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Lecture: The Twenties |
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Charlie Chaplin was a genius of cinema during the 20s and 30s. Here's a movie clip from his 1936 film, Modern Times, which parodies labor conditions of the 1920s. |
To
Be Modern
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The
extraordinary number of deaths
in the war, and afterward as
a result of the influenza epidemic,
cost the U.S. and Europe a whole
generation of young men. The
surviving members of this Lost
Generation felt adrift, and
many people were examining society
in light of the war. Several
literary and scholarly works
expressed the view that Western
Civilization itself was coming
to an end, as represented in
the slaughter of millions using
modern technology. 
Human morality itself was being questioned, and gave the 20's an edge, a feeling of panic or anxiety that came out in the art, music, paintings, and styles of the time. Although it is also the "Roaring Twenties", a time of partying and fun, there was a sense of desperation beneath the surface.
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Modernity itself was also questioned. Traditionalists believed that a return to the values of former times might save the morals of the nation. Progressives believed that it was more important than ever to recognize society's wrongs and correct them. Some criticized what society had become, as you can see in this excerpt from Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt. As you read the document, think to yourself:
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Louis
Armstrong (1900-1971) was one
of the greatest jazz musicians
ever, and was the popularizer
of the jazz solo (in his case,
with the trumpet). His style was
unique, but would now be called
swing jazz or New Orleans style
jazz. Some of his best work was
done in the 1920s, right after
he left "King" Oliver's
band to form his own group. The
above selection, "S.O.L.
Blues",
was recorded in Chicago in 1927.
At
the age of 25, composer George
Gershwin departed from writing
popular music for Broadway shows
and created a masterpiece called "Rhapsody
in Blue".
It was, as were his later concertos,
a combination of symphony and
jazz. It became popular after
its opening in New York in 1924.
This selection is a re-creation
of that concert.
Lastly,
the Charleston itself, which was
all the rage for dancing and symbolized
the new female independence. The
music originated in a black review
touring the U.S. in 1923, although
the dance itself probably had
its origins in Africa, and was
well known among southern blacks
as early as 1900.
Harlem
Renaissance
During
the
1920s,
society
was
led
by
the
wealthy
class.
It's
important
to
understand
American
class
distinctions,
because
they
are
different
from
those
in
Europe.
In
Europe,
the
upper
class
(or
aristocracy)
were
the
holders
of
land,
deriving
from
noble
families
going
back
centuries.
By
the
20th
century,
European
aristocrats
could
be
downright
poor
if
they
had
only
land
but
no
cash
or
investments.
In
the
U.S.,
there
has
never
been
an
aristocratic
class,
because
only
in
a
few
specific
locations
were
there
ever
huge
land
holdings
granted
to
individuals.
In the U.S., there was instead a divided "middle" class. The upper middle class owned the means of production, and thus much of the wealth. The rest of the middle class made good livings for their families in the professions (medicine, law, scholarship, business). The middle classes both in Europe and America relied on money, the control of cash resources.
The lower class, or working class, existed in both places. These were people who sold their manual labor in order to provide for their families. These class divisions are roughly the same as exist today.
The upper middle class is the U.S. is rarely of interest historically; they spent a lot of money and built beautiful mansions and engaged in conspicuous consumption. But during the 20s, their spending began to focus on partying and pleasure in areas outside their own mansions. Young rich people ventured into the seedier parts of town, especially in New York City, looking for a more interesting thrill. Cocaine was the drug of choice, and Harlem was the place for black entertainment in clubs. Some of these clubs were owned by blacks or whites, staffed only by blacks, and entertained an all-white clientele.
Famous performers like Josephine Baker and many jazz musicians got their start in Harlem nightclubs during the 20s. An entire culture was bankrolled by rich whites looking for a thrill. Certainly the Harlem Renaissance experienced the development of an AfricanAmerican cultural expression, and you'll see that in the web site for the week. But if you wonder why it came to an end, or at least turned into something else, it's because the rich who invested in Harlem pulled all their spending out when the Stock Market crashed in 1929.
Sacco
and VanzettiThe
Red Scare of 1919-20 ended when
Attorney General A. Mitchell
Palmer's prediction did not
come true. The Communist Internation
(Comintern) had been formed
in the newly communist Soviet
Union in 1919, proclaiming as
its goal the international organization
of communist revolution. For
all the workers of the world,
May 1 (May Day) is traditionally
a day off, everyone's Labor
Day. So Palmer predicted that
American communists would try
to take over the country on
May 1, 1920. When this didn't
happen, Palmer was discredited,
but the fear of communists,
radicals and anarchists continued
(oh, and we're the only country
on the planet to hold our Labor
Day in September!). 
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were anarchist Italian immigrants arrested, tried and executed for a small-town murder and armed robbery. The trial of these obscure guys caught national attention, and has since been used to analyze the effect of nativism and xenophobia on the U.S. during the 1920s.
Many of the details of the investigation did not match the accusation. Fingerprints on the getaway car did not belong to them, one had an alibi for a previous robbery attempt connected with this crime, the money wasn't found among either the suspect's personal effects or those of their anarchist friends, the suspects were identified by eyewitnesses who were shown only the two men. Neither had a criminal record.
On the other hand, both men were armed when they were arrested, and both lied to the police about knowing the owner of the getaway car. Nevertheless, the prosecution had trouble making their case. One witness claimed she could tell Sacco from a 60-foot distance because of the size of his hands, another claimed to have seen it all but was actually hiding under a bench where he couldn't have seen a thing, another identified Sacco (who was dark-haired) as a man she'd asked directions of when all other witnesses said she'd asked a fair-haired boy.
