The 1920s: A Decade of Social Change and Tension in America - Prof. Jame Giesen, Study notes of World History

Download The 1920s: A Decade of Social Change and Tension in America - Prof. Jame Giesen and more Study notes World History in PDF only on Docsity! The 1920’s were a time that held some of the most intense events in American history. It was a time where the comings of a completely new society clashed with the questionitive walls of the traditional American values. When the Industrial Revolution took place and urbanized much of America, American faced major social changes. Much of the population had moved into cities, and along with this the mechanics of the American society had transformed into what people would like to call the oncoming’s of the “New Era”, where Fundamentalists, or those who preferred the traditional methods of society, conflicted with modernists who used the new knowledge of the day to further enlighten the way of life for America collided and form a cast era of tension. Some people wanted to push to new opportunities while some wanted society to get like it was before the big World War I. Harding’s return to normalcy campaign is a good example of the traditional values and nostalgia while the Progressive movement that occurred on the eve of World War I. All this tension was the result of a new modernist outlook of a generation that did not see the significance of its fore traditions of ethics, while the rest of America embraced a nostalgic fear of the future. This tension manifested in social, racial, and ethical ways, which was all, incorporated through the modernists versus the fundamentalist’s debates. This new society was the result of the new lifestyle that industrialization and urbanization had on America. The wealth of a successful nation was in the air and the whole country could feel it. New Industries manifested itself such as cars, assembly lines, and suburbs. It was changing the way the nation even looked. Document B, a piece of Art from the Newark Museum about the Brooklyn Bridge was made in 1922, illustrating the transformation America was making into a urbanized super society. The bridge symbolized much of this era. It showed how people needed structures like this to around, and how a bridge like this could only be made because the technology like cars allowed for its necessity. With cars people could live further away from their jobs. All this shows the effect of urbanization and technology and how it demanded new lines in advancement. It was just simply a change. This society also came with great prosperity and new work habits, which in turn allowed people time off from work, leisure time, which was used by the people to challenge their everyday flaws in life. People who had this leisure time were mostly of the upper and middle class, and as working hours in many factories declined people began to see this time as their own time. One of the more popular aspects that were used with leisure time was the Dance halls where a new age of youth came to have fun during their time off. They created new dances like the jitterbug, and had new groups of “cool” like the infamous flappers. Those were referred to a “new breed” of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to the new jazz music, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. They also used their free time to watch events like spectator sports like Major League Baseball, or visited the theater for entertainment, some even pushed for their own private pursuits like schooling. There was a rush of a new culture uprising from these new pastimes and knowledge distribution and the conflict between modernist and fundamentalists was beginning to arrive. Reasons for tension were everywhere, for instance Document H, where a chart shows how the marriage and divorce rates increased significantly in the 1920’s era. This was indeed due to the introduction of this new, bond breaking culture that did not see anything wrong in breaking a holy “union.” Schooling and in intellectualism is also a reason for the rise of modernists, for as the young became intellectualized with theories like evolution the more tension was created by the mass that believed in creationism. Schooling was working towards becoming universal and women along with this began pursuing careers. A significant minority, perhaps over 25 percent, did not marry at all, but devoted themselves exclusively to their careers. What perhaps brought on this topic to visible standards of threat was the new consumer culture brought on my mass production of products. America, in this era, was a society in which many men and women could afford not merely the means of subsistence, but a considerable measure of additional, discretionary goods and services; a society in which people could buy items not just because of need but for pleasure. This way of life was called consumerism. This is where the social clash between fundamentalist and modernists is first seen. The first piece of tension comes first from the Lost Generation, where a number of poets and writers are turned off by this seen conformity and consumerism by the public. They do not see the art where the media and consumer restraints control every aspect of a person’s life, what is in or what is not. This is clearly seen in Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt (1992), in Document A. The document is an excerpt from the book where the character playing the role is observed as someone who’s life is led by priests who determine his every religion belief and senators who he follows no matter what way they head their party, where his beliefs are not based on his own individuality and ethics but by that of what the mass follows. This excerpt portrays the loss of individuality in turn for a new culture, and a new attitude of life led by conformity. The Lost Generation and its poets who yearn for art and originality rather than a mass produced identity in tension for their publics lost distinctiveness. Schooling and intellectualism of the society is also for the rise of modernists and the “fall” of the fundamentalists, for as the young became intellectualized with theories like evolution the more fundamentalists who believed in creationists flourished. In this era education was becoming universal and free education was becoming available. With this new modernists came to knowledge of their surroundings. However this intellectualism was not always allowed or fully accepted. For example the Tennessee state law specifically prohibited the teaching of theories like evolution, or pretty much anything that went against the Bible. Of course there were some learned people who took offense at this restriction and fought back. This anxiety that was created manifested in one of the most famous trials in history, The Scopes Monkey Trial, where a twenty four year old biology teacher, John T. Scopes, agreed to have himself arrested for teaching the theory of evolution. A famous former presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan announced that he has agreed to prosecute the teacher, and this became one of the most heated arguments in U.S history, for it was Religious Fundamentalists against the New Age modernists. This spar between the two sides is illustrated vividly in Document C, a primary source of the actual event. In this is an exchanging of words during a cross examination from Darrow to Bryan, and in this they feud over