How Popular Culture evolved and Challenged Traditional Values

How Popular
Culture evolved and
Challenged
Traditional Values

VUS HISTORY
MS. PEART

Modernism marked the beginning of a
period that rejected conventional ways of
viewing and interacting with the world. The
movement was reflected in art, architecture,
literature, music, entertainment, and
fashion.

Mass media and communications

● Radio: Broadcast jazz, entertainment programing,

sporting events, and Fireside Chats

● Movies: Provided escape from Depression-era

realities

● Newspapers and magazines: Shaped cultural norms,

established a consumer culture, and sparked fads

Growth of the mass media, instruments for communicating with

large numbers of people, helped form a common American
popular culture during the 1920s.

The popularity of motion pictures grew throughout the 1920s;

“talkies,” or movies with sound, were introduced in 1927.

Newspapers grew in both size and circulation. Tabloids, compact

papers which replaced serious news with entertainment,
became popular. Magazines also became widely read.

Although radio barely existed as a mass medium until the 1920s,

it soon enjoyed tremendous growth. Networks linked many
stations together, sending the same music, news, and
commercials to Americans around the country.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following was NOT a popular form of mass media and communications in the 1920s and 30s?

• Newspapers and magazines

• Computer 

• Movies

• Radio 

Challenges to traditional values

● Traditional religion: Darwin’s theory, the Scopes

Trial

● Traditional role of women: Flappers, 19th

Amendment

● Open immigration: Rise of new Ku Klux Klan

(KKK), a Red Scare

● Prohibition: Smuggling alcohol, speakeasies

Multiple Choice

How did Prohibition challenge the traditions of American culture during the 1920s 1930s?

• It attempted to discourage Americans from drinking

• It encouraged the development of speakeasies.

• It encouraged women to break from their traditional roles.

• It encouraged the repeal of the 18th Amendment.

Multiple Choice

How did movies impact the popular culture of the late 1920s and early 1930s?

• Allowed Franklin Roosevelt to address the American public

• Encouraged the passage of the 18th Amendment

• Provided escape from the harsh realities of economic depression

• Promoted the traditional role of women in the home

Multiple Choice

All of the following contributed to popular culture during the 1920s and 1930s EXCEPT

• traditional values

• Magazines

• TV

• Radio

Multiple Choice

Which method of communication did Franklin D. Roosevelt use to reach the American people in his Fireside chats?

• Telephone

• Newspapers

• Television

• Radio

Multiple Choice

Which type of music was popularized by radio in the 1920s?

• Folk

• Reggae

• Jazz

• Bluegrass

Multiple Choice

Which of the following shaped cultural norms, established a consumer culture, and sparked fads in the 1920s?

• Television 

   

    

• Sentimental novels

• Newspapers and Magazines

• All of the above

Multiple Choice

Which development or invention of the 1920s reduced regional & cultural differences in America?

• Radio networks

• The bull market

• Prohibition

• The Harlem Renaissance

Traditional religion: the Scopes Trial

The Scopes Trial, also known as
the Scopes Monkey Trial, was the
1925 prosecution of science
teacher John Scopes for teaching
evolution in a Tennessee public
school, which a recent bill had
made illegal.

Multiple Choice

In what year did the Scopes Trial take place?

• 1945

• 1955

• 1935

• 1925

Multiple Choice

What challenged traditional religious values during the 1920s and 1930s?

• Radio shows

• Ku Klux Klan

• 19th amendment

• Darwin's theory

Multiple Choice

Whose theory challenged traditional religious teachings?

• Charlie Chaplin 

• Dr. Jonas Salk

• Charles Darwin 

   

• Albert Einstein

Multiple Choice

Which act prevented schools from teaching evolution?

• The Boycott Act

• The Watershed Act

• The Homestead Act

• The Butler Act

Traditional role of women

Flappers were a subculture of
young Western women in the
1920s who wore short skirts (knee
height was considered short during
that period), bobbed their hair,
listened to jazz, and flaunted their
disdain for what was then
considered acceptable behavior.

Multiple Choice

During the 1920s, the term "flappers" was used to describe women who —

• did not advocate for women's rights

• primarily cared for their children and families

• dressed conservatively

• challenged traditional roles and values

Multiple Choice

Which of the following was NOT true of the 1920s?

• Women became less independent.

• Women were able to purchase a wide variety of household goods.

• Women had options to go to college or work outside the home.

• Women's roles in society changed.

Rise of new Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

●Although it had been largely eliminated during
Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan regain power
during the 1920s and greatly increased its
membership outside the South.

●The Klan’s focus shifted to include terrorizing
not just African Americans but also Catholics,
Jews, immigrants, and others.

●After the arrest of a major Klan leader in 1925,
Klan membership diminished once

Multiple Choice

What group reemerged in the 1920s in response to open immigration?

• Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

• Anti-Saloon League  

   

   

• Federal Reserved

• League of Nation 

Prohibition

The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which took effect on January

16, 1920, made the manufacture, sale, and transport of liquor, beer, and wine
illegal.

As a result, many Americans turned to bootleggers, or suppliers of illegal alcohol.

Bars that operated illegally, known as speakeasies, were either disguised as
legitimate businesses or hidden in some way, often behind heavy gates.

Prohibition sharpened the contrast between rural and urban areas, since urban

areas were more likely to ignore the law. Additionally, it increased the number
of liquor-serving establishments in some major cities to far above
pre-Prohibition levels

Multiple Choice

Which amendment contributed to women feeling more liberated and breaking with their traditional role?

• 21. Amendment

•  

  14. Amendment 

• 17. Amendment 

• 19. Amendment

Multiple Choice

How did people of the 1920s challenge prohibition?

