View source for Roaring Twenties

{{Short description|1920s period of sustained economic prosperity in Western Europe and North America}}
{{other uses}}
{{about||the similar cultural period in France|Années folles|the similar cultural period in Germany|Golden Twenties}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox historical era
| name       = Roaring Twenties
| start      = 1920
| end        = 1929
| image      = Baker_Charleston.jpg
| caption    = [[Josephine Baker]] performing the [[Charleston (dance)|Charleston]] at the [[Folies Bergère]], [[Paris]]
| location   = Mainly the United States and Europe<br />(ensuing effects in greater Western world)
| before     = [[United States in World War I|World War I]]
| after      = [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]]
| key_events =  [[Jazz Age]]<br /> [[Radio broadcasting]]<br /> [[Cars in the 1920s|Rise of the automobile]]<br />  [[Harlem Renaissance]]<br /> [[Charles Lindbergh|Lindbergh's flight]]
}}
{{Periods in US history}}

The '''Roaring Twenties''', sometimes stylized as '''Roaring '20s''', refers to the [[1920s]] decade in music and fashion, as it happened in [[Western world|Western society]] and [[Western culture]]. It was a period of economic [[prosperity]] with a distinctive cultural edge in the United States and internationally, particularly in major cities such as Berlin,<ref>Anton Gill, ''A Dance Between Flames: Berlin Between the Wars'' (1994).</ref> Buenos Aires,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lanacion.com.ar/el-mundo/el-rugido-centenario-anos-locos-nid2333188/|language=es|work=[[La Nación]]|accessdate=May 25, 2022|date=February 16, 2020|first=Enrique Alberto|last=Fraga|title=El rugido centenario de los años locos|archive-date=May 24, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524105731/https://www.lanacion.com.ar/el-mundo/el-rugido-centenario-anos-locos-nid2333188/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="bamex">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XmbcDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA51|page=51|accessdate=May 25, 2022|via=[[Google Books]]|title=Citizens and Sportsmen: Fútbol and Politics in Twentieth-Century Chile|first=Brenda|last=Elsey|year=2011|publisher=[[University of Texas Press]]|isbn=9780292726307}}</ref> Chicago,<ref>Marc Moscato, ''Brains, Brilliancy, Bohemia: Art & Politics in Jazz-Age Chicago'' (2009)</ref> London,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hall |first1=Lesley A. |title=Impotent ghosts from no man's land, flappers' boyfriends, or crypto-patriarchs? Men, sex and social change in 1920s Britain |journal=Social History |date=1996 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=54–70 |doi=10.1080/03071029608567956}}</ref> Los Angeles,<ref>David Robinson, ''Hollywood in the Twenties'' (1968)</ref> Mexico City,<ref name="bamex"/> New York City,<ref>David Wallace, ''Capital of the World: A Portrait of New York City in the Roaring Twenties'' (2011)</ref> Paris,<ref>Jody Blake, ''Le Tumulte Noir: modernist art and popular entertainment in jazz-age Paris, 1900–1930'' (1999)</ref> and Sydney.<ref>Jack Lindsay, ''The roaring twenties: literary life in Sydney, New South Wales in the years 1921-6'' (1960)</ref> In France, the decade was known as the {{lang|fr|[[années folles]]}} ({{gloss|crazy years}}),<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_c3i0|url-access=registration|title=150 Years of Popular Musical Theatre|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2000|page=[https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_c3i0/page/n208 195]|author=Andrew Lamb|isbn=978-0-300-07538-0}}</ref> emphasizing the era's social, artistic and cultural dynamism. [[Jazz]] blossomed, the [[flapper]] redefined the modern look for British and American women,<ref>Pamela Horn, ''Flappers: The Real Lives of British Women in the Era of the Great Gatsby'' (2013)</ref><ref>Angela J. Latham, ''Posing a Threat: Flappers, Chorus Girls, and Other Brazen Performers of the American 1920s'' (2000)</ref> and [[Art Deco]] peaked.<ref>[[Madeleine Ginsburg]], ''Paris fashions: the art deco style of the 1920s'' (1989)</ref>

The social and cultural features known as the Roaring Twenties began in leading metropolitan centers and spread widely in the [[aftermath of World War I]]. The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of novelty associated with [[modernity]] and a break with tradition, through modern technology such as automobiles, [[Film|moving pictures]], and radio, bringing "modernity" to a large part of the population. Formal decorative frills were shed in favor of [[Pragmatism|practicality]] in both daily life and architecture. At the same time, jazz and dancing rose in popularity, in opposition to the mood of World War I. As such, the period often is referred to as the [[Jazz Age]].

The 1920s saw the large-scale development and use of automobiles, telephones, films, radio, and electrical appliances in the lives of millions in the Western world. Aviation soon became a business due to its rapid growth. Nations saw rapid industrial and economic growth, accelerated consumer demand, and introduced significant new trends in lifestyle and culture. The media, funded by the new industry of mass-market advertising driving consumer demand, focused on celebrities, especially sports heroes and movie stars, as cities rooted for their home teams and filled the new palatial cinemas and gigantic sports stadiums. In many countries, [[Timeline of women's suffrage|women won the right to vote]].

