Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties refers to the North American time period of the 1920s, which has been described as "one of the most colorful decades in American history." The decade encapsulates a fascinating story, beginning with the return of young soldiers from the fronts of the World War I and emergence of a new and confident face of modern womanhood, and ending with the sad note of the Black Tuesday, harbinger of the Great Depression. The years of the Roaring Twenties were marked by several inventions and discoveries of far reaching consequences; emergence of unprecedented industrial boom and accelerated consumer demand and aspirations, coupled with significant changes in the lifestyle; and a series of events, national as well as international, which shaped a large part of the history of the 20th century.
Overview
The Roaring Twenties started in North America and spread to Europe as the effects of World War I diminished. In Europe, the period after the First World War was marked by a deep recession and many years of rebuilding and coming to terms with the vast human cost of the conflict. Unlike the aftermath of World War II, the United States did little to try to rebuild Europe, retreating, instead, to an isolationist stance. In Canada, an important economic transformation accelerated as Britain was wholly supplanted by the United States as Canada's main economic partner. By the middle of the decade, economic development started to soar in Europe and the Roaring Twenties broke out in Germany, England and France, where the second half of this decade was termed "The Golden Twenties". In France and Canada, they were also called the "Crazy Years" (années folles).
The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of discontinuity associated with modernity, and a break with traditions. A new and different era was felt to be coming up. Everything seemed to be feasible through modern technology, the limits ecology and sustainability pose to economic and technological growth were yet unknown. Technologies, like trains, cars and mass communication by radio and telephone, spread the idea of modernity to a large part of the population. Formal decorative frills were shed in favor of practicality, in architecture as well as in daily life. At the same time, amusement, fun and lightness were cultivated in jazz and dancing, in defiance of the horrors of World War I, which were still present in people's minds. The period is often called the "Jazz Age."
Economy of the 1920s
The Roaring Twenties were traditionally viewed as an era of great economic prosperity driven by the introduction of a wide array of new consumer goods. Initially, the North American economy, particularly the economy of the USA, took some time to convert from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy. After this dull phase, the economy boomed. The decade saw the United States becoming the richest country on the earth, with industry aligned to mass production, and a society with a culture of consumerism. In Europe, the economy did not start to flourish until 1924.
In spite of the social, economic and technological advances however, African-Americans, recent immigrants and farmers, along with a large part of the 'working class' population did not benefit- in fact, 70 million people lived below the accepted poverty line of $2000 dollars a year per family. At the same time as the economic boom, the 1920s were setting the stage for the Great Depression that would dominate the 1930s.
Demobilization
At the end of World War I, soldiers returned to the United States and Canada with money in their pockets and a great many new products on the market to spend it on. At first, the cessation of wartime production caused a brief, but deep recession. Quickly, however, the US and Canadian economies rebounded as the returning soldiers re-entered the labor force and factories were retooled to produce consumer goods.
These soldiers formed a tremendous market force. As they were still very young, in their twenties, all things youthful were now increasingly idealized and highly marketable by businesses and corporations.
The Republican economic policies
Various policies initiated by the Republican party had a big impact on the boom. The government was associated with laissez faire economics, which helped create the conditions for the boom to happen. In 1922, the Fordney-McCumber tariff act was passed allowing American businesses to flourish by protecting them from foreign competition. The secretary to the Treasury from 1921 to 1932, Andrew Mellon, cut surtax from above 50% to 20%. This aided large coporate business, allowing them to dominate their respective markets.
Business of the 1920s also benefited from less regulation by the Federal Trade Commission. This meant that child labor and Yellow Dog contracts were common.
New products and technologies
During the 1920s, mass production developed which allowed for cheaper prices of technology products. Most of the devices that became commonplace in this decade had been developed before the war, but had been unaffordable to the majority. The automobile, movie, radio, and chemical industries skyrocketed during the 1920s. One of the most important of these was the automobile industry. Before the War, cars were a rare luxury. In the 1920s, cheap mass-produced vehicles became common throughout the US and Canada. By 1927, Henry Ford had sold 15 million Model T. In all of Canada, there were only about 300,000 vehicles registered in 1918, but by 1929, there were 1.9 million. The automobile had wide effects on the economy and society. The automobile industry rapidly became one of the largest industries; peripheral companies running gas stations, motels, and providing oil also became important.
