The Old v. The New

Clashing Ideals of the 1920s

Changing Ways of Life & The Twenties WomenPopular Culture & The Harlem Renaissance

Changing Ways of Life

City Life in 1920

New York City in 1920

What Was The Old Way of Life?

The New?

The 18th Amendment“After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation

thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.”

The “Alcoholic Republic”

Consumption of alcohol per year was 7.1 gallons per person.

Family violenceCrime

PovertyLoss of Production in Factories

ProhibitionPassed in 1920.

Believed it “would eliminate the social problems caused by intoxication.”

Small towns?Cities?

Prohibition

“Washington DC… had 300 bars before Prohibition: now it had 700 speakeasies,

supplied by 4,000 bootleggers. Police records showed arrests for drunkenness had trebled (3x) over the decade. Massachusetts had

jumped from 1,000 licensed saloons to 4,000 speakeasies, plus 4,000 more in Boston

alone… Kansas had been the first state to go dry… yet ‘there is not a town in Kansas

where [you] cannot go as a total stranger and get a drink of liquor and very good liquor at that, within fifteen

minutes of arrival.’”Paul Johnson, A History of the American People

Did It Work?Police funding: INCREASED $11.4 Million

Arrests for Drunkenness and Disorderly Conduct: INCREASED 41%

Arrests of Drunken Drivers: INCREASED 81%

Thefts and Burglaries: INCREASED 9%

Homicides, Assault, and Battery: INCREASED 13%

Number of Federal Convicts: INCREASED 561%

Federal Prison Population: INCREASED 366%

NOPE.

Percentage of drinkers rose.Percentage of women drinking rose.

Bootlegging rose.Organized crime rose.

Al “Scarface” Capone?Earned $60m in 1927

In 2013?$806,472,408

So, What Does That Look Like?

Zhenli Ye GonChinese Born, Mexican Meth Smuggler

$207,000,000

Organized Crime“What Prohibition did was to transfer the manufacture,

sale, and distribution of liquor from legitimate to criminal forces.”

Prohibition “was the work of ‘ignorant bumpkins of the cow states who resent the fact they had to swill raw

corn liquor while city slickers got good wine and whiskey.’”

Organized CrimeAl Capone

Chicago

Lucky LucianoNew York City

Police Response?NOPE.

Unable & Unwilling.Understaffed & Corrupt.

Prohibition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2md-mYfZic

Prohibition in the Area

The 19th Amendment

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

Women in 1920Flapper - a "new breed" of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3svvCj4yhYc

Women in 1920“The traditionalists… looked down on flappers for what they felt was a disregard for morality. Traditionalist were also alarmed by a rising divorce rate, which was fueled by … a new sense of independence among women.”

What’s Left?