Virtual Lectures via Zoom Webinar
Spring Series 2023
Dr. Peter Harris
The Roaring Twenties in New York, Paris and Berlin
Presented by Dr. Peter Harris
Tuesdays, April 11 to May 30, 2023– 10:00 am to 12:00 noon
Offered as virtual lectures via Zoom Webinar only.
Registration will begin on Tuesday, February 21 at 10:00 a.m. and tickets will be on sale until Sunday, April 2 at 11:50 PM. After April 2, 2023, it will not be possible to register for this lecture series. Please note that you need buy only one ticket at $40 per household.
Brief Description of The Roaring Twenties in New York, Paris and Berlin
When WWI ended, Berlin, Paris and New York City experienced astonishing cultural, political and social revolutions. This series explores some of the prominent areas of these revolutions, including art, design, music, politics, architecture, technologies, cinema and even fashion.
Reading & Film List: https://lifelonglearningmississauga.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/zzzz.LLM-Roaring-Twenties-Book-ListI-v2.pdf
April 11: Berlin and Paris in the Early 1920s
Berlin in this period was gripped by civil wars, rampant inflation and a wild social cultural scene. Meanwhile, Paris was playing host to two colonies of US expats, the “Lost Generation” in Montparnasse and the “Paris Noir” Black jazz musicians in Montmartre.
April 18: New York City
NYC in the early 1920s was the epicentre of four major events: Prohibition, the 19th Amendment, the Harlem Renaissance and backlash nativist laws against immigrants.
April 25: Flappers and Speakeasies
All over North America, the image of the newly emancipated female flapper took hold, fuelled by prosperity, the new jazz and the lure of new dances in clubs and “speakeasies.”
May 2: New Technologies and New Science
New or radically improved technologies revolutionized society: electricity, radio, gramophone, airplanes, automobiles…. Radical new scientific ideas like quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity challenged the old stable world of Newtonian physics.
May 9: The “Movies” Come of Age
Berlin became the European centre of cinematic innovation. A steady stream of German cinematic talent was lured to the USA. At the same time, Hollywood was entering the studios’ golden age with the advent of “talkies.”
May 16: Art Déco Meets Skyscrapers
The thriving cultural scene in Paris produced Art Déco, which rapidly spread internationally. In New York it became the fashionable style for new skyscrapers, like the Chrysler Building.
May 23: The Bauhaus, Epic Theatre
The Bauhaus school pioneered modernist design in everything from typeface to chairs to houses. Berlin also developed innovative theatre: Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera featured sharp political comment in a radical new theatrical form known as Epic Theatre.
May 30: The Roaring Stops: The Crash and Its Aftermath
The stock market crash in 1929 brought the decade-long party to an abrupt halt – not just in the USA but also in Germany. The resultant depression ushered in the Third Reich in Germany. In France the heady “années folles” gradually died out. In the USA, the agony of the Depression was compounded by the Dust Bowl.
Dr. Peter Harris is the former Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto. He has given lectures to many later life learning groups in Toronto and beyond, including Hot Docs Curious Minds, Learning Unlimited Etobicoke and Bluewater Association for Lifelong Learning.
In the fall of 2020, Peter was the first to present virtual lectures for LLM’s audience when he brought us his popular series, The 1960s: From Berkeley to Berlin.