1920s Essay Essays

1920s Essay Essays 1920s Essay Essay 1920s Essay Essay The United States of America has had its ups and its downs over the past few centuries. One high point in our American history is the 1920 epoch. This clip period was full of comfortable and blissful citizens. The economic system. being exceptionally strong after World War I. contributed to the wealth and felicity of many Americans during this clip period. The Roaring Twentiess were a clip where people felt they could capture any dream they want. This period was known as a clip of populating the American dream. In 1918 the unreliable World War I had eventually ended. This war with states such as Austria-Hungary. the British Empire. China. France. the German Empire. Italy. Japan. Portugal. Russia. and the United States of America. resulted in over 10 million deceases. one-quarter of which were American deceases. A flu epidemic that hit America shortly after the terminal of the war killed dual that figure. The approaching decennary of wealth and pleasance was much needed to Americans ( Kallen ) . At the beginning of the 1920s America had Woodrow Wilson as our president. Unfortunately for him. they elected Warren Harding to take over the authorities ( Kallen ) . â€Å"Although Harding was known as an easygoing and good-humored leader. his disposal was prevailing with corruption† ( Kallen 12 ) . Harding so passed off on August 2. 1923 ensuing in his Vice President. Calvin Coolidge. taking office ( Kallen ) . President Coolidge’s â€Å"hands off† attack to federal directive was an influence in the boom mid-twentiess economic system. The 1920s became known as a power age. The usage of electricity increased in the mid-twentiess compared to before the war. With many Americans going more flush during this clip. the cost of measures for things such as electricity and autos were non a concern at this clip. The proportion of places with electricity started at 20 per centum in 1919 and rose to 67 per centum by 1927. The leap in electricity use besides created an addition in productiveness in mills ( Kallen ) . Many soldiers returning from war did non come back to the high wages and short yearss they were used to working. Wagess were cut for some and working environments were rough. These new working conditions caused many workers to travel on work stoppage during the 1920s ( Sann ) . Another cause to the shorter wages of returning soldiers was the fact that adult females were now wo rking. The adult females took over their occupations while most soldiers were off at war ensuing in fewer occupations when they came place. The 1920s was a delicious clip for adult females. The 1920 blessing of the 19th amendment granted adult females the right to vote. Many conservative Americans were dismayed by the new functions adult females had acquired. They protested against these alterations saying that the alterations in traditional women’s maps would by an influence on the prostration of society ( Hanson ) . Women’s engagement in the war attempt was a determinant factor in leting them to hold the right to vote. Although the House of Representatives passed the 19th amendment in 1918. it took two more old ages to be successfully passed by the Senate leting adult females to take part in the 1920 election ( Hanson ) . The functions of adult females had now developed in new ways. During the war. adult females were given the occupations left unfastened by soldiers contending in Europe. They were no longer merely homemakers who stayed place to cook. clean. and raise the kids. Womans now had occupations and callings and were given the chance to progress in the universe ( Hanson ) . The media spread the word about the new adult females revolution that was brushing the state. Magazines. newspapers. and yellow journalisms were the signifiers of media used to inform Americans of what was go oning. As certain newspapers became more popular and started being published in more metropoliss across America. less and less local metropolis newspapers were being published. We besides see the debut of a yellow journalism during the 1920 epoch. The yellow journalism frequently prints hideous and amazing narratives that were non usually printed in local intelligence ( Hanson ) . This new civilization of the 1920s was the first to be deeply influenced by mass media. Radios took to the bosom of many Americans. The gross revenues of wirelesss from the start of the 1920s to the terminal rose to about six hundred million dollars. Movies besides became more popular during this clip. Multitudes of people would garner at the theater on a Saturday afternoon to watch a play or comedy movie ( Kallen ) . We start to see that for the first clip in history more Americans lived in metropoliss than on farms. This changed was caused by the alteration in economic system. chiefly ( â€Å"The Roaring Twenties† ) . The addition in Numberss of automobilists caused soil roads to be paved over. altering the American landscape for good ( Kallen ) . Besides. more makers started bring forthing goods that were used by people all over the state. non merely in one certain country. This was due to the big countrywide advertizements. The 1920s were howling to those who were immature and booming but to those who were non. it was a clip of great struggle ( â€Å"The Roaring Twenties† ) . â€Å"The powerful economic system might of America from 1920 to October 1929 is often overlooked or merely submerged by the more exciting subjects such as Prohibition and the mobsters. the Jazz Age with its loonies. and the KKK† ( Trueman ) . America became the wealthiest state in the universe during this decennary. Our