1920's Magazine Project –Ideas and Sources

Major Events, Trends and Ideas from the 1920's:

-- Consumer and Popular Culture: Americans begin the trend of spending for what you want in addition to what you need. Rise of advertising, mass media (including radio and consolidation of newspapers) and cheaply produced goods create a change in spending – Automobile especially important – becomes backbone of American economy through the 1970's

Founding of Time and Reader's Digest magazines and popularization of others like the Saturday Evening Post.

- Prohibition goes into effect in 1920 – causes widespread crime and a whole culture of speakeasies, bathtub gin, and Gangsters. Al Capone and Bugsy Moran make their mark.

- Women's role in society is rapidly changing: A second large feminist movement – Women took the right to vote in 1919 and styles/practices of women both in leisure and work start changing – Fashion (“Flappers”), Consumption (of cigarettes and alcohol) and Work (in new industries or professions) changed face of relations between the sexes.

Birth Control first widely advocated by Margaret Sanger.

- “Joe College” a popular image drawn by William Held.

- Harlem Renaissance: A new arts movement flourishes in New York. Its influence spreads to and comes from the South, Chicago, Kansas City. Artists like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Marcus Garvey, Claude McKay, Dorothy West, Jean Toomer, Paul Robeson and Cab Calloway were among the stars.

- Jazz – America's Classical Music: American music started to come into its own, with a character that was distinct from European or African influence. Major players included Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, and Bessie Smith.

- Politics – Return to Normalcy: A labor movement was strong through the early 1920's and tied to Socialist elements. Later a “Red Scare” coupled with nativism caused the ousting of Socialist leaders and immigrants. President Harding and his V.P. (who later became President) asked for a return to “normalcy”. Still, they were involved in a scandal (Teapot Dome) that proved to help Coolidge in his election bid.

- Urbanism: More and more people moved to the cities, creating new interactions. 1920 was the first census in which more Americans lived in urban areas than rural areas.

- Sports: Baseball, Tennis, Golf, Football, and Boxing each gained new popularity. Stars included Babe Ruth (baseball), Jack Dempsey (boxing), Red Grange (football). Helen Wills (tennis), and Bobby Jones (golf). The 1927 Yankees are considered by many as the greatest American sports team ever.

- Movies: Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino and Clara Bow were stars of this popular art form.

- Literature: F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby), Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms), T.S. Eliot (The Wasteland), Edna St Vincent Millay (poetry) and Sinclair Lewis (Main Street) were notable authors of the time.

- Nativism: The Ku Klux Klan reached its highest membership during the 20's. Several Congressmen and government administrators were members, and the organization found large numbers of new recruits. New immigration laws were passed to keep out Southern and Eastern Europeans and select Asian groups.

Research Sources

Books:

1. Your textbook – nice summaries and beginning point. The timeline on pg. 428 may provide a starting point.

2. Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday : This is generally considered the best source of scholarship about the time period. Most other historians make at least some reference to it.

3. Evans, Harold. The American Century: A nice summary of the century with some interesting subtopics on the 1920's.

4. Freidel, Frank & Alan Brinkley. America in the Twentieth Century: Another nice summary book on the century with good writing on the 20's. Consumer culture section especially good.

5. Carter, Paul. Another Part of the Twenties: About social attitudes in the 1920's.

6. Sann, Paul. The Lawless Decade: Wonderful photographs and short excerpts about news topics in the era. Not so good on race issues, but excellent coverage of gangland issues and prohibition.

7. Clark, Norman. Deliver us from Evil: Examines prohibition.

8. Chalmers, David. Hooded Americanism: Examines the KKK

9. Boorstin, Daniel. The Americans: The Democratic Experience: Another excellent general US history book with a nice section on the 1920's.

10. Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States: The standard alternative view of American History. Zinn looks at the underbelly of American society – large coverage of socialist movements.

In the library, U.S. History is filed under “E”. The books are arranged chronologically.

Reference Sources:

- In the reference section, also look at the books filed under “E”. Ask the reference librarian. There are several excellent encyclopedias and general histories here with wonderful articles about the 1920's. Examples include:

11. Encyclopedia of Social History.

12. Encyclopedias of American Culture (not sure of the name, but there are several under this category)

13. Look to the Reader's Guide of Periodical Literature for magazine articles about the 1920's. American Heritage magazine runs good articles regularly.

Website:

(This is an excellent website about the 1920's. It has timelines, biographies, analysis of the times, and info about sports, fads, fashion, politics, arts, music, etc. If the address above does not get you there, go to and do a search on their website for the 1920s. (with no apostrophe between the 0 and s).