Each decade brings something different for society and government. The Roaring Twenties depicts rapid economic improvement and social change perceived as the Jazz decade due to the dynamism of art since the return to peaceful life after the First World War. The decade started with a roar and finished with a crash, bringing many significant changes to the world. Women wanted improved rights, which led to the 19th Amendment, while the United States’ wealth doubled from 1920-1929. Culture and technology advanced, and it was only the beginning. It’s very seldom that the United States has a decade that is unique as the Roaring Twenties with its mass consumerism, Prohibition laws, the Harlem Renaissance, and the development of jazz.
The 1920s started with the habits of daily life that were altered when the soldiers returned home after the First World War. The government ensured the life safety of its citizens after their traumas caused by the war. Hence, after such an experience, Congress starts to make amendments to the US Constitution to change people’s lifestyles. The 1920s was known as the Era of Prohibition of alcoholic beverages due to the Eighteenth Amendment (The Roaring Twenties). Alcohol was banned from being sold, manufactured, and transported to everyone. This was because people believed that banning alcohol prevented domestic violence and child abandonment. However, that did not stop everyone from drinking or buying alcohol since they found other purchasing ways (The Roaring Twenties). It gave rise to speakeasies, places where liquor was sold criminally. Thus, the 18th Amendment prevented alcohol consumption for some people, while others had to trade underground. The only distinctive feature of the American dining table of the 1920s was the absence of alcohol.
Although the governmental regulations made the Roaring 20s exceptional with the prohibition of alcohol, the food at that time could not be distinguished as something exceptional. The United States needed to supply the soldiers with nourishing food during the First World War. That is why the political situation forced its governmental policies on steady domestic prices fitting into consumption standards (Zeitz). Shortly after the war, America was concerned with feeding refugees. However, in the age of consumerism, citizens were preparing sandwiches and meals similar to modern dishes but less spicy.
The most promising change in society was the freedom to vote for women for the first time in history. It set the beginning of a feminist mindset of females who wanted to be equally responsible for their life choices as their male counterparts were. It happened due to the Nineteenth Amendment, which allowed women to vote for independent lives and education for their children (Zeitz). No wonder flappers, fashionable women with conventional behavior standards such as drinking and smoking, symbolize more free women than ever before (The Roaring Twenties). Although it was not the reality for many females who had no courage to dress up openly and do unladylike things, it was the beginning of changes in gender perceptions.
As women gained more power in society, the family structure started to change. During the decade, females could use birth control tools that significantly decreased the number of children in a family from seven to three (Zeitz). Moreover, the new image of a woman destroyed many taboos and stereotypes about family values. For instance, females in the 1920s lost their virginity before marriage, which was inappropriate in the previous decades. This is how women’s role created a new family model standing out from the traditional one with its new morals and standards.
The changes in house preferences characterized the decade. It was a time of cultural conflicts because of sharp demographic shifts, as Americans preferred living in cities over farms (The Roaring Twenties). However, farm prices have hit bottom, increasing the gap between prosperous cities and impoverished farms. The point connecting female rights and housing is that one-third of all woman workers started living alone in apartments and boarding houses without adult supervision (Zeitz). Hence, city-dwellers and small-town residents, representatives of the new woman trend, and advocates of old-fashioned family structures battled each other’s values.
The Roaring 20s significantly changed African American culture, forming the Harlem Renaissance. At the beginning of the 1900s, black families started moving to Harlem despite fights with some white residents, which caused the Great Migration from the South to the North during the 1920s (Harlem Renaissance). The movement of an exceptional leader, W.E.B Du Bois, made the African American culture prosper with the first breakthrough of McKay’s Harlem Shadows. Du Bois inspired Jessie Redmon Fauset to write the novel “There is Confusion,” which described Black Americans who found their cultural identities in Manhattan with the massive population of white people (Harlem Renaissance). The cultural and artistic developments continued with people who enjoyed music, and Louis Armstrong performed songs with the trumpet. Thus, the 1920s allowed African American culture to prosper in the Harlem neighborhood.
