1. Unit 12.1 American Society in the 1920s

2. The Culture of Modernism: the Arts and Mass Entertainment

3. The “Lost Generation” 1. After WWI, a new generation of writers emerged -- Their works conveyed resentment of ideals betrayed by society; criticized the materialism of the 1920s 2. H. L. Mencken: American Mercury magazine -- Attacked traditional conservative values

4. 3. F. Scott Fitzgerald a. This Side of Paradise (1920) b. Great Gatsby (1925) 4. Theodore Dreiser: An American Tragedy (1925) 5. Ernest Hemingway: Farewell to Arms (1929) 6. Sinclair Lewis a. Criticized midwestern life b. Mainstreet (1920) c. Babbitt (1922)

5. Movies 1.Emergence of the movie industry a. 1890s, peep-show penny arcades b. 1903, Great Train Robbery was the 1st real moving picture Justus D. Barnes fires point blank at the audience

6. c. First full-length feature was D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915) that glorified the Ku Klux Klan

7. Al Jolson, a Jewish entertainer, donned blackface while doing a minstrel show

8. Yankee slugger, Babe Ruth

9. World Heavyweight Champion, Jack Dempsey (1921-26)

11. I.Radio 1. Radio had been invented in the 1890s and used during WWI 2. 1920, KDKA in Pittsburg carried the first public broadcast 3. Broadcasts grew exponentially 4. National radio networks emerged: NBC & CBS A 1920s Crosley Harko radio

12. Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five was the first group to make recordings that featured Armstrong’s name. This version of Armstrong’s band recorded from 1925 to 1927.

13. Responses to Modernism: Religious Fundamentalism and Nativism

15. 1. Clarence Darrow defended Scopes 2. William Jennings Bryan led the prosecution Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan

16. Prohibition

17. Results of Prohibition a. Rise of organized crime:  Huge profits from bootlegging  Al Capone was the most powerful gangster of the 1920s  Increased gang violence  Bribery at all gov’t levels was rampant  Organized crime spread to prostitution, gambling, and narcotics

18. b. Rise of speakeasies  Middle-class havens for drinking  Women were welcome (compared to saloons) c. Americans became used to casually breaking law Prohibition was repealed in 1933 with the 21st Amendment

19. The Ku Klux Klan marches down Pennsylvania Avenue in 1925

20. Eugenics

21. “The Only Way to Handle It”

22. The Struggle for Equality: African Americans and Women

23. Harlem Renaissance 1. Development a. Harlem, a black enclave in Manhattan, grew rapidly due to WWI b. Significance: Harlem produced a wealth of African American poetry, literature, art, and music expressing the pain, sorrow, and discrimination blacks felt at this time

24. 2. Poets and writers: Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Zora Neal Hurston. 3. Duke Ellington and the Cotton Club -- Pianist, band leader, composer/arranger who formed one of the most famous bands in jazz history

26. Marcus Garvey a. Leader of the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)  “Back to Africa Movement”: promoted the resettlement of U.S. blacks to Africa  Advocated black racial pride and separatism from whites rather than integration b. His views later became the basis for the Nation of Islam in the 1960s

27. The Flapper

28. Women & Work

29. Margaret Sanger: birth control a. 1916, she established the nation’s first family planning clinic b. Founded the American Birth Control League in 1921

30. Frances Willard Founder of the Prohibition Party

31. Alice Paul’s amendment was first introduced in 1923