Collaborative Research Board: America in the 1920s by Michael Terich Jr.

Instructions

michaelterich — 2025-08-20 16:52:52 UTC

Share your research on your assigned aspect of America in the 1920s. Give your post a title and include findings, insights, or sources. Add media or links to support your post. Be prepared to be able to talk to the class about the findings of your research and the impact your topic may have had on live in America during the 1920s.

The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald and How His Relationships and Experiences Influenced His Novel.

2025-08-21 19:50:32 UTC

Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Growing up, he moved around New York for his father’s job as a salesman. At the age of 12, his father lost his job, so they moved back to Minnesota to live off his mother’s inheritance since she was the heir of a successful grocery store. He published his first story at the age of 13 in a school newspaper. He later went to Princeton University, but he was put on academic probation because he slacked off in his studies in order to keep writing.

In 1917, he dropped out of college to serve in the army, and while he was in Alabama, he met Zelda, the daughter of a Supreme Court judge. After leaving the army, he published a book (This Side of Paradise), which became his breakthrough into the spotlight. He was known as a playboy and heavy drinker because he wanted to live in the rich class, but he couldn’t. In 1920, he married Zelda after publishing his first book, This Side of Paradise. In 1921, they had a daughter, and in 1924, the family moved to France, where Zelda had an affair with a French naval aviator, which damaged their relationship. In France, he worked on The Great Gatsby, meeting different people and inspirations, like Hemingway.

The Great Gatsby was the first reflection of Fitzgerald’s life. He reflected himself in the main character, Jay Gatsby. When he was younger, he dated the daughter of a wealthy banker, but her family said that poor boys should not marry rich girls. This became an inspiration for a character in The Great Gatsby, Daisy, and the revolving themes surrounding this imbalance. The girl’s father was an inspiration for Tom, the villain of The Great Gatsby. They shared similar traits, such as both of them being white supremacists. Zelda also had an influence on his works by including her lines and personal experiences. He was inspired by the grand parties he attended on Long Island, 1920. In his books, he tended to write about youth and the cultural identity of his current time period, like flapper culture and grand parties. He was aware of an expanding consumer market, and he looked at the changing cultural mindset of leisure time over hard work.

Around the late 1920s, Zelda suffered mental issues after wanting to become a professional ballet dancer, and she had her first breakdown in 1930 before being sent to various hospitals. When their daughter was 14, she was sent to a boarding school and raised by another family. He became a heavy drinker, depressed, and financially unstable. In 1937, he left Zelda and tried to revive his writing career by writing in Hollywood, but when he was writing his 5th book, he suffered a heart attack.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: Big Idea of Thinking

2025-08-22 14:33:06 UTC

This picture shows a party from the 1920s, which represents the big idea of our thinking, because it showcases the cultures surrounding parties during this era, while showing the youthful culture and flapper culture that inspired The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald himself had partaken in these activities, attending grand parties in Long Island and writing about the youth of his time. The picture also represents the grandness of these parties, as it was mostly for the leisure of those in the upper class, which set a large economic difference between the lower classes that could not afford to partake in leisure times, instead of working hard to survive.

https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/f-scott-fitzgerald

https://fscottfitzgeraldsociety.org/about-us-2/biography/

https://sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/university_libraries/browse/irvin_dept_special_collections/collections/matthew_arlyn_bruccoli_collection_of_f_scott_fitzgerald/life_of_fitzgerald/

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-inspired-the-great-gatsby-739957

https://writersinspire.org/content/curious-life-f-scott-fitzgerald

The Roaring 20's

2025-08-22 14:35:24 UTC

After WW1, Americans wanted to have a comeback from the war, which brought forward the Roaring Twenties, a period of social, economic, and political change. In this era, Americans lived more in cities than on farms. The nation's wealth increased from taking part in mass production. People also started buying the same goods, listening to the same music, and doing the same dance due to new inventions like the Ford and radios, which were the most influential in causing the rise in consumerism. Americans had extra money to spend and spent it on movies, fashion, or household appliances. The prohibition of alcohol caused tension, but it wasn’t the only tension in this era. In the 1920s, there was the Red Scare. Social change was a mark of this period too; there was an anti-immigrant hysteria that led to restrictive immigration laws and the rise of nativism. Later, the Great Migration brought black Americans from the rural South to Northern cities, increasing black culture and the rise of jazz, fashion, and their literature. As a result of the Harlem Renaissance, the KKK gained popularity again among Americans who were uncomfortable with the change. Another one of the social changes during this period was that the flappers sparked through their ability to vote, which was granted by the 19th Amendment.

