4. The new mass culture, 1900–1945

Abstract

A profound shift was underway in American culture at the turn of the twentieth century—a shift away from the Victorian ideals of the industrial era and toward a new set of values structured by a corporatizing economy. “The new mass culture, 1900–1945” describes how as an overflow of manufactured goods spilled outward from industrial centers, a new consumer ethic, pushed by a burgeoning advertising industry, exhorted men and women to indulge their growing spending power and leisure time. The early twentieth century witnessed the birth of a new mass culture, based on the new technologies of sight and sound. Cinema, advertising, and radio dominated this new cultural landscape.