1. The Roaring Twenties CSS 11.5
Unit 4—Chapter 7
The Roaring Twenties
CSS 11.5

2. Daily Start 3 What was the first silent movie with a plot?
What was the first “talkie” called?
Who is Babe Ruth?
What was a flapper?
What did the Equal Rights Amendment do for women?

3. A New Mass Culture
EQ: How did the new mass culture reflect technological and social changes?

4. Rise off Mass Media – Radio and Movies
created a national rather than regional culture
encouraged consumption
new avenues for fame
Phonograph, 1877
allowed music and speeches to spread nation wide
mass production became available in the 1890s
Silent Movies
silent movies vied with radio for popularity
serial films were followed like TV today

5. Mass Media – Birth of Cinema
Great Train Robbery, 1903
this 12-minute film was one of the first to tell a story
it was proceeded by the shorter nickelodeon
Birth of a Nation, 1915
D.W. Griffith showed the KKK saving America from blacks after the Civil War
the NAACP protested the film
it led to violence and even killing
highest box office of the silent movie era ($10 million)
equivalent of $200 million today
Jazz Singer, 1927
first of the “talkies” and the end of the silent-movie era
starred Al Jolson in black face

6. Mass Media – The American Past-Time
Baseball
became immensely popular with the advent of radio
Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb
the 1919 Black Sox scandal was bigger than Tea Pot Dome
It became “America’s Pastime”
Babe Ruth (The Great Bambino, The Sultan of Swat)
paid more than the President
greatest baseball player of all time
lifetime batting average .342, 714 home runs G AB R H HR
RBI BB SO
Avg.
OBP
SLG
2,503
8,398
2,174
2,874
714
2,217
2,062
1,330
.342
.472
.690

7. Mass Media – America Leads the way
Charles Lindbergh (Lucky Lindy)
first solo flight across the Atlantic from New York to Paris in 1927
became the first Time Man of the Year in 1927
pioneered commercial aviation
his baby son was kidnapped and murdered in 1932
ten-week search led to false negotiations and ultimately the baby’s body was found
kidnapping became a federal offense

8. Women’s Rights Changes in Employment for Women
some broke into journalism, aviation, medicine, and the law
most women still worked in domestic service and manufacturing
The Flapper (The New Woman)
symbol of new feminine freedom
followed the same rules as men
shorter hair, shorter hemlines, makeup

9. Women’s Rights Nineteenth Amendment, 1920
women voters helped elect female governors in WY and TX and the first female senator
originally most female voters supported the Republican Party but today most support the Democrats
Equal Rights Amendment, 1924 (ERA)
attempted to require equality under the Constitution
most states require it today and it failed in the 1970s
child custody, divorce, and equal pay were still major issues
Gertrude Ederle swam the English Channel in 1926 at the age of 21 (only 5 men had done it)
she swam over 20 miles in just over 14 hours

10. Modernism vs. Fundamentalism
new emphasis on science and secular (non-religious) values
strongest in urban areas
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution

11. Modernism in Art and Literature
The Lost Generation
writers from the 1920s who had become disillusioned by the romanticism of the late 1800s
they questioned tradition, religion, and society
Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald

13. Modernism