Flappers became popular in the early 1920s when women moved to urban cities rather than farms. Children were seen as a significant cost, so more women started using birth control, and they redefined sex as something to engage in for pleasure rather than procreation. The movement was for women to embody a spirit of freedom and rebellion with bob hair, loose knee-length dresses, smoking, drinking in public, and premarital relationships. There was also a start in political change for Black Americans, as they threatened the Jim Crow oppression. Black Americans were fighting for equal rights, the NAACP showed how Black voters weren't able to vote, and it called attention to the violence they would receive, like the Tulsa Race Massacre. There was a push for Congress to pass the Anti-Lynching Bill, but Southern senators later blocked it. The stock collapsed in 1929 and exposed the problems with their economy, like too many goods being produced but not enough being bought, because despite the decade being known for consumerism, many Americans were still living in poverty.

To describe our decade overall, we chose the flapper image to represent the social and economic change, through women's new style and the consumerism of lifestyle and fashion.

The Lost Generation-Shellshock

2025-08-22 14:41:29 UTC

The Lost Generation was a shellshocked generation that tried to self-medicate itself by keeping low expectations and enjoying what they could while they could. A characteristic of the Lost Generation was the tendency to live in the present without thinking too much about the future.

Many soldiers during WWI suffered emotional withdrawal, memory lapses, and apathy. In certain serious cases, men also suffered from listlessness, shakes, and convulsions. These symptoms started to manifest soon after the beginning of the war and didn’t stop after it ended

Yet these cases of stress were blamed on the social classes of these soldiers, the lower class being blamed for their “lack of character,” essentially being called weak, while the upper class was just thought to have a high amount of stress due to the responsibility of having to lead the war.

This thought was due to the old Victorian era, which was a time when thinking men should be tough, self-controlled, and mentally strong.

Then, as more people across the social classes exhibited these behaviors, doctors finally understood that these cases were linked to the extreme circumstances of trench warfare involving heavy artillery, aka shellshock.

Many psychologists tried to help out these damaged soldiers through psychological approaches, but these were heavily linked to concepts of self-control, self-reliance, and strength of character. Involving the soldier facing their fears, understanding that it was impossible to run away from them, so they can find the strength to overcome them.

But when these soldier could not overcome their fears, all they could do was blame it on their personal failures.

After WW1, the idea of war as a noble, heroic enterprise was replaced by the idea that war was terrible and best avoided. The heroic warrior ceased to be the main vision of the soldier, to which the coward and the damaged soldier were added.

The Prohibition Era - Howard and Manny

417389_1 — 2025-08-22 14:44:28 UTC

Prohibition was the ban on alcohol. The 18th Amendment started prohibition, making the sale of alcohol illegal; however, many people found loopholes since the law never mentioned that it was illegal to make it at home or actually drink it. There were two main groups that were divided on prohibition: the wets, who were mainly those who opposed Prohibition and favored the legal sale and consumption of alcohol. In contrast, the drys were those who were in favor of prohibitions. The dry argued that the unregulated consumption of alcohol leads to fathers' abandonment, domestic violence, and youth endangerment. While the wet argued that this ban was government overreach, and it was a right to drink. Prohibition led to the rise of organized crime and Al Capone, who was responsible for lots of bribery, corruption, and the St Valentine’s Day massacre in 1929. One of the reasons for the ban on alcohol to be lifted is when the Great Depression hit, and the liquor business would be creating jobs, and the revenue from relegalizing the liquor industry would be great. When Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for president, he made a promise that he was calling for the repeal of the prohibition.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zdvfydm/revision/2

