CHAPTER 21 – SECTIONS 1 AND 3

CHANGING WAYS OF LIFE AND EDUCATION AND POPULAR

CULTURE

Changing Ways of Life and Education and Popular Culture

Main Idea – Americans experienced cultural conflicts as customs and values changed in the 1920s. The popular culture reflected the prosperity of the era, as mass media, movies, and spectator sports played important roles in the 1920s.

Booming Economy Wartime economy Peacetime economy Technology growth made life easier

Washing machine Electric stove Electric lighting

Buying on Credit Spending money you don’t have.

What made the 20s roaring?

People became more carefree and adventurous.

Women held jobs outside the home and went to college

Flapper: carefree young women with short hair, heavy makeup, and short skirts.

Flagpole sitter…people actually sat on top of flagpoles for fun.

Charles Lindbergh…first solo flight across Atlantic (Spirit of Saint Louis)

Results of Improved Transportation

Greater Mobility (easier to move around) People moved from the suburbs and commuted to

work in the cities Created jobs in transportation industry

Road construction Oil Steel Cars Gas stations

Airplane-transports mail and eventually people Charles Lindbergh

The Prohibition Experiment

Background: 18th Amendment established an era of Prohibition – def. – manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages illegal

Prohibition U.S. government failed to

budget enough money to enforce the law

Speakeasies – def. – underground saloons and nightclubs that sold alcohol

Bootleggers – def. – people who manufactured or smuggled illegal liquor

Prohibition SIG – Prohibition

experiment failed Rise in organized crime –

ex: gangster Al Capone in Chicago

In 1933 – 21st Amendment repealed prohibition

Science and Religion Clash

Fundamentalism – def. – belief in the literal interpretation of the bible Led to conflict with

some scientific ideas

Rejected the idea that man had evolved from apes = Darwin’s theory of evolution

Science and Religion Clash

The Scopes Trial (1925) – Teacher John T. Scopes violated TN law that banned teaching of evolution in school Featured fight between

defense lawyer Clarence Darrow and prosecution witness William Jennings Bryan

SIG - Highlighted the conflict between science and fundamentalism

Sacco and Vanzetti Sacco and Vanzetti

Italian immigrants (and anarchists) who were charged and found guilty in the armed robbery and murder of two pay-clerks

Eyewitnesses had only been able to say that the guilty parties looked Italian, Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested

Executed via Electrocution

Mass Media Shape Culture Newspapers Magazines Radio Movies

Newspapers more literate

Americans = increased newspaper circulation SIG – shaped

cultural norms and sparked fads

Magazines mass-circulation to

reach wide audiences Focused on weekly

news and culture – ex: Reader’s Digest, Time

Radio most powerful

communications medium of the 1920s Broadcast news,

sports, music (Jazz), children’s programs

SIG – created a more national culture – different audiences around the country hearing the same programs

Movies offered viewers a way

to escape their lives through romance and comedy SIG – helped promote

a national culture  Development of

movies—Silent movies! Felix the Cat The Big Parade Mickey Mouse

Sports Heroes

Babe Ruth - a professional ball player that hit 60 homeruns in one season.

Jack Dempsey - a boxer defeated by Gene Tunney. Gene Tunney - the boxer that defeated former

champion Jack Dempsey. Johnny Weissmuller - an American Olympic swimmer

that won 5 gold medals and was an actor. Bobby Jones - was the greatest amateur golfer of

modern times. Big Bill Tilden - first American to win men's singles at

Wimbledon, England. Red Grange - was a halfback at the University of Illinois

from 1923 to 1925.

The Twenties Woman  Background: 19th

Amendment increased women’s rights by giving women the right to vote

Flappers – def. - young urban women who embraced new fashions and attitudes Featured short bobbed

haircuts, shorter dresses, make-up, smoking, drinking, talked openly about sex, dancing

20 Slang

Limiting Immigration Anti-immigrant

attitudes (nativism) had been growing since the 1880s due to increased immigration, especially from Southern and Eastern Europe Increased immigration

led to more competition for industrial jobs in cities

Limiting Immigration Return of the Ku

Klux Klan (KKK) 1920s KKK devoted to

hatred of immigrants, blacks, Catholics, Jews,

4.5 million male members by mid-1920s

Declined by the end of the decade due to criminal activity

Limiting Immigration The Quota System

– established the maximum number of people who could enter the U.S. from each foreign country Designed to limit

number of Southern and Eastern European immigrants

Great Migration Jobs for African Americans

in the South were Scarce and low paying

African Americans faced discrimination and violence in the South

African Americans moved to northern cities in search of jobs

African Americans also faced discrimination and violence in the North

South

North

Harlem Renaissance African American

artists, writers, and musicians based in Harlem revealing the freshness and variety of African American culture.

The popularity of these artists spread to the rest of society.

Art: Jacob Lawrence-painter who chronicled the Great Migration North through art.

Literature: Langston Hughes-poet who combined the experiences of African and American cultural roots.

Music: Duke Ellington and Lewis Armstrong-Jazz composers; Bessie Smith-Blues singer

Culture of the 20s and 30s

Literature: F. Scott Fitzgerald-

novelist who wrote about the jazz age (The Great Gatsby)

John Steinbeck-novelist who portrayed the strength of poor migrant workers in the 30s (The Grapes of Wrath

Art: Georgia O’Keefe-

artist known for urban scenes and later paintings of the southwest and flowers

Music: Aaron Copland and

George Gershwin- wrote uniquely American music.

