The Roaring Twenties: Rapid Change and Cultural Transformation

1. CHAPTER 11The Twenties

2. Roaring Twenties. • Rapid Technological advancements. • Cultural Changes. • Vast Social Changes.

3. Expansion of Consumer Society. • Higher wages & salaries & low inflation increased the number of consumers. • Mass production & competition forced automobile prices down. • Cars brought more independence, spurred road building, & increased oil use.

4. Cars transform American Society. • “Economic Multiplier” 1/8 Jobs related to auto industry. • Increased sales led to Federal Highway Act. • 30,000 Auto accidents by 1930. • Urbanization or Urban Sprawl & Suburbs.

5. Technology & Urbanization. • The automobile. (Changes workplace, mobility, housing, dating.) • Aviation. (Lindbergh popularizes.) • Electrification, & urbanization. (Farm flight.)

6. 1920sExpansion of Consumer Society. • Advertising expenditures rose dramatically. • Most Americans acquired a radio. • Huge advertising & entertainment medium. • Celebrity endorsements.

7. Installment Plans. Radio broke down regional barriers. It developed into a national culture. Installment buying led consumer culture in the 1920s. It became acceptable to buy on credit over a set amount of time.

8. 1920s Cities, Migrants, and Suburbs. • Over half the U. S. lived in urban areas. • Industrial jobs lured millions into the cities. • Advances in transportation allowed many people to flock to the suburbs. • Escape crowded cities. (Urban Sprawl.)

9. New Rhythms of Everyday Life. • Birth rates declined & life expectancy increased. • An emphasis on nutrition led to better diets. • Improved sanitation led to increased life expectancy. • Divorce rates rose. • Adult Americans devoted less time to raising children.

10. Alternative Images of Femininity. • A sharp break with the restraint of the 19th century traditional ideas of proper behavior came under criticism. • Women experimented with new images of femininity, such as the “flapper” look.

11. Flappers. • Rebellious young women who broke traditional expectations on how women should dress & behave. • Many women disliked flappers for interest in self pleasure over women’s causes. The “Vamp.”

12. Women in the Work Force. • Millions of women continued to move into the work force post WWI, despite discrimination. • The % of minority women who worked for pay was double that of white women. • Votes for Women.

13. 1st Feature-Length Motion Picture. • “The Jazz Singer.” “Talkies.” (The Sound movies.) • Movies became a premier American medium. • Movie stars satisfied Americans’ yearning for romance & adventure. The Jazz Singer Clip.

14. 1920s, The Age of Play. • People began to elevate sports personalities to heroic status. • Gertrude Ederle. (Olympics & 1st to swim English Channel. • Jim Thorpe.Olympic athlete of Native American &European ancestry.  • Babe Ruth.

15. Literature, music, dance& entertainment in the 1920s & 1930s. • The “Lost Generation.” (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein.) • American Writers who were critical of American society & moved to Europe. (Paris.)

16. Literature, music, dance& entertainment in the 1920s & 1930s. • Harlem Renaissance. NYC. (Black explosion in creativity & the arts.) • Poetry & Literature. • Jazz Pioneers Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.

17. Religious Conservatism. • Many turned to fundamentalist religion to counter what they saw as societies’ skepticism & materialism. • Modern advertising techniques let revivalist preachers attract more followers.

18. Religious Conservatism. • 1925, “Scopes Monkey trial.”Scopes stood trial for teaching evolution. (Darwinism.) • Fundamentalism (Those who believed in literal interpretation of how God created humans in the Bible.) clashed with science when ACLU defended Darwinism.

19. Breakthroughs by/for Women. • 1920s The League of Woman’s Voters: Grassroots-non-partisan organization to educate citizens on public issues. • 18th Amendment: Prohibition. (21st Repeal) • 19th Amendment: Women’s right to vote. (1972, Equal Rights Amendment.)

20. Supporters of Prohibition. (18th) • Women’s Christian Temperance Union. • Rural residents of the South. • Traditionalist who felt Alcoholism caused crime, violence & family break-ups.

21. 1920s, Prohibition & Organized Crime. • Prohibition successful at first. • Bootleggers soon made the illicit liquor industry into a thriving business. • Al Capone met the demand for liquor, gambling, & prostitutes, becoming the best-known gangster of the era. (The Roaring 20s.)

22. 1920s, Prohibition & Organized Crime. • Speakeasies were “secret” clubs that sold bootlegged booze. • “Bootlegging” Production, sale & Transport of illegal alcohol. • Prohibition led to the rise of Organized Crime & criminal empires. (The Mob.) • Bootlegging gave rise to crime and people breaking the law.

23. Prohibition Repealed. • 21st Amendment Overturned. 1933. • Grassroots movements are often at the local level, as opposed to a strong national leader. • Disrespect of Law. • The benefits were not worth the cost.