The Roaring Twenties

1
The Roaring Twenties

• Ashley, Catherine, Erik, Arsalan

2
Music

• The 1920s is known as the Jazz Era
• Jazz, Blues, and Ragtime were the most common
  genres
• Some well known artists were Ma Rainey, Fiddlin
  John Carson, Bessie Smith, King Oliver, Louis
  Armstrong, and Blind Lemon Jefferson
• Music was used as an attempt to banish horrific
  memories of the war

3
Dances

• Charleston most well known
• Black Bottom
• Foxtrot
• Shag
• Waltz
• Shimmy
• These were all highly energetic dances done by
  the younger more spoiled generation
• Danceathons were often held

4
Fashion

• Vogue, The Queen and Harpers Bazaar were womens
  magazines which influenced fashion greatly
• Early 1920s waistline at the waist, skirt
  loose, not fitted, long hemlines, somewhat full
  skirts
• 1923 waistline between natural waist and hips,
  still loose and baggy
• 1924 waistline dropped to hips
• 1925 dresses with no waistline, dresses worn
  with straight bodies, knife pleated skirts with a
  hem one inch below the knee

5
More Fashion

• 1928 hemline up to the knee and dresses become
  more fitted
• Many garments fastened with buttons
• Cotton and wool were the most abundantly used and
  silk was a luxury
• Fascination with Egyptian style
• Mens two toned spectators with knickers
• Wide trousers
• Raccoon coats for college aged men

6
Art

• The Group of Seven is formed and in 1920, and are
  ready to hold their first exhibition.
• Painted Canadian Landscapes
• Emily Carr, an unofficial member takes place in
  exhibitions, which is a radical invitation for
  the time.
• Precisionism was an art movement that emerged
  after the Great War (The movement had no presence
  outside the United States)
• Precisionist artists have also been referred to
  as "Cubist-Realists", "Sterilists", and
  "Immaculates". Their art would have an influence
  on the magic realism and pop art movements

7
More Art

• Picasso and non-representational art
• The Harlem Renaissance, also known as The New
  Negro Movement, was a time of outstanding
  creative activity and flowering of African
  American art, literature, music and culture in
  the United States
• American scene painting is a naturalist style of
  paintings and art of the 1920s through 1940s in
  the United States

8
Literature

• A sense of rebellion developed and the Victorian
  idea of decency was considered hypocritical,
  people wrote frankly about things (sexuality,
  profanity, etc.)
• New age of naturalism
• Harlem Renaissance is considered the first
  important movement of black artists and writers
  in the US
• black writers published more than ever before
• Influential and lasting black authors, artists,
  and musicians received their first serious
  critical appraisal. 
• Important novelists
• Edith Wharton
• Willa Cather
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Sinclair Lewis

9
Historical Events

• Insulin is discovered by Sir Frederick Banting
  during the winter of 1921-1922
• Albert Einstein wins Nobel for photoelectric
  effect. (1921)
• Niels Bohr wins Nobel for work on atomic theory.
  (1922)
• Penicillin is discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming
  (1928)
• Great advances in quantum mechanics
• Wave mechanics and the Schrödinger equation
• Werner Heisenberg formulates the uncertainty
  principle

10
Historical Events cont.

• Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly
  solo non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean (20
  May-21 May 1927)
• The Ku Klux Klan revival of old hatreds
• John Logie Baird invents the first working
  mechanical television system (1925). In 1928 he
  invents and demonstrates the first colour
  television.
• Prediction and discovery of the expanding universe

11
Prohibition

• January 1920 the U.S. Federal Prohibition law was
  enacted, also known as the Dry Law
• The law prohibited the manufacture,
  transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages
• Crime rose in this period of prohibition
• Canada actually began to repeal their prohibition
  laws in the 1920s upon realizing they were
  unenforceable
• Communities of all sizes had "speakeasies," where
  both imported and homemade alcohol could be
  purchased.
• Al Capone was the most notorious gangster who
  trafficked alcohol
• The Ku Klux Klan supported prohibition

12
Economy

• Economic prosperity lasted throughout the entire
  decade following WWI
• Some European countries faced extreme economic
  devastation due to war debts, which lead to
  desperation and paved the way for the rise of the
  Nazis
• The stock market collapsed during October 1929
  ending economic prosperity

13
Ideas and Values

• The percentage of Americans with a high school
  diploma doubled. Daily eating habits were
  changing too the average American ate
  seventy-five pounds a year less than in 1910.
• Thin was in
• Americans took to the road in the 1920's as the
  number of automobiles soared from six million to
  twenty-seven million.
• Liberal and Progressive ideas
• More traditional peer group
• This new generation expressed themselves through
  music, enhanced sexual promiscuity, and
  technology
• Smoking was considered a leisurely activity
• Traditional value began to be challenged and
  questioned

14
Gender Roles

• After the WWI, a lot of men lost their lives in
  the battlefields so the women of the house had
  to accept a job outside of their house.
• This gave women self confidence and resulted in
  changing of the Persons Act.
• The women who were behind this action were The
  Famous Five, which included   Henrietta Muir
  Edwards, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby, Nellie
  McClung and Emily Murphy.
• The changes in the Persons Act gave women more
  rights including running for elections and
  divorce.
• Women were officially equals.

15
Class Structures

• The class structure can be divided into racial
  and social structure.
• Racial Structure during the twenties
• The Whites still had dominance over minorities
  but new rules were being imposed to the Act but
  still the minority suffrage in the Southern
  states were at its high rate because of the
  formation of KKK (Ku Klux Klan).
• Social Structure
• The rich were superior to poor people.

16
Leisure Activities

• The new rule of 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep
  and 8 hours of leisure activities was established
  after WWI by the public.
• Since people had lots of free time they turned
  towards sports, fashion shows, drinking,
  gambling, smoking big cigars probably Cuban
  and other vulgar media.
• Listening to the radio, reading books can also be
  considered as leisure activities.