Key Social and Cultural changes in the 'Jazz Age' Flashcards

1
Q

What was the position of women before 1920s?

A
  • Very much second class citizens before 1917
  • played no part in politics and no right to vote
  • social position restricted - limited employment ops
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2
Q

How did WW1 influence the position of women?

A
  • over a mill women helped with war effort
  • approx 90,000 served in US armed forces in Europe e.g as clerks, nurses and chemists
  • Army enlisted more than 21,000: e.g. as clerks, journalist and translators
  • Women also worked in traditionally male roles: e.g engineering + transport
  • proved women could do jobs just as well as men + encouraged greater freedom
  • e.g smoking and going out unchaporoned
  • contributed to voting rights argument
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3
Q

When did women get right to vote?

A
  • Nineteenth Amendment gave American women right to vote in 1920
  • gave them greater political power + encouraged campaign for further change
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4
Q

How did the consumer boom influence women’s rights?

A
  • provided exciting ops for women
  • labour saving devices: vacuum cleaners and washing machines: prov extra time which enabled women into employment
  • gave ops for leisure and recreational activities
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5
Q

How did “Jazz Age” influence women’s movement?

A
  • brought changes to entertainment and leisure
  • popularity of cinema, radio and dance halls provided further ops for women
  • E.g Mary Pickford and Clara Bow became stars of silent movies
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6
Q

How did the position of women in employment change?

A
  • 1930: 2 million more women employed than had been 10 years earlier
  • these tended to be unskilled low paid jobs
  • 1/3 of uni degrees awarded to women in 1930
  • new career opportunities but for “women’s jobs” - librarians and nurses
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7
Q

How did the position of women not change?

A
  • only 4% of university professors were women
  • medical schools only allocated 5% of places to women
  • women doctors declined in 1920s
  • Men paid a lot more than women for same jobs
  • Supreme Court banned attempts to set minimum wages for women
  • 1927: gov took side of employers when women textile workers in Tennessee went on strike for better pay
  • arrested by local police
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8
Q

How did the position of women in politics change?

A
  • given right to vote 1920
  • increase in political power
  • Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming became first women to be elected gov of a state in 1924
  • 1926: Bertha knight Landes became first female mayor of a city, Seattle
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9
Q

In what ways did the position of women not improve in politics?

A
  • Political parties did not see them as realistic candidates for political office
  • By 1920, only a handful of female politicians
  • Most women - little interest in politics
  • Women’s movement failed to get Equal Rights Amendment Act passed - which would have given them equality in law with men
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10
Q

In what ways did women and birth control develop as a movement?

A
  • Margaret Sanger drew attention to abortion
  • back-street abortions killed as many as 50,000 women a year
  • wrote articles on contraception
  • Comstock Act of 1873 banned distribution of both written articles on contraception and items through US mail
  • Arrested in 1916 for opening the first contraception clinic in US
  • 1921: she founded the American Birth Control League
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11
Q

In what ways did women and birth control not develop as such?

A
  • Many supporters of Eugenics supported birth control - felt poor should be discouraged from breeding
  • particularly regarding non-white ethnic groups
  • Sanger herself began to promote sterilisation for mentally handicapped
  • birth control movement criticised for association with Eugenics
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12
Q

Who were the flappers?

A
  • greatest change known as flappers
  • In 1920s, a N. of women generally from middle and upper class families living in North
  • challenged traditional attitudes to and of the appearance of women
  • tried to show a greater independence and freedom in appearance and social life
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13
Q

What was the opposition towards flappers?

A
  • seen as too extreme by many traditional groups inc religious societies
  • Older generations criticised lifestyle of flappers and formed Anti-Flirt Leagues
  • Others saw flappers as simply pleasure-seeking women with few other attributes
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14
Q

What were the limitations of flappers in contribution to the women’s movement?

A
  • Focus on flappers conceals reality for most women in 1920s
  • reinforced gender stereotypes rather than focus on serious issues
  • reserved for upper class white women
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15
Q

Entertainment:
How did sport expand in the 1920s?

A
  • sport –> important part of lives of many US citizens
  • 1920s renamed “Golden Age of Sport”
  • Baseball, football, horse racing and tennis captured imagination of many - Baseball most pop
  • Babe Ruth most pop sporting star of time
  • 1924: 67,000 watched the football match between Illinois and Michigan in Baltimore, Maryland
  • 1926, ~ 145,000 saw boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney
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16
Q

Entertainment:
How was baseball in particular so successfull?

A
  • saw significant N. of supremely gifted players
  • e.g. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig
  • captured public imagination in 1920s
  • massive stadium built such as West Side Grounds in Chicago
  • Babe Ruth himself: influential to younger generation: smoked and drank openly
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17
Q

Entertainment:
How did development of sport benefit AA?

