Term paper on Jazz Age Culture

Jazz Age Culture

The 1920s proved to be remarkably vibrant for both high and popular culture. Writers such as T. S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Sinclair Lewis gained national and international fame.

Jazz, derived from African American roots, increasingly became popular, as did such upbeat dances as the Charleston . Many women, often collectively called ‘‘flappers,” sought freer dress and lifestyles. Psychology, particularly of the Freudian and behavioral schools, gained new attention and respect. Sports—especially baseball (despite the Black Sox scandal of 1919), football, boxing, tennis, and golf—proved enormously popular, as did such sports figures as Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey.

Suggestions for Term Papers

1. Discuss the career and influence of a prominent American writer of the 1920s.

2. Discuss the career and influence of a prominent American athlete of the 1920s.

3. Why did the popularity of sports increase during the 1920s?

4. Analyze the influence of Freudian psychology on American life and culture during the 1920s.

5. Why have the 1920s retained their popularity with later generations?

Suggested Sources : See entries 25 and 26 for related items.

REFERENCE SOURCES

Benny Goodman: Wrapping It Up . D. Russell O’Connor. Blue Ridge Summit , PA : Scarecrow, 1996. Excellent discography complementing O’Connor’s earlier work, Benny Goodman: Listen to his Legacy , in providing the most complete guide to Goodman’s career and recordings.

Duke Ellington: A Listener’s Guide . Eddie Lambert. Blue Ridge Summit , PA : Scarecrow, 1998. A detailed and carefully executed discography with critical commentary from the leading expert on Ellington. Provides a good overview and exposition of Ellington’s creative contributions.

Fashions of the Roaring ’20s . Ellie Laubner. Atglen , PA : Schiffer Publishing, 1996. Illustrated guide to costume and fashion pieces with valuations of various apparel.

Historical Dictionary of the 1920s: From World War I to the New Deal . James

S. Olson. Westport , CT : Greenwood , 1988. Useful and convenient reference to quick information on all aspects of life in the 1920s.

GENERAL SOURCES

Jeansonne, Glen. Transformation and Reaction: America , 1921–1945 . New York : HarperCollins, 1994. Brief, comprehensive history of the twenty-five-year period that witnessed broad changes in culture.

Piazza, Tom, ed. Fifty Years of Great Jazz Liner Notes . New York : Anchor Books, 1996. Recent history and criticism of jazz; liner notes provide insight into the nature of the music and the age.

Steele, Valerie. Fashion and Eroticism: Ideals of Feminine Beauty from the Victorian Era to the Jazz Age . New York : Oxford University Press, 1985. Comprehensive examination of fashion dictates and sex symbolism as represented in female dress.

SPECIALIZED SOURCES

Asinof, Eliot. Eight Men Out. New York : H. Holt, 1987. Interesting and informative account of the 1919 World Series and the Black Sox scandal; provided the basis for the recent motion picture.

Bruce, Kenneth R. Yowsah! Yowsah! The Roaring Twenties . Dubuque , IA : Kendall/Hunt, 1977. Brief and interesting overview of the people, events, social customs, and politics of the time.

Carter, Paul A. The Twenties in America . 2d ed. New York : Crowell, 1975. A brief but informative overview of the period embracing the Jazz Age. Part of the publisher’s series on American history.

Cohen, Stanley. Rebellion against Victorianism: The Impetus for Cultural Change in 1920s America . New York : Oxford University Press, 1991. Informative account of the social conditions and cultural development of the Jazz Age.

Evensen, Bruce J. When Dempsey Fought Tunney: Heroes, Hokum, and Storytelling in the Jazz Age . Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press, 1996. Revealing examination of the athlete-heroes in boxing and the frenzy of their media buildup and popularity in this mad age.

Idema, Henry. Freud, Religion, and the Roaring Twenties: A Psychoanalytic Theory of Secularization in Three Novelists: Anderson, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald . Savage, MD: Rowman&Littlefield, 1990. Perceptive exposition of Freudian influences and secularism in the writing of three noted novelists of the period.

