The Roaring Twenties

George Sanchez

Economics

price of stocks and shares-Stocks rose 65% in the years between 1920 and 1929.

- Wages increased only 25%.

- Before 1920 people borrowed money only to start a business/ buy a house.

- They would then make more money and then would return it.

-In the 1920s, for the first time in history, Americans borrowed to live more pleasantly.

- They went into debt.

- In 1929, Wall Street crashes as New York prices plunge.

American Can 182 cents 86 cents

Anaconda Copper 162 cents 70 cents

Electric Bond and Share 204 cents 50 cents

General Electric 396 cents 168 cents

General Motors 182 cents 36 cents

New York Central 256 cents 160 cents

Radio 505 cents 28 cents

United States Steel 279 cents 150 cents

Westinghouse E&M 313 cents 102 cents

Woolworth 251 cents 52 cents

Companies

3rd September 13. Nov 1929 1929

A Booming Economy: The 1920’s

Income increases

People purchase more goods

Companies earn higher profits

Companies expand and hire more people

“Boom Cycle”

Percentage of American Families OwningVarious Appliances, 1920 and 1930

60%26%Automobiles

40%<1%Radios

30%9%Vacuum cleaners

24%8%Washing machines

8%<1%Mechanical refrigerators

68%35%Home lighting with electricity

42%1%Central heating

51%20%Inside flush toilets

19301920

W: 472

Society

THE TWENTIES WOMAN After the tumult of World War I, Americans were looking for a little fun in the 1920s. Women were independent and achieving greater freedoms.

ie. right to vote, more employment, freedom of the auto

Chicago 1926

THE FLAPPERChallenged the

traditional ways.Revolution of

manners and morals.

A Flapper was an emancipated young woman who embraced the new fashions and urban attitudes.

MODERN FAMILY EMERGES

Marriage was based on romantic love. Women managed the household and finances. Children were not considered laborers/ wage earners anymore.

Seen as developing children who needed nurturing and education

THE CHANGING AMERICAN FAMILY

American birthrates declined for several decades before the 1920s.Trend continues in 1920s with development of birth control.Margaret Sanger

Birth control activist Founder of American Birth

Control League ie. Planned ParenthoodMargaret Sanger and other

founders of the American Birth Control League - 1921

Culture

SCIENCE AND RELIGION CLASH

Fundamentalists vs. Secular thinkers

The Protestant movement - literal interpretation of the bible is known as fundamentalism

Fundamentalists found all truth in the bible – including science & evolution

EDUCATION AND POPULAR CULTURE

During the 1920s, developments in education had a powerful impact on the nation.

Enrollment in high schools quadrupled between 1914 and 1926.

Public schools met the challenge of educating millions of immigrants

ENTERTAINMENT AND ARTS

Even before sound, movies offered a means of escape through romance and comedy ie. talkies

First sound movies: Jazz Singer (1927)

First animated with sound: Steamboat Willie (1928)

By 1930 millions of Americans went to the movies each week

Walt Disney's animated

Steamboat Willie marked the debut of Mickey Mouse. It was a seven minute long black and

white cartoon.

AMERICAN HEROES OF THE 20s

In 1929, Americans spent $4.5 billion on entertainment. (includes sports)

People crowded into baseball games to see their heroes

Babe Ruth was a larger than life American hero who played for Yankees

He hit 60 homers in 1927.

Environment

· In the 1920’s businesses used advertising to convince consumers that they would be happier if they bought their product.

Advertising

Rural to Urban to Suburb

• Automobiles became more affordable• Cities built transportation systems that used an electric

trolley• 70,000 buses were operating in the U.S.

The Jazz Age

• Grew out of the African American music of the south (New Orleans)

• Syncopated rhythms and improvisations• Some people were horrified• “an expression of the times, of the breathless,

energetic, superactive times in which we are living.” – Leopold Stokowski

•Bankrupted by the war, Germany was in an economic crisis.

•A fiery speaker, Adolf Hitler, promises to return Germany to its former greatness!

•Like the KKK, Hitler appealed to people who wanted someone to blame for their problems.

•Hitler creates a private army and political party - the Nazi Party.

•1923 Hitler and his storm troopers tried to seize the gov’t of Bavaria, failed and went to prison.

•In prison, he writes a book.

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