1. ‘The Roaring Twenties’ The image
1920s America – “One long, crazy party, with jazz music playing on the radio, young fashionable women known as flappers wildly dancing the Charleston, large quantities of illegal alcohol being consumed, and everyone behaving in a scandalous manner.” Nigel Kelly

2. ‘The Roaring Twenties’ The reality
In the aftermath of the war people were determined to have fun.
They had more money and more leisure time.
Women were freer than ever
The entertainment industry boomed.
The 1920s were the golden age for Hollywood films.
It was also the Jazz Age with its crazes for new music and dances.

3. Prohibition Temperance Movement – wanted to ban alcohol
By 1917, 75% of Americans lived in “dry” counties
WWI made it unpatriotic to use corn, wheat, and barely to make alcohol

4. Eighteenth Amendment
In 1919 the States ratified the amendment outlawing alcohol
Period from was known as Prohibition
“Drys” argued that it improved individuals, and strengthened families. (Alcoholism and liver disease did go down
“Wets” argued that it didn’t stop drinking and created more organized crime

5. Breaking the Law Bootleggers – sold illegal alcohol to consumers
Speakeasies – secret drinking establishments in cities

6. Breaking the Law Al Capone – most famous bootlegger
“I make my money from supplying public demand. If I break the law, my customers, who number hundreds of the best people in Chicaco, are as guilty as I am. The only difference between us is that I sell and they buy. Everybody calls me a racketeer. I call myself a business man.”

7. Divides the nation Traditional Rural areas want to keep it
Modern Urban areas want to get rid of it
In 1933, the Twenty-First Amendment did away with Prohibition.

8. Mass Culture
Definition - A set of values and ideas that come from common exposure of a population to the same cultural activities, media, music etc.
Pop Culture – the most modern of mass culture
Why was it on the rise?
More mass advertisements and the rise of radio
City dwellers have more time as the work week went from 70 hours in 1850 to 45 hours in Salaries were also on the rise

9. Radios

10. Music
‘The Jazz-Age’

11. Sports

12. Movies

13. Charlie Chaplin

16. Greta Garbo

18. What’s a Flapper? Rejected old ways Bobbed Hair Wore short skirts
Went on unchaperoned dates
Danced the Charleston
Drank and smoked at clubs

20. Flappers

31. Art in the 1920s Realism Surrealism
“Life without discipline or morality and we spit on humanity.”

32. Realism

33. Edward Hopper “Hotel Room”

35. Nighthawks

36. Surrealism Paintings show Chaos Uncertainty
Revolt against civilization

37. Examples of Surrealism

38. Persistence of Memory Salvador Dali

39. Cannibalism in Autumn Salvador Dali

40. Remorse by Salvador Dali

43. The Eye of Silence Max Ernst