1. Chapter 23 A Clash of Cultures, 1920-1929

2. Modernism [To launch author video, click video icon]
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, both in Europe and the United States, the most powerful cultural movement was something called "modernism." Modernism is much easier to describe than define. Essentially, it was a rebellion against traditional standards of taste and beauty in the arts and in the social sciences—largely fed by changes in ideas, such as the emergence of Freudian psychology, stressing the importance of our subconscious and emotional selves, rather than our rational and objective side—helped feed the modernist movement.
So in painting, art became increasingly abstract and less conventional. Similarly in literature, writers began to experiment with very different forms of poetry and short fiction and novels. At the same time, dancers developed modernist styles. Modernism was widespread. It was diverse. It often fought among itself. It was very elusive as a movement to contain, but it nevertheless created most of the energy for the cultural development in the 20th century in the United States.

3. The Growing Consumer Culture
Mass Culture
The Growing Consumer Culture
New products swept the markets, and as a result, prices dropped considerably. Things that had once been only obtainable by the wealthy now were purchased by the middle class. Innovations in communication made a more homogeneous American society. Radios and movie theaters became commonplace, and they drove the American desire to talk the same, dress the same, and experience the same lifestyles they saw on the big screen.
Airplanes, Automobiles, and the Economy
Since the Wright brothers’ flight in 1903, the use of planes advanced slowly. In World War I, they were originally used for reconnaissance, until they were made into fighters, and toward the end of the war, bombers. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh would fly across the Atlantic solo. This would promote the feasibility of air travel in American society. Still, automobiles were the more numerous and significant revolution in travel. Henry Ford’s innovative assembly-line technique cut the cost of his Model T substantially and made it affordable for a new generation of Americans that was more affluent due to the postwar boom.
The postwar economy differed substantially from the one it preceded. New products swept the markets, and as a result, prices dropped considerably. Things that had once been only obtainable by the wealthy now were purchased by the middle class. Innovations in communication made a more homogeneous American society. Radios and movie theaters became commonplace, and they drove the American desire to talk the same, dress the same, and experience the same lifestyles they saw on the big screen.
Since the Wright brothers’ flight in 1903, the use of planes advanced slowly. In World War I, they were originally used for reconnaissance, until they were made into fighters, and toward the end of the war, bombers. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh would fly across the Atlantic solo. This would promote the feasibility of air travel in American society. Still, automobiles were the more numerous and significant revolution in travel. Henry Ford’s innovative assembly-line technique cut the cost of his Model T substantially and made it affordable for a new generation of Americans that was more affluent due to the postwar boom.

4. I. The New Era
D. Consumer Culture
1. Economic prosperity
1920s, per capita income increased by a third while the cost of living stayed the same
mass production of new products produced a consumer goods revolution in this new era of abundance, and more people than ever conceived of the American dream in terms of things they could acquire
2. The rise of advertising
3. The problem of consumption
economic problem had shifted from production to consumption
one solution was to expand America’s markets in foreign countries, and government and business joined in that effort
a second solution was to simply expand the market at home
Henry Ford paid his workers twice the going rate to encourage mass consumption
4. The rise of credit
many people’s incomes were too low to indulge in consumer goods; businesses supplied the solution: credit, installment buying rather than saving.
I. The New Era
D. Consumer Culture
1. Economic Prosperity—Mass production fueled corporate profits and national economic prosperity; during the 1920s, per capita income increased by a third while the cost of living stayed the same; mass production of new products produced a consumer goods revolution in this new era of abundance, and more people than ever conceived of the American dream in terms of things they could acquire.
2. The Rise of Advertising—The expanding business of advertising stimulated the desire for new products and undermined the traditional values of thrift and saving; linked material goods to the fulfillment of every spiritual and emotional need; Americans defined and measured social status and personal worth based on products they owned.
3. The Problem of Consumption—By the 1920s, the United States had achieved the physical capacity to satisfy the material wants of its people; the economic problem had shifted from production to consumption; one solution was to expand America’s markets in foreign countries, and government and business joined in that effort; a second solution was to simply expand the market at home; Henry Ford paid his workers twice the going rate to encourage mass consumption.
4. The Rise of Credit—Not all industrialists were as far-seeing as Ford; many people’s incomes were too low to indulge in consumer goods; businesses supplied the solution: credit, installment buying rather than saving.

5. 1. According to the advertisement, what are the benefits of smoking Lucky Strike cigarettes?
(Answer: The central benefit is weight loss. According to the ad, a woman can smoke a cigarette “when tempted to over-indulge” and find that it suppresses her appetite. The text also promises that Lucky Strikes prevents throat irritation and cough.)
2. What does this image reveal about advertising and consumerism in the 1920s?
(Answer: Sexuality is an important theme. The thinner woman is presumed to be more desirable. She is illustrated in color, smiles, and wears makeup and nice shoes. The ad also demonstrates the pseudo-scientific aspects of advertising. It proclaims that over 20,000 doctors promise that this brand of cigarette is less irritating to the throat of the smoker.)

