THE ROARING TWENTIES

Economic Boom and Social Changes in the Western World

Leaving WWI Behind

Shifting Attitudes

Key Term: Globalization • World War I accelerated the expansion of U.S. business overseas. American firms

were especially successful in replacing dominant British firms in Western Hemisphere and Asian markets. The period from the end of World War I to 1950 also experienced some elements of globalization as new technology joined expansion in finance, trade, investment, and culture throughout the world. As technology became better, and economies became more inter-dependent, the world became even more linked.

Key Term: Materialism •    The Roaring 20's was the height of consumer culture and conspicuous

consumption. Perhaps the main reason for such economic progress is the development of business management.  From 1917 to 1929, expenditures on advertising grew from $400 million to $2.6 billion.  Mass produced advertisement was common, and big companies would capitalize on the popularity of entertainment figures of the time to endorse their products.  The average American was no longer a producer, but a consumer.  Buying on credit was an increasing trend of the 20s.  Nearly 20 percent of purchases were made on credit during this decade.  Credit allowed Americans to buy whatever they wanted as long as they had the money at the end of the month.  People could buy more than they could afford, but could go overboard and become indebted.  The flourishing capitalist economy allowed people of the 20s to take advantage of mass industrialization.  More than ever the average American could enjoy niceties only previously enjoyed by the upper class.  

Credit in the 1920s• Buying on credit was an increasing trend of the 20s.  Nearly 20 percent of

purchases were made on credit during this decade.  Credit allowed consumers to buy whatever they wanted as long as they had the money at the end of the month.  People could buy more than they could afford, but could go overboard and become indebted.  The flourishing capitalist economy allowed people of the 20s to take advantage of mass industrialization.  More than ever the average citizen could enjoy niceties only previously enjoyed by the upper class.  

Mass Production• The 1920s was a period of great industrial production in the West. The automobile,

petroleum, steel, and chemical industries skyrocketed in their production during this period. This was largely due to the adoption by industry of the technique of mass production, the system by which identical products were churned out quickly and inexpensively using assembly lines. The changeover to mass production drove down prices for objects that were previously made in much more individual, time-consuming methods and subsequently enabled an increase in new, affordable technology. Meanwhile, technological advances in electrical recording created new entertainment media including radio and film, which became widespread and highly profitable. A middle class emerged in the postwar period with surplus money and a desire to spend more, spurring the demand for consumer goods, especially the car.

Prohibition: United States• The ratification of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution–which banned the

manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors–ushered in a period in American history known as Prohibition. The result of a widespread temperance movement during the first decade of the 20th century, Prohibition was difficult to enforce, despite the passage of companion legislation known as the Volstead Act. The increase of the illegal production and sale of liquor (known as “bootlegging”), the proliferation of speakeasies (illegal drinking spots) and the accompanying rise in gang violence and other crimes led to waning support for Prohibition by the end of the 1920s.

• In early 1933, Congress adopted a resolution proposing a 21st Amendment to the Constitution that would repeal the 18th. It was ratified by the end of that year, bringing the Prohibition era to a close.

Female Suffrage and Empowerment

The Flappers• “(…) the New Woman of the 1920s boldly asserted her right to dance, drink, smoke,

and date—to work her own property, to live free of the strictures that governed her mother’s generation. (…) She flouted Victorian-era conventions and scandalized her parents. In many ways, she controlled her own destiny.” ― Joshua Zeitz, Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern

Clothing Revolution• Female empowerment became visible

through the clothing and hairstyles of the 1920s.

Flapper Fashion

The Charleston• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ

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Increase in Racism: u.s.• Spreading far beyond its roots in the Reconstruction South, the resurgent Klan of

the 1920s was a short-lived but potent phenomenon. By equating white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism with "true Americanism," it fueled intolerance for blacks, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants. In the guise of protecting community morals, it expanded its victims of vigilante justice to those it deemed lawbreakers, bootleggers, unfaithful spouses, corrupt politicians, etc.—all with no judge or jury beyond the local secret "klavern." Whippings, tar-and-featherings, threats of violence, and for black victims, lynching, became common practice in some regions of the South, Southwest, and Midwest (Indiana was the stronghold of Klan power in the decade).

Increase in Racism: Europe• “Age of Anxiety”• Rise of Anti-Semitism

New Technologies: The Radio and the Automobile

The Radio• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMujQke4mMo• One of the great attractions to the radio listener was that once the cost of the original

equipment was covered, radio was free. Stations made money by selling air time to advertisers. The possibility of reaching millions of listeners at once had advertising executives scrambling to take advantage. By the end of the decade advertisers paid over $10,000 for an hour of premium time.

• The RADIO CORPORATION OF AMERICA created a new dimension to the venture in 1926. By licensing telephone lines, RCA created America's first radio network and called it the NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY. For the first time, citizens of California and New York could listen to the same programming simultaneously. Regional differences began to dissolve as the influence of network broadcasting ballooned. Americans listened to the same sporting events and took up the same fads. Baseball games and boxing matches could now reach those far away from the stadiums and arenas. A mass national entertainment culture was flowering.

The Automobile • Perhaps no invention affected American everyday life in the 20th century more than

the automobile.• Although the technology for the AUTOMOBILE existed in the 19th century, it

took HENRY FORD to make the useful gadget accessible to the American public. Ford used the idea of the ASSEMBLY LINE for automobile manufacturing. He paid his workers an unprecedented $5 a day when most laborers were bringing home two, hoping that it would increase their productivity. Furthermore, they might use their higher earnings to purchase a new car.

• Ford reduced options, even stating that the public could choose whatever color car they wanted — so long as it was black. The MODEL T sold for $490 in 1914, about one quarter the cost of the previous decade. By 1920, there were over 8 million registrations. The 1920s saw tremendous growth in automobile ownership, with the number of registered drivers almost tripling to 23 million by the end of the decade.

Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance• Spanning the 1920s to the mid-1930s, the Harlem Renaissance was a literary,

artistic, and intellectual movement that kindled a new black cultural identity. Its essence was summed up by critic and teacher Alain Locke in 1926 when he declared that through art, “Negro life is seizing its first chances for group expression and self determination.” Harlem became the center of a “spiritual coming of age” in which Locke’s “New Negro” transformed “social disillusionment to race pride.” Chiefly literary, the Renaissance included the visual arts but excluded jazz, despite its parallel emergence as a black art form.

Literature Spotlight: Langston Hughes

Jazz Music Spotlight: Bessie Smith• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpVCqXRlXx4

Discussion Questions:• How does technological innovation shape societal and cultural change?

•What are some examples of technologies that have shaped societies throughout history?