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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Q
Describe the speakeasies
A
- more speakeasies than there had been legal saloons
- New York: 30,000 speakeasies
26
Q
How did geography contribute to failure of Prohibition
A
- 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
Q
How did the poor enforcement contribute to failure of prohibition
A
- 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
Q
What were bootleggers and why did they contribute to failure of prohibition
A
- went into business as producers and distributors of illegal alcohol
- often called “moonshine”
- Illegal drinking in gangster-run speakeasies became popular
29
Q
Why and how did Prohibition finally end?
A
- 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
Q
What were the overall benefits of prohibition?
A
- 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
Q
What were the overall shortcomings of prohibition?
A
- 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
Q
How did prohibition encourage gangsters and organised crime?
A
- 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
Q
What influence did Gangsters have on politicians?
A
- 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
Q
What was the “St Valentine’s Day Massacare”
A
- 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
Q
Why was attitudes towards immigrants changing in the 1920s?
A
- 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
Q
What were conditions like for immigrants + how did this further fuel calls for restrictions?
A
- 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
Q
Who were the WASP and why were they important?
A
- Ideal citizen
- So asian, europeans not welcome
- “Red Scare” fuelled even more feelings against immigrants
- thought would bring communism
38
Q
There were changes to immigrant policy: name these
A
- 1917 Literacy Act
- The Immigration Quota Act of 1921
- 1924 National Origins Act
- Change to the Immigration Act
39
Q
Describe Literacy Act
A
- 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
Q
Describe Immigration Quota Act
A
- 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
Q
Describe the National Origins Act
A
- 1924
- reduced the quota to 2% of the 1890 census
- lot more people from Northern Europe able to enter
42
Q
What change was there to the Immigration Act?
A
- 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
Q
What was the Sacco and Vanzetti case?
A
- 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
Q
Why was the Sacco and Vanzetti case so important?
A
- 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
Q
Why was the KKK revived?
A
- 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
Q
Describe the new Klan: who founded, what did they stand for + activites
A
- 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
Q
Why did the KKK decline?
A
- 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
Q
Why did the monkey trial happen and what did it represent?
A
- 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
Q
What was the monkey trial?
A
- 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
