LIFE THEN AND NOW
The Roaring Twenties was a decade in which nothing big happened—there were no major catastrophes or large events—at least until the stock market crash of 1929—yet it is one of the most significant decades in U.S. history because of the great changes that came about in American society. The Twenties were known by various images and names: the Jazz Age, the age of the Lost Generation, flaming youth, flappers, radio and movies, bathtub gin, the speakeasy, organized crime, confession magazines, Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones, the Great Crash, Sacco and Vanzetti, Al Smith, cosmetics, Freud, the “new” woman, the Harlem Renaissance, consumerism—all these images and more are part of the fabulous Twenties!
The 1920s provided something of a roller coaster ride for the American people. The euphoria surrounding the end of World War I was clouded by the great flu epidemic of 1919, the Red Scare of that year, and the frustration and bitterness left over from the fight over the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. The progress made toward reform under progressive Presidents Roosevelt and Wilson slowed to a crawl, as many Americans began to feel the need for a break from the moral intensity of the Progressive Era.
Demobilization from World War I proceeded more or less haphazardly. Thousands of troops were discharged as the army was reduced to its prewar size. The shipbuilding program was halted, and naval cargo vessels were sold to private shipping firms. Railroads were returned to private control, although the ICC was strengthened to make them both more responsive to people’s needs and more efficient. A period of labor strikes and race riots was followed by a business recession early in the decade. Recovery resumed in a pro-business environment under three successive Republican administrations, and consumerism reached new heights as the age of advertising and credit buying advanced full bore.
Cultural conflicts and reactionary attitudes toward immigrants revealed deep differences among different segments of the population. A golden age of radio, film, and sports was offset by the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and struggles to make Prohibition work. In the latter part of the decade the stock market began to soar to unheard-of heights, and speculators pumped more and more cash, much of it borrowed, into increasingly inflated stocks. When the inevitable crash came, reverberations were felt around the world, and the country was soon plunged into its worst depression in history.
Though the Twenties was a decade of enormous social change, myths about the era sometimes exaggerate the reality of that strange and often troubling time. While consumerism boomed and many new inventions—radios and telephones, for example—became everyday items for many Americans, it was also a time of much bitterness, conflict, and disappointment. The economic boom left many in the dust, America’s traditional openness to immigration was severely cut back, and racial tensions rose. Prohibition, the “noble experiment,” caused ordinary citizens to resort to criminal behavior, even as government often winked and looked the other way.
Following the Great War, as the only major Western nation not devastated by that conflict, Americans felt pretty good about themselves. The continued economic growth, political conservatism, and general absence of concerns over foreign affairs led Americans to think of themselves as “having it made.” Proof of America’s spirit and achievements seemed to be personified by Charles Lindbergh as he made his historic flight from New York to Paris in 1927. But the 1920s also saw deep divisions in the country despite the “roaring” atmosphere brought about by bathtub gin, speakeasies, flappers, women voting, jazz, sports, and all the rest. Then at the end of that self-satisfied, raucous, and somewhat grumpy decade, when the expectations of many Americans knew no bounds, the stock market crashed and the Great Depression hit.
The Twenties were also known as a time of revolution in manners and morals, when young men, and especially young women, threw off many of the social restrictions of the Victorian era and began conducting themselves in ways that scandalized the older generations. Young women liberated themselves in everything from hairstyles and clothing to deportment and public behavior, smoking cigarettes and drinking from flasks of illegal bootleg whiskey and bathtub gin. The ’20s were known as the jazz age and saw the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, divisions between town and country that went beyond mere style, the Harlem Renaissance, an enormous growth in production of items such as automobiles once seen as luxuries, and a general feeling of near euphoria, as if for the middle and wealthy classes, at least, things would just keep going up.
The stock market crash of 1929 ended the dreams of many and ushered in the Great Depression of the 1930s. Although the crash was not the cause of the Depression, it had a triggering effect, and the underlying economic weaknesses in the American economy brought on a period that was devastating for millions of Americans. The Twenties saw Lindbergh fly solo across the Atlantic and Babe Ruth hit sixty home runs. But it also saw the Scopes trial and the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti following their famous murder trial. It was a time of revolution, and as Dickens said of an earlier revolution, in many ways it was the best of times and the worst of times.