7. 1. What elements of American consumerism are displayed in this image?
(Answer: By promoting gasoline, this road map also promotes two other major aspects of consumerism: the rise of the automobile and the ability to travel for recreation. The motor oil and automobile were the keys to adventure.)
2. What is the tone of this road map?
(Answer: The tone is overwhelmingly positive. The filling station is clean and utilizes the newest technology. It ignores the potential environmental costs of the use of oil and automobiles, juxtaposing the pictures of “Producers” and “Refineries” with the pristine Colorado Rockies. The map depicts the economic and social vitality of the 1920s.)

8. A Modern Home
This 1925 Westinghouse advertisement urges homemakers to buy this “Cozy Glow, Jr.” heater and “Sol-Lux luminaire” lamp, among other new electrical appliances that would “do anything for you in return.”

9. Charlie Chaplin
A dispirited Charlie Chaplin in a still image from his classic 1921 film The Kid.

10. The Rise of Radio The rise of radio
The radio brought this farm family together and connected them to the outside world. By the end of the 1930s, millions would tune in to newscasts, soap operas, sports events, and church services.

11. Ford Motor Co.’s Highland Park Plant, 1913
Gravity slides and chain conveyors contributed to the mass production of automobiles.

12. Spectator Sports with baseball’s Babe Ruth and boxing’s Jack Dempsey
Mass Culture
Spectator Sports with baseball’s Babe Ruth and boxing’s Jack Dempsey
football, essentially a college sport, held greater sway with the upper classes.
The increase in modes of transportation and income brought with it new opportunities to take part in recreational activities that were previously unavailable. Baseball, football, and prize fights became common weekend destinations.

13. The “Jazz Age” during the “Roaring Twenties”
F. Scott Fitzgerald dubbed the postwar era the Jazz Age because young people were more willing to embrace new experiences such as jazz. African and European music came to be melded during this era and the result was jazz.
F. Scott Fitzgerald dubbed the postwar era the Jazz Age because young people were more willing to embrace new experiences such as jazz. African and European music came to be melded during this era and the result was jazz.

14. Duke Ellington and His Band
Jazz emerged in the 1920s as a uniquely American expression of the modernist spirit. African American artists bent musical convention to give freer rein to improvisation and sensuality.

15. The New Woman of the 1920s
Two flappers dance atop the Hotel Sherman in Chicago, 1926.

16. II. New Woman and Morality
B. The New Woman
1. Women in politics
2. Challenges to women’s political influence
Sheppard-Towner Act, which funded state efforts to curb infant mortality; a number of factors helped to thwart women’s political influence, including male domination of both political parties, the rarity of female candidates, and women’s lack of experience in voting.
3. Special protection vs. equal protection for women
4. Women at work
“women’s jobs,” many working as secretaries, stenographers, typists, nurses, librarians, elementary school teachers, salesclerks, and telephone operators
5. The flapper
woman who spent freely on the latest styles and danced all night to wild jazz.
6. Birth control
7. Challenging standards
Flapper style and values spread from coast to coast through films, novels, magazines, and advertisements; new women challenged American convictions about women and men in separate spheres, the double standard of sexual conduct, and Victorian ideas of proper female appearance and behavior.
II. The Roaring Twenties
B. The New Woman
1. Women in Politics—Of all the changes in American life in the 1920s, none sparked more heated debates than the alternatives offered to the traditional roles of women; politically, women entered uncharted territory in the 1920s when the Nineteenth Amendment granted them the vote; women began pressuring Congress to pass laws that especially concerned women, including measures to protect women in factories and grant federal aid to schools.
2. Challenges to Women’s Political Influence—Women’s only legislative success came with the passage of the Sheppard-Towner Act, which funded state efforts to curb infant mortality; a number of factors helped to thwart women’s political influence, including male domination of both political parties, the rarity of female candidates, and women’s lack of experience in voting.
3. Special Protection vs. Equal Protection for Women—Women failed to form a solid voting bloc; feminists argued over whether women should fight for special protection or equal protection, and in 1923, the divided feminist movement saw Congress shoot down the Equal Rights Amendment.
4. Women at Work—Economically, more women worked for pay, but they clustered in “women’s jobs,” many working as secretaries, stenographers, typists, nurses, librarians, elementary school teachers, salesclerks, and telephone operators.
5. The Flapper—Increased earnings gave women more buying power and a special relationship with the new consumer culture; a stereotype soon emerge of the flapper, a woman who spent freely on the latest styles and danced all night to wild jazz.
6. Birth Control—The new woman both reflected and propelled the modern birth control movement as well; by the 1920s, this movement linked birth control and eugenics; made contraception a respectable subject for discussion.
7. Challenging Standards—Flapper style and values spread from coast to coast through films, novels, magazines, and advertisements; new women challenged American convictions about women and men in separate spheres, the double standard of sexual conduct, and Victorian ideas of proper female appearance and behavior.

