Roaring 20’s - Digital History

The Roaring 20s Mini-DBQ Read each document excerpt and answer the accompanying questions. Document 1: Roaring 20’s - Digital History The 1920s was a decade of exciting social changes and profound cultural conüicts. For many Americans, the growth of cities, the rise of a consumer culture, the upsurge of mass entertainment, and the so-called "revolution in morals and manners" represented freedom from the restrictions of the country's Victorian past. Gender roles, hairstyles, and dress all changed profoundly during the 1920s. But for many others, the United States seemed to be changing in undesirable ways. The result was a "cultural civil war," in which a society clashed bitterly over such issues as foreign immigration, evolution, the Ku Klux Klan, prohibition, women’s roles, and race. The 1920s was the ûrst decade to have a nickname: Roaring 20s". It was a decade of prosperity and indulgence, and of jazz bands, bootleggers, raccoon coats, bathtub gin, üappers, üagpole sitters, and marathon dancers. It was, in the popular view, the Roaring 20s, when the younger generation rebelled against traditional taboos while their elders engaged in a lot of speculation. It was known as the Roaring 20s= for a variety of reasons - a reference to jazz, the economic growth, and luxurious lifestyle many indulged in. 1. What are some of the ways American culture changed in the 1920s? List 5. There are many that American culture changed throughout the 1920s. In the 1920s there was, the growth of cities, upsurge of mass entertainment, the rise of a consumer culture, and revolution in morals and manners.= During this time also many gender roles, clothing, and hairstyles changed drastically. In the 1920s was also a time where issues for foreig immirgration, the coming of the Ku Klux Klan, women’s roles, prohibition and race. 2. What was the nickname for the decade of the 1920s? Why did it have that nickname? The nickname for the 1920s is the Roaring 20s.= The 1920s had this nickname because it was the time where bootleggers, jazz bands, raccoon coats, üappers, marathon dancers etc was very popular. In the Roaring 20s= teens were known to be more rebellious against their elders. In the Roaring 20s many people lived luxurious lifestyles. Document 2: Howard Johnson, an African American newspaper editor, interviewed in The Century, 1998 …The time was ripe for a renaissance back then (1920’s). After the defeat of the Kaiser in Germany [in World War I], a spirit of optimism and positive expectation swept across Harlem, NY. The Allies won the war for democracy, so now it was time for something to happen in America to change the system of segregation and lynching that was going on. In Europe, the black [African American] troops were welcomed as liberators; so when they came back to America, they were determined to create a situation that would approximate the slogans they had been ûghting for. They wanted democracy at home in the United States. And this general idea helped feed the concept of the renaissance.=… 3. According to Howard Johnson, how did WWI affect the African American population in America? WW1 helped make African Americans positive. After the Allied countries won the war, they won so democracy can spread throughout the world. African American thrived to get rid of the segregation laws. They also wanted their culture to be expanded and embraced throughout the United States. After WW1, many African Americans had hope. 4. What renaissance= is Howard Johnson referring to? Explain what that renaissance= was. Howard Johnson is referring to the African American renaissance. The renaissance was bringing democracy beneûcial for African Americans. He talked about helping African Americans in their segregation issues. The renaissance was the starting of the age for African Americans. Making them and their culture into more citizens in the United States society. Document 3: Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s, 1931 …And what were these new middle class women= to be like? Well, for one thing, they could take jobs. Up to this time girls of the middle classes who had wanted to do something= had been largely restricted to school-teaching, social-service work, nursing, stenographic, and clerical work in business houses. But now they poured out of the schools and colleges into all manner of new occupations. They took over the offices of publishers and advertisers; they went into management, they sold antiques, sold real estate, opened smart little shops, and ûnally invaded the department stores. In 1920, small-town girls who once would have been contented to stay in Sauk Center [Minnesota] all their days were now borrowing from father to go to New York or Chicago to seek their fortunes — in Best’s or Macy’s or Marshall Field’s...No topic was so furiously discussed at luncheon tables from one end of the country to the other as the question whether the married woman should take a job, and whether the mother had a right to. And as for the unmarried woman, she no longer had to explain why she worked in a shop or an office; it was idleness, nowadays, that had to be defended.… 5. According to Frederick Lewis Allen, how did middle-class women’s lives change in the 1920s? During the 1920s women’s lives changed drastically. In the beginning women weren’t allowed to do manly= jobs. They were only able to be a teacher, a nurse, social-service work, stenographic, and clerical work in business houses. Over time their limit of jobs was able to extend and they were able to qualify to do more things. Women now were able to take jobs usually men were only allowed to do. They could be publishers, advertisers, and management. A lot of women when they got older moved out and went to live in big cities for example New York. They went there to be able to have many job opportunities for themselves. Document 4: Life Magazine Article, February 18th 1926 The slinky style of the iconic üapper has been celebrated throughout the 1920’s as the symbol of all-American women. Vastly different from the image of the traditional all-American girl who aspired to be a housewife, the üapper, according to stereotypes, is a young woman who wears short & loose dresses, uses cosmetics, smokes and drinks alcohol, and attends many different glamorous dance parties. In the image... she is shown with a formal dress, what can be assumed to be a string of pearls üying about her as she dances, and what is considered dancing shoes. Additionally, the bangles on her arm, and the company of a gentleman wearing a tuxedo suggests that she is at a formal & glamorous event, where üappers are often found enjoying the ûner things of life and society. These aren’t your all-American girls next door! Flappers are young, adventurous, liberated, free women - free from the traditional norms and values of society! They don’t have to become a boring housewife! They can see the world! Free to pursue a life as they choose. Free to wear short skirts, and expose their legs. Free to dance, drink, and enjoy life’s libations. 6. How is the üapper different from the all-American girl? Flapper and the all-American girl are two types of very different women. All American girls used to be known as the typical girl/women back then. The women were expected to be a housewife. They weren’t really expected to get a job and work. That was considered to be the husband’s= job. A üapper is the complete opposite. The üapper is known to be a woman who dresses in short loose dresses. They are also known for drinking alcohol, smoking, and going to glamorous parties. Flappers are also known to be dancers and perform in front of crowds. They are women who are free and living their best life. They aren’t tied down and they enjoy what society has to offer them to the fullest. 7. What event during this time may have sparked this newfound independence of women and ushered in an era of adopting more modern societal values? The event that sparked the newfound independence of women was post WW1. Women were able to have new and better opportunities. During this time more and more women were acting independent. It was common for women to have jobs or to be üapper and perform. Society didn’t view women only as housewives, they changed that image and normalized it to ût into their society that they are cheating.