Presentation Transcript

1. The Roaring Twenties:Social Changes

   US History – Libertyville HS
2. Industrial & Consumption Changes Electricity: greater availability, productivity Business Management Frederick Taylor’s “Efficiency Engineering” (scientific methods, selection of workers, training) “Cost accounting” (budgeting) Greater standardization Product advertising Growth of retail stores Installment buying
3. Industrial, Consumption Changes Household appliances Food shipment & storage Refrigerators & refrigerated RR cars Frozen foods Cellophane Automobiles 1920: 8 million cars, 1 million trucks 1930: 23 million cars, 3.5 million trucks
4. Social Changes Greater socio-economic mobility Move to suburbs Better jobs Demand for entertainment Changing values: heroes Pre 1920: heroes were political, economic figures Post 1920: heroes were sports, entertainment stars
5. Changing Values Sports Jack Dempsey (boxing) Red Grange “The Galloping Ghost” (football) Babe Ruth “The Sultan of Swat” (Baseball) Bobby Jones (Golf) Radio Stars Bing Crosby Rudy Vallee
6. Changing Values Movie Stars Charlie Chaplin “The Little Tramp” Buster Keaton Rudolph Valentino (the kiss) Clark Gable Louise Brooks Clara Bow “the It Girl” Al Jolson “The Jazz Singer” (1927) Cecile B. de Mille
7. The Music Scene Music: The age of Jazz Jazz: combine African rhythms with European harmonies Jelly Roll Morton – jazz pioneer Louis Armstrong “Satchmo” Duke Ellington George Gershwin Aaron Copland (folk themed orchestral music) “The Blues”: distinctly A-A cultural music, based in spirituals, work songs, hollers BONUS: Stephen Foster (1826-1864)
8. Feats & Fads Airplane feats Charles Lindbergh “Spirit of St. Louis” Amelia Earhart Billy Mitchell Fads Charleston Marathon dances Flappers Flagpole sitting
9. Literature 1920s trends Rejection of American justice Rejection of American small town life Rejection of American materialism Desire for “lasting” values Notable authors H.L. Mencken: elitist; Scopes Sinclair Lewis: 1st Nobel Prize
10. Literature Giants of the Field F. Scott Fitzgerald “The Great Gatsby” “Tender is the Night” Emphasized the impact of wealth, success Ernest Hemingway “The Sun Also Rises” “A Farewell to Arms” Preoccupation with death & the “lost” generation (WWI) William Faulkner “The Sound and the Fury” Satirized the south
11. African American Literature “Harlem” by Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? W.E.B. Dubois A-A intellectual self-awareness “The Harlem Renaissance” Claude McKay – “A Long Way from Home” Langston Hughes “Harlem” “Not Without Laughter” All were commentaries on the black experience, in America
12. Theater & Poetry Eugene O’Neill Nobel Prize for Drama; Pulitzer’s Prize Helen Hayes “First Lady of the American Stage” Will Rogers (satirist) T.S. Eliot The Wasteland Disillusionment of life “I bet you if I had met him and had a chat with him, I would have found him a very interesting and human fellow, for I never in all of them yet met a man that I didn’t like. When you meet people, no matter what opinion you might have formed about them beforehand, why, after you meet them and see their angle and their personality, why, you can see a lot of good.” Will Rogers