The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald

Time Period  1920’s: also referred to as The Roaring Twenties  People moved from farms to cities  Economic growth and “consumer society”  Spread of chain stores and nationwide advertisement

The New Woman  19 th Amendment: Women could finally vote  The Flapper: short skirts, bobbed hair, free with drinking and smoking, and “unladylike” talk

Mass Culture  Extra money equaled purchases of home appliances, ready-to-wear clothes, and particularly radios.  The first commercial radio station aired in  Radios were in 12 million households by the end of the 1920’s.

Movies and Cars  By the end of the decade, three-quarters of Americans visited a movie theater every week.  Cars were more affordable and people were given generous lines of credit.  In 1929, there was one car on the road for every five Americans.  Greater need for service stations and motels

Ford Model T

The Jazz Age  Bands played at dance halls  Millions of records were sold, which carried music across the nation  Older people objected to jazz, calling it vulgar and that it inspired moral disasters

Prohibition  18 th Amendment banned the manufacture and sale of “intoxicating liquors.”  January 16, 1920: every tavern, bar, and saloon closed in the US.  Liquor trade goes underground  Rise of illegal speakeasies that are controlled by bootleggers, racketeers, and other organized-crime figures (Ex: Al Capone)

Cultural Civil War  More social tension with The Great Migration of African Americans from Southern countryside to Northern cities.  Increasing visibility of black culture (jazz and blues)  Literary movement of Harlem Renaissance  Millions of people in places like Indiana and Illinois begin to join the Ku Klux Klan

Red Scare  1919 and 1920: anti-immigrant hysteria  Led to extremely restrictive immigration law  Law excluded some Eastern Europeans and Asians in favor of Northern Europeans and people from Great Britain  Cultural war began: city vs. town, Protestant vs. Catholic, black vs. white…

Gatsby Setting  Spring, 1922  Long Island, NY  Some scenes in NYC  Post WWI  Pre-reading activity (intro poem)