When the defense was able to discredit the witnesses and show that the bullet could not have been fired from Vanzetti's gun, the prosecution focused on the fact that the men had behaved in a guilty manner following the crime. This forced the defense to bring up anarchism, the U.S. government's distaste for which would make any anarchist act in a nervous way. The issue of anarchism became central to the trial, and there is much evidence that the judge and District Attorney were prepared to convict the two because they were radicals.
After their conviction, new evidence emerged, including a prisoner on death row who admitted to the murders and was identified by witnesses. When the District Attorney refused to reopen the case, public sentiment turned against the courts. The appeals were denied by the same judge who had convicted Sacco and Vanzetti originally, and they were sentenced to death by electrocution. There were mass protests the night of their execution. The case is still being discussed. Although in 1977, governor of Massachusetts Michael Dukakis issued a posthumous pardon, recent reanalysis has suggested that Sacco and Vanzetti did commit the crimes.
So for historians, the case best serves as an example of how nativism and anti-immigrant prejudice divided the nation at the time.
The
Scopes "Monkey" Trial
You
have
read
how
John
Scopes,
the
high
school
biology
teacher,
was
put
on
trial
for
teaching
evolution
in
Tennessee,
where
doing
so
was
against
the
law.
The
trial
was
quite
a
show
for
William
Jennings
Bryan
(prosecution)
and
Clarence
Darrow
(defense,
hired
from
the
American
Civil
Liberties
Union).
The
spectacle
was
extraordinary.
At
one
point,
Darrow
called
Bryan
to
the
stand
as
a
Christian
to
testify
as
to
the
factual
content
of
the
Bible.
Bryan
accepted,
considering
his
role
to
be
defender
of
religious
fundamentalism.
Check
out the
actual
transcript of
the
trial.
The
University
of
Missouri
at
Kansas
City
has
put
the
whole
thing
on
the
web.
Scopes was clearly guilty (it was against the law to teach evolution, and he did), but the extremely light sentence clearly indicated that the newer sentiments were in favor of evolution. Darrow's approach was seen by traditionalists as blasphemous, a symbol of the declining morality of America. Bryan's was seen by modernists as archaic. A sad note: the trial was so wearing on Bryan that he died, after a long and brilliant life serving his fellow Americans, shortly thereafter.
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They made a very good movie (if not completely historically accurate) about the trial called "Inherit the Wind", with Spencer Tracy as Darrow.
The events are shrouded in mystery. The players themselves discussed taking the money, then winning the series anyway, and this may have been the plan. But the Sox did lose the series. Did they throw it? Lots of historians have analyzed the statistics. It seems as though the eight players (known now as the Black Sox) played better than their innocent teammates. Ultimately, the case went to the Grand Jury, where some of the players confessed; all eight were indicted. Then the trial bagan, and with it the revelation that the confessions they had signed had disappeared.
At the end of the trial, the judge instructed the jury that the ball players had to be guilty of defrauding the public, not just taking money or throwing a ball game. With no way to prove that, the jury brought back a verdict of "not guilty". However, the new commissioner of baseball, Judge Landis, banned all eight from professional baseball (he also banned another player from another team who had made money betting on the Reds).
The effect on the country of the entire incident was devastating. Baseball had become almost a religion in the U.S. To have baseball players engaging in such underhanded dealings shocked many people and destroyed the dreams of many kids who loved the game. According to Randy Roberts and James Olson in their book, "American Experiences", the scandal damaged America's self-image just at a time when we were trying to return to "normalcy", creating disillusionment about the personal integrity of America's sports heroes.
The
show was written and performed
by Charles Correll and Freeman
Gosden, who were both white (hence
the analogy to black-face). It
was the first program to portray
an all-black situation, and has
since been heavily analyzed for
racism and stereotypes. Even at
the time it aired, there was by
no means only one view: some saw
it as harmful to black self-respect
(and white respect for blacks),
but others thought that it was
a harmless comedy. Certainly it
was extremely popular: by 1930,
40 million listeners were tuning
in. During the 1950s, it went
to television, with a black cast.
Flappers were women who rejected the image of Victorian womanhood during the 1920s. You may recall that this Victorian image was very modest, and included clothing that covered females to the floor. Hair was long (in fact it was never supposed to be cut) but always worn up -- a woman's long hair was a sight only for her husband, in private. Beginning in the 1870s, however, war in Europe and economic crisis in the U.S. meant that fabric was quite expensive. Skirts became more slender and showing arms was no longer forbidden. There is a theory that as women's independence in society increases, the fashions become less hour-glass shaped, because they aren't emphasizing a woman's fertility. Some historians connect the fashions of the late teens and twenties to the Great War and the achievement of female suffrage in 1919.
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| Cinema hearthrob Rudolph Valentino |
By the 1920s the flappers were wearing skirts above the knee, and had cut their hair in a chin-length "bob" that couldn't be tied up. The trend was led by upper class young women, and with the availability of ready-made clothes from catalogs, the style could catch on easily. In addition, there was a new great distributor of pop culture: the motion picture.
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Movie stars were glamorous, and the images on the screen seemed very real to people. Movie plots, costumes, and images affected people.
Even more accessible were modern novels, which often told stories of rich and glamorous people. Beginning in 1920, Prohibition was in effect, making it illegal to sell alcohol. For a country founded by Puritans who drank beer for breakfast, a country where individual freedom was a high value, Prohibition seemed like a punishment. Organized crime got its big break, running gin and other beverages around the country, like the drug cartels today. Writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway spent much of the 1920s in Europe, but wrote novels that resonated in America. The Great Gatsby is a perfect example, since it featured with two sets of characters, one lower middle-class and one upper and slightly criminal, the latter spending most of their time drinking and partying.
The text by Lisa M. Lane is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. | 
The voice audio by Lisa M. Lane is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. |