Roaring Twenties Reading

P epa
o Read
Objedives
Key Terms
In this section, you will
• Identify the fads and fashions
of the 1920s.
fad
• Explain how a new group of
writers and new jazz music
affected American culture.
jazz
flapper
expatriate
Target Reading Skill
Main Idea As you read, prepare an outline
of this section. Use roman numerals to indi­
cate the major headings of this section,
capital letters for subheadings, and num­
bers for the supporting details. The sample
below will help you get started.
• Describe the Harlem
Renaissance.
t. New Fads and Fashions
• Identify the heroes who were
celebrated during the 1920s.
Main Ide While new lifestyles and new ideas affected fashion
and music, a new generation of writers rebelled by criticizing
American life.
A. Following the latest fads
1.
2.
B. Flappers set the style
1.
2.
II. The Jazz Age
SeUing the Scene
When asked about her favorite pastime, one
young woman of the 1920s promptly replied, "I adore dancing. Who
doesn't?" New dance crazes such as the Charleston, the Lindy Hop,
and the Shimmy forever marked the decade as the "Jazz Age" and
the "Roaring Twenties."
During the 1920s, new dances, new music, new games, and other
new ways to have fun swept the country. For all the serious business
of the 1920s, the decade also roared with laughter. At the same time,
a new generation of writers were taking a critical look at American
society.
New a s and Fashions
A dancing couple from the 19205
;~
Identify Main Ideas
S'i-\~ What is the main idea of
the subsection "New Fads and
Fashions"? Include the main idea
on your outline.
f1t
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Chapter 25
"Ev'ry morning, ev'ry evening, ain't we got fun?" went a hit song of
1921. During the "Era of Wonderful Nonsense"-yet another nick­
name for the 1920s-fun came in many forms.
Following the Latest Fads Fads caught on, then quickly disap­
peared. A fad is an actiVity or a fashion that is taken up with gr at
pa ion for a short tim . Flagpole sitting was one fad of the 1920s.
Young people would perch on top of flagpoles for hours, or even
days. Another fad was the dance marathon, where couples danced
for hundreds of hours at a time to see who could last the longest.
Crossword puzzles and mah-jongg, a Chinese game, were other pop­
ular fads of the 1920s.
Dance crazes came and went rapidly. The most popular new
dance was probably the Charleston. First performed by African
Americans in southern cities like Charleston, South Carolina, the
dance became a national craze after 1923. Moving to a quick beat,
dancers pivoted their feet while kicking out first one leg, then the
other, backward and forward.
The Roaring Twenties
Flappers Set the Style Perhaps no one pursued the latest fads
more intensely than the flapper . Thes YOllng women rebelled
againsL traditional ways of thinking and acting. Flappers wore their
hair bobbed, or cut short. They wore their dresses short, too-shorter
than Americans had ever seen. Flappers shocked their parents by
wearing bright red lipstick.
To many older Americans, the way flappers behaved was even
more shocking than the way they looked. Flappers smoked cigarettes
in public, drank bootleg alcohol in speak-easies, and drove fast cars.
"Is 'the old-fashioned girl,' with all that she stands for in sweetness,
modesty, and innocence, in danger of becoming extinct?" wondered
one magazine in 1921.
Only a few young women were flappers. Still, they set a style for
others. Slowly, older women began to cut their hair and wear make­
up and shorter skirts. For many Americans, the bold fashions pio­
neered by the flappers symbolized a new sense of freedom.
The Jazz Age
Another innovation of the 1920s was jazz. Born in New Orleans, jazz
c mbined West African rhythms, African American work songs and
spirituals and w'opean harmonies. Jazz also had roots in the rag­
time rhythms of composers like Scott Joplin.
Louis Armstrong was one of the brilliant young African Ameri­
can musicians who helped create jazz. Armstrong learned to play the
trumpet in the New Orleans orphanage where he grew up. Arm­
strong had the ability to take a simple melody and experiment with
the notes and the rhythm. This allowed his listeners to hear many
different versions of the basic tune. Other great early jazz musicians
included "Jelly Roll" Morton and singer Bessie Smith.
Jazz quickly spread from New Orleans to Chicago, Kansas City,
and the African American section of New York known as Harlem.
White musicians, such as trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke, also began to
adopt the new style. Before long, the popularity of jazz spread to
Europe as well.
