The Roaring Twenties

The beginning of modern culture and the onset of the Great Depression

Signs of Modern Culture

Modern Inventions The Automobile Public Radio The Airplane

Popular Culture Movies Music Fashion Flappers

The Automobile

Henry Ford Model T created in 1908 Invention of assembly lines

Quick production using conveyor belts In 1919 only 6,500,000 cars were

registered By 1929, 23,000,000 cars were

registered

Model T

Assembly Line

Gassing up

At the dealership

Public Radio

Invented in the 1800s but not mass produced until 1920s Mass media: Information spread to the

masses Between 1920 and 1930, 60% of

American families purchased radios

Radio

The Airplane

Invented in 1903, but wasn’t used regularly until the 1920s First commercial flights: 1919 Faster mail delivery Entertainment

Wright Brothers

Movies Movie theaters

100 Million tickets per week Silent films

Warner Brothers, Paramount, MGM, Fox

The Jazz Age New music

Jazz Ragtime Blues Swing Big band

“The Devil’s Music” Performed in speakeasies It was different than the norm

Singing in the Rain Wandering in DreamlandBig Chief De Soto

Fashion

Riskier styles in dress and hair

Focus on glamour

Flappers

Flapper: An independent woman eager to explore new fashions, entertainment, and fads

Fashion!Entertainment!

Drinking!

Wealth!

Smoking!

Flappers "[The flapper] symbolized an age anxious to enjoy

itself, anxious to forget the past, anxious to ignore the future."

"It was during what we might call the Flapper period . . . that American popular culture began to capture the imagination of the world. . . . [America] was inventing its own modernity. . . . "

"Hip flasks of hooch, jazz, speakeasies, bobbed hair, 'the lost generation.' The Twenties are endlessly fascinating. It was the first truly modern decade and, for better or worse, it created the model for society that all the world follows today."

Flappers

A way of life Dress Hairstyle Music Slang

“Bee’s knees” “Cat’s meow”

Behavior Independence

What Sparked Change? Women’s Suffrage

19th Amendment Women could vote!

Warren G. Harding A “return to normalcy” Pushed isolationism

and prosperity Lowered taxes Pushed business Buying on credit

Borrow money and pay off as you can

The Installment Plan

Died during his presidency in 1923; his cause of death is still unconfirmed

What Sparked Change?

Calvin Coolidge Became president

after Harding died Laissez-faire

economics: belief that business, when left unregulated by the government, would act in ways that would benefit the nation

What Sparked Change?

Prior to World War I: Only 7% of Americans completed high school 42% of Americans lived on farms

By the end of the 20’s: 41% completed high school Only 25% lived on farms

Cities offered better paying jobs, education, entertainment, and opportunity Americans were able to afford nicer possessions

and entertainment Lower income tax = more money to spend

Culture Clash

Fundamentalism: Believed that every word of the Bible was literally true Against teaching evolution in school Viewed the 20s as a chance to moralize

America Prohibition: The 1920 ban on the

manufacture and sale of alcohol 18th Amendment Failed miserably!

The Scopes Trial

Creationism v. Darwinism Darwinism: All species evolved from a

previous species Creationism: God created mankind;

evolution didn’t happen John Scopes taught Darwin’s theory of

Evolution illegally, went on trial, and was found guilty

Prohibition

The failure of prohibition Led to the creation of speakeasies

Illegal nightclubs that sold alcohol Bootleggers: Criminals who sold alcohol

during prohibition Speakeasies led to organized crime that

still exists today The number of people who bought

alcohol went up after it was made illegal

Speakeasy

Bootlegger

Prohibition

Prohibition

Prohibition

The End of Prohibition

In 1933, the 18th amendment was repealed

Materialism

People began to place more value on material things (entertainment, possessions, etc) rather than intellectual or spiritual things

Loosening of morals Modern thinking

Washing Machine

Refrigerator

Clothing, Jewelry and Make-up

Racial Struggle Ku Klux Klan

Reestablishment of the KKK Purpose: “To unite white male persons, native-born,

Gentile citizens of the United States of America, who owe no allegiance of any nature or degree to any foreign government, nation, institution, sect, ruler, person, or people; whose morals are good; whose reputations and vocations are respectable; whose habits are exemplary; who are of sound minds and eighteen years or more of age, under a common oath into a brother hood of strict regulations.”

KKK

Racial Struggles

Marcus Garvey African American

who gave up on the United States

Believed African Americans should form their own nation in Africa

The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance Began in Harlem, New York African American businessman Philip Payton

Jr. purchased dozens of the many buildings and sold them to African Americans

Became the center of African American culture Writers, musicians, painters, and scholars Helped the National Association for the

Advancement of Colored people (NAACP) enforce civil rights for African Americans

Harlem Renaissance

Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

Sacco and Vanzetti Trial Anarchists: Anti-government (no govt.) Put on trial for murder Despite a lack of evidence, the verdict

was… GUILTY They were executed