemlines rose from
9 inches above the
ground to kneelength
• Amount of fabric in
dresses changed
from 19.5 yards to 7
• Women ‘bobbed’
their hair and heavy
make-up
Society in the 1920s
• Women began
wearing make-up
Women’s Liberation - 1920’s Style
• Women began
smoking and drinking
in public
• Before this women
were proper
• Parents were enraged,
a rebellion
• Women were expected to quit when
they married or became pregnant
• Women earned less than men in the
same positions
• Not all women felt the same
• Women were still closed out of many
professional positions
• Example - women doctors were only
allowed to treat female patients
All we need is love
• All women did not agree with the new
change or voting!
• 35% only went to the polls
• Many saw it as unprofessional
• Women won the right to vote in 1920
• Only about 35% of women initially voted
• Increased as women became used to the idea
So what do we vote on??
• most women had a hard time getting to the
polls
• Families discouraged it
• Women, if they did vote what would vote
on:
– What their husband voted on
– Women’s rights
Sheppard Town Act
• 1st federal welfare program to promote
prenatal health and women’s health
ERA
• Equal Rights Amendment
• Jeannette Rankins- won the election for
US House of Representatives
• In addition to social changes, the
US started changing
demographically
• Demographics are the statistics
that describe a population, such as
race, ethnicity, gender and
religion
Major demographic change
• The major change for the United States was
the movement away from the country side
to a more urban area
• Why migrate??
MOVE
• Well, farmers started doing poorly after the
war. WHY?
• Industrial and commercial economies were
booming but rural America was not part pf
it
• MORE JOBS
Come one, Come all, wait!!!
• As more people started moving into the
small limits of the cities we had
overcrowding problems
• Attendance at public schools went from 2.2
million to 4.4 million
Society in
the 1920s
• African Americans continued to
migrate north as well because of
industrial growth
• Jim Crow Laws in the south were
discriminating and cutting off jobs
Was the North a Bowl of Candy?
• Blacks did not have it 100% better in the
North
• Many whites criticized African Americans
because they took their jobs away
• Cheap labor
• Because we limited immigration many
factory workers hired Mexicans and
Canadians for cheap labor
• Created barrios, or Spanish Speaking
communities where migrants lived
• Very congested and dirty
Look at how Crowed!!
• Because the cities were over populated
people started to look elsewhere to live
• Suburbs began to spring up
• Transportation will improve first with
Electric Trolleys, then a bus system and
later an affordable automobile
Society in the 1920s
• Lucky Lindy flew across
the Atlantic in 1927
• His flight was 33 1/2 hours
long from NY to Paris for
$25,000
• He inspired a generation of
aviators, including Amelia
Earhart
• Plane was the Spirit of the
St. Louis
• 1st born was kidnapped
and murdered
First woman pilot
• Amelia Earhart, “America’s Fly Girl”
• First woman to fly over the Atlantic
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
• Jack Dempsey, professional boxer
Sports in the 1920s
Babe Ruth
Gertrude Ederle
Jack Dempsey
Section 2
THE JAZZ AGE AND MASS
MEDIA
Mass Media & the Jazz Age
Hollywood if she could
• Hollywood was a small quiet town
• Became popular because of the different
landscapes in close proximity
• Film makers started traveling there
• Actors liked it
Hollywood
• 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
Cecil B. DeMille Films:
Sign of the
Cross
Cecil B. DeMille Films:
Unconquered
What is Mass Media
• It includes print, film and broadcasting
methods
• It communicates to LARGE numbers of
people
Before the Mass
• People knew little about what was going on
around them
• Mass Media created a NATIONAL
CULTURE
• Now people in one states could learn about
another state be reading a newspaper or
listening to the radio
Mass Media & the Jazz Age
• Between 1920 - 1930 the number of movie
theaters quadrupled to 22,500 from 5,000
• Tickets sales averaged 80 million each
week; the countries population was 125
million
• The countries first ‘talkie’ was The Jazz
Singer in 1927, Al Jolson was the star
Movie Stars
Greta Garbo & Lillian Gish
1920’s
Glamour
Girl
Mass Media & the Jazz Age
• Newspapers and magazines became larger,
averaging over 50 pages in some from only 14
• Tabloids were popular for entertainment; they
concentrated on sports, movies, and scandals
and had few words and lots of pictures
• They replaced serious news with fun
• Many newspapers merged or were bought out
by conglomerates
• Frank Conrad was 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
Where O Where Can Jazz Be??
• 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
How is it different??
• Jazz used improvisation, which was really
just “feeling” the music
• No note sheets etc.
Most Jazz Clubs
were in Harlem, New
York.
Black
performers
played
jazz
for white
audiences
Shall we dance???
• Many danced the Charleston which was
filled with kicks, twists
• Wasn’t unusual to see in Harlem
• Paintings reflected old and traditional times
– O’Keefe
Edward Hopper
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?
SECTION 3
Cultural Conflicts
• Prohibition
• Religion
• Racial Conflicts
Prohibition was supposed to
cure the social evils of the time
Prohibition
• The 18th amendment outlawed the
sale, use, and manufacture of alcohol
• People used homemade stills and made
“bathtub gin” and the President did not
follow the law!
• Bootlegging, or smuggling alcohol,
became very profitable
Prohibition
Prohibition
• Did not stop people from drinking
• Helped to establish organized crime
in the USA
• Was repealed with the 21st
amendment in 1933
Main Goals
• 1. Eliminate drunkenness and family abuse
• 2. get rid of saloons, prostitution and
gambling
• 3. prevent absenteeism from jobs and workrelated accidents
You must obey
• The President himself was not following
Prohibition
• Volstead Act was implemented to enforce
the 18th Amendment
• The 18th Amendment split the country:
– Only 5% of people in NY obeyed
– Yet 95% of people in Kansas obeyed
The new criminal
• The bootlegger was the new criminal
• They sold illegal alcohol
• Some made it from food and others
smuggled it from Canada and the Caribbean
Speakeasies
• They were places where people went to get
illegal booze
• Most had gates where you would show your
ID
• Most were disguised as flower shops etc
Come together
• Most criminals could not keep up with the
demand
• They decided to merge
• Became so large that they bribed
government officials and cops
• Begin of organized crime
• Al Capone- also known as Scarface
murdered his way up the chain in Chicago
• The FBI was later created for the purpose of
stopping organized crime
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
Winner of
the 1920
Eugenics
Society
Perfect
Baby
Contest
Racial Tensions
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!