17. 1. What makes this woman rebellious?
(Answer: Her style of dress was rebellious for the time period. She wore a tight fitting hat and a matching low-neck shirt or bathing suit. On the chair rests her red scarf or jacket. She wears bright red lipstick and makeup.)
2. Who do you think was the intended audience for this magazine?
(Answer: The magazine was likely designed to appeal to young women, as it promotes rebellion explicitly to “the younger generation.” Yet, by suggestively describing the “startling and revealing story” of youth rebellion, it promises a tale “that everyone should read.”)

18. The “New Negro”-emphasis on culture Garveyism
The Jazz Age, continued
The Great Migration
The most significant development in African American life in the twentieth century occurred when the white workers were drafted for the war and African Americans were encouraged to move north and take over for the soldiers. In a move known as the Great Migration, over 323,000 African Americans went north during the war, and by 1930, 615,000 more had joined them.
The “New Negro”-emphasis on culture
Garveyism
Garvey urged African Americans to rediscover the heritage of Africa, take pride in their own culture and achievements, and maintain racial purity by avoiding miscegenation; launched the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which created the Black Star Line shipping company to support the “Back to Africa” movement; Garvey was eventually convicted of mail fraud, jailed, and deported, but his legacy remains at the center of black nationalist thought.
The most significant development in African American life in the twentieth century occurred when the white workers were drafted for the war and African Americans were encouraged to move north and take over for the soldiers. In a move known as the Great Migration, over 323,000 African Americans went north during the war, and by 1930, 615,000 more had joined them.
During this time, a period of Negro nationalism would develop with an emphasis on their culture. Adherents were known as the “new negroes.” The greatest proponent of this time was Marcus Garvey. Garvey created the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which promoted the recolonization of Africa by its members.

19. 3. The Harlem Renaissance
New York City’s black population jumped 115 percent during the 1920s
an extraordinary mix of black artists, sculptors, novelists, musicians, and poets made Harlem their home and set out to create a distinctive African American culture that drew on their identities as both Americans and Africans; incredible flowering of artistic talent, including James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Aaron Douglas
despite the dazzling talent produced by the Harlem Renaissance, Harlem remained a separate black ghetto that most whites knew only for its lively nightlife
creative burst left a powerful legacy, but did little in the short run to dissolve the prejudice of a white society.

20. Into Bondage
Into Bondage
This painting by Aaron Douglas exemplifies how black artists in the Harlem Renaissance used their African roots and collective history as artistic inspiration.
This painting by Aaron Douglas exemplifies how black artists in the Harlem Renaissance used their African roots and collective history as artistic inspiration.

21. Marcus Garvey
Garvey was the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and a leading spokesman for “Negro nationalism” in the 1920s.

22. Science and Social Thought
The Modernist Revolt
Science and Social Thought
When Albert Einstein announced his theory of relativity, he upended two centuries worth of conventional wisdom. This would lead to the birth of the modern physics movement. Other scientific studies during this time would also be transformed by this redefinition of thought, and scientists would apply it in other disciplines as well.
Modernist Art and Literature- twentieth-century counterparts found themselves in a reality where new things could actually be created. Their works would reflect this outlook.
The Armory Show
When Albert Einstein announced his theory of relativity, he upended two centuries worth of conventional wisdom. This would lead to the birth of the modern physics movement. Other scientific studies during this time would also be transformed by this redefinition of thought, and scientists would apply it in other disciplines as well.
Whereas nineteenth-century authors and artists had taken for granted that everything in the world could be readily observed and represented accurately, their twentieth-century counterparts found themselves in a reality where new things could actually be created. Their works would reflect this outlook.
A traveling exhibit of modernist artists’ works.

23. Russian Ballet (1916) Russian Ballet (1916)
Jewish American artist Max Weber’s painting is a modernist take on a traditional subject.

24. The Modernist Revolt, continued
Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein
Leaders of the modernist movement
The “Lost Generation”
This term was coined by Gertrude Stein to describe the generation of adults who came of age during World War I.
Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein were leaders in the modernist movement.
This term was coined by Gertrude Stein to describe the generation of adults who came of age during World War I.

25. II. The Roaring Twenties
E. The Lost Generation
1. Alienation and expatriation
writers and artists felt alienated from American mass-culture society
found it shallow, anti-intellectual, and materialistic; many of these writers and artists left the United States to live in Europe
this so-called Lost Generation helped launch one of the most creative periods in American art and literature in the twentieth century; included Ernest Hemingway.
2. Exiles in spirit
were often exiles in spirit
acted as lonely critics of American cultural barrenness and vulgarity; included Sinclair Lewis, William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
II. The Roaring Twenties
E. The Lost Generation
1. Alienation and Expatriation—Some writers and artists felt alienated from American mass-culture society; found it shallow, anti-intellectual, and materialistic; many of these writers and artists left the United States to live in Europe; this so-called Lost Generation helped launch one of the most creative periods in American art and literature in the twentieth century; included Ernest Hemingway.
2. Exiles in Spirit—Writers who remained in America—many of whom had embraced progressive reform movements early in the century—were often exiles in spirit; acted as lonely critics of American cultural barrenness and vulgarity; included Sinclair Lewis, William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

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This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 23 A Clash of Cultures,
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