Chinese, Mandarin

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Persian, Dari

Persian, Western

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek, Modern

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

World History 2

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Alongside the expansion of democracy, the 1920s also shepherded in a new world of <OpenstaxTerm>mass culture</OpenstaxTerm> and <OpenstaxTerm>mass media</OpenstaxTerm>. Technological innovations let people connect nearly instantaneously and have shared experiences without being in the same place. Where the infrastructure existed, it was radio and the movies that made this possible.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Radio wave technology had been pioneered in the late 1800s, but its widespread use and cultural influence were still decades off. By the 1920s, <OpenstaxTerm>radio</OpenstaxTerm>’s value as a news medium was becoming clear, but its true influence came from commercial radio shows, supported through another new medium called <OpenstaxTerm>advertising</OpenstaxTerm> that filled the airwaves in the mid-1920s. From that point through the interwar years, people could gather to hear the latest episodes of entertaining soap operas, mystery shows, and westerns, along with news items and live reporting of sports events.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Silent films had ruled movie theaters in the 1900s and 1910s, but beginning in the late 1920s, “<OpenstaxTerm>talking pictures</OpenstaxTerm>” emerged and quickly became the dominant form of motion pictures. Mass media technologies meant people could watch the same movies, follow the same soap operas, and cheer for the same teams despite being hundreds or thousands of miles apart. These experiences created a <OpenstaxTerm>mass culture</OpenstaxTerm> for the first time, uniting people whose lives had once been dominated by regional and local concerns.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The <OpenstaxTerm>film</OpenstaxTerm> industries in many countries developed somewhat differently in the 1930s. In the United States, the industry was centered in <OpenstaxTerm>Hollywood</OpenstaxTerm>, a district in Los Angeles, California. The bosses of movie studios wanted to make films that were popular with audiences and relatively cheap to produce. In other countries, the film industries were similarly popular, but many were also supportive of artistic experimentation in film. The German film industry took a modernist approach, seen in the silent 1920 horror film <OpenstaxEm>The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari</OpenstaxEm>, for example, and many of its films critiqued politics and society in the postwar era. In Japan, the film industry went through a period of reform in the 1920s as producers and directors began adopting different filmmaking techniques instead of simply recording a theatrical production. Some films took leftist positions that reflected the growth of unions in Japanese society, but other genres such as those featuring <OpenstaxTerm><OpenstaxEm>samurai</OpenstaxEm></OpenstaxTerm> characters also became popular and well known.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	People were also embracing new ways of living in the 1920s. Women, in particular, were ready to fulfill their updated expectations for themselves. The “<OpenstaxTerm>New Woman</OpenstaxTerm>” of this era abandoned the traditions of the past to enter an exciting future. Women in many countries were also adopting new plans for their lives, such as pursuing higher education, although a college degree was still quite rare among women. There were also many new jobs in the workplace that women were eager to hold. In Europe and the United States, secretarial work was becoming dominated by women rather than the men who had held such jobs in the 1800s. Nursing also became an important career option for women.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The New Woman was a significant departure from the nineteenth-century Western woman, who wore her long hair piled high on her head and dressed in high-necked blouses and ankle-length skirts. Young women in the 1920s wore knee-length skirts, discarded corsets, and cut their hair short. They went out in the evenings to drink and dance and socialize. A woman who adopted these behaviors became known as a <OpenstaxTerm>flapper</OpenstaxTerm> in the United States, due to the way these women danced with arms flapping from their sides (<a href="#fig-00005">Figure 12.22</a>).
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00005" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/78c6b023f2093b03d7f023c1fdb3ef85f1debcc9" alt="A woman wears a dark dress and striped hat. She smiles and stairs into the distance. Her left hand is on her hip and her right hand is beside her head. She appears to be intentionally posing for the camera." mediaType="image/jpg" width="650" height="848" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="650">
	<strong>Figure 12.22</strong> This early photo of American film star Clara Bow personifies the flapper image. After starring in It, a romantic comedy in which she played a salesperson working in a department store, Bow became known as the “It Girl” and symbolized the New Woman of the 1920s. (credit: “Photo of Clara Bow in 1921” by Brewster Magazine/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The spread of this modern image of a woman demonstrated the influence the West and especially the United States already had on popular culture. The New Woman appeared around the world on signs, in books, in song lyrics, and throughout the burgeoning movie industry. Advertisers, in particular, were quick to adopt her image, making it one to which female consumers could aspire. Each country had its own version—the <OpenstaxEm>moga</OpenstaxEm> (modern girl) in Japan, the <OpenstaxEm>garçonne</OpenstaxEm> (tomboy or flapper) in France.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxNote>
	<OpenstaxNoteTitle> Beyond the Book </OpenstaxNoteTitle> <OpenstaxH3> The New Woman in China </OpenstaxH3>
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		Flip through the pages of the <a href="https://openstax.org/l/77LingIong">Chinese women’s magazine <OpenstaxEm>Ling long</OpenstaxEm>,</a> a weekly publication that was highly popular in the 1930s. Look for examples of Western influence on Chinese culture. (Be sure to click the arrows on the <OpenstaxEm>left</OpenstaxEm> to move forward through the pages, in keeping with the way Chinese books were formatted in this period.) The site includes a feature that will read the content aloud in Mandarin.
	</OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxIframe src="https://openstax.org/l/77LingIong" width="560" height="384" />
	<OpenstaxUl>
		<OpenstaxLi>
			What are some examples from the magazine of Western influence on Chinese culture?
		</OpenstaxLi>
		<OpenstaxLi>
			Does anything strike you as unusual in the collection of images in this magazine? How would you characterize the images as a whole?
		</OpenstaxLi>
	</OpenstaxUl>
</OpenstaxNote>