Many older Americans worried that jazz and the new dances
were a bad influence on the nation's young people. Despite their
complaints, jazz continued to grow more popular. Today, jazz is rec­
ognized as an original art form developed by African Americans. It
is considered one of the most important cultural contributions of the
United States.
ew Writers
A new generation of American writers earned worldwide fame in the
1920s. Many of them were horrified by their experiences in World
War 1. They criticized Americans for caring too much about money
and fun. Some became so unhappy with life in the United States that
they moved to Paris, France. There, they lived as expatriat , p ople
who leave their own country to live in a f reign Ian .
Eleven-year-old Louis Armstrong
often played a little tin horn on a
rag wagon. He hoped people would
throw rags and bottles into the
wagon. Then, he could sell them for
a penny. When he spotted a five­
dollar cornet in a pawnshop win­
dow, he wondered what kind of
music he could make with a real
horn. He saved fifty cents a week
and bought the horn. At 17, he was
playing the cornet in New Orleans
street parades. At 18, he joined a
band on a riverboat. A listener later
wrote, "That cornet [filled] the night
with the hottest, the sweetest and
purest jazz I'd ever heard."
Discuss Louis Armstrong's
statement that at age 11, he
was convinced he had music
in his soul.
Hemingway and Fitzgerald Ernest Hemingway was one of the
writers who lived for a time in Paris. Still a teenager at the outbreak
Chapter 25
Section 3
*
731
Sinclair
lewis
After living
through the
horror of World War I, many
American writers criticized the
values and lifestyles of the 1920s.
The most outspoken critic was
Sinclair Lewis. His novel Main
Street, which mocked the values of
small-town life in the United States,
was an instant success. Dr wing
Conclu ion Why do you think
Lewis called his novel Main Street?
of World War I, he traveled to Europe to drive an ambulance on the
Italian front. Hemingway drew on his war experiences in A Farewell
to Arms, a novel about a young man's growing disgust with war. In
The Sun Also Rises, he examined the lives of American expatriates in
Europe.
Hemingway became one of the most popular writers of the 1920s.
His simple but powerful style influenced many other writers.
The young writer who best captured the mood of the Roaring
Twenties was Hemingway's friend F. Scott Fitzgerald. In The Great
Gatsby and other novels, Fitzgerald examined the lives of wealthy
young people who attended endless parties but could not find hap­
piness. His characters included flappers, bootleggers, and
moviemakers. Fitzgerald became a hero to college students and flap­
pers, among others.
Other Writers Sinclair Lewis grew up in a small town in Minne­
sota and later moved to New York City. In novels such as Babbitt and
Main Street, he presented small-town Americans as dull and narrow­
minded. Lewis's attitude reflected that of many city dwellers toward
rural Americans. In fact, the word babbitt became a popular nick­
name for a smug businessman uninterested in literature or the arts.
In 1930, Lewis was the first American to win the Nobel Prize for
literature.
Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was enormously popular. She
expressed the frantic pace of the 1920s in her verse, such as her
short poem "First Fig":
" My candle burns at both ends;
/ It will not last the night; / But ah,
my foes, and oh, my friends- / It
gives a lovely light."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay, "First Fig," 1920
Another writer, Eugene O'Neill, revolu­
tionized the American theater. Most earlier
playwrights had presented romantic, unre­
alistic stories. O'Neill shocked audiences
with powerful, realistic dramas based on his
years at sea. In other plays, he used experi­
mental methods to expose the inner
thoughts of tortured young people.
Harlem enalssance
In the 1920s, large numbers of African
American musicians, artists, and writers set­
tled in Harlem, in New York City. "Harlem
was like a great magnet for the Negro intel­
lectual," said one black writer. This gather­
ing of black artists and musicians led to the
Harlem Renaissance, a rebirth of African
American culture.
During the Harlem Renaissance, young
black writers celebrated theIr African and
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Chapter 25
The Roaring Twenties
A Changing American Culture
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American heritages. They also protested prejudice and racism. For
the first time, too, a large number of white Americans took notice of
the achievements of black artists and writers.
Langston Hughes Probably the best-known poet of the Harlem
Renaissance was Langston Hughes. He published his first poem,
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers," soon after graduating from high
school. The poem connected the experiences of black Americans liv­
ing along the Mississippi River with those of ancient Africans living
along the Nile and Niger rivers. Like other writers of the Harlem
Renaissance, Hughes encouraged African Americans to be proud of
their heritage.
In other poems, Hughes protested racism and acts of violence
against African Americans. In addition to his poems, Hughes wrote
plays, short stories, and essays about the black experience.
Other Writers Other poets such as Countee Cullen and Claude
McKay also wrote of the experiences of African Americans. A grad­
uate of New York University and Harvard, Cullen taught in a Harlem
high school. In the 1920s, he won prizes for his books of poetry.
