1/27/2015

1

1920-1929

During the 1920s, rural America clashes with a faster-paced urban culture.

Women’s attitudes and roles change, influenced in part by the mass media.

Many African Americans join in the new urban culture.

1/27/2015

2

Americans experience cultural conflicts as customs and values change in the United States during the 1920s.

Objectives:

1. Explain how urbanization created a new way of life that often clashed with the values of traditional rural society.

2. Describe the controversy over the role of science and religion in American education and society in the 1920s.

1/27/2015

3

Terms and Names:◦ Billy Sunday◦ 18th Amendment◦ Prohibition◦ Speakeasy◦ Bootlegger◦ “Organized Crime”◦ Al Capone◦ Fundamentalism◦ Clarence Darrow◦ Scopes Trial◦ William Jennings Bryan◦ John Scopes

The New Urban Scene:◦ 1920 census: 51.2% of Americans in communities of

2,500 or more◦ 1922-1929: nearly 2 million people leave farms, towns

each year◦ Largest cities are New York, Chicago, Philadelphia

65 other cities with 100,000 people or more◦ In 1920s, people are caught between urban and rural

cultures Anonymous crowds, moneymaking, pleasure-seeking in

cities Close ties, hard work, strict morals of small towns

◦ Use the top two paragraphs on page 435 of your text to fill in worksheet section

1/27/2015

4

The Prohibition Experiment:◦ 18th Amendment

Launches the Prohibition era Supported by religious

groups, rural South, West

◦ Prohibition—production, sale, transportation of alcohol illegal

◦ Government does not budget enough money to protect the law

Speakeasies and Bootleggers:◦ Speakeasies (hidden saloons, nightclubs) become

fashionable

◦ People distill liquor, buy prescription alcohol, sacramental wine

◦ Bootleggers smuggle alcohol from surrounding counties

1/27/2015

5

Organized Crime:◦ Prohibition contributes to

organized crime in major cities

◦ Al Capone controls Chicago liquor business by literally killing off his competition

◦ Elliot Ness and his group of government agents called “The Untouchables” battled Capone

◦ By mid 1920s, only 19% support prohibition

◦ 18th Amendment is repealed in 1933 by 21st

Amendment

American Fundamentalism:◦ Fundamentalism—movement based on literal

interpretation of the Bible

◦ Fundamentalists skeptical of some scientific discoveries, theories

Reject theory of evolution

◦ Believe all important knowledge can be found in the Bible

1/27/2015

6

Billy Sunday holds emotional meetings

Aimee Semple McPherson uses showmanship while preaching on radio

The Scopes Trial:◦ 1925, Tennessee passes law making it a crime to

teach evolution◦ American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) backs teacher

John T. Scopes’ challenge of the law◦ Clarence Darrow, the most famous trial lawyer of

the time, defends Scopes◦ Fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan is special

prosecutor◦ Scopes “Monkey” Trial—debates evolution, role of

science, religion in school National sensation—thousands follow

1/27/2015

7

Students pair up and work on Section 1 of Chapter 13 study guide.

American women pursue new lifestyles an assume new jobs and different roles in society in the 1920s.

1/27/2015

8

Objectives:

1. Explain how the image of the flapper embodied the changing values and attitudes of young women in the 1920s.

2. Identify the causes and results of the changing roles of women in the 1920s.

Terms and Names:◦ Flapper

◦ Double standard

1/27/2015

9

The Flapper:◦ Flapper—emancipated young woman, adopts new

fashions, attitudes

◦ Many young women want equal status that men, become assertive

◦ Middle class men and women begin to see marriage as an equal partnership

However, housework and child-rearing still a woman’s job

Believe it or not…even your great grandma was cool “back in the day”

1/27/2015

10

New Work Opportunities:◦ After war, employers replace female workers with

men

◦ Female college graduates become teachers, nurses, librarians

◦ Many women become clerical workers as demand rises

◦ Some become sales clerks, factory workers

◦ Few become managers, always paid less than men

The Changing Family:◦ Birthrate drops partly due to birth control information◦ Manufactured products, public services, give

homemakers freedom◦ Housewives can focus more on families and pastimes,

not housework◦ Marriages increasingly based on romantic love,

companionship◦ Children spend most of the day at school and in

organized activities Adolescents resist parental control

◦ Working-class and college-educated women juggle family and work

1/27/2015

11

The Double Standard:◦ Elders disapprove new

behavior and its promotion by periodicals, ads

◦ Casual dating begins to replace formal courtship

◦ Women subject to double standard-more sexual freedom granted to men and women having to observe stricter standards of behavior

Students pair up and work on Section 2 of Chapter 13 study guide.

1/27/2015

12

The mass media, movies, an spectator sports play important roles in creating the public culture of the 1920s—a culture that many artists and writers criticize

Objectives:

1. Describe the popular culture of the 1920s

2. Explain why the youth-dominated decade came to be called the Roaring Twenties

1/27/2015

13

Youth in the Roaring Twenties:◦ Turn to page 444 in your textbook

Terms and Names:◦ Charles A. Lindbergh

◦ George Gershwin

◦ Georgia O’Keefe

◦ Sinclair Lewis

◦ F. Scott Fitzgerald

◦ Edna St. Vincent Millay

◦ Ernest Hemingway

1/27/2015

14

School Enrollments:◦ High school population increases dramatically in

the 1920s due to

Prosperity

Higher standards for industry jobs

◦ Pre-1920s, high school was only for college-bound

◦ In 1920s, high schools also offer vocational training

◦ Public schools prepare immigrant children who speak no English

◦ School taxes increase as school costs rise sharply

Expanding News Coverage:◦ Mass media shapes

mass culture; takes advantage of greater literacy

◦ By 1914, hundreds of local newspapers replaced by national chains

◦ 1920s-mass market magazines thrive; Reader’s Digest, Timefounded

1/27/2015

15

Radio Comes of Age:◦ Radio is the most

powerful communications medium of 1920s

◦ Networks provide shared national experience Can hear news as it

happens

New-Found Leisure Time:◦ In 1920s, many people have extra money and

leisure time to enjoy it

◦ Crowds attend sporting events; athletes glorified in the mass media

1/27/2015

16

Lindbergh’s Flight:◦ Charles A. Lindbergh

makes first solo nonstop flight across Atlantic

◦ Small-town Minnesotan symbolizes honesty, bravery in age of excess

◦ Lindbergh paves way for other pilots

Entertainment and the Arts:◦ Silent movies are already a

national pastime◦ Introduction of sound in 1927

leads millions to attend every week

◦ Playwrights and composers break away from European traditions

◦ George Gershwin uses jazz to create distinctly American music

◦ Painters portray American realities and dreams

◦ Georgia O’Keeffe paints intensely colored canvases of New York in the art deco style

1/27/2015

17

Writers of the 1920s:◦ Sinclair Lewis is the first American to win Nobel

Prize for literature Criticizes conformity, materialism

◦ F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals negative side of the era’s excesses and freedom

◦ Edna St. Vincent Millay celebrates youth and independence in her poems

◦ Writers soured by American culture and war settle in Europe

◦ Expatriate Ernest Hemingway introduces a tough, simple American style

Writers of the 1920s:◦ F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (2013)

1/27/2015

18

Students pair up and work on Section 3 of Chapter 13 study guide.