Cultural Issues In The 1920s

In the years following World War I, the United States was comfortable with returning to its prior state of traditional values. In the government, this was reflected as the 1920 election was won by Republican candidate Harding, who ran with the slogan “A Return to Normalcy.” Americans simply wanted to recuperate after the intense global conflict that had just ended; however, changing and new attitudes were at battle with their desire of normalcy. It was movements like “New Morality” that contested traditional stances of those who sought security in their lives. As a result of the constant battle between old and new values, tensions were mounting between citizens. The Roaring Twenties was a time of innovation in American life; however, tensions surfaced between traditional and new values, shown through court rooms, national politics, grass roots campaigns, and media revolutions, due to a rise in differing theological views, women’s fight for independence, racial conflict, technology, and advertising.

The Roaring Twenties of America, which was from 1920-1929, saw a great social and economic prosperity. People were happy, and were celebrating the victory of World War 1. The gasoline price was lowered, right to vote for women was granted, and America was climbing towards a great success. In 1929, Herbert Hoover became the president of the United States of America, and he said, “ Given a chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, we shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation”(Roark, Pg. 703). After few months of his inauguration, his words contradicted, the Roaring Twenties halted. During the Roaring Twenties, the stock market prices increased steeply. The rapid

During the 20th century, the people of America had to adjust to new desires, lifestyles, and the new materialistic economy. After entering World War I, the aftermath included false positives that in the end, turned out to be complete negatives. Citizens of America possessed materialistic beliefs that led to disappointments. African Americans were confronted by atrocious social conditions. The frustrations faced by many Americans living in the 1920s, included the desires for materialistic possessions in hopes of contentment, the aspirations for freedom and the dignified need for racial equality, are all elucidated in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, “Winter Dreams”, and both poems, “Democracy” by Langston Hughes and “The White House” by Claude Mckay.

Newspapers had once been the only mass communication & entertainment. The demand for new products that emerged in the 1920s created a new industry, advertising, which enticed buyers to purchase new products, and now that the radio had emerged, advertising was integrated into this media outlet . Radio shows like Amos n' Andy, became a nationwide hit. The advertising industry grew with the emerging industries of mass culture, especially radio and cinema. For the first time, from coast to coast, Americans experienced the same shows and used the same advertised products due to mass culture. The first commercial radio station aired in 1920 and broadcast music to a few thousand listeners. By the end of the decade, thirty-three

The twenties is said to have been a unique era. It was full of constant excitement. It was known as the “Jazz Age”. It was a period where Americans took time to find joy in their new freedoms. The twenties was an age of thrills and success where music, art, and literature flourished and social norms began to change, however this time was actually accentuated by a certain violence and chaos due to conflicting American ideals on issues such as Prohibition, race, and immigration.

During the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, the United States underwent a series of changes that had a drastic effect on people across the nation. As the economy began to slow to a halt, millions of people were left broke and without jobs. As the country’s farmers were paralyzed with debt, food prices increased radically (McElvaine). During the mid-1930s, a series of droughts coupled with poor agricultural methods led to years of soil erosion and dust storms known as the Dust Bowl, a catastrophe that destroyed farms throughout the Southern Great Plains (Shafer, Low). As a result, many farmers were forced to abandon their land to seek employment elsewhere. These migrant workers, attracted by the fertility and familiarity of the area, traveled to California towns such as Salinas, where they labored tirelessly for wealthy planters (Cayton, Gorn, Williams). The events of the Great Depression Era, following years of difficulty and poverty, paved the way to an entirely new way of life for Americans.

During the 1920s there were many culture wars. Some people were upset because others started to work less and have more fun. Others were upset because blacks started to have pride in their own color, instead of trying to fit in with the whites and do as they said. Popular culture started to influence and reform countrymen into people who wanted to have personal enjoyment and work less. Women started to become more like the men because they would drink and smoke, and started to have their own lives. As the culture changed drastically for blacks, women, and the lives of everyone in America in the 1920s, many culture wars were started because sometimes people just don’t like change.

Prior to the 1920s people were already not given equal prosperity. This can be seen in 1882 by the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. However, the ban was only against the immigration of Chinese laborers. Furthermore, Andrew Carnegie owner from the steel industry from 1973-1901 controlled the most extensive integrated iron and steel operations ever owned by in the United States. Although Carnegie gained millions, he paid his workers little. Therefore, the 1920s did not give prosperity to everyone including those who were immigrants, the new technological advancements, and the economic difference in social classes.

The Roaring Twenties started in North America and spread to Europe as the effects of World War I diminished. In Europe, the years following the First World War (1919-1923) were marked by a deep recession. Europe spent these years in rebuilding and coming to terms with the vast human cost of the conflict. Unlike in the aftermath of World War II, the United States did little to try to rebuild Europe. Instead, it took an increasingly isolationist stance (Answers, 2006).

The 1920’s was the era of not only mass consumerism, social changes, and profound cultural conflicts but that of the Lost Generation and the effects of World War I during this time period. World War I had a significant impact on the lives and the writing styles of the Lost Generation, changing their perspectives on both the government and their lives.

During the 1920s in an effort to reduce crime and corruption the prohibition on alcohol was passed, little did these law makers know they were only worsening the situation. The streets started to run rampant with crime, and bootleggers rose to power as organized raised as well. As organized crime rose so did the Mafiosas. Throughout the 20th century the mafia has controlled the organized crime scene with an unwavering fist only for its rule to be challenged by other families. The mafia 's bosses give each family its own unique style whether they be a media persona like Al Capone, A brutal killer like Charles Luciano, or completely insane like George Moran.

The 1920’s was a great and important decade for the United States. After World War I, the United States went through events and changes that, overall, made the United States a much better place to live. New advances in technology and industry improved American life in more ways than just one. Americans had better wages during this time, more leisure time, and overall, had a better life than ever before. In addition, the 1920’s advocated social and cultural change as well. During this time period, the United States did not return to Normalcy, and instead developed attitudes that changed the life of the people of the United States forever thanks to social changes, cultural changes and changes in technology.

The Roaring 20s were characterized by jazz music, alcohol, and big city living. However, underneath the veneer of loud music and parties, people living in rural areas felt threatened by the “modern” way of life, leading to backlash on both sides. Urban-rural culture wars that rocked the nation throughout the 1920s were often fought over issues of racism, alcoholism, and materialism. Racism was rampant in the 1920s, and is mainly seen through the acts of the Ku Klux Klan. Alcoholism was highly contested in the 1920s, due to abuse and violence that occurred because of drunkenness.

The 1920s was a huge time period for the United States. Modern technology such as automobiles, radios, and advertisement had taken America by storm. Rural areas were on the decline. American cities had attracted not only rural and urban citizens, but also people from all over the world. In America during the 1920s, citizens struggled with accepting other races and ethnicities into their widely populated country.

by prosperity, leisure, technological advances, consumerism and major shifts toward modern values. The decade witnessed a titanic struggle between an old and a new America. Things such as immigration, race, alcohol, evolution, gender politics, and sexual morality all became major cultural battlefields during the 1920s. Wets battled drys, religious modernists battled religious fundamentalists, and urban ethnics battled the Ku Klux Klan. The contrast between the new and changing attitudes and traditional values was clearly present during the 1920's.