Olien, Roger M. Easy Money: Oil Promoters and Investors in the Jazz Age . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Brief inform ative study of fraud, corruption, and speculation in the petroleum industry. See also the Tygiel work below.

The Roaring Twenties, 1920–1930 . Alexandria , VA : Time-Life Books, 1991. Informative, illustrated survey of the social life and popular culture of the decade. Part of This Fabulous Century series.

Shaw, Arnold. The Jazz Age: Popular Music in the 1920’s . New York : Oxford University Press, 1987. Critical history of popular music during the decade that featured jazz.

Studlar, Gaylyn. This Mad Masquerade: Stardom and Masculinity in the Jazz Age . New York : Columbia University Press, 1996. Examination of the sex role of men in motion pictures during this frivolous period.

Tygiel, Jules. The Great Los Angeles Swindle: Oil, Stocks, and Scandal During the Roaring Twenties . (1994). Reprint. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1996. An examination of corrupt practices in the petroleum industry. (See the Olien work above.) Focuses on the Julian Petroleum Corporation in Los Angeles .

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

Anthony, Carl S. Florence Harding: The First Lady, the Jazz Age, and the Death of America ‘s Most Scandalous President . New York : Morrow, 1998. Interesting biography of the wife of the president who served for two scandal-ridden years.

Cowley, Malcolm, and Robert Cowley. Fitzgerald and the Jazz Age. New York: Scribner’s, 1966. Standard work on F. Scott Fitzgerald and his Jazz Age influences.

Eisenberg, Lisa. The Story of Babe Ruth: Baseball’s Greatest Legend. Milwaukee, WI : Gareth Stevens Publishing, 1997. Brief, easy-to-read biography of one of the symbols of this fast-paced and frenetic time.

Grange, Red, and Ira Morton. The Red Grange Story: An Autobiography. (1953). Reprint. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1993. Wellwritten story of one of the sports idols of the Roaring Twenties.

Griffiths, David. Hot Jazz: From Harlem to Storyville. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Scarecrow, 1998. Interview-based stories of over thirty musicians who served as the side-men in the big bands of the 1930s and 1940s.

Meyers, Jeffrey. Hemingway, a Biography. New York: Harper&Row, 1985. Detailed and thorough study of Hemingway’s life and career.

Rimler, Walter. Not Fade Away: A Comparison of Jazz Age with Rock Era Pop Song Composers. Ann Arbor, MI: Pierian, 1984. Interesting collective biography and comparison of music personalities from two different eras.

Silverman, Kenneth. Houdini: The Career of Erich Weiss. New York: HarperPerennial, 1997. Thorough, detailed study of the world’s greatest magician whose incredible feats amazed the nation during the Roaring Twenties.

Vache, Warren W. Jazz Gentry: Aristocrats of the Music World. Blue Ridge , PA : Scarecrow, 1998. Explores the years between the two world wars with the stories of musicians of the time. Based on interviews conducted over a twenty-year period.

Walsh, George. Gentleman Jimmy Walker, Mayor of the Jazz Age. New York: Praeger, 1974. Interesting biography of the dapper New York politician.

Yagoda, Ben. Will Rogers : A Biography . New York : Knopf, 1993. Detailed, interesting, and informative account of the life and career of one of the most influential political humorists of all time.

AUDIOVISUAL SOURCES

This Great Century: 1918–1939—The Years of Jazz/Great Illusions. New York : Central Park Media, 1996. Videocassette. 110 minutes. Treats the birth of jazz as well as Lindbergh’s flight, Hindenburg tragedy, and other events. One of five videocassettes forming the This Great Century series.

WORLD WIDE WEB

Evans, Nick. Culture in the Jazz Age . 1996; updated July 1997. http://cwrl.utexas.edu/ nick/e309k/jazzage.html A course taught at the University of Texas providing a well-constructed syllabus, listing of texts, and links to jazz sites. Most useful are the sophisticated analyses of important texts by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Langston Hughes, among others.