During the Roaring Twenties, radio became the media of the masses, the first mass broadcasting medium. Radios were affordable and the programs, entertaining. Before the days of Hollywood, radio was the grandstand for mass marketing with a massive listening audience. Its economic importance led to the mass culture that has dominated society since its introduction near the turn of the century. During the Golden Age of Radio, radio programming was as varied as TV programming in modern day. Without the self-censorship that is in place today, editors were free to entertain an audience in any and every way, setting the stage for the entrance of violent crime into film and popular culture. This complete freedom came to an end in 1927 with the establishment of the Federal Radio Commission.
Movie advertisement reels, shown before early films, augmented the already booming mass market. The Golden Age of Film, during the 1930s and 40s, was to evolve from its humble 1920s beginnings of short, silent film reels. Like radio, film was a media for the masses. Watching a film was cheap and accessible for factory and other blue-collar workers.
New infrastructure
The new technologies led to an unprecedented need for new infrastructure, mostly built by the government. Crucial to the new motor vehicles were new roads. Several roads were upgraded to become highways, and a number of expressways were constructed. There emerged a class of Americans with surplus money and a desire to spend the same, spurring the demand for consumer goods, including the automobiles.
Electrification, having slowed during the war, saw huge progress during the 1920s as more of the US and Canada was added to the electric grid. Most industries switched from being coal powered to using electricity. At the same time, vast new power plants were constructed. In Canada, electricity production almost quadrupled.
Telephone lines also were now being strung across the continent. Another important technology that went from rare to common in the 1920s was indoor plumbing, and modern sewer systems were installed for the first time in many regions.
These infrastructure programs were mostly left to the local governments in both Canada and the United States. During the 1920s, most local governments went deeply into debt, under the assumption that an investment in such infrastructure would pay off in the future. This would cause major problems in the Great Depression. In both Canada and the United States, the federal governments did the reverse, using the decade to pay down war debts and roll back some of the taxes that had been introduced during the war.
Speculation
Credit was abundant and much of it began to flow into speculation[1], particularly in the New York Stock Exchange. This created a bubble and set the stage for the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Demographics
Urbanization was one of the most important trends during the Roaring Twenties. For the first time, more Americans and Canadians lived in cities than in small towns or rural areas. Mass transit systems, the first skyscrapers, and the growing importance of industry contributed to this. A growing service sector was also increasingly important, with the finance and insurance industries doubling or tripling in size. The basic pattern of the modern white collar job is often believed to have been established during this period. Many of the clerical jobs went to women, who entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers. In Canada, one in five workers were women by the end of the decade. The fastest growing cities were those in the Midwest and the Great Lakes region, including Chicago and Toronto. These cities prospered due to their vast agricultural hinterlands. Cities on the West Coast saw increasing benefits from the 1914 opening of the Panama Canal.
Culture of the Roaring Twenties
The Lost Generation
The Lost Generation were young people who came out of World War I disillusioned and cynical about the world. The term usually refers to American literary notables that lived in Paris at the time. Famous members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein.
Social Criticism
As the average middle class white American in the 1920s became more self-absorbed in wealth and everyday luxuries, some began satirizing the hypocrisy and greed they observed. Of these social critics, Sinclair Lewis was the most popular. His 1920 novel, Main Street, was one of the most popular of the time. The story satirized the dull, ignorant lives of those in a Midwestern town. He followed with Babbitt, about a middle-aged businessman who rebels against his safe life and family, only to realize that the young generation is as hypocritical as his own. Lewis satirized religion with Elmer Gantry, which followed a con man who teams up with an evangelist to sell religion to a small town.
Other social critics included Sherwood Anderson and H.L. Mencken. Anderson published a collection of short stories titled Winesburg, Ohio, which studied the dynamic within a small town. Mencken criticized the narrow American taste and culture through various essays and articles.
Art Deco
Art Deco was the style in design and architecture that marked the era. Starting from Europe, it spread to America towards the end of the 1920s, where one of the most remarkable buildings featuring this style was constructed as the tallest building of the time: the Chrysler Building. The forms of art deco were pure and geometric, even though the artists often drew inspiration from nature. In the beginning lines were curved, but later on rectangular designs became more and more popular.
Expressionism and Surrealism
Painting in North America during the 1920s developed into a different direction than that in Europe. In Europe, the 1920s were the era of expressionism and later, surrealism. As Man Ray stated in 1920 after the publication of a unique issue of New York Dada: "Dada cannot live in New York".
