The Roaring Twenties Life in the Modern Era

The Roaring Twenties Life in the Modern Era

Today’s Agenda Objective: To evaluate the events and movements which led the United States to break from the past and move towards the future in the 1920 s. Essential Skill: To explicitly assess information and draw conclusions.

The Roaring 20’s Jazz Age Was the Bee’s Knees!

Jazz: Original American Music • Combo of African rhythms, blues, ragtime and European-pop music • Improvisation, syncopated music • Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith • Cotton Club, Chicago, NOLA, St. Louis

Harlem Renaissance • Flowering of African Amer. culture • People: Langston Hughes and Alain Locke • Marcus Garvey = selfsufficiency & Back to Africa “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” -William H. Johnson Marcus Garvey Langston Hughes

THE FLAPPER by Dorothy Parker The Playful flapper here we see, The fairest of the fair. She's not what Grandma used to be, -You might say, au contraire. Her girlish ways may make a stir, Her manners cause a scene, But there is no more harm in her Than in a submarine. She nightly knocks for many a goal The usual dancing men. Her speed is great, but her control Is something else again. All spotlights focus on her pranks. All tongues her prowess herald. For which she well may render thanks To God and Scott Fitzgerald. Her golden rule is plain enough Just get them young and treat them rough.

Women • 19 th Amendment: Right to vote • Birth Control: Margaret Sanger • ERA = Alice Paul • More educ. and jobs • Changing morality and domesticity = New Woman

Celebrity Culture: • • Heroes: Sports = Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jack Dempsey Hollywood = Charlie Chaplin Aviation = Charles Lindberg & Amelia Earhart What do these celebrities reveal about the 20 s? • Mass Media • Individual Man v. Machine • Optimism

1920 s Authors= “Lost Generation” Author F Scott Fitzgerald Ernest Hemingway Sinclair Lewis Work Themes

1920 s Authors = “Lost Generation” Author Work Themes Great Gatsby -Jazz Age, emptiness, flappers & bootleggers -American Dream Ernest Sun Also -Disillusionment over war, Hemingway Rises & doomed lovers A Farewell to - short unadorned sentences Arms Sinclair Lewis Main Street - Satire of small town America F Scott Fitzgerald

American Zeitgeist “Old” Culture Emphasized Production Tradition Scarcity Religion Idealized the Past Local Culture Rural Character “New” Culture Emphasized Consumption Modernity Abundance Science Looked to the Future Mass Culture Urban Image

Automobile • How did Ford do it? • Assembly Line: Apply conveyor belt to cars, simple tasks • Standardized vehicles • Worker’s Contract: $5 a day to stay • Model T: af. FORDable to Middle and Upper class • Price: 1909 -1924 price dropped 66% • In Ford We Trust

“No job is particularly hard, if you divide it into small parts” “You can get a Model T in any color, so long as it is black” -Henry Ford

Ads

If you could ban something at Conestoga, what would it be? Would there be any unintended consequences?

Prohibition

Prohibition Laws: 18 th Amendment (1919) & The Volstead Act Reasons?

Wets vs. Drys • • • Organized Crime Al Capone Bootleggers ‘Speakeasies’ St. Valentine’s Day massacre • Corruption and difficult enforcement • Other Effects: • Dangerous “Bathtub Gin” • Loss of rights • Overall consumption decreased • Less Cirrhosis & alcohol related death • Save $

Why repeal prohibition? 1933 - 21 st Amendment

Red Scare • • Origin: Bolshevik Rev. 100% Americanism Bombs 1919 -20

The Red Scare • Results: • Palmer Raids • The Buford

Immigration and KKK • (1921) National Quota Act • (1924) Nat. Origins Act • (1927) Cap at 150, 000

• Major Trials

Sacco and Vanzetti

Scopes Trial: “Monkey Trial” • Film clips from Inherit the Wind • Darrow speaks • Bryan on the Stand • Scopes

Scottsboro Boys • Black men accused of raping white women • Several trials, only 5 found guilty • Discrimination in court system

“Old” Culture Emphasized Production Tradition Scarcity Religion Idealized the Past Local Culture Rural Substance “New” Culture Emphasized Consumption Modernity Abundance Science Looked to the Future Mass Culture Urban Image