Transcript The Roaring 20s

The Roaring 20s
POST-WAR AMERICA
&
THE INFLUENCE OF MASS MEDIA AND
COMMUNICATIONS
Popular Culture
● Radio:
○ Broadcast new music – jazz – during the 1920s.
○ Fireside Chats during the 1930s and 1940s.
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President Roosevelt gave talks through the radio
to the American people to calm their fears.
Pop Culture
● Movies:
○ New form of entertainment in the 1920s.
○ Provided escape from Depression-era realities.
Pop Culture
● Newspapers and magazines:
○ Shaped cultural norms and sparked fads.
Traditional Values Challenged
● Religion Challenged
○ Darwin’s Theory leads to new scientific ideas.
○ Scope’s Trial – these new ideas will create conflict in
education.
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It’s also called the “Monkey Trial.”
● Read “Fundamentalism” on pages 608-609
Prohibition
● Drinking challenged with
the onset of prohibition.
● 18th amendment
● 1920
● The sale, manufacture,
and transport of alcohol
for consumption were
banned.
The Drunkard’s Progress
● People who were against alcohol used propaganda
such as this to convince people that drinking was
evil.
“Speakeasies”
● Underground facilities
used as bars during
Prohibition.
● Must know password to
enter.
● People would use flasks,
coconut shells, and
garden hoses to
transport liquor.
● Would pay off police to
turn backs during
deliveries.
Organized Crime
● Mafias or Mobs and
“Gangsters”
● Italian immigrants didn’t
trust the local crooked
cops for protection in
cities.
● Al Capone’s mob in
Chicago was one of the
most famous violent
mobs in America.
Films
Films
Sacco and Vanzetti Case
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Two Italian immigrants.
Both known for being
anarchists (don’t believe
there should be government).
Accused of murdering a man
and his assistant carrying
money from their business.
Both men were found with
loaded guns and plans for an
anarchist rally.
They were arrested, went to
trial, and executed by way of
electric chair.
The case reflected American
attitudes about immigrants
Immigration Restriction
● In the early 1900s,
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everyone was welcome.
● By the 1920s,
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The Ku Klux Klan emerges
again to restrict
immigration.
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Targeted
• African Americans
• Catholics
• Jews
• Immigrants
• “Un-American”
Dies out by the end of the
1920s
Emergency Quota Act 1921
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Admission to U.S. – 3% of
the total number of people
of an ethnic group already
in the U.S.
National Origins Act 1924
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Same as above but now
2%.
Immigration Restriction
Prohibition Repealed
● 1933
● 21st amendment
● Federal government gave
the STATES the power to
decide whether or not to
limit consumption and
production of alcohol.
● Which amendment was the
federal government
following here by giving the
states the right to choose?
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10th
Society
Ladies Night Out: “Flappers”
● 19th Amendment gave
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women a new freedom.
Shorter skirts
New hair styles
Excessive make-up
Sexual promiscuity
Smoking
Driving automobiles
Listening to Jazz
Often found at
speakeasies
Jazz Age
● “Individualism” – focus
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on the individual.
New transportation and
communication – cars,
air travel, telephone.
Homosexuality
beginning to be accepted.
Modern trends in social
behaviors.
New Music that
encouraged dancing in
explicit ways.
Harlem Renaissance
● Great Migration caused
many African Americans to
migrate to northern cities.
● Centered in Harlem, NY.
● The Harlem Renaissance –
African-American
movement in the North.
● “New Negro”
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Rise in African-American
education and appreciation
for the culture and heritage
of the African-American’s
history and life.
Harlem Renaissance Notable People
● Claude McKay
○ Anti-racism poet
● Langston Hughes
○ Stressed racial pride
● Zora Neale Hurston
○ Novelist – rural African
American culture
○ Their Eyes Were
Watching God
Consumerism
● Mass production of
vehicles, electronics,
household goods made it
much easier for people to
purchase these items.
● Consumers buy
excessively.
Overall
● During the 1920s
○ U.S. becomes global power
● 1920s characterized by
○ Market BOOM – people buying a lot of products
○ Optimism
○ People investing on borrowed money
● What’s going to happen to this optimism?