McKay came to the United States from Jamaica. In his poem "If
We Must Die," he condemned the lynchings and other mob violence
that black Americans suffered after World War I. The poem con­
cludes with the lines "Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly
pack, / Pressed to the wall, dying but fighting back!"
Zora Neale Hurston, who grew up in Florida, wrote novels,
essays, and short stories. Hurston grew concerned that African
American folklore "was disappearing without the world realizing it
had ever been." In 1928, she set out alone to travel through the South
in a battered car. For two years, she collected the folk tales, songs,
and prayers of black southerners. She later published these in her
book Mules and Men.
The 1920s were a time of
change in the United
States. A number of new
inventions, ideas, and prac­
tices contributed to this
change.
1. Comprehen ion
Identify two items on this
graphic organizer that
were linked to the eco­
nomic boom of the 1920s.
2. Critical Thinking
Applying Information
(a) Which items shown
here affected American
leisure activities? (b) Of
these, which are still
popular?
Chapter 25
Section 3
*
733
An Age of
The Spirit of St. Louis
Charles Lindbergh recalls his
thoughts as he flies over France
during the thirty-third hour of his
solo journey across the Atlantic:
"Almost thirty-five hundred miles
from New York. I've broken the
world's distance record for a non­
stop airplane flight. ... The Spirit
of St. Louis is a wonderful plane.
It's like a living creature, gliding
along smoothly, happily, as though
a successful flight means as much
to it as to me, as though we shared
our experiences together, each
feeling beauty, life, and death ...
each dependent on the other's loy­
alty. We have made this flight
across the ocean, not lor it."
-Charles Lindbergh,
The Spirit of St. Louis, 1927
nalyzlng Pn nary ourc
Why do you think Charles
Lindbergh's sense of accom­
plishment shifted from him­
self to his partnership with
his airplane?
eroes
Radio, movies, and newspapers created celebrities known across the
country. Americans followed the exploits of individuals whose
achievements made them stand out from the crowd.
Sports Figures Some of the best-loved heroes of the decade were
athletes. Each sport had its stars. Bobby Jones won almost every golf
championship. Bill Tilden and Helen Wills ruled the tennis courts.
Jack Dempsey reigned as world heavyweight boxing champion for
seven years. At the age of 19, Gertrude Ederle became the first
woman to swim across the English Channel.
College football also drew huge crowds. Many Americans who
had never attended college rooted for college teams. They thrilled to
the exploits of football stars like Red Grange, the "Galloping Ghost"
of the University of Illinois.
Americans loved football, but baseball was their real passion.
The most popular player of the 1920s was Babe Ruth. He became the
star of the New York Yankees. Fans flocked to games to see "the
Sultan of Swat" hit home runs. The 60 home runs he hit in one sea­
son set a record that lasted more than 30 years. His lifetime record
of 714 home runs was not broken until 1974.
"Lucky Lindy" The greatest hero was Charles A. Lindbergh. On a
gray morning in May 1927, he took off from an airport in New York
to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean-alone.
For more than 33 hours, Lindbergh piloted his tiny single-engine
plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, over the stormy Atlantic. He carried no
map, no parachute, and no radio. At last, he landed in Paris, France.
The cheering crowd carried him across the airfield. "Lucky Lindy"
returned to the United States as the hero of the decade.
Connecting With ...
During the 1920s, the New York district of Harlem was the center of a
surge of creative activity with lasting effects on American culture.
Originally known as the Negro Movement, the Harlem Renaissance
produced writers, artists, and jazz and blues musicians.
The best-known poet of the
movement was langston
Hughes. Much of his poetry
captures the rhythms of
blues and jazz. Hughes
also wove themes of the
African American experi­
ence, history, and folklore
into his work. Recognized
as the Poet laureate of
Harlem, Hughes wrote
more than 50 books.
Harlem was home to many popular nightclubs, where people came
to dance, listen to jazz and blues musicians, and watch f1oor­
shows. The Cotton Club was one of the most well-known. Duke
Ellington's band was the regular club band, later alternating with
the band of Cab Calloway. Both of these musicians
became legendary figures in jazz.
The type of music known as the
b'lues originated in the South in the
late 1800s but reached a high point
of development with the blues
artists of the Harlem Renaissance.
Their music contributed to the devel­
opment of jazz and has influenced
rock, folk, and country music. One of
the most influential blues singers of
the period was Bessie Smith, who
became known as "Empress of the
Blues." Her recordings were
popular with black and white
audiences alike.