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Changing Ways of Life and Education and Popular Culture
Main Idea – Americans experienced cultural conflicts as customs and values changed in the 1920s. The popular culture reflected the prosperity of the era, as mass media, movies, and spectator sports played important roles in the 1920s.
Booming Economy
Wartime economy Peacetime economy Technology growth made life easier
Washing machine Electric stove Electric lighting
Buying on Credit Spending money you don’t have.
What made the 20s roaring?
People became more carefree and adventurous.
Women held jobs outside the home and went to college
Flapper: carefree young women with short hair, heavy makeup, and short skirts.
Flagpole sitter…people actually sat on top of flagpoles for fun.
Charles Lindbergh…first solo flight across Atlantic (Spirit of Saint Louis)
Results of Improved Transportation
Greater Mobility (easier to move around) People moved from the suburbs and commuted
to work in the cities Created jobs in transportation industry
Road construction Oil Steel Cars Gas stations
Airplane-transports mail and eventually people Charles Lindbergh
The Prohibition Experiment
Background: 18th Amendment established an era of Prohibition – def. – manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages illegal
Prohibition
U.S. government failed to budget enough money to enforce the law
Speakeasies – def. – underground saloons and nightclubs that sold alcohol
Bootleggers – def. – people who manufactured or smuggled illegal liquor
Prohibition
SIG – Prohibition experiment failed Rise in organized crime –
ex: gangster Al Capone in Chicago
In 1933 – 21st Amendment repealed prohibition
Science and Religion Clash
Fundamentalism – def. – belief in the literal interpretation of the bible Led to conflict with
some scientific ideas
Rejected the idea that man had evolved from apes = Darwin’s theory of evolution
Science and Religion Clash
The Scopes Trial (1925) – Teacher John T. Scopes violated TN law that banned teaching of evolution in school Featured fight between
defense lawyer Clarence Darrow and prosecution witness William Jennings Bryan
SIG - Highlighted the conflict between science and fundamentalism
Sacco and Vanzetti
Sacco and Vanzetti Italian immigrants (and
anarchists) who were charged and found guilty in the armed robbery and murder of two pay-clerks
Eyewitnesses had only been able to say that the guilty parties looked Italian, Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested
Executed via Electrocution
Newspapers
more literate Americans = increased newspaper circulation SIG – shaped
cultural norms and sparked fads
Magazines
mass-circulation to reach wide audiences Focused on weekly
news and culture – ex: Reader’s Digest, Time
Radio
most powerful communications medium of the 1920s Broadcast news,
sports, music (Jazz), children’s programs
SIG – created a more national culture – different audiences around the country hearing the same programs
Movies
offered viewers a way to escape their lives through romance and comedy SIG – helped promote
a national culture Development of
movies—Silent movies! Felix the Cat The Big Parade Mickey Mouse
Sports Heroes
Babe Ruth - a professional ball player that hit 60 homeruns in one season.
Jack Dempsey - a boxer defeated by Gene Tunney. Gene Tunney - the boxer that defeated former
champion Jack Dempsey. Johnny Weissmuller - an American Olympic swimmer
that won 5 gold medals and was an actor. Bobby Jones - was the greatest amateur golfer of
modern times. Big Bill Tilden - first American to win men's singles at
Wimbledon, England. Red Grange - was a halfback at the University of
Illinois from 1923 to 1925.
The Twenties Woman
Background: 19th Amendment increased women’s rights by giving women the right to vote
Flappers – def. - young urban women who embraced new fashions and attitudes Featured short bobbed
haircuts, shorter dresses, make-up, smoking, drinking, talked openly about sex, dancing
20 Slang
Limiting Immigration
Anti-immigrant attitudes (nativism) had been growing since the 1880s due to increased immigration, especially from Southern and Eastern Europe Increased immigration
led to more competition for industrial jobs in cities
Limiting Immigration
Return of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) 1920s KKK devoted to
hatred of immigrants, blacks, Catholics, Jews,
4.5 million male members by mid-1920s
Declined by the end of the decade due to criminal activity
Limiting Immigration
The Quota System – established the maximum number of people who could enter the U.S. from each foreign country Designed to limit
number of Southern and Eastern European immigrants
Great Migration
Jobs for African Americans in the South were Scarce and low paying
African Americans faced discrimination and violence in the South
African Americans moved to northern cities in search of jobs
African Americans also faced discrimination and violence in the North
South
North
Harlem Renaissance
African American artists, writers, and musicians based in Harlem revealing the freshness and variety of African American culture.
The popularity of these artists spread to the rest of society.
Art: Jacob Lawrence-painter who chronicled the Great Migration North through art.
Literature: Langston Hughes-poet who combined the experiences of African and American cultural roots.
