Life in the Roaring Twenties Chapter 13: pp. 434 – 457 Ms. Garratt – American History
Triumph of Temperance Movement: Prohibition 18 th amendment Volstead Act – difficult to enforce Speakeasies Led to lawlessness ▫Bootleggers ▫Organized crime – Al Capone By mid-1920s only 19% supported Prohibition The rest felt it caused more problems than it solved Was repealed in 1933 by the 21 st amendment
Religion: Fundamentalism Literal interpretation of the Bible Skeptical of scientific discoveries such as evolution Religious revivals in the South & West Evangelists “revived” spirituality ▫Billy Sunday ▫Aimee Semple McPherson
Billy Sunday
Aimee Semple McPherson
Scopes Trial 1925 John Scopes deliberately violated the Butler Act which made it illegal to teach evolution ACLA challenged it in the courts. Called “trial of the century” - broadcast over the radio Clarence Darrow & Wm Bryan Jennings
Twenties Woman More independent Rebellious Flappers New roles for women New appliances & inventions lightened the load at home Marriage romance- based
From Gibson Girl to Flapper
Public Education Prior to 1920s education was for college-bound students Now vocational training was offered Enrollment skyrocketed Americanization
Rise of Print Media Increased leisure & literacy led to new magazines (Reader’s Digest, New Yorker) Syndicates (chains of newspapers under centralized direction) proliferated Tabloids (larger print ideal for subways) Tabloids competed for readers which led to sensationalizing news & events. Birth of major American publishing companies (Simon & Schuster, Morrow, Viking, Harcourt & Brace, Book of the Month club
New Leisure Pastimes
Lindbergh 1 st person to fly across the Atlantic – 33 ½ hours Became hero overnight Son kidnapped & ransomed. Became another “trial of the century Lindbergh anti-Semitic and sympathetic to Nazis Received a medal from Hitler
Lindbergh’s Solo Flight 1927
Entertainment of the 1920s With more leisure came more entertainment ▫The Jazz Age ▫Movies ▫Sports ▫Dance Marathons and Charleston ▫Blues & Jazz ▫New board games – Monopoly ▫Harlem Renaissance
Movies 1920s
Harlem Renaissance Black artistic expression of their own identity & anger toward racism. Literary & artistic movement expressed itself in cafes & clubs in Harlem – would no longer accept 2 nd -class citizenship Notable AA writers emerged: ▫Langston Hughes, Claude McKay ▫Zora Neale Hurston
Harlem Renaissance
The Lost Generation Writers began to attack materialism (more importance given to $ & material goods than intellectual & spiritual concerns) Many writers left to live in Paris Gertrude Stein told them “You are all a lost generation.” Sinclair Lewis’ “Babbit” about a businessperson whose deepest obsessions are determined by advertising Great Gatsby – about empty lives of those with too much $ who are purposeless
African-American Goals Nat’l Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) fought for civil rights & anti-lynching laws Founded by W.E.B du Bois
Marcus Garvey UNIA
African American Performers
Prejudice + Hatred = KKK
Ku Klux Klan rises again KKK flourished in small towns where prohibition & fundamentalism was strong KKK added Jews, Catholics, Hispanics, Asians to its list Cross burnings, tar & feathering “Klan mainly provided a fellowship of prejudice for ill-educated men whose lives offered few other satisfactions.” Klan was similar to fascist movements in Germany & Italy which emphasized nat’lm & racial purity