the roaring twenties the beginning of modern culture and the onset of the great depression
TRANSCRIPT
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