Cinema
The period saw the emergence of box-office draws such as Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino. Also, the animated cartoon was a novelty for theater-going audiences during this period. Surpassing the competition, Felix the Cat quickly emerged as the most popular animated cartoon star of the time. The bulk of the 1920s cinema was silent. Late in the decade, functional sound-recording technology was developed, leading to what was known at the time as the "talkies". The film most responsible for popularizing sound in film was the 1927 Warner Brothers' release, The Jazz Singer—starring the singer Al Jolson. Not long after its release and phenomenal success, silent film quickly disappeared.
Harlem Renaissance
The African American culture developed rapidly during the 1920s under the title of the "Harlem Renaissance". In 1921, the Black Swan Corporation opened. At its height, it issued ten recordings a month. All-African-American musicals also started up in 1921. In 1923, the Harlem Renaissance Basketball Club was founded by Robert Douglas. During the later 1920s, and especially in the 1930s, the basketball team became known as the best in the world.
The first issue of Opportunity was published. The African American playwright, Chip Woman's Fortune, debuted at Frazee Theatre.Template:Fn African American culture has contributed the largest part to the rise of jazz music.
The Jazz Age
The first commercial radio station in the United States, KDKA, began broadcasting in Pittsburgh in 1922. Radio stations subsequently proliferated at a remarkable rate, and with them spread the popularity of jazz. Jazz became associated with all things modern, sophisticated, and also decadent. Louis Armstrong marked the time with improvisations and endless variations on a single melody. Armstrong contributed largely to making scat singing popular, an improvisational vocal technique in which nonsensical syllables are sung or otherwise vocalized, often as part of a call-and-response interaction with other musicians onstage. Apart from the clarinet, Sidney Bechet also popularized the saxophone. Dance venues increased the demand for professional musicians and jazz adopted the 4/4 beat of dance music. Tap dancers entertained people in Vaudeville theaters, out in the streets or accompanying bands. At the end of the Roaring Twenties, Duke Ellington entered the scene to start the beginning of the big band era.
Dance
Starting in the 1920s, ballrooms across the U.S. sponsored dance contests, where dancers invented, tried, and competed with new moves. Professionals began to hone their skills in tap dance and other dances of the era throughout the Vaudeville hall circuit across the U.S. Electric lighting and air conditioning made evening social entertainment available to much wider audiences, giving rise to an era of dance halls and live music.
Harlem played a key role in the development of dance styles. With a number of entertainment venues, people from all walks of life, all races, and all classes came together. The Cotton Club featured black performers and catered to the rich, glamorous, and white clientele, while the Savoy Ballroom catered to average, working, and mostly black clientele.
From the early 1920s, Breakaway and Charleston dominated the dance scene. Both were based upon African-American musical styles and beats, including the all popular blues. The Charleston's popularity exploded after being featured in two Broadway shows in 1922. A brief Black Bottom craze, originating from the Apollo Theater, would sweep dance halls from 1926 to 1927, replacing the Charleston in popularity. By 1927, Lindy Hop, a dance based on Breakaway and Charleston, and integrating elements of Tap, would become the dominant social dance. Developed in the Savoy Ballroom, it was set to stride piano ragtime jazz. Lindy Hop would remain popular for over a decade, before evolving into Swing dance.
Suffrage
On August 18, 1920 the State of Tennessee became the last of 36 states needed to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. Women were thus recognized as equals as men in every state—at least at the polls.
Fashion and the changing role of women
Due to the dreary economic situation after the First World War, many American and European families needed to replace the incomes of the family fathers lost in the battlefield; women had to accept a job, and move outside the home. This also gave them a new self-confidence. The change in role was also reflected in the media: the garçonne-look, with its most notable exponent actress Marlene Dietrich, portrayed the ideal woman as an androgynous, working woman that had reached equality with men while simultaneously possessing the appeal of the femme fatale. Pantsuits, hats and canes gave women a sleek look without frills and avoiding the fickleness of fashion. The style was named after the novel La garçonne by Victor Margueritte. In Europe, this look featured women with short hair (Bubikopf) for the first time; in the U.S., the bob was popularized by actresses Louise Brooks, Leatrice Joy and Colleen Moore in the early 1920s. As a result of this move towards practical androgyny, corsets went out of style, and some women even bandaged their breasts to make them look flatter. Flappers, as these women were called in the U.S., wore short dresses with a straight loose silhouette. By 1927 seams had risen to just below the knee, so that part of the knee could be seen when dancing Charleston.
