1. The Roaring 20s
The People Make the Era

2. Overview
The Roaring 20s was a celebration of youth and its culture. It was a prosperous time, and many questioned past values, and were willing to experiment with new values, behaviors, and fashions.
It was especially liberating for women, who received the right to vote in 1920, and blacks, who went through a change in attitude about themselves…”black is beautiful.” This was illustrated with the Harlem Renaissance.

3. People
People wanted to spend their money on things that were fun, so they bought radios and radio stations boomed, they bought tickets to movies, which had sound by 1927, and they bought cars and ready-made clothes.
Eras are determined by the people who make headlines…and there were plenty of those in the 1920s.

4. Writers The 1920s was a glory decade for writers of all types.
Harlem Renaissance writers wrote about pride in the African-American experience. They celebrated their heritage, and wrote defiantly about being black in a white world.
Other writers wrote about the American experience (positive and negative). Many writers, The Lost Generation, were soured by American culture, and moved to Europe to write about war, society, and politics.

7. Musicians
Music, with the birth of jazz and the popularity of big bands, defined the era of the Roaring 20s.
Jazz, a mixture of ragtime and blues, became hugely popular for dancing, and spread quickly throughout the country. Whites flocked to black nightclubs to hear the pulsing sounds.
Big bands also became hugely popular, taking some jazz elements and combining them with classical music to come up with a unique American music sound.

9. Politicians
Politicians and activists made news headlines in the Roaring 20s, though usually for less than positive reasons.
Politics was mired in corruption, inefficiency, and again, the laissez-faire attitude.
Partly, this negativity and “who cares” attitude from the politicians showed the average American that it was okay to do whatever felt good…and they did.

11. Actors
Though radio was by far the cheapest and most widely used form of entertainment, movies quickly started to catch up in the 1920s.
Actors became heroes and icons…they led the country in fashion and political ideas.
Innovations in film included animation (cartoons like Mickey Mouse) and movies with sound.

13. Athletes
Athletes became as famous as movie stars, as they set records in their fields, and made watching sports entertaining for the whole family.
The biggest sports in America during the 1920s were boxing, baseball, tennis and football – and athletes in those sports as well as others became American icons and heroes.

15. Record Breakers
During the Roaring 20s, people had time, money, and a need to have fun…so sometimes they made up ways to have fun by trying to create new forms of entertainment, or by setting records.
Things people did for fun included crossword puzzles, mahjongg, dance competitions, daredevil flying stunts, and pole sitting.

17. Outlaws
One of the most defining things about the Roaring 20s was Prohibition…
Banning alcohol led to people trying to get around the ban – which was the birth of organized crime in America.
Crime became so widespread and organized, that criminals in many ways became heroes as well – they were glorified by the press as champions of the common man…which made it very difficult for lawmen to catch them.

19. Idealists
The 1920s was schizophrenic…some people became more immoral and liberal – openly breaking the law, promoting free sexuality and the lack of inhibitions, and opening their minds to creativity and multi-culturalism…
Yet at this time the majority of Americans became more moral and conservative (rural areas) – attended church, held Christian revivals, rejected science explaining creation, and returned to traditional American values (era of segregation ala KKK.)