1. The Time
Between
the Wars
The Roaring 20s and the Great Depression

2. A time of rapid economic growth
“The business of the American people is business.”
- President Calvin Coolidge

3. • The majority of the people in Europe and
the United States lived in urban (cities)
areas.
• The 1920s are marked by the art, literature,
cinema, and movies that were created, so it
is sometimes known as the “Jazz Age.”
• The United States and Europe became
consumer economies. People were buying
more than they could afford.

4. Prohibition
• The 18th Amendment makes alcohol illegal in
the United States.
• Mobsters, such as Al Capone, gain power
through bootleg liquor (illegal alcohol).
• The 21st Amendment repels prohibition (makes
alcohol legal again).

5. Talking Movies
• During this time, the fairly new invention
the motion picture camera, caused the movie
industry to boom.
• It was centered around Hollywood, California.
• The fashions and lifestyles shown
in movies helped define national
culture.
• People wanted to look and live just
like the stars in the movies

6. Harlem Renaissance
• African-American culture surged during the 1920.
• Music became popular (especially Jazz and Blues) and
inspired new dances like the “Charleston.”
• Some of the most famous jazz musicians from this time
period are Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.
• One of the most famous blues singers was Bessie Smith.
• Langston Hughes wrote plays, short stories, and poems
about the African-American experience, a reminder of
their African heritage.
• Since so much of the achievement took place in NYC, it is
known as the Harlem Renaissance.

7. Langston Hughes
Theme for English B
“I wonder if it's that
simple?
I am twenty-two,
colored, born in
Winston-Salem.
I went to school there,
then Durham, then here
Louis
to this college on the
Armstrong
hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored
student in my class.”
Bessie Smith
Duke
Ellington

8. The Great Depression
When the United States stock market
crashed on October 29, 1929, the
world’s economy collapsed.

9. The Early 1930s
• nations struggled through depressions
• businesses went broke
• millions of people were out of work
• banks closed
• poverty spread throughout the world
• The climate was perfect for the rise of dictators
such as Adolf Hitler (Germany) and Benito
Mussolini (Italy).
• This period is known as the Great Depression.

10. London in 1930
Paris in 1930

11. United States
• October 29, 1929 (the day the US stock market fell)
is known as Black Tuesday.
• Many investors lost everything
• At one point, ¼ of all Americans were unemployed.
• Breadlines and soup kitchens were set up to feed the
poor.
• Many of the urban poor lived in shanty towns called
Hoovervilles (named after President Herbert
Hoover, the president at the time of the beginning of
the Great Depression).

13. Germany
• Germany depended heavily on American loans.
• The Wall Street Crash (Black Tuesday) placed
more pressure for Germany to repay US loans.
• rampant hyperinflation = useless currency
• massive unemployment (5 million in 1932, 20% of
total population)
• production fell 40%
• Germany turned to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party
to solve the German economic crisis.

14. The
deutschmark
Germany’s
currency

15. The deutschmark
in 1923 was only
good for making
kites

16. …and burning in
a stove for heat.

17. • Germans wanted someone
to blame for their misfortune.
• The Nazi party offered
Jews as the scapegoat.
• Children were often
organized in youth groups
and taught Nazi dogma.
• Germans were told to
boycott Jewish
businesses.
• Kristallnacht (the Night
of Broken Glass) was a
night of destruction
aimed at Jewish homes
and businesses.