Thus, the Roaring Twenties gave a new definition to womanhood—a new woman was born, who smoked and drank in public, danced and exercised her franchise, kept her hair short, wore make-up, dressed differently, and confidently participated in economic activities.
Life During the Roaring Twenties
Immigration laws
The United States, and to a lesser degree Canada, became more xenophobic or, at least, anti-immigrant during the Roaring Twenties. The American Immigration Act of 1924 limited immigration from countries where two percent of the total U.S. population, per the 1890 census (not counting African Americans), were immigrants from that country. Thus, the massive influx of Europeans that had come to America during the first two decades of the century slowed to a trickle. Asians and citizens of India were prohibited from immigrating altogether. Alien Land Laws such as California's Webb-Haney Act, in 1913, prevented aliens ineligible for citizenship from owning land. Similar laws were passed in 11 other states.
In Canada, the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 prevented almost all immigration from Asia. Other laws curbed immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe.
Prohibition
In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export of alcohol was prohibited by the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in an attempt to alleviate various social problems, which in fact brought to the country many more, unexpected problems; this came to be known as "Prohibition". It was enacted through the Volstead Act. America's continued desire for alcohol under prohibition led to the rise of organized crime, illegal smuggling of liquor and gangster associations all over the USA, having unforeseen economic bonuses for criminal organizations. In Canada, prohibition was never imposed nationally, but the American liquor laws nonetheless had an important effect, as Canada became the main departure point for alcohol illegally entering the United States.
Rise of the speakeasy
Speakeasies became popular and numerous as the Prohibition years progressed, and lead to the rise of gangsters such as Al Capone. They more commonly began to operate with connections to organized crime and liquor smuggling. While police and United States Federal Government agents raided such establishments and arrested many of the small figures and unimportant smugglers they rarely managed to get the big bosses, the business of running speakeasies was so lucrative that such establishments continued to flourish throughout the nation. In major cities, speakeasies could often be elaborate, offering food, live bands, and floor shows. Police were notoriously bribed by speakeasy operators to either leave them alone or at least give them advance notice of any planned raid.
Literature of the 1920s
The Roaring Twenties was also a period of literary creativity, and works of several authors, including, Sinclair Lewis, Willa Cather, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carl Sandburg and Ernest Hemingway, appeared during the period. D.H. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover was a scandal at the time because of its explicit descriptions of sex.
See 1920s books
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has often been described as the epitome of the "Jazz Age" in American literature.
- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque details the horrors of WWI and also the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front.
- This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald examines the lives and morality of post-World War I youth.
- The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway follows a group of expatriate Americans in Europe during the 1920s.
"Lucky Lindy"
Charles Lindbergh gained sudden great international fame as the first pilot to fly solo and non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean, flying from Roosevelt Airfield (Nassau County, Long Island), New York to Paris on May 20-May 21, 1927. He had a single-engine airplane, "The Spirit of St. Louis", which had been designed by Donald Hall and custom built by Ryan Airlines of San Diego, California. He needed 33.5 hours for the trip. The President of France bestowed on him the French Legion of Honor and, on his arrival back in the United States, a fleet of warships and aircraft escorted him to Washington, D.C., where President Calvin Coolidge awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Sports
The Roaring Twenties are seen as the breakout decade for sports in America. Citizens from all parts of the country flocked to see the top athletes of the day compete in arenas and stadia. Their exploits were loudly and highly praised in the new "gee whiz" style of sports journalism that was emerging; champions of this style of writing included the legendary writers Grantland Rice and Damon Runyon.
Undoubtedly, the most popular American athlete of the Twenties was baseball player Babe Ruth. His characteristic home run hitting heralded a new epoch in the history of the sport (the "Live Ball" Era), and his high style of living fascinated the nation and made him one of the highest-profile figures of the decade. Fans were enthralled in 1927 when Ruth hit 60 dingers, setting a brand-new single-season home run record that would not be broken until 1961. Together with another up-and-coming star named Lou Gehrig, Ruth would lay the foundations of future New York Yankees dynasties and pave the way for their becoming one of the greatest teams in baseball.
