Chapter 13 Changing ways of life… THE JAZZ AGE… THE ROARING TWENTIES!

Objectives: To describe and evaluate life in the 1920’s. To evaluate the role of prohibition in the 1920’s. To describe the Harlem Renaissance.

Small farm towns with conservative moral values and close social relationships gave way to the rise of big, impersonal cities. In the 1920’s, NYC was the largest city, with Chicago second. Life was fast-paced and much more into please seeking.

18th Amendment – 1920, outlawed the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverage. Immigrants hated this….

The Volstead Act – set up bureau to enforce prohibition, impossible and expensive to enforce. Speakeasies opened, bootleggers smuggled liquor, organized crime widespread.

Birth of Gangsters and Mafia

Chicago – notorious for Al Capone’s Gang. Killed off his competition…CAPONE TOOK OVER AT THE AGE OF 25 Known for St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

Prohibition repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment.

As a result of the changes: A rise of American fundamentalism (Protestant movement that promotes “literal interpretation” of the Bible).

Rejected the theory of “evolution”. Revivals spread teachings and led to movement to end teaching of evolution. Turning Points – Scopes Monkey Trial

Mar. 1925 – Tennessee Scopes Monkey Trial: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) supported John Scopes, a biology teacher who taught evolution. He was arrested and tried.

ACLU lawyer, Clarence Darrow Tenn. Lawyer, William Jennings Bryan

The war changed American attitude about life The war changed American attitude about life ..a rebellious pleasure seeking time in 20’s.

“flappers” – emancipated women who embraced new independence and equality. Women drank, smoked, talked openly about sex, wore skirts above the knees, bobbed their hair, etc.

The “It” Girl! Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald led the way. There still was a double standard – set of principles treating men differently than women.

Even though women lost their jobs to men after the war, they continued to seek employment. But discrimination in the workplace was common.

Families changed too. Margaret Sanger, 1916, opened up the first birth control clinic and fought to get birth control information to women. Margaret Sanger was educated as and worked as a nurse. In her work with poor women on the Lower East Side of New York, she was aware of the effects of unplanned and unwelcome pregnancies. Her mother's health had suffered as she bore eleven children. She came to believe in the importance to women's lives and women's health of the availability of birth control, a term which she's credited with inventing.

Teens rebelled against their Parents in the 20’s.

Education changed – new Vocational classes, classes to teach the new immigrants English, etc. More students went to school and taxes supported them.

Mass media shaped mass culture. Magazines, newspapers and the radio created a shared national experience.

Heroes of the 20’s: Babe Ruth Foster found Negro National League

Gertrude Ederle – first woman to swim the English Channel

Helen Wills Moody First famous women’s tennis player First famous woman tennis player

“Rube” Foster Started Negro National League of Baseball

Charles Lindbergh (Spirit of St. Louis)

Fads: crossword puzzles flagpole sitting mahjong dance marathons breaking records

The Arts: First major movie “The Jazz Singer”

The First Motion Picture Cartoon – “Steamboat Willie” Movie clip

George Gershwin, musical composer

Georgia O’Keefe, artist “Mother of American Modernism”

1920’s one of the greatest periods in American literature…. Called the “Lost Generation” of writing. Many disillusioned writers chose to live in Europe, mainly Paris.

Eugene O’Neill, playwright Sinclair Lewis, first Am. writer to win Nobel Prize for Literature, Babbitt 3. F. Scott Fitzgerald, writer of the “Jazz Age” 4. Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence 5. Willa Cather, My Antonia Babbitt – against the middle class values of conformity The Age of Innocence – about the values of upper class New York at the turn of the century My Antonia – about immigrant families going to Nebraska

6. T.S. Eliot, poet, “The Waste Land” 7. Ernest Hemingway, best known writer, opposed war, introduced simple style of writing. The Old Man and the Sea A Farewell to Arms

Due to the Great Migration, blacks inhabiting the cities began to change their lives…

Harlem, in NYC, became the world’s largest black community. Suffered from overcrowding, poverty, unemployment. 1920’s - flowering of creativity that became known as the “Harlem Renaissance”

Well educated, middle class blacks led the movement… Alain Locke - published works of young black authors and first African American Rhodes Scholar

Marcus Garvey - advanced program to promote black businesses; “black pride” resulted.

James Weldon Johnson - poet, lawyer, NAACP leader (led the fight to end lynching).

Langston Hughes, poet Dreams Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow.

Claude McKay - novelist, poet Jamaican, moved to New York…..major role in Harlem Renaissance…experimented with communism, but didn’t like Russian communism.

Zora Neale Hurston - novelist Born in Alabama but moved at age of 3 to florida

Leaders in Jazz/Blues Music: 1. Louis Armstrong 2. Duke Ellington 3. Cab Calloway (scat music) 4. Bessie Smith Savoy Ballroom Cotton Club