History 322 Discussion Questions
July 9, 2013
- Is there a "national" culture in America during this
period? If so, what were its attributes? Was it a culture in
which everyone participated?
- How did the automobile revolutionize American life
in the interwar period? Were all of the changes positive for America, or
were there problems, real or perceived, with its introduction?
- Why was jazz considered by some to be "an influence for
evil"? What specifically was offensive about it?
- What was "the New Woman" and what were her supposed attributes?
- According to Marsha Orgeron, Clara Bow "...became a symbol of all the
behavioural possibilities opened up by women's postsuffrage liberation...."
(p. 80) What were those possibilities? How did Bow and her movie
It depict those new possibilities?
- What were the influences that movies were having, real or perceived,
on Americans?
- In "Does Jazz Put the Sin..." it is argued that
"...the rebellion against existing conditions is to be noticed in all
life to-day." Was there indeed a youth 'rebellion' in the
period? If so, what was the focus of the rebellion?
- What was a 'flapper'? To what extent was the flapper an outgrowth
of the post-war changes in American society? What do the concerns over
flappers tell us about (some) women in the 1920s?
- What is Allen's interpretation of that 'revolution' of the decade?