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 RainWandering 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  19 th 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 18 th 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

The End of Prohibition In 1933, the 18 th 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  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  Anarchists: Anti-government (no govt.)  Put on trial for murder  Despite a lack of evidence, the verdict was…  GUILTY  They were executed