Al Jolson was the foremost popular singer of the first three decades of the twentieth century. He flourished just before the era of radio and sound film, media that somewhat dented his popularity--though it was he who starred in The Jazz Singer, the first of the "talkies."
Dubbed the "King of Jazz" in the 1920s, Paul Whiteman was credited with bringing jazz music into the mainstream during the decade after World War I. He was the first to arrange music for jazz orchestra, creating a "symphonic jazz" sound that was especially popular with youthful audiences because it was so danceable.
Mamie Smith was the first African-American female performer to make a phonograph record, paving the way for all the classic blues women of the 1920s and beyond. Though one of the recordings that spread her fame was called "Crazy Blues," Smith was more closely associated with popular songs of the day than with the blues.
Gauthier, Jason. “1920 Fast Facts - History - U.S. Census Bureau.” Census.gov, 2020, www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/fast_facts/1920_fast_facts.html.
The twenties and thirties witnessed dramatic changes in American life: increasing urbanization, technological innovation, cultural upheaval, and economic disaster. In this fascinating book, the prize-winning historian David E. Kyvig describes everyday life in these decades, when automobiles and home electricity became commonplace, when radio and the movies became broadly popular. The details of work life, domestic life, and leisure activities make engrossing reading and bring the era clearly into focus.
The irrationally exuberant highs and lows of the 1920s can help students recognize boom and bust cycles past, present, and future. Speculation--an economic reality for centuries--is a hallmark of the modern U.S. economy. But how does speculation work? Is it really caused, as some insist, by popular delusions and the madness of crowds, or do failed regulations play a greater part? And why is it that investors never seem to learn the lessons of past speculative bubbles? Crash! explores these questions by examining the rise and fall of the American economy in the 1920s. Phillip G. Payne frames the story of the 1929 stock market crash within the booming New Era economy of the 1920s and the bust of the Great Depression. Taking into account the emotional drivers of the consumer market, he offers a clear, concise explanation of speculation's complex role in creating one of the greatest financial panics in U. S. history. Crash! explains how postWorld War I changes in the global financial markets transformed the world economy, examines the role of boosters and politicians in promoting speculation, and describes in detail the disastrous aftermath of the 1929 panic. Payne's book will help students recognize the telltale signs of bubbles and busts, so that they may become savvier consumers and investors.
How roaring were the Roaring Twenties? How lost was the Lost Generation? In this major reinterpretation of one of the most colorful decades in American history, Roderick Nash finds the image of the period to be less than life-size. His book is not only a summary of the high points of American thought from the Great War to the Great Depression but a lively foray into popular culture. His interest in Zane Grey as well as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Ford as well as John Dewey, offers fresh insights into a decade filled with paradoxes. Seeking to find "what captured the enthusiasm of ordinary people," Mr. Nash has written an original and persuasive analysis of a generation that continues to command our attention.