The decade began amidst the ashes of the Great War, then part of the legacy of that conflict was the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 and 1919, brought to the United States by soldiers returning from Europe. The toll was staggering as 22 million people died around the world from the strange disease. From September 1918 through June 1919, 675,000 Americans died from flu and pneumonia. People began wearing surgical masks in public places, and venues in which people came in close contact, even including churches, were closed in an attempt to prevent further spread of the virus.
The Red Scare of 1919. Americans knew about Communism, because Communists had been at large in the country for years, often associated with radical labor organizations such as the IWW, and Communist Party meetings were held in New York and other major cities more or less openly. (See Warren Beatty’s film Reds for an interesting story about the radical politics of that era.) Americans accepted and wanted to preserve the American way of doing things, which meant capitalism, private ownership of business, free-market competition, and the Horatio Alger myth that with enough pluck and a little luck, anyone could become a millionaire.
When the Bolshevik revolution succeeded in Russia, however, it sent a shock wave through the western world, and it was felt in America. Americans have never been sympathetic to radicalism in any form, and this case was no different, especially when rumors of a Communist-inspired “world revolution” were heard. Some radical activity clearly justified a response, as when a bomb was placed on the front door of the home of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. (It exploded prematurely, killing the bomber and frightening the children of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, who lived across the street.) As additional bombs were found in the mails, the problem was blamed on “Reds,” and the government responded.
Under the direction of Attorney General Palmer, the FBI in 1919 set about rounding up “undesirables,” many of whom were innocent persons, and deported hundreds from the country. Others associated with radicalism, rightly or wrongly, were harassed, lynched, jailed, and were subjected to all sorts of bigotry. Thousands were arrested in 1919 and 1920 and often held for long periods without trial. The “Red Scare” lasted only about two years, but it showed how frightening it could be to be the “wrong sort of person” in America at that time. Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian immigrants, felt the sting of the anti-anarchist feelings when they were executed in the electric chair in 1927. The Red Scare of 1919–1920 was a precursor of McCarthyism, the anti-Communist witch hunt led by the Wisconsin Senator during the 1950s.
The Twenties were also a time of reaction against war—the Great War in particular and war in general—for although the Americans suffered relatively few casualties in 1918, they came during a very short period of time—more than 100,000 men died from all causes in about six months of actual fighting. From that disillusionment the Twenties also brought a reaction against the expansionist ideas that had gotten America an empire and embroiled her in the Great War. The widely held myth that human progress was advancing was exploded in the trenches of Europe’s battlefields.
The Twenties were in another sense a reactionary decade—a reaction against Victorian ideas of morality that saw young men and women openly defy what their parents still viewed as proper behavior for relationships between the sexes. Young people went wild, in the eyes of some, though studies have suggested that there was more talk than action. It was also a rebellious age, in which women continued the process of breaking out of older social patterns as they had begun to do during World War I. They changed their dress styles, cut their hair short, smoked in public, and were not above taking a nip from a flask of Prohibition whiskey.
Films tended to reinforce the changing patterns, as vamps such as Theda Bara starred in films the were soon considered scandalous, and the movie industry began placing restrictions on what could be shown. But the sexual openness also advanced the notion of romantic love, and women began to be seen more as partners in marriage than objects. That phenomenon led to changes in family relationships, as birth rates fell and young people had more freedom, provided in part by the automobile, but also by shifting cultural practices. Writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway caught the mood of the time in novels such as This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby,and The Sun Also Rises.
Women were also more liberated politically, as they gained the right to vote with ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 21, 1920, but as was said in a famous play of the time, they could no longer hide behind the petticoat. Liberation brought increased responsibility, and it was only partial in any case. People talked more openly of sex, but anti-obscenity laws still made it difficult to get information about birth control. Women found it easier to find jobs, and working outside the home was more acceptable, but women rarely became doctors, lawyers, or business managers. Initially women voters changed the political landscape very little, as most tended to vote with their husbands or other male family members. The League of Women Voters was formed to assist women who wanted to learn more about politics. The first Equal Rights Amendment was introduced in Congress in 1923 but got nowhere. Women had come a long way, but still had a long way to go.
