1. The Roaring 20s
The Jazz Age

2. Unit Objectives To learn what made the 1920s the “Roaring 20s”
To learn why the 1920s was such a prosperous decade

3. Why was the decade called the “Roaring Twenties”?
Rise of New Industries:
CONSUMER GOODS INDUSTRY;
AUTOMOBILE REVOLUTIONIZED AMERICAN
LIFE (VACATIONS, COMMUTING, SUBURBS);
AIRLINE INDUSTRY

4. Strong Economy:
TIME OF GREAT PROSPERITY, PEOPLE HAD DISPOSABLE INCOME FOR FIRST TIME AND NEW THINGS TO DO WITH IT

5. Focus became having a good time (people wanted to forget horrors of WWI)
Materialism:
INTEREST IN MONEY AND MATERIAL GOODS
Entertainment:
PEOPLE HAD MONEY TO SPEND & NEW WAYS
TO SPEND IT (SPORTS, MOVIES, RADIO,
SHOPPING CENTERS, NEW INVENTIONS LIKE CAR,
AIRPLANE, REFRIGERATOR)

6. 1920’s Society/Culture
New Morality: Traditional beliefs were challenged while youth and personal freedom were glorified
-Automobile gave the youth more freedom
-Role of women changed:
MORE WOMEN IN WORKPLACE; WOMEN BEGAN TO
REBEL AGAINST OLD TRADITIONAL SOCIAL
EXPECTATIONS
-Flappers:
YOUNG FEMALE REBELS

7. Flappers

8. Fundamentalism:
-Religious movement
-Followers feared the impact of the 20s on the
morality of society
-They believed the Bible was literally true
-They opposed Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
or the teaching of it in public schools

9. Scopes Monkey Trial (1925) Issue: A TENNESSEE TEACHER TAUGHT EVOLUTION
AFTER THE STATE HAD OUTLAWED IT
Who?
-John Scopes: THE TEACHER
-William Jennings Bryan: PROSECUTOR
-Clarence Darrow: DEFENSE ATTORNEY

10. Darrow, Bryan, Scopes

12. Scopes Monkey Trial The Result: -SCOPES FOUND GUILTY AND FINED $100
-THE CONVICTION WAS LATER OVERTURNED
Impact:
MADE FUNDAMENTALISTS SEEM EXTREME
AND LED TO THEIR DECLINE

13. Many social improvements (education, medicine, improved status of African-Americans and women—19th Amendment)
Harlem Renaissance (ID):
PERIOD OF GROWTH IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN ART
AND LITERATURE, PARTICULARLY JAZZ (COTTON
CLUB)

15. Charles Lindbergh:
BECAME FAMOUS AFTER FLYING SOLO
ACROSS ATLANTIC (“LUCKY LINDY”); LOST A
CHILD TO KIDNAPPING/MURDER

17. 1920’s Politics Isolationism (ID): AMERICA STAYED OUT OF WORLD AFFAIRS
UNLESS THEY HAD DIRECT IMPACT ON
AMERICA (PUBLIC TURNED OFF BY WWI
EXPERIENCE)
Kellogg-Briand Pact:
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT TO BAN WAR