• smuggling alcohol and speakeasies

• passage of the 19th Amendment

•   

   

  encouraging the Red Scare

• through the Scopes Trial 

Multiple Choice

which question best supports the dilemma Uncle Sam is facing during the Prohibition Era?

• How can the US government smuggle alcohol into the country?

• Should US forgo the responsibility of selling alcohol for profit

• Should US govt lower the cost of distributing alcohol?

• How can the US profit from the sale of illegal substances?

Harlem emerged as an overall cultural center for African

Americans. A literary awakening took place in Harlem in the
1920s that was known as the Harlem Renaissance.

Expressing the joys and challenges of being African American,

writers such as James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston,
and Langston Hughes enriched African American culture as
well as American culture as a whole.

Harlem Renaissance

● Following the Great Migration of

World War I and the 1920s,
African Americans created
vibrant cultural communities in
the North.

● One of the most prominent areas

of black life was Harlem in New
York City, filled with vibrant
music and entertainment.

Harlem Renaissance

●

A number of important poets and
writers emerged in that community,
including Langston Hughes, Countee
Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, Anne
Spencer.

●

The jazz produced in the 1920s and
1930s in Harlem and other centers of
black population became popular
worldwide.

One of the most famous American poets of all-time, he
infused jazz and blues rhythms into much of his work.

a.

Duke Ellington

b.

Cab Calloway

c.

Louis Armstrong

d.

Langston Hughes

Multiple Choice

Harlem is a neighborhood in

• New York City

• New Jersey

• New Orleans

• Africa

Multiple Choice

The Harlem Renaissance refers to:

• A literary and artistic movement celebrating

• A population increase in Harlem during the 1920s

• A program to promote African-American owned businesses

• African-American culture

  A struggle for civil rights by the NAACP

Multiple Choice

Which of the following was a major factor influencing the Harlem Renaissance?

• Cultural Pride

• The Great Migration

   

• Collective Identity

• All of the above

What is the Great Migration?

a.The Great Migration was a large movement of birds from the north to the south
to be warm for the winter.

b.The Great Migration was the name of the time period after WWI.

c.The Great Migration is the mass movement of African Americans from the south
in the early 1900s.

Multiple Choice

By 1910 where did the majority of African-Americans live?

• The East

• The South

• The West

• The North

Multiple Choice

What two (2) things were African-Americans looking for when they did move?

• Discrimination and More Opportunities

• More Opportunities and a Better Life

• Segregation and a Better Life

• Lost Family and A Better Life

The Stock Market Crashed 1929

Causes of the stock market crash of 1929

● Business was booming, but investments were made

through buying stocks on credit.

● There was over speculation of monetary returns on

investments.

● There was a large number of small investors.
● Panic selling of stocks led to the collapse of the stock

market.

● There was excessive expansion of credit.

Causes of the stock market crash of 1929

● Business failures led to bankruptcies.
● Bank deposits were invested in the market.
● When the market collapsed, the banks ran

out of money.

Consequences of the stock market crash
of 1929

●

The crash signaled the beginning of the Great Depression
although serious flaws in the economy had existed for years.

●

People lost investments, which led to financial ruin, and many
committed suicide.

●

Bank runs: Clients panicked and, attempting to withdraw their
money from the banks, discovered their funds were lost.

●

There were no new investments.

Multiple Choice

The first major stock market crash happened in

• 1875

• 1987

• 1955

• 1929

Multiple Choice

What is a stock market crash?

• when one or two stocks drop significantly

• rapid and unanticipated drop in stock prices

• rapid but anticipated drop in stock prices

• slow decrease in stock prices over a year

Multiple Choice

What is "buying on a margin?"

• Buying stocks on borrowed money

• Buying lots of stocks

• Buying stocks then selling them the next day

• Buying stocks for hopes of making a high ROI

Multiple Choice

In the 1920s, many Americans invested money in the ______ market.

• black

• share

• stock

• credit

The Great
Depression

​The Great Depression was caused by severe weaknesses in the nation’s agricultural, financial, and industrial sectors, resulting in widespread hardships.

​Causes of the Great Depression

• ​Overproduction of industrial and agricultural products

• Purchasing items on credit places Americans in an unstable financial position

• Unequal distribution of wealth, making it difficult for many Americans to make purchases

​Causes of the Great Depression

• ​An agricultural depression that had plagued farmers throughout the 1920s

• Federal Reserve’s failure to prevent a widespread collapse of the nation’s banking system in the late 1920s and early 1930s, led to a severe contraction in the nation’s supply of money in circulation.

• High protective tariffs produced retaliatory tariffs in other countries, restricting world trade

​Impact of the Great Depression

• ​Unemployment and homelessness

• The collapse of the financial system (bank closings)

• The decline in demand for goods

• Political unrest (growing militancy of labor unions)

• Farm foreclosures and migration

Multiple Choice

How did an economic recession help cause the Great Depression?

• Bank runs caused depositors to withdraw all their money from banks

• Low interest rates encouraged risky speculation

• Americans bought less, causing less demand for goods

• The market bubble popped, crashing Wall Street

Multiple Choice

Which describes a "depression"?

• high economic performance

• growth in the economy

• poor economic performance and high unemployment

• and low prices low unemployment

Multiple Choice

Which of the following was not a cause of the Great Depression

• Unpaid debts from fighting WWI

• Stock market crash

• Factories and farms produce more goods than people can buy

• Banks make loans that borrowers cannot pay back

Multiple Choice

What happened in the summer of 1929?

• Americans paid back the money that they had borrowed to buy stocks.

• Production of goods decreased, and employment dropped

• Production of goods increased, and employment rose.

• Americans sold millions of shares, and the stock market crashed.