The Roaring Twenties was a decade in which nothing big happened—there were no major catastrophes or large events—at least until the stock market crash of 1929—yet it is one of the most significant decades in U.S. history because of the great changes that came about in American society. The Twenties were known by various images and names: the Jazz Age, the age of the Lost Generation, flaming youth, flappers, radio and movies, bathtub gin, the speakeasy, organized crime, confession magazines, Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones, the Great Crash, Sacco and Vanzetti, Al Smith, cosmetics, Freud, the “new” woman, the Harlem Renaissance, consumerism—all these images and more are part of the fabulous Twenties!
The 1920s provided something of a roller coaster ride for the American people. The euphoria surrounding the end of World War I was clouded by the great flu epidemic of 1919, the Red Scare of that year, and the frustration and bitterness left over from the fight over the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. The progress made toward reform under progressive Presidents Roosevelt and Wilson slowed to a crawl, as many Americans began to feel the need for a break from the moral intensity of the Progressive Era.
Demobilization from World War I proceeded more or less haphazardly. Thousands of troops were discharged as the army was reduced to its prewar size. The shipbuilding program was halted, and naval cargo vessels were sold to private shipping firms. Railroads were returned to private control, although the ICC was strengthened to make them both more responsive to people’s needs and more efficient. A period of labor strikes and race riots was followed by a business recession early in the decade. Recovery resumed in a pro-business environment under three successive Republican administrations, and consumerism reached new heights as the age of advertising and credit buying advanced full bore.
Cultural conflicts and reactionary attitudes toward immigrants revealed deep differences among different segments of the population. A golden age of radio, film, and sports was offset by the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and struggles to make Prohibition work. In the latter part of the decade the stock market began to soar to unheard-of heights, and speculators pumped more and more cash, much of it borrowed, into increasingly inflated stocks. When the inevitable crash came, reverberations were felt around the world, and the country was soon plunged into its worst depression in history.
Though the Twenties was a decade of enormous social change, myths about the era sometimes exaggerate the reality of that strange and often troubling time. While consumerism boomed and many new inventions—radios and telephones, for example—became everyday items for many Americans, it was also a time of much bitterness, conflict, and disappointment. The economic boom left many in the dust, America’s traditional openness to immigration was severely cut back, and racial tensions rose. Prohibition, the “noble experiment,” caused ordinary citizens to resort to criminal behavior, even as government often winked and looked the other way.
Following the Great War, as the only major Western nation not devastated by that conflict, Americans felt pretty good about themselves. The continued economic growth, political conservatism, and general absence of concerns over foreign affairs led Americans to think of themselves as “having it made.” Proof of America’s spirit and achievements seemed to be personified by Charles Lindbergh as he made his historic flight from New York to Paris in 1927. But the 1920s also saw deep divisions in the country despite the “roaring” atmosphere brought about by bathtub gin, speakeasies, flappers, women voting, jazz, sports, and all the rest. Then at the end of that self-satisfied, raucous, and somewhat grumpy decade, when the expectations of many Americans knew no bounds, the stock market crashed and the Great Depression hit.
The Twenties were also known as a time of revolution in manners and morals, when young men, and especially young women, threw off many of the social restrictions of the Victorian era and began conducting themselves in ways that scandalized the older generations. Young women liberated themselves in everything from hairstyles and clothing to deportment and public behavior, smoking cigarettes and drinking from flasks of illegal bootleg whiskey and bathtub gin. The ’20s were known as the jazz age and saw the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, divisions between town and country that went beyond mere style, the Harlem Renaissance, an enormous growth in production of items such as automobiles once seen as luxuries, and a general feeling of near euphoria, as if for the middle and wealthy classes, at least, things would just keep going up.
The stock market crash of 1929 ended the dreams of many and ushered in the Great Depression of the 1930s. Although the crash was not the cause of the Depression, it had a triggering effect, and the underlying economic weaknesses in the American economy brought on a period that was devastating for millions of Americans. The Twenties saw Lindbergh fly solo across the Atlantic and Babe Ruth hit sixty home runs. But it also saw the Scopes trial and the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti following their famous murder trial. It was a time of revolution, and as Dickens said of an earlier revolution, in many ways it was the best of times and the worst of times.