https://www.marubeni.com/en/research/potomac/backnumber/31.html

https://www.britannica.com/event/Prohibition-United-States-history-1920-1933

The Women's Suffrage Movement

2025-08-22 15:08:25 UTC

On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, which allowed women to finally vote. This was a result of decades of struggle. It was a way to break apart the mold of stereotypical roles of caregiver and wife. There were disagreements in the early stage of this movement, with two of the most prominent organizations on women’s suffrage being split on their opinion of the 15th Amendment. However, both of these organizations merged on February 18th, 1890, to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association in a collaborative effort towards the eventual ratification of the 19th Amendment. The important leaders of this movement, and of the NWSA, were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Before becoming the lead activists in the women’s suffrage movement, Stanton and Anthony were also part of the abolitionist movement to help African-American men get the right to vote. The success from this movement pushed them to fight for women’s right to vote. Anthony and Stanton made the only National Women Suffrage Association. To protest for women’s right to vote, one way that they protested was by going to 1868 presidential election to illegally vote. Anthony kept protesting to help women get the right to vote, but in 1906, she died before even seeing women get the right to vote.

As a matter of fact, the National Women's Party was the first ever political party to picket in front of the White House. The protest was directed towards Woodrow Wilson, the president at the time, who remained silent on the matter and saw the issue as one to be decided by individual states. At the time of the protests, many of the women were faced with aggression and were even arrested and jailed. The backlash from this bad treatment and continuous protests soon led to the president addressing the issue and supporting the movement.

Even with the 19th Amendment being ratified, it barely passed with a close call. Tennessee had been the last state needed to determine the results of the amendment. The event for the final call for the ratification of women’s suffrage was labeled ‘The War of the Roses’ where those in favor of the amendment wore yellow roses, and those in opposition wore red roses. The vote landed in a tie, with Harry Burn being called to revote. Although he was wearing a red rose (having originally voted against women's suffrage), he ultimately voted yes to the amendment due to a letter from his mom urging him to do so.

Social Stratification: Understanding the social classes in 1920

2025-08-22 15:11:44 UTC

Social classes in the 1920s played a pivotal role in how you would act, spend your money, and the lifestyle you lived. There were 3 main social classes during the 1920s: Old Money, New Money, and the Working Class. Those considered "Old Money" were families and rich individuals who didn't have to build their own wealth; they inherited it through family succession. They often viewed themselves as better than "New Money" since they always had wealth prior to the economic boom, they maintained social connections, and overall were seen as more powerful and elite within society. "New Money" were those considered wealthy, but didn't inherit their money, and rather worked their way up into wealth. Because of their lack of social connections and elite status in comparison to "Old Money," they would tend to use their money to throw lavish parties and surround themselves with wealth to show off their wealth. "Working Class" embodied everyone else who wasn't wealthy, including those who lived in poverty or low-income jobs, typically facing poor living and working conditions. These social classes were depicted in the novel by separating their living areas and using characters from each class to show personality and examples of each class. Gatsby enhibits the "New Money", Tom Buchanan enhibits "Old Money", and George & Myrtle Wilson represent the working class. In the book,the classes live in separate places such as the East Egg (old money), the West Egg (new money), and the Valley of Ashes (working class). Certain characters and aspects of the book (such as the story between Gatsby and Daisy) help show the differences between classes and how they influenced life for people in the 1920s. Links to sources: https://www.thoughtco.com/the-great-gatsby-themes-4580676
https://www.history.com/articles/roaring-twenties-history
http://mrsbowlin.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/6/2/12620922/socialstatusnouveau4th.pdf
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7467143/

The American Dream (Great Gatsby)

2025-08-22 15:22:15 UTC

The American Dream is an idea, an ideology that anyone, regardless of who they are or where they came from, will be able to achieve success through hard work and determination; however
The roots of the idea go back to the Declaration of Independence (1776) where it says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” This gave people reason to go to the United States because it let them escape tyranny, religious and political persecution, or poverty.

