1. Topic 4c-The Jazz Age
Explain the cultural changes and new forms of entertainment undertaken by Americans in the 1920s
Analyze how American society changed in the 1920s, specifically with women and youth
Describe the backlash from the 1920s and why many Americans became upset with what was happening in the 1920s

2. Leisure Activities 1920s- “careless lifestyles” Movies became popular
Many promoted immoral behavior
Americans became obsessed with celebrity gossip
Birth of syndicates and tabloids
Movies & movie stars affected the way Americans lives
How does an obsessive culture with movies and celebrities still exist today? Can you think of any specific examples of how a movie or celebrity trend has affected Americans today?
What effect may syndicates and tabloids may have had on literacy rates?

3. Sports Americans also became obsessed with sports and athletes
Not always best role models
1919 Chicago Black Sox-players intentionally lost the World Series for gambling purposes
Many of the players developed cult-like following
Why do people like athletes so much today?
Based on American’s love of athletes and movie stars in the 1920s, what does this indicate about American’s beliefs and attitudes in the 1920s?

4. New Music & Dance
Blues and Jazz popularized in 1920s mostly by African-Americans
Jazz began in New Orleans-originally unorganized music
Blues sad songs from slave music
New styles of dance

5. Harlem Renaissance African-American literacy and artistic movement
Expressed anger and frustration with racism
Magazines, books, poems, music, etc.
Refusal to accept second-class citizenship
Read through the poem Let America be America Again and explain how it signifies the ideas and values of the Harlem Renaissance.
What are some reasons why African Americans enjoyed and produced the Harlem Renaissance?
3. What was Americans reaction to the Harlem Renaissance?

6. 1920s Youth & Women New dress, music, and language
Cheap production and advertising contributed to changing society
Fads came and go often
Women-new freedom-known as flappers
Revealing dress, smoking and drinking in public
Before WWI, could be arrested for these things
1. How do fads and styles change quickly today? Why do these things happen?

7. 1. How do these depictions of women compare to the image of women on the previous slide?

8. BACKLASH The Lost Generation Writers who attacked American materialism
Obsession with buying things and living large
They moved to Europe to criticize the U.S.
Ernest Hemingway
The Sun Also Rises 1926
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby 1925
Why was the Lost Generation so upset with the American lifestyle of the 1920s? What did they do as a result?
Have you read some of these books? Did you understand them as a criticism of the 1920s?
What do you think about the 1920s? Are you an American youth engrossed in all of the glitz and glam? Or would you be a Lost Generation writer who escapes the glut of the 1920s?