1. LIFE & CULTURE IN AMERICA IN THE 1920S
THE ROARING TWENTIES
LIFE & CULTURE IN AMERICA IN THE 1920S

2. President Harding (1920-1923) Personal Information Major Policies
“Return to Normalcy” (laissez faire)
Isolationism
Washington Naval Conference
“Ohio Gang”
Administration scandals:
Teapot Dome Scandal
Dies in office (August 1923)

4. President Coolidge (1923-1929)
Personal Information
“Silent Cal”
Conservative Politician
“The government that does least, does best”.
McNairy-Haugen Bill
Kellogg-Briand Pact

5. “Silent Cal”

6. Americans on the Move Urbanization still accelerating. 1920:
New York 5 million
Chicago 3 million

7. Ford’s Model T
Henry Ford, circa 1916

8. Cities were impersonal
URBAN VS. RURAL
Farmers struggle post-WWI.
6 million moved to cities.
Urban life seen as “immoral”.
Rural life seen as safe, moral.
Suburban boom: trolleys, street cars etc.
Cities were impersonal
Farms were innocent

9. Demographical Changes
Demographics: statistics that describe a population.
African-American Migration:
Why?
Jim Crow laws
Job opportunities
1860 – 93% in south; 1930 – 80% in south
Struggles:
Racism follows.
Lower pay, lousy jobs.

10. Other Migrations Post-WWI: European refugees to America.
Limited immigration from Europe & Asia.
Employers turned to Mexican & Canadian immigrants.
Barrios : Spanish-speaking neighborhoods.

11. THE TWENTIES WOMAN Girls, they wanna have fu-un.
Independent and achieving greater freedoms.
Voting, more employment, freedom of the auto, etc.
Chicago 1926

12. THE FLAPPER Challenged traditional manners & morals.
Embraced new fashions & urban attitudes.
Extreme: “Vamp”

13. THE CHANGING AMERICAN FAMILY
American birthrates declined early 20th century.
Development of birth control.
Margaret Sanger:
Birth control activist
Founder--American Birth Control League
Planned Parenthood
Margaret Sanger and other founders of the American Birth Control League

14. Prohibition lasted from 1920 to 1933.
Clash between city & rural values:
18th Amendment
Illegal to make, distribute, sell, transport or consume liquor.
Prohibition lasted from 1920 to 1933.

15. SUPPORT FOR PROHIBITION
Reformers believed alcohol led to crime, abuse, laziness, etc.
Supporters were largely from rural south and west.

16. Poster supporting prohibition

17. SPEAKEASIES AND BOOTLEGGERS
Majority against prohibition.
Most immigrant groups against.
Drinkers go to speakeasies.
Bootleggers smuggled and manufactured it.
Prohis “tried” to enforce it.
Speakeasies

18. Al Capone was finally convicted on tax evasion charges in 1931.
ORGANIZED CRIME
Growth of organized crime
Al Capone –
Chicago, Illinois
60 million per year (liquor only)
Al Capone was finally convicted on tax evasion charges in 1931.

19. St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
Valentines Day – February 14, 1929
Chicago: Capone vs. Moran
Moran’s gang virtually destroyed.

20. GOVERNMENT FAILS TO CONTROL LIQUOR
Prohibition failed:
Why? >>“Unenforceable”
Public support crashed.
Created more problems than fixed.

21. PROHIBITION REPEALED
The 21st Amendment finally repealed Prohibition in 1933.

22. SCIENCE AND RELIGION CLASH
Fundamentalists vs. Seculars:
Literal interpretation of the bible
Truth in the bible, not science.
Modern science challenges.

23. SCOPES TRIAL March 1925: Tennessee makes teaching evolution illegal.
ACLU challenges.
John Scopes

24. SCOPES TRIAL ACLU hired Clarence Darrow.
Prosecution countered with William Jennings Bryan.
Bryan

25. SCOPES TRIAL July 1925 “Trial of the Century”
Darrow seemed to win on “points”.
Nonetheless, Scopes was found guilty and fined $100.
Bryan
Darrow

26. EDUCATION AND POPULAR CULTURE
Enrollment in high schools quadrupled between 1914 and 1926.

27. Mass Media Increases in Mass media during the 1920s: Examples:
Newspapers
Magazines
Radio
Movies
Newspapers:
27 million to 39 million
Increase of 42%
Motion Pictures:
40 million to 80 million
Increase of 100%
Radios:
60,000 to 10.2 million
Increase of 16,983%

28. EXPANDING NEWS COVERAGE
Literacy increased in the 1920s…
Reader’s Digest, Saturday Evening Post, Time – circulations of over 2 million a year.
Tabloids created.
Newsreels.

29. RADIO COMES OF AGE Most powerful communication.
Faster, larger audience.
Sports, politics, news, “vaudeville shows”, etc.

30. ENTERTAINMENT AND ARTS
Silent films through 1927.
First sound movie: Jazz Singer (1927)
First animated with sound: Steamboat Willie (1928)
By 1930, millions went to the movies weekly.
Walt Disney's animated Steamboat Willie marked the debut of Mickey Mouse.

31. Icons of 1920s

32. LINDBERGH’S FLIGHT Charles Lindbergh
May 27, 1927: First nonstop solo trans-Atlantic flight.
Spirit of St. Louis
NYC - Paris
33 ½ hours later
$25,000 prize

33. Amelia Earhart 1932: First female to fly solo across the Atlantic.
1935: First person to fly from California to Hawaii
1937: “Attempt” to fly around the world

34. AMERICAN HEROES OF THE 20s
1929: Americans spent $4.5 billion on entertainment.
Babe Ruth begins trend of “sports heroes”.

35. EDWARD KENNEDY “DUKE” ELLINGTON
Orchestra leader at the famous Cotton Club.
One of America’s greatest jazz composers.

36. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
Extremely influential Jazz musician, originally from New Orleans.

37. 1920s DANCING FADS
Charleston
Swing Dancing
Dance Marathons

38. Walt Disney
Co-founder of Disney Corp.
Winner of 32 Academy Awards.

39. WRITERS OF THE 1920s
F. Scott Fitzgerald coined the phrase “Jazz Age” .
Paradise Lost and The Great Gatsby.
Emptiness of New York elite society .

40. WRITERS OF THE 1920 Ernest Hemingway
The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, criticized the glorification of war
“Lost Generation” writers.
Hemingway

41. THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
Great Migration: hundreds of thousands of African Americans move north to Northern cities.
1920:
Over 40% lived in urban areas.
Migration of the Negro by Jacob Lawrence

42. LANGSTON HUGHES Best-known, HR poet.
Themes surrounding the African-American experience in America.

43. Garvey, “Provisional President of Africa”.
MARCUS GARVEY
Marcus Garvey: black separatist leader.
1914: Founded Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)
“Back to Africa” Movement
Garvey, “Provisional President of Africa”.

44. Saccho and Vanzetti were executed for robbery and murder in 1927.
Nativism in the 20’s:
Sacco and Vanzetti
Saccho and Vanzetti were executed for robbery and murder in 1927.