Culture Wars During The 1920s

The biggest cause of conflict during the 1920’s was Old generations vs. New generations during the time. There were many reasons this cause conflict, but one of the biggest ways was in the new and changing morals of the new generation. One of the biggest places you can see this is during the Harlem Renaissance. In one of the paintings by Jacob Lawrence you can see people dancing during the Harlem Renaissance with a jazz band in the back and a girl in a white dress front and center. She is wearing a shorter white dress and dancing, but in a more wild passionate way. In the back you can see older generations dancing in formal clothes and in a very old style way of dancing. I think this alone summarizes

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.

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.

President Wilson was worried too much about the war and then he had a heart attack. That was why problems after war were solved badly. The prosperity economy began going down significantly. The candidates of the Republic party were Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge that they easily defeated the candidates of the Democrat party who were James M. Cox and Franklin d. Roosevelt. After the law and the United States government had changed, that was the first time that women could join in voting for American president. In entire 1920’s, personal businesses were given many encourages from the United States government, included loan for building, exchanging post agreements, and grant. For example, transportation law 1920 said that personal business

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.

Many changes in the 1920s in day to day life happened. In the 1920s most of it was under President Woodrow Wilson. During this time many Americans challenged past traditions and created their own. Many people became interested in new popular culture. New traditions such as listening to the radio, and watching film brought new thrills about news, sports, and made party’s better.

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.

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).

A ten year gap can really impact a society. This is evident in the times of the 1920s through the 1930s. These decades are very different from one another. This paper compares and contrasts the traits of these times in the world of pop culture. Pop culture is an accurate way to observe the past because it shows everything that was mainstream and a staple of the time.

Three ways society changed in the 1920’s are through culture, economy, and social norms like fashion and women's rights. The 1920’s was a time of change. The United States had just won the war and after the war the United States just wanted to “return to normalcy”. But nothing was normal after the war; the 1920s was a time where the United States was at a peak prosperity. But this can be countered with organized gang violence, increased rate of murder, and countless robberies. Even though prosperity in the 1920s can be counter argued. Overall the 1920s was a time of change; a time for a change in culture, for a change in the economy, and for a change in social norms.

In the 1920’s American Society was a decade of exciting social changes and profound cultural conflicts. In the other way, the 1920’s also called “The Roaring Twenties” is because after the World War I, the economic growth were increasing more than double than before in the social life of the United States. Moreover, many companies grew larger and many new jobs opportunities created by the government with the high wages, so that the American had enough money to buy the new good stuff. When the Americans were getting the high wages, the government limited the immigration to come into the United States. At the same time, the African Americans were segregated by the white people such as Jim Crows’ Law.

The 1920s was described as “the roaring twenties”, where life was great for every American. But with an increase in economic prosperity in America in the 1920s, numerous social conflicts also arose, including organized crime due to prohibition laws, racism, and the fight between Fundamentalism and Modernism. Many things were introduced in the 1920s, such as jazz, prohibition, and mass production. Even though it benefited some, it didn’t benefit all. People like African Americans wanted equality and slowly rose up to meet it.

In 1920 many racial issues started to take place. Jim Crow laws were racist laws that told blacks where and what they could and couldn't do. Segregation separated blacks from whites. Blacks could not eat in the same restaurants that whites could. Everything was separated, blacks could not drink from the same drinking fountains, use the same restrooms, and many other public places. This and other violent things caused African Americans to migrate to northern cities so they would not be persecuted. Blacks migrated to many different places to get away from these racial issues. Writers at synonym.com wrote. “By 1919, over a million blacks had migrated to northeastern cities including Detroit, Chicago and New York.” (rac) Black lives were tremendously affected by this many moved to different places. Racism will never stop happening in the world. People will always be racist. Racism was lots worse than it is now back in the 1920s. People were not only killed for being black, but were torchered and died slow deaths because of racism. Hanging or lynchings were the most common form of racism during this time period. Blacks would be hung if they did not do what they were supposed to. Race riots were another form of racism in the 1930s people would get together in large groups and go around and kill or burn black slaves and people. They would do this just because they were racist and that these people were black.

I think that the issues of immigration and prohibition fed into the rise of intense cultural conflict in the 1920s. The "Roaring Twenties" had a huge impression on America as a cultural movement that praised the growth of celebrities, and relaxed social expectations regarding behavior. Wider social acceptance of women and people of color, along with a condition in which a lack of laws was socially accepted and even encouraged had caused many Americans to flee to a more socially rigid form of identity.

Over the past (almost) hundred years, society and education have both changed drastically. Typically, the things that have happened in history, such as wars, technological advances, and changes in culture, changed education as a result. Some of these changes include popular culture in the 1920s, economic factors in the 1930s, military intervention in the 1940s, Sputnik in the 1950s, and racial issues in the 1960s. One theme of education is that it has gradually become more important over the years. Before high school diplomas could be rare, and today most high school graduates go to college in the United States.