12.5.3 A New Culture for the Masses

1 Understanding the Past

1.1 Developing a Global Perspective

1.1.1 World History as Preparation for Life After College

1.1.2 World History and Global Citizenship

1.1.3 Features of This Textbook

1.2 Primary Sources

1.2.1 Learning to Evaluate Documents and Images

1.2.2 Documentary Sources: Competing Narratives

1.2.3 Textual Sources: The Importance of Language

1.2.4 Hidden in History

1.3 Causation and Interpretation in History

1.3.1 Levels of Causation

1.3.2 Interpretation in History

2 Exchange in East Asia and the Indian Ocean

2.1 India and International Connections

2.1.1 The Mughal Empire

2.1.2 The Sultanate of Gujarat

2.1.3 The Rise of the Maratha Empire

2.1.4 European Colonialism

2.2 The Malacca Sultanate

2.2.1 The Rise of the Malacca Sultanate

2.2.2 European Malacca

2.3 Exchange in East Asia

2.3.1 Japan

2.3.2 China’s Dynastic Exchanges

2.3.3 Korea and Its Neighbors

3 Early Modern Africa and the Wider World

3.1 The Roots of African Trade

3.1.1 Saharan Trade Routes

3.1.2 The Spread of Islam

3.1.3 The Mali Empire

3.2 The Songhai Empire

3.2.1 The Rise of Imperial Songhai

3.2.2 The Reign of Askia the Great

3.2.3 The Decline of Songhai

3.3 The Swahili Coast

3.3.1 The Rise of the Swahili City-States

3.3.2 Slavery on the Swahili Coast

3.3.3 The Contest for the Swahili Coast

3.4 The Trans-Saharan Slave Trade

3.4.1 The Role of Kanem-Bornu

3.4.2 The Arrival of Europeans

3.4.3 The Later Trans-Saharan Slave Trade

4 The Islamic World

4.1 A Connected Islamic World

4.1.1 Politics and Religion in the Ummah

4.1.2 Islamic Trade Networks

4.1.3 Technology in the Islamic World

4.2 The Ottoman Empire

4.2.1 Culture and Society

4.2.2 Expansion, Revolutions, and Reform

4.2.3 Science and Technology

4.3 The Safavid Empire

4.3.1 The Rise of the Safavid Empire

4.3.2 Establishing Shi‘ism as the State Religion

4.3.3 Safavid Government and Culture

5 Foundations of the Atlantic World

5.1 The Protestant Reformation

5.1.1 The Origins of the Protestant Reformation

5.1.2 Calvinists, Anabaptists, and Anglicans

5.1.3 The Catholic Reformation and the Wars of Religion

5.2 Crossing the Atlantic

5.2.1 The Rise of Maritime Nations

5.2.2 The Columbian Exchange

5.3 The Mercantilist Economy

5.3.1 The Rise of Mercantilism

5.3.2 Mercantilism and the Expansion of Empire

5.3.3 Mercantilism and Its Critics

5.4 The Atlantic Slave Trade

5.4.1 Slavery and the Triangular Trade

5.4.2 African and North American Slavery

5.4.3 The Economics of Slavery

6 Colonization and Economic Expansion

6.1 European Colonization in the Americas

6.1.1 Spain’s Encomienda System

6.1.2 English Settlements in North America

6.1.3 French and Dutch Settlements

6.2 The Rise of a Global Economy

6.2.1 The Seven Years’ War

6.2.2 British Influence in India

6.2.3 China’s Dominance in Trade

6.2.4 Colonial Resistance and Revolution

6.3 Capitalism and the First Industrial Revolution

6.3.1 From Mercantilism to Capitalism

6.3.2 Mechanization

6.3.3 Marxism

7 Revolutions in Europe and North America

7.1 The Enlightenment

7.1.1 The Authority of Reason

7.1.2 Natural Rights

7.1.3 Social Contract Theory

7.2 The Exchange of Ideas in the Public Sphere

7.2.1 Public Debate and Dissent

7.2.2 The Republic of Letters

7.2.3 Academies, Universities, and Intellectuals

7.3 Revolutions: America, France, and Haiti

7.3.1 The American Revolution

7.3.2 The French Revolution

7.3.3 The Haitian Revolution

Question	Answer
woman of the 1920s who embraced an independent lifestyle while wearing shorter skirts and hairstyles	flapper
German Nazi paramilitary organization designed for security and intimidation	Schutzstaffel (SS)