The 1920s A New Culture Emerges

A New Urban Culture After WWI, a change in attitudes/culture occurred in America. Mostly in cities. This was the 1 st time in US History that there were more people living in cities rather than the country.

Names Given to New Culture The Roaring 20s. The Jazz Age

The Old Victorian Culture Small town ideals were predominant. Central was the idea of Self-Making. –Hard Work + Proper Moral living = success. People were supposed to emulate their parents (especially women).

New Urban Attitudes More care-free, living-for-the-moment. Hedonistic—self-gratification above all else. Instead of Progressive crusades, people want to enjoy life.

Causes of the New Culture 1. Disillusionment with WWI and the Progressive era (backlash). –Ezra Pound—Men had died, “For an old bitch gone in the teeth. For a botched civilization.” 2. Change from 60hr work week to 40 = more free time. 3. Modern technology—Auto, Radio, Movies.

Automobile By 1927, Americans owned 4 out of every 5 cars in the world. Automobile manufacturing became America’s biggest industry during the 1920s. Also boom for steel, gasoline, glass, and rubber.

How the Car Transformed American Culture People began taking day-trips. People could live in suburbs outside of the cities where they worked. People took cross-country vacations. Young people took joy-rides and used cars for dating. Many consumers bought cars on credit.

Buying Habits In the 1920s, Americans started buying things like cars, furniture, appliances, radios, etc. on credit. Chain Stores that carried many items in one place began to dominate the retail sector. –Sears and Roebuck, JC Penny, Safeway, A&P. Advertising became a mass media.

Radio KDKA of Pittsburgh was the 1 st radio station (1920). Soon radio networks (such as NBC and CBS) began to form. News, sports, music, and variety shows. In 1929, $852 million worth of radios sold. Radio is most responsible for creating a national mass culture.

Movies Movie industry takes off in the 20s—it becomes the 5 th largest business in the US (100 million people per week). The Jazz Singer, starring AL Jolson, was the 1 st talking picture. Air Conditioning. Like radio, helped spread a mass culture.

Sports With more leisure time and the mass media of radio, sports became popular in the 20s. Baseball’s biggest star was Babe Ruth. In football, it was Red Grange. In one game he had TD runs of 95, 67, 55, and 45 yards the first 4-times he carried the ball. Boxing—Jack Dempsey.

The Biggest Hero Aviator Charles Lindbergh— “The Lone Eagle.” Became the 1 st person to fly nonstop across the Atlantic. Plane was the Spirit of St. Louis.

Music Big Bands and Jazz became the most popular music. Louis Armstrong became the most popular performer. New dances such as the Charleston.

Literature The 1920s were the beginning of the “Golden Age” of American Literature. Many of the writers were disillusioned with America and WWI. The themes of their works dealt with alienation, disillusionment, and cynicism. Many of these writers left America to live in Paris. Others lived in Greenwich Village in New York.

“The Lost Generation” Gertrude Stein called the expatriates “the Lost Generation.” Writers included: William Faulkner, –John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Theodore Dreiser, and Sinclair Lewis. –Literary Critic = H.L Mencken “Booboisie” –Theatre = Eugene O’Neill.

Harlem Renaissance A flowering of Black Culture that was centered in Harlem. Included literature, music, theatre, and art. Dealt primarily with celebrating blackness and the notion of being black in America. Key figures were: Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen.

Freud and Sex Sigmund Freud was a doctor from Vienna, Austria who pioneered psychoanalysis. Argued that sexual repression was responsible for a variety of nervous and emotional illnesses. His works became popular in America during the 1920s. During the 20s, attitudes towards sex began to change—Sexuality came into the open. Dating replaced courting. This was especially true for women.

Flappers A look and an attitude. Short skirt, bobbed hair, no hips or breasts. Wore Make-up. Smoked and drank. Not shocked or offended by lewd jokes.