Starting Blocks In The 1920s

Throughout American history and the 1900’s, fads have been a hugely successful form of self expression. From fashion, to recreation, to dumb and sometimes dangerous things that youths do, fads are a way to distract from the troubles of the world and find something else fun to do.

The 1920s often referred to as “roaring twenties” is one of the most remarkable periods because of technological advances, and scientific discoveries. Many of the inventions made during the 20s such as Insulin, Penicillin and Traffic Signals have saved numerous lives. With the invention of Vacuum Cleaner, Washing Machine, Electric Dishwasher and Refrigerator household chores have gotten much easier. Due to the advances in technology and scientific discoveries made in the 1920s, inventors and scientists today are able to study the previous work and take the invention one step farther (Inventions in the 1920s).

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.

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

Following World War I, Americans were left with scarce amounts of job openings and a poor economy. Several were left fearing the communists, who the Americans believed were going to overthrow the government. This caused Americans to resent those who were not accepting to return to the “traditional” American values. With the 1920’s, there came both a rise in conservatism and liberalism, but only one was revolutionary, described by Merriam-Webster.com as,”Constituting or bringing about a major or fundamental change.” Furthermore, different presidents advocated for different political stances. Republican Presidents, Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, advocated America to have a conservative government and return to normalcy, while Republican

The Jazz Age which is also referred to as the Roaring Twenties began after World War I took place and lasted until 1929, when the Great Depression began. The 1920s opened up a world of change to Americans; some did not approve and others, especially those in the big cities, celebrated with music and dance every day. There were numerous inventions that were being created throughout the 1920s and because of nationwide advertisement; people all over America were able to buy all the same stuff as one another. But unfortunately, times were different for those that lived in Colorado.

The nineteen twenties can be summed up as one of the most important improvements on theatre, paintings, music, building, and culture.

New appliances were a big part of the technological and social change during the 1920s. The appliances were a big change and was the first attempt of a “smart house”. It affected housewives because now that the appliances were there, society expected them to clean the house faster and keep it tidy all day.

The 1920’s were a time of change. New ideas were becoming more readily experimented with and even accepted by large portions of the population. Some of these included jazz music and the fight against the alcoholic prohibition. The radical idea I will focus on in this paper, however, is Evolution. It is a theory that had been around for over half a century before the 20’s but had only more recently caught on in the US. It contradicted the Christian theory of Divine Creation as described in the Bible. This caused many religious fundamentalists to fight against it. They took their battle to the law books, and they were challenged by pro-evolution modernists in the Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925.

During the 1800s, industrialization was the sole purpose everywhere in Europe. Industrialization was the reason for pushing forwards. Industrialization has led to what we live in today in the twenty-first century it also had many downsides. The one major fault was the introduction to the factory system. The factory system was created in order to speed up the production of goods.

Throughout history many people, such as politicians, officials, and generals, have been noted to have molded the United States, neglecting the fact that workers have also played an important role in shaping this nation’s history. During the 1870s to the 1930s, laborers faced many hardships; they had trouble keeping their jobs, had their wages decreased, and were forced to work sixty-hour weeks without insurance. Over time, workers began to feel aggravated by their employers’ demands and began to voice their opinions. Only by forming into unions and standing up to what employers’ thought was “freedom” in the workplace were the laborers able to change working conditions more favorable for them.

Ritualistic, simplistic, and realistic, grandpa Spaulding symbolizes the declining personality of people. The 1920’s brought a wave of new ideas and conventions to the United States; however, a few stuck to their roots. Grandpa literally stuck to his roots recalling, “Every year, they run amuck; I let them. Pride of lions in the yard. Stare, and they burn a hole in your retina. A common flower, a weed that no one sees, yes. But for us, a noble thing, the dandelion” Bradbury 12). Almost ceremoniously, on the first day of summer, the first dandelions picked and pressed were bottled by grandpa. And for every day after, a bottle was made, labeled, and stored for consumption in the dead of winter. Modest in life, grandpa values the little things.

Of all the time periods I could choose from, I would choose to be born into the roaring 20’s. The roaring 20’s were a post world war era associated with an economic boom in the United States, and that subsequent wealth led to a time when society changed in such a way as to correlate with the massive changes occurring in the US. Even though this wealth couldn't last forever, as shown through the Great Depression which began in 1929, the country itself underwent advances that forever changed the course of its history. Teen girls began to rebel against what was considered proper society by following new, up and coming fashion trends that showed more skin than their parents could handle, causing a domino effect of rebellious children and

“The hallmark of the progressive approach was a compulsion to do research, to identify and articulate problems before decoupling solutions.” (pg10) This quote illustrates the importance progressives put on using scientific data to come up with policies and legislation. This approach was taken to study the lives of the poor and coming up with programs to assist them. A popular target of research were the newsboys. These were children handing out newspapers in the streets. They were a symbol of the denial of “right to childhood,” a phrase coined by Florence Kelly in 1905. (pg13) But the media shined a positive light on newsboys. Reformers had trouble convincing people that these were actually child laborers.(pg11) We see another example that

There are six different track events. Track events vary from sprints, middle distance, long distance, relays, as well as walks. Sprints require the usage of the starting blocks. The starting blocks are head starts to give each runner a fair start and they’ve been used since 1937. Sprints are run as far as 800m, and only 500m are run in lanes. Sprints, hurdles, and