File

Unit 6 1920-1929

“Coping with Change” Many features of contemporary American Life may be traced back to the 1920s. Indeed, this decade marks the dawn of the modern era. This chapter explores how different groups of Americans responded to technological, social, and cultural changes that could be both exciting and threatening.

Mass Society, Mass Culture • Q: What social developments underlay the 1920s’ mass culture, and how did they affect American life and leisure? • Q: What were the criticisms of this new “mass culture”?

Hobble Skirt

Before Cars

After Cars

Unit 6 1920-1929

“Coping with Change”

Why did your author start the chapter with a story about Rudolph Valentino?

After the war = clash in values!

New Morality all about personal freedom v. Fundamentalist Old school traditionalists

New Morality •FREEDOM. •Young & Modern.

•Worked and spent money on music, fashion, and other entertainment •Urban (cities- it’s where the action is)

Fundamentalists •Very Religious: they believed that the Bible was 100% correct and that god created man. •Sometimes older generation •Lived in rural areas (farms/Midwest)

Bessie Coleman

Why are women dressing like this? "Tight-laced corsets, high collars, innumerable layers of petticoats, and what not else, may have (problematically) made the female form a thing of attractive mystery, but they made the average female herself very inapt for the action, which she was beginning to claim the right to, of leaping on moving omnibuses. In those dark ages before the war womens fashions changed from year to year, but generally speaking at the dress-makers word of command...The first short skirt sounded the knell of his dictatorship, and since then womanhood has never looked back...I say again that [today's fashion] is a phenomenon which the social historian appears to be passing over. We do not realize that a tradition of centuries has within a decade been stood its head..."

Clara Bow

Suzanne Lenglen Tennis player

The ad first appeared in 1920’s, with the claim that blamed a woman’s single hood on bad breath! The sales of Listerine jumped from $100,000 in 1921 to 0ver $4,000,000 in 1927!!!

Advertizing = A whole New Industry!

“cultural changes that could be both exciting and threatening.”

1920s Censorship

Will Hays

Joe Breen

Wrote the Code

Enforced the Code

The Hays Code Why it was needed:

Cannot say:

*&^$^@ The rules: Or “No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral $%#@^* standards of those who see it” Or - Only correct standards of life shall be presented $#@*()&^ - No ridicule of the law or law enforcement agencies (criminals Or cannot be shown in a sympathetic light) #%%#&@@ - NO: nudity, “suggestive” dancing, ORridicule of religion, no drug use, methods of crime, homosexuality, #@&*^%#interracial marriage, STDs,

or depiction of child birth, scenes of passion, excessive and lustful kissing,

Why do you bob your hair girls? Blind Alfred Reed Why do you bob your hair, girls? You're doing mighty wrong; God gave it for a glory And you should wear it long. You spoil your lovely hair, girls, You keep yourself in style; Before you bob your hair, girls, Just stop and think a while.

Why do you bob your hair, girls? It is an awful shame To rob the head God gave you And bear the flapper's name. You're taking off your covering, It is an awful sin; Don't never bob your hair, girls, Short hair belongs to men.

18th Amendment

Prohibition FOR: “Noble Experiment” - couldn’t connect the #s to prove it was working: - 873,000 lives saved? - Death Rate decreased - Production per capita up. - Arrests due to public drunkenness dropped

AGAINST: “Misguided effort to shape morals” -Increased gang violence -Prohibition Agents were corrupt -Farmers profits decreased

Standpat Politics in a Decade of Change With Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, politics reflected the decade’s business orientation. Unsettled by rapid social change, voters turned to conservative candidates who seemed to represent stability and traditional values. In this climate, would-be reformers and exploited groups had few political options.

What was the focus of the government during the 1920s? • • • •

Laissez-Faire Supported high tariffs Supported Immigration Control Anti-Union (welfare capitalism? American Plan? • If you want money – work harder – Hoover = “rugged individualism”

Do what I say… not as I do!

Eugene Debs Socialist Party Won 3.4%

Problem with Harding?

Harry M. Daugherty: Attorney General

Albert Fall:

Edwin Denby:

Secretary of Interior

Secretary of the Navy

TEAPOT DOME Scandal (1922-1923) • Where? = Teapot Dome, Wyoming = NAVY OIL RESERVES • Who? = mostly Albert Fall • What? = Fall leased U.S. Navy oil fields to 2 private companies. Lease was legal…problem was…? • Why? = Fall received approx. 5 million (today) in bribes (1st Cabinet Member to go to Prison!)

"greatest and most sensational scandal in the history of American politics" pre-Watergate

I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies in a fight. But my friends, my goddamned friends, they're the ones who keep me walking the floor at nights! Warren G. Harding

The political genius of President Coolidge, Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1926, was his talent for effectively doing nothing: "This active inactivity suits the mood and certain of the needs of the country admirably. It suits all the business interests which want to be let alone.... And it suits all those who have become convinced that government in this country has become dangerously complicated and top-heavy...."

1928 Herbert Hoover

Bike Tire Used As Swimming Aid (Germany, 1925)

Transportable Folding Bridge (Netherlands, 1926)

100 MPH One Wheel Motorcycle (1931)

Radio in Straw Hat (USA, 1931)

Bulletproof Glass (New York, 1931)

http://kaleazy.com/cool-inventions-from-the-1920s-and-1930s/