Other sports, too, created heroes during the Roaring Twenties. A former bar room brawler named Jack Dempsey won the World heavyweight boxing title and became the most celebrated pugilist of his time. College football also captivated fans, due in no small part to Red Grange, the incomparable running back of the University of Illinois. Grange would play a role in the development of professional football in the mid-1920s by signing on with the NFL's Chicago Bears. Bill Tilden thoroughly dominated his competition in tennis, cementing his reputation as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. And Bobby Jones popularized golf with his spectacular successes on the links; the game would not see another major star of his stature come along until Jack Nicklaus. Ruth, Dempsey, Grange, Tilden, and Jones are collectively referred to as the "Big Five" sporting icons of the Roaring Twenties.
Key figures
- Al Capone was the most notorious American gangster from the 1920s in Brooklyn and later in Chicago.
- Charles Lindbergh was a pioneering United States aviator famous for piloting the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.
- Mae West was an American actress and playwright known for confronting what were considered risqué subjects.
- Will Rogers was an American humorist and entertainer.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald was an American writer which published several 'Hit' books in the 1920s, The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise.
American politics during the Roaring Twenties
Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding ran on a promise to "Return to Normalcy", a term he coined, which reflected three trends of his time: a renewed isolationism in reaction to World War I, a resurgence of nativism, and a turning away from the government activism of the reform era. Throughout his administration, Harding adopted laissez-faire policies. Harding's "Front Porch Campaign" during the late summer and fall of 1920 captured the imagination of the country. Not only was it the first campaign to be heavily covered by the press, and to receive widespread newsreel coverage, but it was also the first modern campaign to use the power of Hollywood and Broadway stars who traveled to Marion for photo opportunities with Harding and his wife. Al Jolson, Lillian Russell, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were among the luminaries to make the pilgrimage to central Ohio. Business icons Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone also lent their cachet to the Front Porch Campaign. From the onset of the campaign until the November election, over 600,000 people traveled to Marion to participate. His administration was plagued with scandals with which he was likely not involved. On the scandals he commented, "My God, this is a hell of a job!" and, "I have no trouble with my enemies, but my damn friends, they're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights."
See also: U.S. presidential election, 1920
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge was inaugurated as president after the death of President Harding. He was easily elected in 1924 when he ran on a basis of order and prosperity. Coolidge made use of the new medium of radio and made radio history several times while president: his inauguration was the first presidential inauguration broadcast on radio; on 12 February 1924, he became the first President of the United States to deliver a political speech on radio, and only ten days thereafter, on 22 February, he also became the first to deliver such a speech from the White House. He is famous for his quotation "The chief business of the American People is business".
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover stated in 1928, "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land."
Fall of labor unions
Several labor strikes in 1918 and 1919 marked a turning point in American's view of labor unions. State militias began to be used to break up strikes and state officials started enacting criminal laws against disturbances. Labor union membership died drastically throughout the country. Radical unionism (see Industrial Workers of the World) declined as well, in large part due to repression during World War I by means of the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act of 1918. Socialist Eugene V. Debs had been sentenced to prison for 10 years as a result of the latter, although he was released early by Harding.
Canadian politics during the 1920s
In Canada, politics were dominated federally by the Liberal Party of Canada under William Lyon Mackenzie King. The federal government spent most of the decade disengaged from the economy, and focused on paying off the large debts amassed during the war and during the era of railway overexpansion. After the booming wheat economy of the early part of the century, the prairie provinces were troubled by low wheat prices. This played an important role in the development of Canada's first highly successful third party, the Progressive Party of Canada that won the second most seats in the 1921 national election.
End of the Roaring Twenties
Black Tuesday
The Dow Jones Industrial Stock Index had continued its upward move for weeks, and coupled with heightened speculative activities, it gave an illusion that the bull market of 1928 to 1929 would last forever. On 29 October 1929, also known as the Black Tuesday, stock prices on Wall Street collapsed. The events in the United States were the final shock to an unsound economic system, leading to a worldwide depression, that put millions of people out of work across the capitalist world throughout the 1930s. Thus, the Roaring Twenties ended on a downbeat note.
See also: The Great Depression and Causes of the Great Depression
Repeal of Prohibition
The 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment, was ratified on February 20, 1933. The choice to legalize alcohol was now left up to the states, and many states quickly took this opportunity to allow alcohol. As the Roaring Twenties were typified by illegal alcohol, the legalizing of alcohol in many ways symbolized their finish.
Timeline
See also
References
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Further reading
- Roaring Twenties by Stuart A. Kallen (Publisher: Greenhaven Press ISBN 0737708859)