Unit 10 – The 1920s

1. Unit 10 – The 1920s The Roaring Twenties

2. 1920s Presidents • Woodrow Wilson • Warren G. Harding • Calvin Coolidge • Herbert C. Hoover

3. The West Between the Wars

4. The West Between the Wars

5. Charles G. Dawes

6. What led to U.S. prosperity • Effects of World War I • Industrialization • Increased production and encouragement of big business • Three limited involvement presidents. • Warren G. Harding • Calvin Coolidge • Herbert Hoover

7. What led to U.S. prosperity • New technology • War encouraged and produced new technology • Automobile • Automobile society • Big growth in automobile purchases as they became cheaper from faster more efficient manufacturing. • Highway Construction-Federal Highway Road Act of 1916.

8. U.S. Prosperity – other changes • Other technology • Airplanes • Chemicals • New technology and automobile society created a society of leisure • Family vacations • Road trips

9. Growth of Industry • After the war, industrialization goes from military mode to domestic • Increases in supply of new products • Growth is made possible through: • Credit → never really before used on consumer goods • Advertising • Belief that gap between rich and middle class is narrowing because of concept of wealth.

10. The Jazz AgeNicknamed “The Roaring Twenties”

11. A Time of Extreme Optimism and a lot of Changes! • Americans move to the cities • Between 1922 and 1929 almost 2 million people moved to the cities each year. • Instead of getting away from the cities, people were flocking to them. • Cities were the place to be. • They grew more crowded everyday.

12. Urban changes • Small-town people moving to the city had to change their thinking and everyday living. • The city exposed them to new ideas, change, and competition. • Movies, museums, art, immigrants, night clubs, sports, newspapers, drinking, gambling, smoking, and casual dating.

13. Urban changes • Urbanization created a new way of life that usually clashed with the values of traditional rural society.

14. The Great Clash • The clash between rural and city values is just one example. • The 1920’s is characterized by a clash between traditional morals and values and more liberal money and fun seekers.

15. Cultural Changes! • Prohibition • The Flapper • The Jazz Age • Harlem Renaissance

16. Prohibition • Passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919 • Outlawed making, selling, transporting, importing, or exporting alcohol-not drinking it • The “Noble Experiment” • Fought for years by temperance groups • They saw it as a way of bettering society • War helped the situation • Many saw it as a way of hurting German American producers and so grain could go towards war effort. • Result: Speakeasies, bootlegging, and organized crime

18. So Why didn’t it Work? • The Volstead Act set up the Prohibition Bureau. • It was underfunded. • Only 1,550 federal agents and local police to enforce the laws • with 18,700 miles of coastline, inland borders, highways, illegal stills, and industries to watch.

19. Bootleggers and Speakeasies • By the mid-1920’s only 19% of Americans supported Prohibition. • Alcohol was made illegally and sold illegally at bars called speakeasies • People blatantly broke the law • Bath tub gin • Sales for medicinal or sacramental alcohol soar. • Selling stills in hardware stores • Magazines and books told how to make alcohol from fruit and even potato peelings. • Bootleggers provided access to alcohol

20. Organized Crime develops • Bootlegging was a profitable business • Prohibition inspired the development of organized crime • Almost every city had gangs that profited from selling alcohol. • Chicago had one of the most famous criminals - Al Capone

21. Causing too many problems • Prohibition caused more problems than it fixed. • Organized crime and lawlessness grew • It caused a want to disobey the law • Alcohol use grew and more people died. • Prohibition was repealed with the 21st Amendment in 1933.

22. Science and Religion Clash

23. Let’s get back to Religion • Fundamentalism - Protestant movement that advocated the literal for the Bible • Push for going back to church and having traditional morals. • Revivals were held with charismatic preachers. • Also rejected the notion of Darwin and evolution. Thought that this meant denying scripture and blaspheming God.

24. The Fight BeginsThe Scopes “Monkey” Trial - 1925 • Conflict occurs when John T. Scopes teaches evolution. • Tennessee had passed a law banning the teaching of evolution. Scopes read a passage about evolution in his classroom and was arrested.

