Sonny An

US History Honors December 13th, 2012

Chapter 12, Sections 1 & 2 Textbook Notes Section 1: Growth of the Middle Class 1922: Sinclair Lewis publishes Babbitt, about big cities (Zenith). 1923 to 1929: 11% income increase for American workers. o Standard of living improved, as more necessities and luxuries were available and affordable. 1920s: Electrical current needed to run machines (i.e. refrigerators, etc.) became readily available to average Americans. Farmers used Fords Fordson tractors, mass produced wheat and corn, prices dropped. o o 1919: 1 bushel of corn = 5 gallons of gasoline. 1921: 1 bushel of corn = gallon of gasoline.

1920s: Electricity vs. coal (bad for coal miners), silk vs. cotton (bad for textile factories). 1927: Americans owned 4 out of 5 cars of the worlds cars, averaging 1 motor vehicle for every 5.3 persons. o o May 27th, 1927: Last 15 million Model Ts sold for $300 apiece, average American family made $2,000 a year. 1927: Model A introduced, had color variety.

1920s: Automobile manufacturing biggest industry, boosted other industries (i.e. steel, gasoline, etc.). o o End of WWI: U.S. had 7,000 miles of concrete roads. By 1927: 50,000 miles +10,000 miles each year.

Auto-mobility allowed city workers to move to houses in new suburbs. Credit: Putting money down and paying the balance in installments. o 1928: Automobiles, furniture, phonographs, washing machines and radios, refrigerators bought on credit.

Mass media: 1923: Modes of communication that reached large numbers of people. o o o To be used by advertisers to gain consumers. Buy! Buy! Buy! The Gibson Girl: An ideal of feminine beauty before WWI, long flowing hair, etc. Flapper: Short hair, short clothing, etc. 1920s: The age of fad a sudden explosion of interest in some product or activity.

By 1930: 51% of all high-school-age youths were in school, compared with less than 6% in 1890.

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Sonny An
US History Honors December 13th, 2012

Section 2: The Jazz Age October 6th, 1927: First talking motion picture released, The Jazz Singer. 1926: Rudolph Valentino dies, 30,000 women present at funeral (lol). Late 1920s: Sports increasingly popular: 1,000 tennis clubs more than 1 million players, golf from rich mans game everyone. o Jack Dempsey, the Manassa Mauler: Heavyweight boxing champion, loses title in 1926 to Gene Tunney. o o Honey, I forgot to duck. 1926: Gertrude Ederle, Our Trudy: First woman to swim English Channel, beating fastest mans record by 2 hours. Oscar Charleston of the Negro League (baseball): One of the greatest players of all time, however, could not play in major leagues due to skin color. Charles Lindbergh, the lone eagle: Solo flight across Atlantic in 1927. o o o 1928: Amelia Earhart, first woman to fly across Atlantic Ocean. Joseph King Olivers Creole Jazz Band: Featuring Louis Armstrong. 1920s: The Dance Age and The Jazz Age. Dances such as The Charleston. Jazz from New Orleans, African American creation.

Syndicates: Chains of newspapers under centralized direction. Tabloid newspapers became all the rage, perfect for subway reading. o Richard Simon and Lincoln Schuster: Publishing company founded by crossword puzzle book.

Materialism: Money/material goods > spiritual/intellectual/artistic concerns. o American writers and artists Europe. Gertrude Stein, You are all a lost generation. Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, published in 1926, concerning post-war trauma. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, concerning the emptiness of too much money.

Harlem Renaissance: 1920s African American literary and artistic movement. o The New Negro: Alain Locke, professor of literature: The younger generation of African Americans is vibrant with a new psychology the new spirit is awake in the masses. o Langston Hughes: Gifted poet, used jazz and blues themes and rhythms in his poetry. 1926: The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain. 2|Page

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US History Honors December 13th, 2012 o o

Claude McKay: If We Must Die and Home to Harlem. Zora Neale Hurston: Plays, short stories, and articles featuring African folklore. 1937: Their Eyes Were Watching God.

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