A
  • 1920: formation of Negro National Baseball League
  • sport largely segregated and AA players excluded from major league teams
  • played gamed to mixed crowds
  • East-West All Star game could attract crowds of 30,000
  • players earned less than half salaries of white counterparts
  • Negro leagues amongst the biggest AA owned businesses in US
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18
Q

How did the radio expand in 1920s?

A
  • By 1922 there were 500 stations dotted across USA
  • NBC set up 1926 and CBS in 1927
  • Estimated 50 mil people listened to 1927 boxing match between Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey
  • Expensive: typical model cost $150 - usually paid on credit
  • By 1927, 1/3 of money spent on furniture spent on radios
  • Between 1923 and 1930, 60% of all American families purchased one
  • sales grew from $60 mil in 1923 to $842 6 years later
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19
Q

Impact of radios on advertising and generally?

A
  • huge attraction for advertising
  • 1929, toothpaste company Pepsodent began to sponsor popular comedy series Amos ‘n’ Andy on NBC
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20
Q

How did the cinema develop?

A
  • By 1920s, industry 4th largest in terms of capital investment
  • employed more people than either Ford or General Motars
  • In one day there could be in excess of 10 mil people in 20,000 cinemas
  • first sound film “The Jazz Singer” 1927
  • Exciting actresses such as Clara Bow: symbolised modern liberated women
  • Action heroes: Douglas Fairbanks
  • Comic geniuses - Buster Keaton
21
Q

How did Jazz music develop as a form of entertainment in 1920s?

A
  • popular music at time - jazz
  • originated from slaves
  • became popular with white middle-class youth, especially flappers
  • seen as another sign of fall in moral standards
  • Jazz became the great attraction of night clubs and speakeasies
22
Q

Why was Prohibition introduced?

A
  • Groups such as the Women’s Temperance Association and Anti-Saloon league campaigned against devastating effects of excessive drinking
  • Female reformers argued that there were clear links between consumption of alcohol - wife beating + child abuse
  • Industrialists such as Henry Ford concerned that drinking alcohol reduced efficiency and output at work
  • Religious groups saw alcohol as root of sin and evil values
  • WW1 reinforced this:
  • many brewers were of German origin and so prohibition seen as patriotic
  • growing anti-german feeling
23
Q

Describe Prohibition

A
  • 1918: President Wilson banned beer production until war ended
  • Jan 1919, the Prohibition Amendment stopped “manufacture, sale or transportation” of alcohol
  • ratified by congress and known as Volstead Act
24
Q

Why did Prohibition fail?

