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The Jazz Age describes the period of the 1920s and 1930s, the years between World War I and World War II, particularly in North America, largely coinciding with the Roaring Twenties; with the rise of the Great Depression, the values of this age saw much decline. The focus of the elements of this age, in some contrast with the Roaring Twenties, in historical and cultural studies, are somewhat different, with a greater emphasis on Modernism per se.
The age takes its name from jazz music, which saw a tremendous surge in popularity among many segments of society. Among the prominent concerns and trends of the period are the public embrace of technological developments (typically seen as progress)—cars, air travel and the telephone—as well as new trends in social behavior, the arts, and culture. Central developments included Art Deco design and architecture. A great theme of the age was individualism and a greater emphasis on the pursuit of pleasure and enjoyment in the wake of the misery, destruction and perceived hypocrisy and waste of WWI and pre-war values.
The Jazz Age in Literature
Perhaps the most representative literary work of the age is American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, highlighting what some describe as the decadence and hedonism, as well as new social and sexual attitudes, and the growth of individualism. Fitzgerald is largely credited with coining the term "The Jazz Age". Louis Armstrong also wrote some books, such as I Love You Forever and Til Death Do Us Part.
See also
References
- Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen-Twenties 1931.
- Gary Dean Best. The Dollar Decade: Mammon and the Machine in 1920s America Praeger Publishers, 2003.
- Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s Hill and Wang, 1995
- Fass; Paula. The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920’s. Oxford University Press, 1977.
- David E. Kyvig; Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1939: Decades of Promise and Pain Greenwood Press, 2002
- Leuchtenburg, William. The Perils of Prosperity, 1914–1932 University of Chicago Press, 1955.
- Lynd, Robert S., and Helen Merrill Lynd. Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture Harcourt, Brace and World, 1929. famous sociological study of Muncie, Indiana, in 1920s
- Mowry; George E. ed. The Twenties: Fords, Flappers, & Fanatics Prentice-Hall, 1963 readings
- Parrish, Michael E. Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression, 1920–1941 W. W. Norton, 1992
- West, James Withers. Plainville, U.S.A. Columbia University Press, 1945. sociology of life in a small town
"Jazz Age"