Social Changes and the 1920’s

Consumer Culture

The Electrified Home: 60%• New Consumer Goods:

– Vacuum, Refrigerator, Washing Machine, Range

• Store bought clothing• Supermarkets & Canned

foods• Radio• Advertisement Industry

• What effect did these new products have on society?

Consumerism (+ and -)

• Positive results• Reduced the number of

hours and effort spent on Household duties

• Mass Culture: shared experience

• Leisure activities increase• More jobs: make and sell• Mass production: lowers

cost

• Negative Results• Items on Credit: Debt• Increased cost of living• Changing values:

abundance, consumerism• Mass production: loss of

uniqueness

Automobile

“You can get [a Model T] in any color you want, so long as

it’s black”-Henry Ford

“No job is particularly hard, if you divide it into small parts”

-Henry Ford

The Automobile

• Henry Ford

• Passenger Car Registration jumped from 8 million in 1920 to 23 million in 1930

Model T

Fordism

• How did Ford do it?

• Assembly Line: Apply conveyor belt to cars, simple tasks

• Worker’s Contract: $5 a day to stay

• Standardized vehicles

• Price: 1909-1924 price dropped 66%

• Model T: afFORDable to Middle and Upper class

Automobile (+ and -)Automobile (+ and -)

• Positive ResultsPositive Results• Automobile industry

created jobs • Related industries

Boom: oil, gas, rubber• Indirect: shopping

malls, diners, tourism• Suburbs• Freedom• Govt. matches funds

for roads

• Negative ResultsNegative Results• Not available to lower

classes• Credit: Debt• Urban Sprawl• Pollution• Accidents• Moral implications• Working conditions

The Demon RumProhibition in the 1920’s

‘Why the Roaring 20’s went dry’Analyze the cartoons to find reasons

why

Health and EffectsTemperance Movement

ProtestantismWWI

“Progressivism”Results: 18th Amendment (1919)

& The Volstead Act

What are the Pros and Cons of Prohibition?

Pro and Con of Prohibition

• Pro’s.• Overall consumption

decreased• Arrests for drunkenness down• Cirrhosis of the liver down• Admission to hospitals for

alcoholism down• Less alcohol related

death• Save $

• Con’s• Produce at home• Bootleggers• Organized Crime• More corruption• Increased urban violence• Enforcement difficult• Harmful products consumed• Violates individual rights• Widespread abuse an

lawlessness• ‘Speakeasies’

But did consumption increase or decrease?. . .

Speakeasies

Why repeal prohibition?

1933- 21st Amendment

Women and Youth Culture

The Roaring 20’s

Jazz Age

Was the Bee’s Knees!

Sheiks

Watch out for gold diggers!

Flappers

Characteristics

And

Behavior

THE FLAPPERby Dorothy Parker

The Playful flapper here we see,The fairest of the fair.

She's not what Grandma used to be, --You might say, au contraire.

Her girlish ways may make a stir,Her manners cause a scene,

But there is no more harm in herThan in a submarine.

She nightly knocks for many a goalThe usual dancing men.

Her speed is great, but her controlIs something else again.

All spotlights focus on her pranks.All tongues her prowess herald.

For which she well may render thanksTo God and Scott Fitzgerald.

Her golden rule is plain enough -Just get them young and treat them

rough.

Women

• 19th Amendment: Right to vote

• Birth Control: Margaret Sanger

• New Stores and Appliances: changed domestic life

• More education and job opportunities (white collar, office)

• Changing Victorian morality and domesticity

Women

• Positive Results• Political power• Economic opportunity• More domestic

freedom• More control over

sexuality• Women more

independent and expressive

• Negative Results• Less pay• Loss of war jobs• No workplace

advancement• Double standards• Appliances bring new

pressure• Unfulfilled w/

domestic life

African American

Experience

“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”

-William H. Johnson

African American Experience

• Great Migration: African American move to Northern cities for work in factories

• South: Jim Crow continues, KKK Revival, Lynching

• North: Harlem Renaissance

• Celebration of African heritage – Writers, poets and

musicians– Jazz

Langston Hughes

Louis Armstrong

African American Experience

• Positive Results• More jobs• Ethnic communities

provide security• Pride• New cultural

expressions• Black Middle Class• Jazz as American

music

• Negative results

• Blacks first to lose jobs

• Forced into ghettos

• Discrimination in N. and S.

• Violence• Music clubs/

industry controlled by whites

Harlem

Globe-trotters

“Old” Culture “New” Culture

Emphasized Production

Character

Scarcity

Religion

Idealized the Past

Local Culture

Rural

Substance

Cultural Contrast: A Contrast of Values

“Old” Culture “New” Culture

Emphasized Production

Emphasized Consumption

Character Personality

Scarcity Abundance

Religion Science

Idealized the Past Looked to the Future

Local Culture Mass Culture

Rural Urban

Substance Image

Cultural Contrast: A Contrast of Values

Reactionary 1920’s

• Scopes trial: – Fundamentalism vs. Science

• Sacco-Vanzetti Case: – Anti-Radicals and Immigration

• Isolation: – No to League of Nations– Immigration Policy 1924: Quota System

• Politics: Pres. Harding, Coolidge and Hoover– Big-Business, Laissez-faire, Republican, Conservative

• Celebrity Culture:– Individual Man v. Machine– Babe Ruth, Charles Lindberg, Lou Gehrig, Amelia Earhart

Why were people so reactionary at this time?