The Roaring Twenties by Sydney Chamberlain

EQ 1: Why did the modern culture of the 1920s cause some people to think that traditional society and morality were under attack?

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:08:41 UTC

Klu Klux Klan

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:15:13 UTC

The goal for this "Klan" was to intimidate, using threats and violence, of Catholics, Jews, and immigrants. The group reached the membership of almost 4 million by 1924. They were behind most of the lynchings of African Americans, which caused many to become frightened.

Women and Controversies

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:15:26 UTC

With a new way of life, women shifted away from traditionalism. Girls started wearing shorter dresses, cutting their hair, and drinking illegal alcohol. This was against what traditionalists, or the generation before them, believed.

Fundamentalism/Scopes Trial

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:15:35 UTC

Fundamentalism in the 1920s was tested as John T. Scopes taught Darwin's Theory of Evolution in a classroom. People who support the Fundamentalism believed in creationism rather than this evolution. Scopes was arrested for teaching the theory because of the outlawing of teaching anything that went against the Fundamentalist views and was found guilty. Because of the backlash that was caused, Fundamentalists were slowly losing political activism.

Prohibition/Organized Crime

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:16:09 UTC

As the Prohibition made booze illegal, gangsters, homemade alcohol, and speakeasies were created. The banning of alcohol created hatred of the government and higher crimes on the streets of major cities. However, some bribed police officers into keeping their little secret private, and all for the alcohol. This personified the corrupt police force and frightened the citizens.

Sacco-Vanzetti Court Case

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:16:36 UTC

On April 15, 1920, two Italian men were arrested for the robbery and murder of two employees in a shoe factory in Massachusetts. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were written to be anarchists, and because they were accused of being this and foreigners, they were found guilty.

EQ 2: How did new industries and a consumer society contribute to the Roaring Twenties?

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:17:33 UTC

Mass Production

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:18:23 UTC

With mass production, products and work pay is increased. This allows the products to be made more quickly and will cost less, which permits more people to purchase the products. Inventions like the assembly line, created by Henry Ford, helped create the Model T at an affordable rate. Soon almost everyone was driving around.

Birth of the Airline Industry/Charles Lindbergh

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:18:47 UTC

With the passing of the Kelly Act in 1926, more posts were being transported throughout the country. Charles Lindbergh, a former airmail pilot, was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean to France in 1927. This brought the idea of opportunities to fly commercially.

Radios

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:20:07 UTC

With the help of Edwin Armstrong, the first radio transmit announced Harding's win on KDKA. Soon, with advertising, the news of sound could travel across the country in almost every home. The radio allowed listeners to enjoy music, comedy, and news of the presidential election in 1928.

Credit

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:20:13 UTC

Credit allowed buyers to pay later as they enjoyed the product. Because of this, Americans were no longer afraid of having debt and conform to the consumer life. For industries, products could sell more quickly. However, with adding more items to credit, too much led to higher debt.

Mass Advertising

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:20:22 UTC

Advertising was a way to attract buyers by making the product more appealing with the ever-growing modernism, style, and convenience. Many companies often made advertising that made the buyer feel frightened of the fast life. Billboards were soon put up and there was never a place that didn't have some type of advertising of a product. With advertising everywhere, everyone saw it and became entranced into buying a certain product due to the type of selling.

EQ 3: How did popular culture, the arts, and literature change the 1920s?

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:20:42 UTC

Georgia O'Keefe

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:21:29 UTC

She was a modernist painter who created works that were simplistic yet gorgeous. She often painted landscapes and flowers, though she did objects that she would find in the desert such as bones. Her artwork, along with John Marin, changed the way others painted while creating a new sense of style.

Ernest Hemingway

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:25:45 UTC

He was a writer who described his experience of war. He, like many others, wrote about the "heroic antiheroes". His stories became widely popular as it described the disillusionment of World War I.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:26:00 UTC

This author created the American classic, The Great Gatsby, which took place in 1920s Manhattan. His characters through the story demonstrated the American Dream through symbolism and creative writing. Along with the luxurious lifestyle of Jay Gatsby, he described the life of people in poverty; which in turn, gave readers a look at how both sides of society had lived.

Movies and Radio Shows

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:26:12 UTC

A new form of entertainment rose up during the 1920s. Black and white movies were being shown in theaters for a small price. Families purchased radios and listened to sports, music, and news from around the country. With radios, everyone could listen to what they want. With films, it created another thing for everyone to do; it shifted what Americans did with their free time.

Bobby Jones

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:26:23 UTC

Jones was the best golfer during the 1920s. He was the first person, and golfer, to win at the U.S. Open and British Open within the same year, which was 1926. This brought many excited fans to the sport.

EQ 4: How did African Americans influence American society in the 1920s?

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:26:53 UTC

Great Migration

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:27:50 UTC

Many African Americans began to travel up North in order to escape racial segregation and seek economic opportunities as well as a better life. African Americans took jobs and begun the Harlem Renaissance as a result.

Harlem Renaissance

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:27:58 UTC

As a result of the Great Migration, a New York City neighborhood experienced a change in African American arts. New forms of artistic development thrived as artists, writers, musicians, and poets joined in the Harlem Renaissance. Music, such as jazz, created a new scene for everyone to enjoy, especially in the speakeasies/night clubs.

