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1920’s Popular Culture
Mini-Research Assignment
Step 1: Background

Read through the following slides and
complete the guided notes for different
aspects of 1920’s American culture.
Consumerism
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New products, such as kitchen and household
appliances, became products consumers wanted.
New kinds of advertising created demand for new
products.
Americans began to use credit to buy consumer
goods. By the end of the 1920s, 15 percent of all
retail sales were made on installment plans.
Transportation

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Popularity of planes led engineers to design
safer, more powerful transport planes.
Affordable cars quickly changed the way
Americans lived – giving people more freedom
and allowing for easier travel.
Suburbs began to spread out around cities
because people could use cars to commute.
The federal government gave aid to help build
highways and new roads, making travel around
the United States far easier.
Gas stations, diners, campgrounds, and motels
sprang up to serve the needs of car travelers.
Mass Media
Radio began to be used to
broadcast information,
such as sporting events,
situation comedies, and
national news.
 Attending movies became a
national pastime, creating
new jobs for writers and
actors.
 Movies exposed people to
new fashions, hairstyles,
and loosening of morals.

Women’s Rights
The League of Women
Voters was designed to
educate voters on public
issues.
 Women were elected to
state legislatures, as
governors, and as
representatives in
Congress.
 Women demonstrated a
new sense of freedom by
wearing shorter dresses,
cutting their hair, wearing
makeup, and loosening
their social behaviors.

Jazz Age
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Jazz, a combination of
blues and ragtime, was
a distinctly American
form of music.
Nightclubs opened in
Harlem, where people
came to hear the great
jazz musicians.
Jazz music led to new
dances, like the
Charleston, that
included kicks, twists,
and turns.
Literature and Art
The creativity among African American writers,
artists, and musicians who gathered in Harlem during
the 1920s led to the exploration of what it meant to
be black in America.
 “Lost Generation” writers such as E.E. Cummings,
Ernest Hemmingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos
Passos, and Sherwood Anderson developed themes
and writing styles that that still define modern
literature.
 Art museums and magazines began to show popular
art of the time.

Sports Mania
Sports became big
business as Americans
looked for ways to spend
their leisure time.
 Professional sports
attracted large numbers
of fans and huge crowds.
 Radio stations began to
broadcast popular
sporting events, including
a new, live, blow-by-blow
account of each sporting
event.
 Sports stars like Babe
Ruth, became national
celebrities.

Stop
Be ready to discuss your responses with the class.
Step 2: Celebrity Research –due
Friday 12/5
You will research one celebrity who had a major influence on
1920’s popular culture.
 In your research you must include information for the
following categories:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Mini Biography
Major Accomplishments (focus on achievements in their specific
trend: transportation, art, etc.)
How the trend they were involved in helped to shape popular
culture in the 1920’s
Include at least one image
Typed
◦ Include MLA formatted citations
 Use at least 3 sources
◦ No Wikipedia!