THE “NEW ERA” & THE LOST GENERATION John Ermer U.S. History Honors Miami Beach Senior High LACC.1112.RH.1.9, SS.912.A , SS.912.A.1-7, SS.912.G.1-3, SS.912.G.4-3

NEW CULTURE  Faster communication and travel together with rise of consumer culture allow Americans to experience life in increasingly similar ways  New values reflect prosperity and complexity of modernity  Increasing diversity of American population, culture

CONSUMERISM  Economic success allows Americans to buy for pleasure, not just need Refrigerators, washing machines, electric irons, vacuum cleaners Wrist watches, cigarettes, cosmetics, mass produced fashion/clothing  Automobile changes life for urban and rural population City-dwellers escape congested cities for weekend getaways Businesses include paid vacations to restore vigor/energy of workers Isolation of rural life lessened by ease and decreased time of travel Young people develop social life away from family—youth culture

ADVERTISING  Rise of advertising industry causes rise in consumerism Use techniques of wartime propaganda to improve advertising Identify products with particular lifestyles, investing glamour and prestige “Buy this product and your life will improve” Bruce Barton’s The Man Nobody Knows, paints Jesus as super-salesman  New forms of communication aid advertising, expand consumerism Newspaper chains and wire services New magazines Saturday Evening Post, Reader’s Digest, and Time

MULTIMEDIA  Movies increase in popularity and influence, “talkies” debut in 1927 Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer is first talkie to create nation-wide excitement  Fatty Arbuckle scandal produces calls to “clean up” Hollywood Motion Picture Association created, Will Hays becomes head of MPA Hays reviews films for appropriateness, pushes sanctimonious conformity  Radio is newest form of communication, available at home 1920: Pittsburg’s KDKA becomes first commercial radio station 1927: National Broadcasting Company (NBC) Radio was more diverse than film, sometimes controversial, but self regulated

1920 S WOMANHOOD  Women of the 20s are from multi-generational lines of educated women  Professional opportunities remain limited to “feminine work” Most married women did not work outside the home  Behaviorists redefine motherhood as a communal endeavor Mother’s now less likely to allow children to interfere in married life Companionate Marriages: women play larger role in husbands’ social lives  Increase in birth control devises/methods, Margaret Sanger

FLAPPERS & POLITICS  Rejection of Victorian ideals of womanly “respectability” Women smoke, drink, dance, wear seductive clothes/make-up, and “party”  New models of womanly independence known as “flappers” Characterized by certain modes of dress, speech, behavior  National Woman’s Party fights for Equal Rights Amendment Sheppard-Towner Act provides federal funds for prenatal and child health Terminated in 1929 over concerns of American Medical Association

EDUCATION & YOUTH  Emphasis on expertise and training raises public school enrollment College enrollment increases threefold, include modern technical skills Idea of adolescence as distinct period of development as result of longer periods of training and education and Freudian psychology  College becomes place for adolescents to participate in organized clubs and athletics as well as develop own social patterns and hobbies Primary association with peer groups rather than families

THE LOST GENERATION  Many youths see WWI as a useless conflict, disenchanted Rejection of consumerism and U.S. itself Artists and intellectuals reject “business as usual” of 1920s Ernest Hemingway’s A Farwell to Arms F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby  Lost Generation writers criticize many American values, including: religion, democracy, material success, the medical profession, Republican politics, the modern city, the small town

THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE  African-American neighborhood of Harlem in NYC becomes symbol of flourishing African-American cultural nationwide  African-American music gains a white audience  African-American writers show pride in their racial heritage Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen “I am a Negro—and beautiful”~ Langston Hughes