The decade began amidst the ashes of the Great War, then part of the legacy of that conflict was the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 and 1919, brought to the United States by soldiers returning from Europe. The toll was staggering as 22 million people died around the world from the strange disease. From September 1918 through June 1919, 675,000 Americans died from flu and pneumonia. People began wearing surgical masks in public places, and venues in which people came in close contact, even including churches, were closed in an attempt to prevent further spread of the virus.
The Red Scare of 1919. Americans knew about Communism, because Communists had been at large in the country for years, often associated with radical labor organizations such as the IWW, and Communist Party meetings were held in New York and other major cities more or less openly. (See Warren Beatty’s film Reds for an interesting story about the radical politics of that era.) Americans accepted and wanted to preserve the American way of doing things, which meant capitalism, private ownership of business, free-market competition, and the Horatio Alger myth that with enough pluck and a little luck, anyone could become a millionaire.
When the Bolshevik revolution succeeded in Russia, however, it sent a shock wave through the western world, and it was felt in America. Americans have never been sympathetic to radicalism in any form, and this case was no different, especially when rumors of a Communist-inspired “world revolution” were heard. Some radical activity clearly justified a response, as when a bomb was placed on the front door of the home of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. (It exploded prematurely, killing the bomber and frightening the children of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, who lived across the street.) As additional bombs were found in the mails, the problem was blamed on “Reds,” and the government responded.
Under the direction of Attorney General Palmer, the FBI in 1919 set about rounding up “undesirables,” many of whom were innocent persons, and deported hundreds from the country. Others associated with radicalism, rightly or wrongly, were harassed, lynched, jailed, and were subjected to all sorts of bigotry. Thousands were arrested in 1919 and 1920 and often held for long periods without trial. The “Red Scare” lasted only about two years, but it showed how frightening it could be to be the “wrong sort of person” in America at that time. Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian immigrants, felt the sting of the anti-anarchist feelings when they were executed in the electric chair in 1927. The Red Scare of 1919–1920 was a precursor of McCarthyism, the anti-Communist witch hunt led by the Wisconsin Senator during the 1950s.
The Twenties were also a time of reaction against war—the Great War in particular and war in general—for although the Americans suffered relatively few casualties in 1918, they came during a very short period of time—more than 100,000 men died from all causes in about six months of actual fighting. From that disillusionment the Twenties also brought a reaction against the expansionist ideas that had gotten America an empire and embroiled her in the Great War. The widely held myth that human progress was advancing was exploded in the trenches of Europe’s battlefields.
The Twenties were in another sense a reactionary decade—a reaction against Victorian ideas of morality that saw young men and women openly defy what their parents still viewed as proper behavior for relationships between the sexes. Young people went wild, in the eyes of some, though studies have suggested that there was more talk than action. It was also a rebellious age, in which women continued the process of breaking out of older social patterns as they had begun to do during World War I. They changed their dress styles, cut their hair short, smoked in public, and were not above taking a nip from a flask of Prohibition whiskey.
Films tended to reinforce the changing patterns, as vamps such as Theda Bara starred in films the were soon considered scandalous, and the movie industry began placing restrictions on what could be shown. But the sexual openness also advanced the notion of romantic love, and women began to be seen more as partners in marriage than objects. That phenomenon led to changes in family relationships, as birth rates fell and young people had more freedom, provided in part by the automobile, but also by shifting cultural practices. Writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway caught the mood of the time in novels such as This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby,and The Sun Also Rises.
Women were also more liberated politically, as they gained the right to vote with ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 21, 1920, but as was said in a famous play of the time, they could no longer hide behind the petticoat. Liberation brought increased responsibility, and it was only partial in any case. People talked more openly of sex, but anti-obscenity laws still made it difficult to get information about birth control. Women found it easier to find jobs, and working outside the home was more acceptable, but women rarely became doctors, lawyers, or business managers. Initially women voters changed the political landscape very little, as most tended to vote with their husbands or other male family members. The League of Women Voters was formed to assist women who wanted to learn more about politics. The first Equal Rights Amendment was introduced in Congress in 1923 but got nowhere. Women had come a long way, but still had a long way to go.