25. The Trial • Clarence Darrow defended John T. Scopes • William Jennings Bryan is on the fundamentalist side. • Trial becomes a national sensation. • Bryan takes the stand and admits that the Bible can be interpreted in different ways. • Scopes is still found guilty and fined $100. • This trial is another example of the clashes and conflicts in the Roaring Twenties.

26. Women in 1920s • Effects of World War I on women’s rights • 19th Amendment granted suffrage in 1920.

27. 19th Amendment • Ratified in 1920 • Gave women the right to vote • Women proved themselves when they filled the jobs of men during WWI • After WWI, many were forced to give up their jobs • Women went to polls for first time in November 1920 • Helped elect Pres. Warren G. Harding

28. The Flapper Changes for women • Hair, clothing, makeup, and dancing

29. Women’s fashions prior to 1920s

30. 1910 Versus 1920’s

31. 1920s Fashions

32. 1920s Fashions

33. So What’s a Flapper? • Flapper • Nickname from a popular picture of a woman with her boots unlaced and flapping as she is dancing. • Despite new social freedoms women were still limited and most did not rebel against social and religious standards. • There was a double standard

34. Work Opportunities • After World War I, women still are entering the work force. • Many attend college and enter the “women’s professions” • Teaching, nursing, librarians, social workers • Big businesses also needed clerical workers • secretaries, typists, office machine operators

35. Not that many opportunities though • Even though women were in the work force, opportunities were limited. • Earned less than men • Number of women doctor’s drops with the quota in medical schools. • Belief that women working was temporary and they would leave with marriage. • Their “real” job was at home.

36. The Changing Family • Birthrate declines • Technology makes housework easier • Children are products of the home not producers. • They go to school instead of work and spend time with children their own age. • Peers became more important. • Marriage came to be seen as more of an equal partnership

37. Fads • Styles or fashions that become popular for a short time.

38. Fads in the 1920’s-Flagpole sitting ‘Shipwreck' Kelly stayed on the pole for 100 hours in '28

39. Other Fads • PEZ candy becomes popular (not in the head dispensers yet) • Mahjong

40. Dance Marathons • Jazz • Dancing all night, all week long. • Charleston, fox trot • Longest lasted for 3 weeks! Outlawed in some places because of the dangers

42. All wet Bump off Coffin varnish Gams Hooch Juice joint Wet blanket Incorrect Kill Illegal Poisonous alcohol Legs Alcohol Speakeasy Person who doesn’t have any fun Slang

43. Baseball - the National pastime! • Baseball is extremely popular and produces heroes for the whole nation to follow! • Babe Ruth • New York Yankees • Record 60 home runs in 1927 • Not broken until 1961 • Lifetime batting average .342 • 72 games hit 2 or more home runs

44. The Flight heard round the world • Charles Lindbergh makes the first transatlantic flight • Greatest hero of 1920s • Flying from New York to Paris in 33 hours and 29 minutes

45. A Renaissance in the Arts • Not all agreed with the life seen in entertainment and popular culture • Some thought this to be superficial and shallow • These include artists, writers, theater, and music • They wanted to expose the negative side of the Roaring Twenties, the silliness, and fun

46. Edna St. Vincent Millay • Popular poet • She expressed the frantic pace of the 1920s • "My Candle Burns At Both Ends" • My candle burns at both ends; • it will not last the night,But--ah, my foes! and oh, my friends! • It gives a lovely light

47. The Lost Generation • Many writers wanted to expose the shallowness of the times • One of these writers was F. Scott Fitzgerald

48. Fitzgerald and the Jazz Age • He coined the term the “Jazz Age” to describe the 1920’s. • He wrote books that portrayed wealthy people who attended endless parties, but could not find happiness

49. Writers • Ernest Hemingway • One of the most popular writers of the 1920s • Wrote A Farewell to Arms • About his experiences as a young ambulance driver on the Italian front during WWI • Sinclair Lewis • Wrote books presenting small-town Americans as dull and narrow-minded • Babbitt and Main Street

50. The Movies • First movies had no sound • Clara Bow became a popular movie star by playing restless, fun-seeking young women. • Nicknamed the “It Girl”