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the American dream as a corrupted version by associating success with money and status instead of building a new life. In Fitzgerald shows that it is indeed a corrupted ideology that is stained by materialism and social inequality, especially during the Roaring Twenties.
A good example is Gaspy, who grew up humble and poor but quickly became rich to win back a girl's name. Even though this seems like a traditional American dream, and by it being a rags-to-riches, the needy person earns their wealth by honest hard work. Gaspy acquired a large amount of wealth through crime. This complicates the idea that he is a perfect avatar for the American Dream. Furthermore, Oblisbouy Gaspy lost all his success and achieved happiness and belonged with people who actually gained money through honest hard work.
Gastvy wants to rise from poverty to immense and extreme wealth and status so he can win back Daisy’s love. He built his fortune through bootlegging and shady business deals because he believes money will let him rewrite the past and be accepted into Daisy’s elite world. However, his dream fails. Even with his wealth, Daisy never truly leaves Tom. Gatsby dies chasing an illusion, showing the true corrupted truth of the American Dream.
Tom and Daisy Buchanan – already have money and privilege, but they show the careless, empty side of the Dream. Instead, they show its empty side. Tom uses his power to control others and has affairs, while Daisy chooses wealth and comfort over true love. When Daisy kills Myrtle, she and Tom hide behind their money and let Gatsby take the blame. In the end, they show that the American Dream, when already achieved, can lead to carelessness and selfishness instead of the happiness everyone longed for.
Myrtle Wilson – Myrtle wants to escape her poor life with George and reach a higher class. She thinks Tom is her way out. She represents how the Dream can make people chase status and luxury without caring about values or morality. In the end, her attempt to move up destroys her because Tom puts Daisy and her in a dangerous situation that leads to her death.
George Wilson – George wants to have a traditional American dream by doing his best to get a business and earn money honestly, the opposite of Gasby. But he’s trapped by poverty and never gets a chance to move up. His failure shows the darker side of the American Dream, that not everyone gets the same opportunities, and some people are stuck no matter how hard they work.
-The Great Gatsby critiques how the American dream doesn't guarantee wealth and happiness, and would often lead to disillusionment and show a false truth. Gatsby's rich and lavish life was handed to him on a silver platter; he had to work for his wealth, and his whole reasoning behind it was for love, and he wanted to win back Daisy. However, once Gatsby became rich, he would throw funded parties through illegal means, which counters his hard work to become work and honest.

East Egg and West Egg

2025-08-22 15:50:07 UTC

The East and West egg are located alongside a bay, where they would have to travel through water or the valley of ashes to go to one place. This main body of water was a social barrier, as there were two completely different worlds, even though they looked relatively similar. The West Egg represented what was called “new money”. Even though the West Egg was seen as lavish, it was seen as bland or tasteless by the East Egg. This was because the wealth of the people from the West Egg wasn’t seen or held as much power as the money from the East Egg, and even if you were a person from the West Egg and had more money than someone from the East Egg, the money could never penetrate through the social barrier. The people from the West side represent the people chasing the American dream (even though they will never be able to grasp it entirely due to the unjust standards). Also, how the people from the West Egg gained their money was sometimes questionable, as some people did earn their money through hard work and determination, but others did so through questionable means. The East Egg was greatly upheld because of the “old money” they owned. The East Egg represents the current people in power and how they want to stay in power, or are those who are rich and have been for a while/have had generational wealth (most important part to note is generational wealth). The East Egg represents what people think the American dream is like, and is all about wealth, prosperity, and status. On this side, everyone is wealthy and has a higher social status than most people, just because they came from old money, also known as aristocrats. The physical appearance of East Egg was seen as glittering/bright, big mansions, which conveyed a feeling of lavishness and luxury that is also elegant, cultured, and discerning (unlike the West Egg). Between these is a place called the Valley of Ashes, a place of poverty and a decay of morals. This is also where the lower-class people live and are somewhat forgotten about since they are surrounded by prosperity. The people from this class could symbolize the truth (or the dark side) of the American Dream and what life in America was really like at the time, because life in the US looked as if it were perfect due to all of the amazing things that were happening.

The location of the West and East Eggs symbolizes the American Dream. The Eggs emphasizes the luxury and success that many Americans aspire to achieve. However, the Valley of Ashes holds an unpleasant truth. Most Americans are trapped in hardship, exploited to sustain the wealth of the elites. While the rich enjoy lavish lifestyles, the poor suffer in neglect, exposing the broken promise of the American Dream. The large body of water symbolizes a social barrier between the two worlds, highlighting their differences: one world filled with aristocracy, and the other filled with the hard-working wealthy.

