1. The Roaring Life of the 1920s
U.S. History
Chapter 13

2. Section 1 - Changing Ways of Life
Many people were living in cities.
The New Urban Scene
Jobs – day. Movies, vaudeville theaters at night.
City life challenging, impersonal.

3. The Prohibition Experience
18th Amendment – banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol. Takes affect in January 1920.
Was unenforceable.
Volstead Act – set up to enforce Prohibition, underfunded.

4. Hidden saloons and nightclubs – speakeasies.
Bootleggers – smugglers of alcohol.

5. Organized Crime
Al Capone – Chicago - 6 years of gang warfare – bootlegging - $60 million/year.
He killed off his competition while traveling around in his armor-plated car with bulletproof windows.
“Public Enemy Number One”
Went to jail for tax evasion
Crime’s led to prostitution, gambling, drugs. Harassed honest merchants in to paying them for protection from other gangs, or they would smash their stores.
By 1930, the annual “take” for the underworld was between $12 to $18 billion/year.

8. By mid 20’s only 19% support Prohibition.
1933 – repealed with the 21st Amendment.

9. Science and Religion Clash
Fundamentalism – protestant movement grounded in a literal interpretation of the Bible.
Rejected Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution
In the South – lots of revivals, led by people like Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple McPherson

10. The Scopes Trial TN -crime to teach evolution.
ACLU – promised to defend any teacher who wanted to protest it.
John Scopes
They hired Clarence Darrow as his lawyer.
William Jennings Bryan - prosecutor.

11. Scopes Trial – also called the Monkey Trial – role of science and religion in public schools and society.
Bryan called to the stand as an expert on the Bible. On the stand Bryan admitted the Bible could be interpreted different ways.
Scopes found guilty, fined $100. Later changed, but law teaching evolution remained in effect.

12. Section 2 The Twenties Woman
Women – independent, rejecting the values of the 19th century.
The Flapper – liberated young women embracing new fashions and urban attitudes. Hats, short dresses, beads, short dyed hair. Smoked, drank, danced. Saw marriage as an equal partnership.
Casual dating - more acceptable.

14. Women Shed Old roles at Home and at Work
New opportunities for women in the workplace
nurses, teachers, librarians, clerical work.

15. The Changing Family
Birthrate decreased. More birth control available. Margaret Sanger – founded American Birth Control League.
Household life easier thanks to things that could be bought in stores.
Working women juggling
home and work.

16. Section 3 Education and Popular Culture
1914 – 1 million attending high school
1926 – 4 million attending high school
Why? High educational standards for industrial jobs, offering more courses. Also states were requiring young people to remain in school until age 16 or 18.
Literacy increased as education increased

17. Radio Comes of Age
November 1920 – Pittsburgh station KDKA broadcast the new of the Harding landslide. By late 1920s improvements had been made that allowed long-distance broadcasting possible.
Created the experience of hearing the news together as it happened, like hearing the President speak, or sporting events like boxing or the World Series.
Families gathered around the radio to listen to programming.

19. America Chases New Heroes and Old Dreams
$4.5 billion spend on entertainment
Babe Ruth
Andrew “Rube” Foster – founded Negro National League
Helen Willis – tennis
Charles Lindbergh - “Spirit of St. Louis”
Amelia Earhart

20. Entertainment and the Arts
Movies popular – 1903 – first movie – The Great Train Robbery.
First full length movie – The Birth of a Nation (1915)
First “talkie” – The Jazz Singer (1927)
George Gershwin – concert musician
Painters – Edward Hoper and Georgia O’Keeffe

22. Writers of the 1920’s
1920’s – one of the richest eras in literary history
Sinclair Lewis
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ernest Hemingway
William Faulkner
Poetry – Ezra Pound and T.S.
Elliot

23. Section Four – The Harlem Renaissance
Marcus Garvey – Founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)
Promote African American businesses
Encouraged followers to return to Africa
Convicted of mail fraud and jailed

24. The Harlem Renaissance
A literary and artistic movement celebrating African-American culture
Writers:
Claude McKay
Langston Hughes – poet
Performers:
Paul Robeson – actor
Louis Armstrong – jazz
Duke Ellington – jazz pianist and composer
Bessie Smith – blues singer