Fads of the 1920s

JOURNAL # Use the “Twenties Talk” on the back of your notes page to write a letter to a friend describing your plans for the weekend. You must use at least SEVEN twenties vocabulary terms (please UNDERLINE each term)

Challenges to Traditional Values… Carles Darwin & Theory of Evolution Prohibiton The Ku Klux Klan Flappers

Charles Darwin Charles Darwin created and proposed the theory of evolution or natural selection. –Species change over time and space –All organisms share common ancestors with other organisms –Evolutionary change is gradual and slow –“Struggle for existence” and the “survival of the fittest”

Prohibition was an attempt to ban the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcohol.

The idea was to improve domestic life by increasing money brought home and reducing spouse and child abuse.

Instead Prohibition led to bootleggers and speakeasies where alcohol was secretly purchased and consumed.

The New Ku Klux Klan At its peak, in the mid-1920s, the Klan achieved a total membership of four million Members served in state legislatures and Congress, and wee elected to the governorship in several states Blacks as well Jews, Catholics and immigrants became targets Organized opposition to the teaching of evolution in the schools, dissemination of birth control devices and information, and efforts to repeal prohibition

Flappers were young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, drank, smoked and wore excessive makeup

Flappers were brash, breaking all conventional social norms for women.

19 th Amendment Granted women the right to vote

The Roaring Twenties was named for its fun-loving, fast-paced, entertainment packed attitude.

Flagpole sitting began in 1924 when stuntman Alvin Kelly sat on a flagpole for 13 hours and 13 minutes.

It became a competition and spectator sport… who could sit for the longest period of time?

The record became 12 days, then for 17 days, then 21 days, then 42 days.

Dance Marathons were dance competitions where you danced until you dropped!

The general rule was you could not sleep!

Some contests let one partner dance, while the other rested

The longest competition lasted 22 weeks and 3 ½ days.

In 1929 the Roaring Twenties died out and the United States entered another period of its history… the Great Depression.

How did the United States go from the good life of the 1920s to the Great Depression?