Why Were The 1920s A Period Of Major Cukturak Change In The USA? Flashcards
What was a major cultural change in the USA during the 1920s?
A period of rapid cultural change in music, fashion, sport, and literature.
What technology dominated popular entertainment in the 1920s?
Radio and cinema.
Which suburb became the movie-making capital of the USA?
Hollywood.
What significant migration occurred during the 1920s?
The Great Migration of black Americans to northern cities.
What is jazz, and where was it developed?
A form of music first developed by black Americans in New Orleans around 1895.
What type of music was jazz primarily characterized by?
Improvised playing.
By 1929, how did jazz music spread across the USA?
It was played by both white and black musicians.
Which instruments were notably used in jazz music?
Saxophone.
Who were two prominent black American singers that gained popularity in the 1920s?
- Bessie Smith
- Billie Holiday
What new dance crazes accompanied jazz music in the 1920s?
- The Charleston
- The turkey trot
True or False: Jazz was universally popular across the USA.
False.
What was the reaction of some groups, like the KKK, to jazz music?
They denounced it as bringing the decline of US society.
What religious revival took place in the Midwest and South during the 1920s?
A Protestant religious revival.
Who were two leading preachers that condemned jazz music?
- Billy Sunday
- Aimee Semple McPherson
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
A wider movement encompassing black American achievement in literature, art, plays, and music.
What was the ‘New Negro Movement’?
A movement that celebrated black American culture and achievements.
Name a famous black American theatre from the 1920s.
The Cotton Club.
Who was Marcus Garvey?
Founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and proponent of Pan-Africanism.
What is Pan-Africanism?
The idea that all people of black African origin share a common culture and history.
Fill in the blank: _______ aimed to celebrate black American achievement and support the struggle for equal rights.
The Crisis
What was the purpose of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)?
To unite black people globally in the struggle for equality.
What did Marcus Garvey promote regarding black-run businesses?
Self-sufficiency through the creation of black-run businesses.
What became the national pastime by the 1920s?
Baseball became the national pastime by the 1920s.
What was the significance of the 1920s for baseball?
The 1920s was considered baseball’s first golden age.
What major baseball teams became household names in the 1920s?
The New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox became household names.
Who was Babe Ruth?
Babe Ruth was a star player for the Boston Red Sox who signed with the New York Yankees.
What was Babe Ruth known for?
Babe Ruth was known as the ‘Sultan of Swat’ and became the greatest baseball player of all time.
What record did Babe Ruth set?
Babe Ruth set a record for home runs that was only surpassed in the 1970s.
What controversy surrounded baseball at the beginning of the 1920s?
The 1919 World Series involved the Chicago White Sox being accused and convicted of match fixing.
Who was Kenesaw Mountain Landis?
Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed as the national baseball commissioner to clean up baseball’s image.
What actions did Landis take to improve baseball’s image?
He stamped out corruption and banned substances that enhanced player performance.
How did the prosperity of the 1920s affect baseball?
The growing prosperity allowed workers to spend more money, fueling demand for spectator sports.
What role did commercial radio play in baseball’s popularity?
Commercial radio allowed people across the country to listen to baseball matches.
How did newspapers contribute to baseball’s growth?
Newspapers developed sports sections with extensive coverage of Major League Baseball (MLB).
What was the time period of the USA’s boom, bust, and recovery?
c1920-55
What is the format of the MLB season that has lasted until the present day?
The winner of the American League and National League compete in the World Series.
What was created in 1920 for black American baseball players?
The Negro Baseball League
Who was a star baseball player for the New York Yankees in the 1920s?
Babe Ruth
Why was Florida significant for Major League Baseball spring training?
It had a mild climate.
What did the growth of radio lead to?
The establishment of commercial radio stations.
What was the first full-length film in 1915 about?
The most traditional showing of the film.
What became an important part of American culture in the 1920s?
Comedy, which appeared in many silent films.
What did Hollywood represent for many Americans?
The American Dream of becoming rich and famous.
What form of entertainment became the premier form of culture in the USA in 1927?
The Jazz Singer, a significant film in Hollywood.
How did radio change entertainment for Americans?
It brought entertainment into the homes of millions.
What was the center of America’s theatre industry?
Broadway in New York City.
What cultural fields did the USA dominate in the 1920s?
Radio and cinema.
What was the highlight of American MLB in the 1920s?
The growth of radio and the rise of its advertising opportunities.
The first commercial radio station was created in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
How did cinema influence popular entertainment in the 1920s?
Hollywood became the center of the world film industry, producing hundreds of films per year.
All cinema films were silent until 1927.
Who was considered the world’s first global film star?
Charlie Chaplin, known for playing a poor, little man taking on authority.
What was the significance of the film ‘The Birth of a Nation’?
It captured the nation’s imagination and helped relaunch the Ku Klux Klan.
What types of films were popular in the 1920s?
Comedies, westerns, and romances were produced by Hollywood.
What was the state of the film industry by 1929?
Every small town in the USA had its own picture house showing Hollywood films, dominated by big studios like Paramount and MGM.
How did Hollywood contribute to the American Dream?
It created celebrities who represented the idea that anyone could become rich and famous through hard work.
What concerns did religious moralists have regarding Hollywood films?
They worried that films could undermine the Christian ethos of the country.
What was the purpose of the Hays Code?
To produce a code of censorship for the film industry in response to moral concerns.
What revolution occurred in Hollywood in 1927?
The invention of talking pictures, beginning with ‘The Jazz Singer’.
What event began in Hollywood two years after the invention of talking pictures?
The Annual Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars.
What was the status of films by 1929?
Films became the premier form of popular entertainment for Americans, making the USA the top country for popular culture.
What were the 1920s often referred to as?
The 1920s has been given different names, including the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties.
What is the Lost Generation?
The Lost Generation refers to artists who had survived the First World War.
What literary trend characterized the 1920s?
The literature of the 1920s saw a much greater concentration on realism, reflecting actual experiences.
Who is a notable novelist of the 1920s that captured the spirit of the times?
F. Scott Fitzgerald encapsulated the spirit of the times.
What is the title of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel?
The Great Gatsby (1925) deals with a super-rich playboy who made a fortune on the New York Stock Exchange.
How did Fitzgerald view the 1920s?
To Fitzgerald, the 1920s was the Age of Excess.
What is the title of Ernest Hemingway’s first novel?
The Sun Also Rises (1926) traces the lives of Americans living in Paris and Spain.
What is the theme of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms?
A Farewell to Arms (1929) is about Hemingway’s life as a volunteer ambulance driver in the First World War.
What did Fitzgerald and Hemingway achieve in American literature?
They achieved both national and international acclaim and gave American literature a global reputation.
Which poets matched the international standing of Fitzgerald and Hemingway?
Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and Robert Frost.
What cultural impact did the USA have in the 1920s?
The USA led the world in popular culture and reached the world stage in literature.