strength as a state was motivated and compelled by our huge economic power. Merely buying something had a major economic influence. This was a clip before machines and automatons created our ware and adult male really worked to do what we bought. The worker so would acquire the money he earned and alternatively of salvaging it. he’d travel out and pass it. This rhythm is what kept the money circulated in our economic system. maintaining it str ong. â€Å"The films. wireless shows. sophisticated advertisement. and popular magazines all had an influence on the lives of 1920’s young person who saw themselves as different from the older generation† ( Scott ) . The immature coevals centered themselves around glamors. They were rich and money was non a concern. The people of this coevals partied frequently and had all of the finer things in life. The parties that were thrown were excessive. The celebrated and rich all attended. They besides acquired many of the negative qualities of the people they were seeking to pattern. like smoking. bad linguistic communication. immorality. and selfishness ( Scott ) . The clip period of the 1920s was a clip when the younger coevalss rebelled against the traditions of society. The immature adult females started featuring short skirts and smoking coffin nails. The new vocals and films out at this clip talked about and glorified imbibing and have oning stockings lower than usual. These rebellious adult females were known as flappers. The flappers wore short sleeved. sometimes even sleeveless thin frocks. This new craze became dismaying the people of America ( Mcneil ) . â€Å"Criminals started providing illegal intoxicant. The simple act of imbibing a martini became an exciting escapade for many Americans† ( Kallen 17 ) . The bang of imbibing helped drive the immature rebellions that spread through society. Illegal bars started starting up everyplace in New York Cit y. In some topographic points an full metropolis block or more was fluxing with them. These illegal bars and barrooms were called speakeasies. ( Kallen ) The immature work forces were supposed to be conservative and hardworking while the adult females were supposed to be proper and modest. During the mid-twentiess. this all changed. The ethical motives of work forces and adult females had been lost. The younger grownups populating in America no longer wanted to move the manner their parents or grandparents had for coevalss. Although the alterations in vesture were harmless at first. it shocked the older coevalss who still kept to their traditional ways ( Kallen ) Another revolution that arose in the 1920s was the first sexual revolution. Sexual activity had ever been something that the populace did non speak about. However. in the 1920s. sex was everyplace you looked. Plays. music. and films now based their subjects on sex. Even books became more risque . The authorities who were seeking to halt this obscene eruption banned some. The sexual compulsion led to an compulsion of visual aspect among adult females. For the first clip the in-between category adult females could acquire their hair and nails done. The privilege was originally merely available to the affluent adult females who could afford it ( Kallen ) . Writers of the clip period frequently had problem groking the alterations that were happening in society. Some authors had enjoyed the alterations and embraced them ; others were defeated to see the old ways of society disappearance. Literature was a good manner to capture the alterations of mundane life. 1920s writers wrote about what the proverb around them. The described the manner people lived and how they interacted with each other. Reading formed a brawny portion of their broader instruction. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s portraiture of the American life style is that of the American Dream. His novel is really comparative to how most Americans lived during the 1920s. â€Å"F. Scott Fitzgerald cleanly captured the Roaring Twenties in The Great Gatsby and in exposing some of the emptiness of the era’s unchained philistinism. created a literary classic† ( Drew ) Although there are non many characters in the fresh one would desire to pattern their life after. we can still larn from what Fitzgerald wrote. ( Drew ) â€Å"I felt a haunting solitariness sometimes. and felt it in others–young clerks in the twilight. blowing the most affecting minutes of dark and life† ( Fitzgerald 62 ) . Fitzgerald portrays how many Americans were selfish and spent their life off partying and imbibing or disbursement money. In the fresh Gatsby believes people take life for granted. He thinks that now is the clip to link with people and have fun but alternatively they are merely throwing their lives off. It besides implies that with all of the wealth Gatsby has. he is still lonely in life. Peoples do non come to his parties for constructing relationships with those they meet. They go to be distracted from their mundane lives. He finds solitariness in this. Even about ninety old ages subsequently Americans can associate to life from the 1920s. We feel a kind of acquaintance when reading novels such as The Great Gatsby. Some things are here to remain such as the Internet and some many are altering mundane in society. Thingss besides repeat itself over the class of history. We notice people are still looking for felicity in life and fulfilment. Whether it is 2013 or 1920 the wealthy will ever be comfortable and the hapless will ever fight. That is how the human race is. Peoples will ever hold a demand for delighting themselves and what they want. Selfishness is wit hin each and every one of us.