I. Prosperity
A. A consumer society
1. 1920s economic growth rested on consumer goods
2. New technology made fresh food and stylish clothing available to everyone
3. In 1920s, some Americans also discovered benefits of owning stocks
4. Spread of stock ownership reflected need for working capital among nation’s corporations
B. A people’s capitalism
1. Everyone could own piece of corporate America
2. Poverty supposedly banished and gap between rich and poor closed
3. Actually, millions of Americans earned too little to partake fully of marketplace, and percentage of Americans owning stock remained small
4. To encourage consumption, consumer credit was introduced so people could buy things now and pay for them over time
5. Still, many poor Americans benefited little from the consumer revolution
C. The rise of advertising and mass marketing
1. Introduction of annual automobile model changes helped to ensure constant demand
2. High level of consumption required aggressive advertising by producers
3. Advertisers played upon the emotions and vulnerabilities of their target audiences
4. Advertising professionals believed that they were helping people to manage their lives in ways
that would increase their satisfaction and pleasure
D. Changing attitudes toward marriage and sexuality
1. Trend toward encouraging husbands and wives to pursue sexual satisfaction together
2. Also push for them to share other leisure time activities as well
3. Public pursuit of pleasure also noticeable among young and middle-class women
4. “Flappers” aimed to create new female personality with self-reliance, outspokenness, and new
appreciation for pleasures of life
E. An age of celebrity
1. Pursuit of pleasure became individual and group endeavor
2. Baseball and boxing two sports where mass marketing advanced furthest
3. Movie going also popular pastime during 1920s
4. After flight across Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh became perhaps most famous and adored man in...