Langston Hughes

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:28:09 UTC

Langston Hughes was a writer that influenced the Harlem Renaissance. He was one of the most famous African American writers to tell his experience in America. With his writings, he celebrated African American life and culture, which in turn, expanded America's knowledge.

Louis Armstrong- Musician

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:28:17 UTC

Louis Armstrong was one of the most famous jazz performers during the 1920s. He influenced other artists with his instrument and changed the way people saw jazz and music in general. Jazz became very popular in the nightclub scene.

NAACP

scham299 — 2015-02-26 20:28:22 UTC

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People worked to gain integration and to decrease the discrimination against African Americans, though most of the time not successfully. The organization protested the lynchings which later created the antilynching legislation by the House but was later turned down by the Senate. This, however, did not stop the fight to gain better rights for African Americans. With their efforts growing, they defeated Judge John J. Parker from going into the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We return. We return from fighting. We return from fighting. Make way for democracy! We saved it in France, and by the Great Jehovah, we will save it in the United States of America, or know the reason why."

scham299 — 2015-03-01 03:31:26 UTC

- as quoted in When Harlem Was in Vogue

Sydney Chamberlain

scham299 — 2015-03-01 03:55:50 UTC

"Dance Marathons, Bunion Derbies, Flagpole-Sittings, Hog Calling Contests and Other Freak Stunts Today Explained by Psychology--- Irked by Routine, We Are in Rebellion Against 'Standardized Civilization'"

scham299 — 2015-03-01 03:59:11 UTC

- Isabel Stephen from "Escape from the Monotony of Life" in The Washington Post Aug. 5, 1928

"Growth of chain store systems in the United States continued its extraordinary pace through the first six months of 1920."

scham299 — 2015-03-01 03:59:30 UTC

- from "Chain Store Systems Show Remarkable Growth" in the Wall Street Journal July 29, 1920

"'The modern industrial refrigerating plant, now essential to the packing house, fruit shipping and many other industries, has amply demonstrated its many advantages over earlier methods, and the art of refrigeration, which twenty years ago was conducted more or less by rule of thumb, has been placed upon by an engineering basis demanding and receiving the best engineering talent." -Harry G. Seaber

scham299 — 2015-03-01 03:59:36 UTC

- from "Home Ice Plants Growing in Favor" in the New York Times Aug. 2, 1925

"They were careless, Tom and Daisy--- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money and vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."

scham299 — 2015-03-01 03:59:52 UTC

- quote from "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

"Here was a new generation,... dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success; grown up to find... all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken."

scham299 — 2015-03-01 03:59:59 UTC

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

"There has been a change for the worse during the past year in feminine dress, dancing, dancing, manners and general moral standards. [One should] realize the serious ethical consequences of immodesty in girls' dress."

scham299 — 2015-03-01 04:00:02 UTC

- from the Pittsburgh Observer (1922)

"Chicago's present population is 3,741,910 ... The government census of 1920 gave the city a total of 2,701,705 inhabitants, making the increase in seven years 1,040,205. "

scham299 — 2015-03-01 04:00:16 UTC

- "City's population Put at 3,741,910" from the Chicago Daily Tribune Oct. 17, 1927

"It means the shifting of the race problem to the north. The belief is growing that within a decade or two the blacks will be pretty well diffused."

scham299 — 2015-03-01 04:00:18 UTC

- from "Black Migration May Make Myth of 'Solid South'" by Arthur Evans from the Chicago Daily Tribune Sept. 12, 1923

"The Supreme court of the United States today branded the Klu Klux Klan as an undesirable organization. Upholding the validity of the anti-klan law of the state of New York, the court, in a decision written by Justice Van Devanter, ruled that the legislature of that state properly made a distinction between this society and secret organizations of a benevolent character."

scham299 — 2015-03-01 21:06:03 UTC

- from "Supreme Court Lashes Klan" by Arthur Crawford of the Chicago Daily Tribune Nov. 20, 1928

"Capt. Charles Lindbergh, Hero Of The First New York-Paris Hop In History. Closeup of youth who made epochal flight in 33 hours 29 minutes. He left New York at 6:52 a.m. (Chicago time) Friday and landed at Le Bourget field, on outskirts of French capital, at 4:21 p.m. (Chicago time)."

scham299 — 2015-03-01 21:13:42 UTC

- from "Lindbergh Wings Way from New York to Paris in 33 Hours 29 Minutes" in the Chicago Daily Tribune May 22, 1927

"Favors in prison are not rare in any American state. They are only rare in countries where all men are equal before the law. And America is not one of them."

scham299 — 2015-03-01 21:37:17 UTC

- from "Shreveport Times Editorial" in the Shreveport Times May 5, 1929

Works Cited

scham299 — 2015-03-01 22:09:23 UTC

Appleby, Joyce Oldham. The American Vision: Modern times. Columbus, OH: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.

"Lindbergh Wings Way from New York to Paris in 33 Hours 29 Minutes." SIRS Decades. ProQuest, 22 May 1927. Web. 28 Feb. 2015.

"Louis Armstrong - Savoy Blues (1927)." YouTube. N.p., 17 Nov. 2008. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.

O'Keeffe, Georgia. Corn, Dark, No. 1. 1924. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York.