Music: Duke Ellington and Lewis Armstrong-Jazz composers; Bessie Smith-Blues singer
Culture of the 20s and 30s
Literature: F. Scott Fitzgerald-
novelist who wrote about the jazz age (The Great Gatsby)
John Steinbeck-novelist who portrayed the strength of poor migrant workers in the 30s (The Grapes of Wrath
Art: Georgia O’Keefe-
artist known for urban scenes and later paintings of the southwest and flowers
Music: Aaron Copland and
George Gershwin- wrote uniquely American music.
The Nation’s Sick Economy A New Deal Fights the DepressionChapter 22 – Section 1 Chapter 23 – Section 1
The Nation’s Sick Economy A New Deal Fights the Depression Main Idea – As the
prosperity of the 1920s ended, severe economic problems gripped the nation and led to the Great Depression. After becoming president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt used government programs as part of his New Deal to combat the Depression.
Economic Troubles on the Horizon
Background: The prosperity of the 1920s was largely based on the use of credit – def. – consumers agreed to buy now and pay later for purchases Installment
buying Buying on
margin Over speculation
Buying on margin
def. – buying too many stocks hoping to sell at a higher price in a short period of time, regardless of risk involved
Over Speculation
• paying only a small percentage of a stock’s price as a down payment and borrowing the rest to make a stock purchase
Black Tuesday
(October 29, 1929) – the stock market crashed with 16.4 million shares of stock sold in one day, causing prices to collapse Prices of stocks fell
speculators left with huge debts that couldn’t be repaid to banks banks failed people lost their savings
Banks Failing
Federal Reserve failed to prevent widespread collapse of the nation’s banking system as banks continued to fail through the early 1930s
Hawley-Smoot Act
(1930) - High protective tariff resulted in retaliatory tariffs in other countries, which strangled international trade
Great Depression
– def. – period from 1929 to 1940 in which the economy plummeted and unemployment skyrocketed, causing widespread hardship Business failures – 90,000
businesses went bankrupt
Collapse of the financial system - over 11,000 bank closings
Unemployment – 25% of American workers were unemployed by 1932
“Hoovervilles”
• – def. - shacks and shantytowns of homeless people, named for President Hoover
President Hoover thought that private companies and volunteers should take care of the economy Did not act in the
beginning to try to counter act the depression
Farm foreclosures
– farmers lost their homes and lands and were forced to migrate across the country looking for work Dust Bowl “Okies”
Dust Bowl
parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado that were hardest hit by draught and dust storms
Dust Bowl
Lasted 8 years Caused by poor agricultural
practices and years of sustained drought
The winds of the Great Plains stirred up the dust from the fields and blew it across the plains In 1932, 14 dust storms were recorded on the
Plains. In 1933, there were 38 storms. By 1934, it was estimated that 100 million
acres of farmland had lost all or most of the topsoil to the winds.
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl got its name after Black Sunday, April 14, 1935. The cloud that appeared on the horizon that Sunday
was the worst. Winds were clocked at 60 mph. Then it hit.
The simplest acts of life — breathing, eating a meal, taking a walk — were no longer simple.
Children wore dust masks to and from school, women hung wet sheets over windows in a futile attempt to stop the dirt, farmers watched helplessly as their crops blew away. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/dustbowl.htm
Life during the Dust Bowl
Okies and Arkies
Okies: those who moved west to California from Oklahoma
Arkies: those who moved west to California from Arkansas
These migrant workers/families lived in tents or out of their automobiles
Understanding Images
What feelings does this image give you?
What do you think to woman is feeling? How about the kids?
Describe the way they are dressed?
Migrant Stories
Steinbeck and the Dust Bowl
As John Steinbeck wrote in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath: "And then the dispossessed were drawn west-
from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car-loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless - restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do - to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land."
Americans Get a New Deal
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) won the presidential election of 1932 Inaugural address –
rallied a frightened nation “The only thing we
have to fear is fear itself.”
Fireside Chats – FDR’s radio addresses aimed at restoring American confidence
Relief
measures that provided direct payment to people for immediate help CCC (Civilian
Conservation Corps) TVA (Tennessee Valley
Authority) WPA (Works Progress
Administration)
TVA
(Tennessee Valley Authority) – provided jobs building dams to bring running water and electricity to poor region in the South
WPA
(Works Progress Administration) – created as many jobs as quickly as possible in construction of airports, highways, and public buildings as well as professions such as art, music, and theater
AAA and NRA
AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act) – aided farmers by regulating crop production so prices would rise
NRA (National Recovery Administration) – reformed banking practices and established fair codes of competition for businesses
Reform
FDIC Wagner Act SSA
FDIC
(Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) – protected bank deposits up to $5,000
What does it protect up to today?
Wagner Act
– defined unfair labor practices and established the National Labor Relations Board to settle disputes between employers and employees
SSA
(Social Security Act) – provided a pension for retired workers and their spouses and helped people with disabilities
Interpreting Cartoons
Who are they main figures in the cartoon?
What are they pouring down the pump? What is occurring as it is being pumped
into the economy?