“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