Links:

https://greatgatsbyanalysis.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/east-egg-v-west-egg/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z48cqp3/revision/3

https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/setting/

Discuss the significance of jazz music during this time. Explore how it influenced the culture and society of the 1920s

2025-08-22 16:03:41 UTC

The term “Jazz Age” was popularized by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who had used it to describe the 1920s in his 1922 collection “Tales of the Jazz Age” and his novel “The Great Gatsby” Even though he didn’t invent the phrase, his writing popularized the phrase as Jazz was in his works which connected him towards the phrase even more. The significance of the term provides an improvisational and energetic feel to it, and it serves as a metaphor for this decade's “anything-goes” spirit, which goes against the old social conventions. This means that the term “Jazz Age” and the music were seen as not just entertainment, but it was also as a symbol of freedom, modernity, and a transformation in culture. Jazz originated in New Orleans, and as it spread throughout the country, musicians left the South in search of better economic and social opportunities elsewhere. Jazz music also helped symbolize the “Roaring Twenties” mindset as they were breaking old traditions (like classical and march music), the Jazz clubs had mixed audiences, which got rid of the norm of segregation. This shows the significance of Jazz, especially for African Americans, as it reshaped traditional norms and inspired new lifestyles.

The Jazz Age also influenced other aspects of culture beyond music, as it shaped fashion, literature, dance, and social behavior. Women embraced new freedoms during this era, with one of them being the rise of the “flapper,” symbolizing independence and rebellion against traditional gender roles. Shorter dresses, bobbed hair, and lively dances like the Charleston reflected the carefree and modern spirit tied to the jazz culture. There was also Jazz clubs that helped introduce improvisation and blues rhythms. People of different races and classes came together, challenging social norms and inspiring a more modern and open society.

The way Jazz influenced society in the 1920s was that it reflected the “Roaring Twenties” as technology was advancing and societal norms were changing. The older generations saw it as immoral, whereas the younger people saw it as empowering, as it finally sparked a new change. It helped encourage new forms of entertainment like dance halls, jazz clubs, and radio broadcasts, which made the culture more accessible. It helped America become more diverse, especially for younger women, who had a way to express their independence, which reshaped gender roles. Overall, the Jazz Age was more than music because it redefined culture and society during the 1920s, which helped shape a new American identity.

Song from the Jazz Age: Bessie Smith - Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out

Great Depression

2025-08-22 19:01:53 UTC

The Great Depression was a severe economic crisis during the 1930s, characterized by a crashed stock market, bank failures, high unemployment, and reduced production. It was caused by consumer debt and overproduction, and the idea of buy now, pay later, which added much more debt to banks. Banks get money from someone else, but since people wanted to do buy now pay later, banks had to use their own money to pay off debt, eventually leading to their failure.

The stock crash was not the reason why the Great Depression started. It started right after the stock market crash, but it was not the reason for the Great Depression. At this time, when buying things, they used credit and installments. Because of the installment of buy now, pay later, many were selling and because of it, there were more sellers than buyers. Due to this, many didn’t have enough money to pay their workers and had to lay many off and because of that they had to raise money to keep up, but many were not able to keep up and ended up homeless or without any money

In the Great Plains, the Dust Bowl exacerbated the effects of the depression due to dust storms caused by drought and soil erosion from too much surplus in farming with not enough people to sell it to.

Herbert Hoover worsened the Great Depression by not addressing issues quick enough, including the stock market crash that happened during his presidency. Furthermore, he imposed tariffs (Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act) on imported goods and causing a trade war, further making them unaffordable for already struggling families. This made him one of the most hated presidents, and any negative thing associated with the Great Depression is named after him, like Hoovervilles.

The New Deal by Franklin D. Roosevelt helped people recover from it, implementing programs including the Works Progress Administration (a program to provide jobs for unemployed Americans) and the Social Security Act (which provides benefits for retired and disabled people). The New Deal helped fund several public works projects, including the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge, which all helped provide construction jobs for many Americans. Once World War II began, the government provided massive spending and industrial production of military equipment, helping many people get jobs. Links:

The Great Depression

2025-08-22 19:04:36 UTC

Links:

Video: The Great Depression: Crash Course US History #33

Songs:

“Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” by Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney
“Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries” by Ray Henderson and Lew Brown