The Nation’s Sick Economy A New Deal Fights the DepressionChapter 22 – Section 1 Chapter 23 – Section 1

The Nation’s Sick Economy A New Deal Fights the Depression Main Idea – As the

prosperity of the 1920s ended, severe economic problems gripped the nation and led to the Great Depression. After becoming president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt used government programs as part of his New Deal to combat the Depression.

The Business Cycle The economy naturally goes through

times of recession, recovery, and prosperity.

Economic Troubles on the Horizon

Background: The prosperity of the 1920s was largely based on the use of credit – def. – consumers agreed to buy now and pay later for purchases Installment

buying Buying on

margin Over speculation

Installment buying def. - form of credit

with monthly payments with interest

Buying on margin def. – buying too

many stocks hoping to sell at a higher price in a short period of time, regardless of risk involved

Over Speculation• paying only a small

percentage of a stock’s price as a down payment and borrowing the rest to make a stock purchase

Causes of the Great Depression Black Tuesday Hawley-Smoot

Act

Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929) –

the stock market crashed with 16.4 million shares of stock sold in one day, causing prices to collapse Prices of stocks fell

speculators left with huge debts that couldn’t be repaid to banks banks failed people lost their savings

Banks Failing Federal Reserve

failed to prevent widespread collapse of the nation’s banking system as banks continued to fail through the early 1930s

Hawley-Smoot Act (1930) - High

protective tariff resulted in retaliatory tariffs in other countries, which strangled international trade

Financial Collapse Great Depression “Hoovervilles” Farm foreclosures

Unemployment Graph

When was unemployment the highest?

Great Depression – def. – period from 1929

to 1940 in which the economy plummeted and unemployment skyrocketed, causing widespread hardship Business failures – 90,000

businesses went bankrupt

Collapse of the financial system - over 11,000 bank closings

Unemployment – 25% of American workers were unemployed by 1932

“Hoovervilles”• – def. - shacks and

shantytowns of homeless people, named for President Hoover

President Hoover thought that private companies and volunteers should take care of the economy Did not act in the

beginning to try to counter act the depression

Farm foreclosures – farmers lost their

homes and lands and were forced to migrate across the country looking for work Dust Bowl “Okies”

Dust Bowl parts of Kansas,

Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado that were hardest hit by draught and dust storms

Dust Bowl Lasted 8 years Caused by poor agricultural

practices and years of sustained drought

The winds of the Great Plains stirred up the dust from the fields and blew it across the plains In 1932, 14 dust storms were recorded on the

Plains. In 1933, there were 38 storms. By 1934, it was estimated that 100 million

acres of farmland had lost all or most of the topsoil to the winds.

Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl got its name after Black Sunday,

April 14, 1935. The cloud that appeared on the horizon that Sunday

was the worst. Winds were clocked at 60 mph. Then it hit.

The simplest acts of life — breathing, eating a meal, taking a walk — were no longer simple.

Children wore dust masks to and from school, women hung wet sheets over windows in a futile attempt to stop the dirt, farmers watched helplessly as their crops blew away. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/dustbowl.htm

Life during the Dust Bowl

Okies and Arkies Okies: those who moved west to

California from Oklahoma Arkies: those who moved west to

California from Arkansas These migrant workers/families lived in

tents or out of their automobiles

Understanding Images What feelings

does this image give you?

What do you think to woman is feeling? How about the kids?

Describe the way they are dressed?

Migrant Stories

Steinbeck and the Dust Bowl

As John Steinbeck wrote in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath: "And then the dispossessed were drawn west-

from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car-loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless - restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do - to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land." 

Americans Get a New Deal Franklin Delano

Roosevelt (FDR) won the presidential election of 1932 Inaugural address –

rallied a frightened nation “The only thing we

have to fear is fear itself.”

Fireside Chats – FDR’s radio addresses aimed at restoring American confidence

New Deal Relief Recovery Reform

Relief measures that provided

direct payment to people for immediate help CCC (Civilian

Conservation Corps) TVA (Tennessee Valley

Authority) WPA (Works Progress

Administration)

CCC (Civilian Conservation

Corps) – provided jobs for young single males on conservation projects

TVA (Tennessee Valley

Authority) – provided jobs building dams to bring running water and electricity to poor region in the South

WPA (Works Progress

Administration) – created as many jobs as quickly as possible in construction of airports, highways, and public buildings as well as professions such as art, music, and theater

Recovery – programs

designed to bring the nation out of the Depression over time AAA NRA

AAA and NRA AAA (Agricultural

Adjustment Act) – aided farmers by regulating crop production so prices would rise

NRA (National Recovery Administration) – reformed banking practices and established fair codes of competition for businesses

Reform

FDIC Wagner Act SSA

FDIC (Federal Deposit

Insurance Corporation) – protected bank deposits up to $5,000

What does it protect up to today?

Wagner Act – defined unfair labor

practices and established the National Labor Relations Board to settle disputes between employers and employees

SSA (Social Security Act) –

provided a pension for retired workers and their spouses and helped people with disabilities

Interpreting Cartoons Who are they main figures in the

cartoon? What are they pouring down the pump? What is occurring as it is being pumped

into the economy?

Significance of the New Deal

the New Deal changed the role of government to a more active participant in solving problems Public believed in the

responsibility of the federal government to: deliver public

services intervene in the

economy act in ways to

promote the general welfare