America Developed a Car Culture and Consumer Economy in the 1920s
The automobile industry came to maturity in the 1920s. The availability of cheap vehicles, e.g. Fords (aka “Flivvers” or “Tin Lizzies”) cost $300 in the mid-1920s, had a major cultural and economic impact on the society. The impact of the automobile culture is a topic that could encompass its own book. And, there are probably […]
Radio, Hollywood, and Art Deco Reflected the Twenties’ Culture
Hollywood By the mid-Twenties there were more than 20, 000 movie theatres across the country. More than 130 million people paid ten cents to attend silent movies each week. (America, p. 472) Hollywood became as famous as Wall Street and silent film celebrities such as Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, Theda Barra, Clara […]
Radio
Prior to 1920, America had no professional radio broadcasting. All that was available was crystal radios- simple homemade radios with a lot of static. Around 1920, crystal radios were replaced by vacuum tubes that had much clearer sound. Large scale manufacture of radios began in 1920. Sales of less than 2 million in 1920 increased […]
Art Deco
Art Deco was the style of design and architecture that marked the era. Originating in Europe, it spread to North America in the mid-1920s and developed in a different direction than that of Europe. Expressionism, and later surrealism, were the preferred styles in Europe during the 1920s. Art Deco, already globally popular, found favor among […]
Reaction to all the Cultural Change
Traditional society pushed back against the dramatic changes underway in The Twenties. None of the reactionary movements was more troublesome than the rebirth of the KKK. The Klan of The Twenties was a reaction to social and political events of the era. It considered itself the defender of traditional American values against modernity, urbanization, secularization, […]
Prohibition was Part of the Fundamentalist Reaction to the Twenties
The movement to restrict the sale of alcoholic beverages dated back to colonial days. Groups that advocated abstinence from alcohol included the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Anti-Saloon League among others. These two organizations were merged into the Prohibition Party in the early twentieth century. (Tom Streissguth, The Roaring Twenties, (rev. ed.), Facts-on-File, […]
Speakeasies and Gangsterism
Speakeasies represent the classic image of The Roaring Twenties and Prohibition – people having fun breaking the law. Some were dives, located in run down cellars and providing “rot-gut” to customers, while others had genuine liquor, good entertainment and excellent food. It was estimated that there were 100,000 speakeasies in New York City alone. (TFC, […]
Jazz was the Sound of the Speakeasies
“Jazz signified revolt against sweet-tempered parlor music and polite entertainment, and defiance against Prohibition and Puritanism of all kinds.” (Streissguth, p. 116) “The true spirit of jazz is a joyous revolt from convention, custom, authority, boredom, even sorrow- from everything that would confine the soul of man and hinder its riding free on the air…It […]
Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and the Politics of Passivity
The 1920s followed the Progressive Era, which was dominated by men like Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, both in many respects altruists who believed in activist government that would intervene to solve societal problems. Remember, Teddy Roosevelt was known as a trust buster, and Wilson was going to make the world safe for democracy. People, […]
Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding, Senator from Ohio, was elected President in 1920. Harding’s greatest assets were the fact that he was extremely handsome and that “[H]e was the friendliest man who ever had entered the White House.” However, he had disastrous liabilities: he was a “fuzzy” thinker, was ill informed, was unable to think through complex […]