The central distinguishing point of the Roaring 20s is the blossoming economy that changed people’s daily lives by providing more jobs and higher wages and demolishing many financial constraints. “The nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929” justifies that Americans became a consumer culture with better economic backgrounds (The Roaring Twenties). The reason is that technological progress has caused better production, cities’ electrification, and marketing development. Moreover, this decade gave rise to credit, as almost three-quarters of all furniture was brought on credit (Zeitz). The 1920s economy developed advertising and created many brand profiles due to the proliferation of publishing, music, and cinematography. Thus, people were exposed to advertisements, developing supply and demand theories, and the country’s economies.
Many Americans of the 1920s started to innovate their houses due to better financial situations and technological advances. When the US started manufacturing products like automobiles and radios, the prices lowered for citizens, making them available and affordable for middle-class families. Almost two-thirds of all households had electricity in five years, providing middle-class homes with electric refrigerators, freezers, and washing machines (Zeitz). The US’s technological and strategic advances in aviation set the beginning of commercial passenger air travel. Furthermore, the “increased productivity by 72 percent in manufacturing, 33 percent in railroads, and 41 percent in mining” enhanced the financial situation of many families (Zeitz). Such changes in manufacturing gave people higher wages and extra money to spend on new technologies.
The Roaring 20s was the time for the booming industry to produce more consumer items and continue creating new technologies. One of the indicators of the Roaring 20s was the radio because people brought it for entertainment and political purposes. After the first commercially licensed radio podcast in November of 1922 in Pennsylvania, the radio turned into a source of news, comedy shows, and music (Zeitz). The wide distribution of radios increased by more than 12 million houses listening to the stations daily. Everyone who wanted to stay in touch with their friends and family brought a telephone, and those who wanted to follow current affairs had a radio.
The job market altered during the decade. Initially, people participated in the Second World War by becoming soldiers, nurses, or factory workers before the 1920s. After the war’s end, people had a broader range of workplaces as the manufacturers formed more factories with higher employee demand. Even more, than this, women had blue-collar jobs with hard manual labor, such as agriculture and manufacturing (The Roaring 20s). The most exciting fact is that women were employed as stenographers in white-collar jobs. It demonstrates the change in the workplace because women were not allowed to work as clerical workers. Although “the work week of the urban blue-collar worker fell from 55.9 hours in 1900 to 44.2 in 1929,” their “wages rose by 25 percent” (Zeitz). For employers, the most critical part was ensuring the business organization provided steady employment at a fair pay rate. It means that people had better working environments and conditions set by employers.
People with more free time from their jobs amused themselves by visiting movie theaters, dance halls, and fun parks. The movie theaters showed many famous Hollywood movies with Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, and Tallulah Bankhead (The Roaring Twenties). Mickey Mouse, still a famous cartoon character, first appeared on the screens during the Roaring 20s. The first successful talking picture was The Jazz Singer of 1927, compared to the silent films shot before (Zeitz). On average, three-quarters of the population visited these movies every week. Apart from movies, Americans found other hobbies during the Jazz Age. (Zeitz). Their favorite dances were the Charleston, the cakewalk, the black bottom, and the flea hop. The Roaring 20s brought many famous artists to the scene, giving many entertainment activities for Americans.
During the beginning of the 1920s, Warren Harding, the 29th President of the United States, ruled the country to what one would consider normalcy compared to his predecessor Woodrow Wilson. Harding had the best quality of any politician, the ability to please everyone. He had many talents: he played the trumpet, published newspapers, and succeeded in public speaking. When Harding’s successor, Calvin Coolidge, came to the White House, he never interfered with the politics of the Jazz Age. He believed that the President should regulate public office but not the culture. The most reticent President contributed to the Roaring 20s by slicing the estate tax and federal surtax. Thus, Coolidge’s absolute faith in market forces made the 1920s prosper in business and commerce.
American Industry grew significantly during the Roaring 20s, giving consumers chances to buy household technologies at lowered prices. The era of consumerism led to the Prohibition laws restricting alcoholic beverages. Women who first received voting right changed the family structure and the US demographics. Moreover, Harlem Renaissance and Jazz became alternative names for the 1920s because African Americans developed culture and talents after the Great Migration. The US’s creativity and talents made it the leading state in the world that exported its novelty to other countries during the 1920s.
Works Cited
“Harlem Renaissance.”history.com, 2009, Web.
“The Roaring Twenties.”history.com, A&E Television Networks, Web.
Zeitz, Joshua. “The Roaring Twenties.” ap.gilderlehrman.org/, 2019.