A
  • Failed to prevent consumption of alcohol as simply drove drinkers underground
  • Huge N. of people prepared to break law to produce alcohol and go to private bars to consume it
25
Describe the speakeasies
- more speakeasies than there had been legal saloons - New York: 30,000 speakeasies
26
How did geography contribute to failure of Prohibition
- Geographical difficulties in enforcing Prohibition - USA has 18,700 miles of coastline and land border so difficult to prevent smuggling - 1925: agents only intercepted about 5% of alcohol coming into country illegally
27
How did the poor enforcement contribute to failure of prohibition
- Internal Revenue Service set up to enforce Prohibition - never had more than 2,500 agents and some of them paid hands of gang leaders - Between 1920 and 1930: about 10% of Prohibition agents fined for corruption
28
What were bootleggers and why did they contribute to failure of prohibition
- went into business as producers and distributors of illegal alcohol - often called "moonshine" - Illegal drinking in gangster-run speakeasies became popular
29
Why and how did Prohibition finally end?
- Hoover set up Wickersham Commission to investigate Prohibition - determined impossible to enforce - continued - Roosevelt abolished in 1933 - During Depression: many felt the legal brewing industry would create jobs, thus more taxes and duties thus combat depression
30
What were the overall benefits of prohibition?
- Deaths from alcoholism fallen by 80% by 1921 - Prohibition reduced N. of people killed on roads and drinks related accidents - Alcohol consumption fell from 2.6 gallons pp to 1 by 1930s - Arrests from drunkenness fell
31
What were the overall shortcomings of prohibition?
- About 50,000 people died from poisoned alcohol + doctors reported increase in death - created organised crime: 1927-1930 227 gangland murders in Chicago - 2 killers convicted - Brewing industry suffered badly due to P - St Louis had 22 breweries before P and only 9 reopened after 1933
32
How did prohibition encourage gangsters and organised crime?
- led to huge growth - Mobsters controlled territories by force and established monopolies in manufacture and sale of alcohol - Gangs brought out hundreds of breweries and transported liquor in armoured lorries - took over rivals - often violently and usually ended with murder - Gangs became involved in rackets such as protection, prostitution and "numbers"
33
What influence did Gangsters have on politicians?
- easily controlled politicians - E.g "Big Bill" Thompson, Mayor of Chicago, did little or nothing to control activities of gangsters in city - Al Capone most notorious - When he went to jail in 1932: for income tax evasion, it was estimated that his gang had made over $70 mil worth of illegal business
34
What was the "St Valentine's Day Massacare"
- Capone man of violence - responsible for over 300 murders in Chicago - 14 Feb 1929: five if gang machine-gunned to death seven of the rival "Bugs Moran gang" - Capone in Florida: alibi
35
Why was attitudes towards immigrants changing in the 1920s?
- They provided competition for jobs and brought dif customs and attitudes - US involv in WW1 fuelled anti-German feeling more support for restrictions on immigration - did not want to be dragged in another war - blamed WW1 on rivalries between European countries - thus wanted isolation from europe including restrictions of immigration
36
What were conditions like for immigrants + how did this further fuel calls for restrictions?
- Mostly poor labourers with little formal education - Immigrant ghettos began to appear in big northern cities - often dangerous with high incidences of drunkenness and violence: blamed on immigrants
37
Who were the WASP and why were they important?
- Ideal citizen - So asian, europeans not welcome - "Red Scare" fuelled even more feelings against immigrants - thought would bring communism
38
There were changes to immigrant policy: name these
- 1917 Literacy Act - The Immigration Quota Act of 1921 - 1924 National Origins Act - Change to the Immigration Act
39
Describe Literacy Act
- 1917: all foreigners wishing to enter the USA had to take literacy test - many people from poorer countries, esp eastern europe, could not afford english lessons - failed test
40
Describe Immigration Quota Act
- 1921 - introduced quota system - New immigrants allowed in as a proportion of n. of people of same nationality who had been in America in 1910 - figure set at 3% - reduced N. from Eastern Europe: relatively few had emigrated before 1910
41
Describe the National Origins Act
- 1924 - reduced the quota to 2% of the 1890 census - lot more people from Northern Europe able to enter
42
What change was there to the Immigration Act?
- 1929 - restricted immigration to 150,000 per year - no asians at all - Northern and Western Europeans allocated 85% of places - 1930 immigrants from Japan, China and Eastern Europe virtually ceased
43
What was the Sacco and Vanzetti case?
- 1920 - 2 italian labourers arrested and charged with murder of Fred Parmenter - Trial began 1921 and lasted 45 days - strong publicity thus eventually found jury after 875 called to court - 1921: gave guilty verdict - demonstrations all over US in support of men - case appealed but failed - executed 1927
44
Why was the Sacco and Vanzetti case so important?
- trial reported all over world and showed intolerance of US society - subject to racial discrimination + denied rights - exposed unfairness of American legal system - based upon flimsy evidence - 1970 - pardoned
45
Why was the KKK revived?
- Birth of a Nation, 1915, set in South after Civil War showed Klan saving white families from AA - attracted huge audiences - After WW1: labour tensions rose due to veterans trying to re-enter workforce: in response to new groups of immigrants - Increasing industrialisation: brought more and more workers to towns and cities: Klan grew rapidly in cities e.g Memphis and Atlanta - Many ^ workers AA moving to urban north, or E+S Europeans - Southern whites resented arming of AA soldiers during war
46
Describe the new Klan: who founded, what did they stand for + activites
- In Atlanta by Methodist preacher, William Simmons - WASPs - hated foreigners - leader called Hiram Evans - 1920 had 100,000 members - By 1925 claimed to have over 5 mil - Carried out lynchings of AA and beat up and mutilated anyone considered enemy - e.g Chris Lochan - accused of being foreigner - parents greek
47
Why did the KKK decline?
- declined after 1925 when one leader Grand Wizard David Stephenson convicted of sexually motivated murder - he produced evidence of illegal Klan activities - discredited Klan and led to decline in membership - divisions about tactics
48
Why did the monkey trial happen and what did it represent?
- famous trial showed differences between beliefs: rural and urban Americans - Most people in urban areas accepted Darwin's theory of evolution - views not accepted in rural areas: esp "bible belt" states such as Tennessee
49
What was the monkey trial?
- Six US states, led by Bryan, leading Democrat member, banned teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution in schools - Biology teacher John Scopes deliberately taught evolution in class in Tennessee - arrested and put on trial - 1925 Trial: captured public attention - Scopes convicted of breaking law - trial disaster for public image of Fundamentalists - Bryan shown to be confused and ignorant - media mocked those opposed to evolution