“Roaring” 1920s
Creating a shared culture
Red Scare
Red Scare
• U.S. views Lenin & Communism as a threat
• Fears of “extreme” ideas gripping U.S.
Sacco & Vanzetti
• Two Italian immigrants arrested for murder
• Debate about evidence; were they convicted & executed because they were immigrants
1920s
• Renewed isolationism & nativism
Impact of Women’s Suffrage
• Women did not vote in large numbers
• Women did not radically change political direction
Great Migration
• Approx ½ million African-Americans move North in the 1920s
• Why? Job opportunities in North & continued discrimination in South
Harlem Renaissance
• Golden age of African-American literature
The “Lost Generation”
• Name given to writers in post WWI who wanted less restrictions on writing/didn’t like direction U.S. was going
Presidents
• Warren Harding (scandals – teapot dome)
• Calvin Coolidge (V.P.) took over after Harding death in 1923, won election of 1924
“Jazz Age” Morals
• Dates take place in cars
• Flappers – Some young single women who drank, swore, flaunted old morals
• Rakes – Young men who sped, drank, flirted with the girls
Women
• Employers often fired pregnant white women
• Technology saved time cleaning the house
Advertisement for “girls”
1920s fashion
Flapper
Fun at the beach
Ad for “Glamour surf” . . . A new, more stylish swimsuit for women
Male swimsuits were one piece
Family entertainment
• Radio (NBC buys radio stations across the country to create shared experience)
• Movies (Sound arrives in 1927)
• 1930 – 100 million movie tickets bought each week
Flagpole sitting
Ouch!
Dance Contests became so dangerous they had to be regulated
Girls always dig guys in the band
Dancing is the craze (Here are your great grandparents???)
1920s “Beauty show/talent contest”
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
• First man to fly solo across the Atlantic
• Probably most famous American of 1920s
Babe Ruth
Ty Cobb of Detroit next to Ruth
New Products/Brands
• A&P Grocery Stores
• Kleenex
• A&W Root Beer (1st fast food chain)
• 1920 to 1929: autos went from 8 million to 23 million
• Victrolas (Music players)
A&P 1920s
Victrola
Today’s IPOD
1920s desk fan
1920s phone (Think you could fit this in your pocket or text???)
Henry Ford
Henry Ford Impact
• 1914: Introduced 5 dollar work day (more $ for workers to buy cars)
• Perfected assembly line: Identical cars
• Strongly anti-union
Early Ford
Early Ford Assembly Line
William Clay Ford, Henry’s grandson, buys the Lions in 1964
Morality
• Prohibition exists
• 1922: movie industry starts to censor itself
• Dance floor: Over 300 laws exist in 1929 to stop lewd dancing
KKK reaches the peak of its political party in the 1920s
Teacher John Scopes
1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial”
• Teacher John T. Scopes arrested in Tennessee for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution
• Fined 100$, but eventually fine dismissed
Political cartoon 1925 Scopes Trial