The Roaring Twenties (1920-1929) AIM: How did the end of WWI impact Americans lives at home? Do Now: How do you think Americans responded to the end of WWI?
Decade of partying and celebration! WAR ENDS! Decade of partying and celebration! USA, USA, USA!!!
The “Jazz Age” or the “Golden Twenties” War is over- let’s party!!!
1920-Economy was BOOMING! During war- US exported over $ 8 billion dollars worth of supplies/goods BUT 2 mil. soldiers come home, stop exporting, eco. starting to halt (don’t worry, be happy!)
“Republican Decade” Hands-off Presidents President Warren G. Harding: “Return to Normalcy” Laissez-faire Isolationism President Calvin Coolidge President Herbert Hoover
Installment Buying Advertising make people want more and more! Buying on “margin” : credit cards “Buy now, pay later!!!” People think they’re rich!
BUY! BUY! BUY! “On margin”- Buy now, pay later
BUY! BUY! BUY! Appliances!! Vacuum cleaners! Washing machines! WOMEN CAN LEAVE THE HOUSE! (& have voting rights!)
Leisure Activities- Sports People have money to spend on sports Babe Ruth (baseball) Jack Dempsey (boxer)
Leisure Activities- Movies Hollywood Silent films Charlie Chaplin “Talkie” films 1 national culture Immigrants learn English from the movies!
Mass Media & Communication Radio-Created a “national culture” everyone listens to the same thing
Prohibition (18th amendment) Create speakeasies (secret bars that illegally sold alcohol)
Organized Crime Bribery of police The “Mafia” (gang) Mafia wars sought control of the booze market Chicago
Organized Crime Al Capone -gangster who made millions from bootlegging: illegally selling alcohol
Planes (Aviation) Charles “Lucky” Lindbergh (1927) 1st to fly over the Atlantic Ocean from LI to Paris
The Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance New attitudes- party on! URBANIZATION 1920 census revealed that more than ½ the population lived in urban cities
Women Greater sense of equality working Changes in manners and morals Question traditional roles as mothers
Flapper Short skirts Bobbed haircut Listened to jazz Drank and smoked in public “liberated” (free)
The Jazz Age Celebrating African-Americans New rhythms and improvisation Jazz clubs- “Cotton Club” in NYC
Harlem Renaissance pride in A.A. culture “rebirth” = Renaissance new demands for equality Langston Hughes (poet): I, Too, Sing America
Youth Culture “Fads” Flagpole sitting Marathon dancing The “Charleston” dance
The “Lost” Generation New group of writers after WWI Questioned American morals F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby showing how people waste money
How did American life change in the 1920s? 2. Did the 1920s “roar” or was it more of a “yawn?”