The Roaring Twenties
George Sanchez
Economics
price of stocks and shares
-Stocks rose 65% in the years
between 1920 and 1929.
- Wages increased only 25%.
- Before 1920 people borrowed
money only to start a business/ buy
a house.
- They would then make more
money and then would return it.
-In the 1920s, for the first time in history, Americans
borrowed to live more pleasantly.
- They went into debt.
- In 1929, Wall Street crashes as New York prices plunge.
Companies
3rd September
1929
13. Nov
1929
American Can
182 cents
86 cents
Anaconda Copper
162 cents
70 cents
Electric Bond and Share
204 cents
50 cents
General Electric
396 cents
168 cents
General Motors
182 cents
36 cents
New York Central
256 cents
160 cents
Radio
505 cents
28 cents
United States Steel
279 cents
150 cents
Westinghouse E&M
313 cents
102 cents
Woolworth
251 cents
52 cents
A Booming Economy: The 1920’s
Income
increases
People purchase
more goods
“Boom Cycle”
Companies expand
and hire more
people
Companies earn
higher profits
Percentage of American Families Owning
Various Appliances, 1920 and 1930
Inside flush toilets
Central heating
Home lighting with electricity
Mechanical refrigerators
Washing machines
Vacuum cleaners
Radios
Automobiles
1920
20%
1%
35%
<1%
8%
9%
<1%
26%
1930
51%
42%
68%
8%
24%
30%
40%
60%
W: 472
Society
THE TWENTIES WOMAN
 After the tumult of
World War I, Americans
were looking for a little
fun in the 1920s.
 Women were
independent and
achieving greater
freedoms.
ie. right to vote, more
employment, freedom
of the auto
Chicago
1926
THE FLAPPER
Challenged the
traditional ways.
Revolution of
manners and
morals.
A Flapper was an
emancipated young
woman who
embraced the new
fashions and urban
attitudes.
MODERN FAMILY
EMERGES
 Marriage was based on
romantic love.
 Women managed the
household and finances.
 Children were not
considered laborers/ wage
earners anymore.
 Seen as developing
children who needed
nurturing and education
THE CHANGING AMERICAN
FAMILY
 American birthrates
declined for several decades
before the 1920s.
Trend continues in 1920s
with development of birth
control.
Margaret Sanger
 Birth control activist
 Founder of American Birth
Control League
Margaret Sanger and other
founders of the American Birth
Control League - 1921
 ie. Planned Parenthood
Culture
SCIENCE AND RELIGION
CLASH
 Fundamentalists vs. Secular thinkers
 The Protestant movement - literal interpretation of the bible is known
as fundamentalism
 Fundamentalists found all truth in the bible – including science &
evolution
EDUCATION AND
POPULAR CULTURE
 During the 1920s,
developments in education
had a powerful impact on
the nation.
 Enrollment in high schools
quadrupled between 1914
and 1926.
 Public schools met the
challenge of educating
millions of immigrants
ENTERTAINMENT AND ARTS
 Even before sound, movies
offered a means of escape
through romance and
comedy
 ie. talkies
Walt Disney's animated
Steamboat Willie marked the
debut of Mickey Mouse. It was
a seven minute long black and
white cartoon.
 First sound movies: Jazz
Singer (1927)
 First animated with sound:
Steamboat Willie (1928)
 By 1930 millions of
Americans went to the
movies each week
AMERICAN HEROES OF THE 20s
 In 1929, Americans spent
$4.5 billion on
entertainment. (includes
sports)
 People crowded into
baseball games to see their
heroes
 Babe Ruth was a larger than
life American hero who
played for Yankees
 He hit 60 homers in 1927.
Environment
Advertising
· In the 1920’s businesses
used advertising to
convince consumers that
they would be happier if
they bought their product.
Rural to Urban to Suburb
• Automobiles became more affordable
• Cities built transportation systems that used an electric
trolley
• 70,000 buses were operating in the U.S.
The Jazz Age
• Grew out of the African American music of the south
(New Orleans)
• Syncopated rhythms and improvisations
• Some people were horrified
• “an expression of the times, of the breathless,
energetic, superactive times in which we are living.”
– Leopold Stokowski
World News
•Bankrupted by the
war, Germany was in an
economic crisis.
•Hitler creates a private
army and political party
- the Nazi Party.
•A fiery speaker, Adolf
Hitler, promises to
return Germany to its
former greatness!
•1923 Hitler and his
storm troopers tried to
seize the gov’t of
Bavaria, failed and went
to prison.
•Like the KKK, Hitler
appealed to people
who wanted someone
to blame for their
problems.
•In prison, he writes a
book.