American Boom IDEA✏️ Flashcards
Roaring 20s past times and entertainment
Named examples of sport, jazz, and cinema from the 1920
Where did these past times come from/ how did they arise?
What do these past time and entertainment developments tell us about the nature of American society at this time?
What made it possible for people to enjoy these activities?
Louis Armstrong, Bessie smith, duke Ellington. Popular among black and white young people.
Charlie chaplain, rudolf Valentino, Clara bow. Cinema audiences rose from 35 mill- 100 mill 1930.
Babe Ruth (baseball) + bobby jones (golf)
Became a time of crazes: Mahiong, crosswords.
Jazz originated from southern states among A-A community and moved to north as A-As began to move to search for work.
‘Star System’ was introduced to promote main actors: interviews, photoshoots, radio shows.
Radio broadcasts, newspapers, and magazines helped bring major sporting events to mass audiences.
It was a time for many of having fun, enjoying loud music and wild parties. Jazz gaining popularity also gave more opportunities to A-As.
They had more leisure time and money.
Changing life for women
How did women’s lives change in the 1920?
How had this been different before the First World War?
To what extent was life changing for all American women?
Why were flappers seen as a negative development?
Gained a sense of independence and during the war they had men’s jobs in factories which contributed to them gaining the vote after the war along with the suffragette movement. Many gained jobs for the first time and wore more revealing clothes and did things that would be considered unacceptable e.g.kissing in public and smoking.
Women led restrictive lives. They couldn’t vote. They were expected to behave politely and wear sensible clothes. Their relationships with men were strictly controlled and they had chaperones when they went out with men. For poor women they had to settle for low paying jobs e.g. cleaning.
Life didn’t change for all women. For women in the south and rural areas life went on as before. They raised families and didn’t have much income. Despite gaining the vote, they still weren’t equal to men and had low skilled jobs and earned less money than men.
Their attitude shocked traditional members of society: they believed family life, religion and traditional values were under threat and the Anti-Flirt league was created to protest against the flappers behaviour.
Racial tension towards African Americans and the KKK
3 examples of poor treatment of AA in the 1920s
Why was poor treatment accepted?
To what extent was poor treatment spread across the whole country?
How did such treatment contribute to the formation of what was to become the civil rights movement?
Whipping, branding with acid, kidnapping, castration and lynching (mostly performed by kkk members)
Because politicians and the government passed the Jim Crow laws to keep AA segregated (schools, buses, swimming pools, cemeteries etc…). Authority figures (police, judges) were also racist and upheld Jim Crow laws.
Mostly in the South where there were more black people and poor people. Racism was still bad in the north but there were more kkk members in the south as people were poor and used black people as a scape goat.
Segregation in schools led to the father of Linda brown taking the local education authority to court because his daughter couldn’t attend an all whites school. Eventually in May 1954 the chief judge declared the end of segregation in schools. Segregation on buses led to the Montgomery bus boycott where Rosa parks refused to give up her seat for a white woman leading to the boycott led by MLK which, a year later, ended segregation on buses as black people made up a large percentage of their business.
Prohibition and its failure
What was prohibition and when was it introduced?
Why was it introduced?
What negative consequences were there as a result of prohibition?
Why did it fail?
1920-1933
Nationwide ban on the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcohol.
Alcohol was seen as contributing to the decline in moral values. People in rural areas saw towns and cities as places where alcohol fuelled violence and crime took place.
Anti-saloon league created.
Many beers were imported from Germany so during WW1 it was argued that Americans that drank this were traitors. Churches opposed alcohol because they said it caused violence, poverty, addiction and theft.
A rise in organised crime: Al Capone who made $2 million a week through organised crime. By 1933, there were 200,000 speakeasies in the USA attended by everyday people and even authority figures (police). Prohibition was making people lose respect for the law. This contradicts the reason for the introduction of prohibition.
It was argued that if alcohol was legalised again, lots of jobs would be created in the brewing industry. The government could tax alcohol so they’d be making money rather than gangsters.
Franklin D Roosevelt gained many votes in the presidential election campaign because he opposed prohibition. He won the election and repealed prohibition.
Al Capone and organised crime
Who was Al Capone and what did he do?
What development in 1920 had made the existence of organised crime more likely?
What problems did Al Capone and organised crime create?
Why would these problems be dangerous for American society?
He was arguably the most infamous gangster of all time who, at the height of his power, made $2 million a week through illegal gambling dens, brothels, bootlegging and racketeering.
Prohibition made it more likely because people still wanted alcohol so criminal gangs made millions from bootlegging and speakeasies. They were able to bribe and intimidate police, lawyers and judges into not prosecuting them.
The problems were that people were losing respect for the law:it was impossible to convict Capone because he was in control of the police. The rise in organised crime included the ‘St Valentine’s Day Massacre’ on the 14th Feb 1929. Al Capone attempted to get rid of his biggest rival- ‘Bugs’ Moran by getting two of his hitmen to dress as policemen and shoot dead seven members of the gang.
Members of the public were in danger because of racketeering: businessmen paying gangs money to stop them smashing up their premises. And because gangs could bribe and intimidate police and judges, they were rarely convicted.
The selling of the strong spirit moonshine: deaths from it went up from 98 (1920) to 800 (1926). This is due to people not calling the police when they’re ill because they don’t want to be arrested or get into trouble with the bootleggers/ gangsters who transported and sold the moonshine.