[[Wall Street]] invested heavily in Germany under the 1924 [[Dawes Plan]], named after banker and later 30th vice president [[Charles G. Dawes]]. The money was used indirectly to pay [[World War I reparations|reparations]] to countries that also had to pay off their war debts to Washington.<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 13, 2018 |title=Dawes Plan |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/modern-europe/treaties-and-alliances/dawes-plan |access-date=October 21, 2023 |website=encyclopedia.com}}</ref> While by the middle of the decade prosperity was widespread, with the second half of the decade known, especially in Germany, as the "[[Golden Twenties]]",<ref>Bärbel Schrader, and Jürgen Schebera. ''The" golden" twenties: art and literature in the Weimar Republic'' (1988)</ref> the decade was coming fast to an end. The [[Wall Street crash of 1929]] ended the era, as the [[Great Depression]] brought years of hardship worldwide.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nOALhEZkYDkC&pg=PA12|title=A Low Dishonest Decade: The Great Powers, Eastern Europe, and the Economic Origins of World War II, 1930–1941|publisher=Continuum|year=2005|page=12|author=Paul N. Hehn|isbn=978-0-8264-1761-9}}</ref>

==Economy==
[[File:PIBUSA1920-40.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|USA GDP annual pattern and long-term trend, 1920–1940, in billions of constant dollars<ref>Based on data in Susan Carter, ed. ''Historical Statistics of the US: Millennial Edition'' (2006) series Ca9</ref>]]

The Roaring Twenties was a decade of economic growth and widespread prosperity, driven by recovery from wartime devastation and deferred spending, a boom in construction, and the rapid growth of [[Final good|consumer goods]] such as automobiles and electricity in North America and Europe and a few other developed countries such as Australia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1564.html|title=Roaring Twenties|website=U-S-History.com|publisher=Online Highways|access-date=November 14, 2019|archive-date=October 31, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181031133023/https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1564.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The economy of the United States, successfully transitioned from a [[War economy|wartime economy]] to a peacetime economy, boomed and provided loans for a European boom as well. Some sectors [[Economic stagnation|stagnated]], especially farming and coal mining. The US became the [[List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita|richest country]] in the world per capita and since the late-19th century had been the largest in total GDP. Its industry was based on [[mass production]], and its society acculturated into [[consumerism]]. [[Economic history of Europe|European economies]], by contrast, had a more difficult post-war readjustment and did not begin to flourish until about 1924.<ref name=Soule-1947>George H. Soule, ''Prosperity Decade: From War to Depression: 1917–1929'' (1947)</ref>

At first, the end of wartime production caused a brief but deep recession, the [[post–World War I recession]] of 1919–1920 and a [[Depression of 1920–1921|sharp deflationary recession or depression]] in 1920–1921. Quickly, however, the economies of the U.S. and Canada rebounded as returning soldiers re-entered the labor force and munitions factories were retooled to produce consumer goods.

===New products and technologies===
[[Mass production]] made technology affordable to the middle class.<ref name=Soule-1947/> The [[automotive industry]], the [[film industry]], the [[radio industry]], and the [[chemical industry]] took off during the 1920s.

====Automobiles====
{{Further|Cars in the 1920s}}

Before World War I, cars were a [[Luxury goods|luxury good]]. In the 1920s, mass-produced vehicles became commonplace in the U.S. and Canada. The 1927 [[Ford Motor Company]] discontinued the [[Ford Model T]] after selling 15 million units of that model. It had been in continuous production from October 1908 to May 1927.<ref name="Ford Motors">{{cite press release|title=Model T Facts|publisher=Ford|location=US|url=https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2013/08/05/model-t-facts.html|access-date=April 23, 2013|archive-date=September 28, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928165026/https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2013/08/05/model-t-facts.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="test">{{cite web|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/content/10-moments-made-american-business|title=10 Moments That Made American Business|date=March 1, 2007|website=American Heritage|access-date=December 24, 2012|author=John Steele Gordon|archive-date=December 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181212131912/http://www.americanheritage.com/content/10-moments-made-american-business|url-status=live}}</ref> The company planned to replace the old model with a newer one, the [[Ford Model A (1927–31)|Ford Model A]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=189&category=business|title=Michigan History|work=Detroit News|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120710135903/http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=189&category=business|archive-date=July 10, 2012}}</ref> The decision was a reaction to competition. Due to the commercial success of the Model T, Ford had dominated the automotive market from the mid-1910s to the early-1920s. In the mid-1920s, Ford's dominance eroded as its competitors had caught up with Ford's mass production system. They began to surpass Ford in some areas, offering models with more powerful engines, new convenience features, and styling.<ref name="Sorensen1956pp217-219">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|pp=217–219}}.</ref><ref name="Hounshell1984pp263-264">{{Harvnb|Hounshell|1984|pp=263–264}}</ref><ref name="Sloan1964pp162-163">{{Harvnb|Sloan|1964|pp=162–163}}</ref>

Only about 300,000 vehicles were registered in 1918 in all of Canada, but by 1929, there were 1.9&nbsp;million. By 1929, the United States had just under 27,000,000<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/summary95/mv200.pdf|title=STATE MOTOR VEHICLE REGISTRATIONS, BY YEARS, 1900 – 1995 1/|website=Fhwa.dot.gov|access-date=February 28, 2022|archive-date=March 7, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307200231/https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/summary95/mv200.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> motor vehicles registered. Automobile parts were being manufactured in Ontario, near Detroit, Michigan. The automotive industry's influence on other segments of the economy were widespread, jump starting industries such as steel production, highway building, motels, service stations, car dealerships, and new housing outside the urban core.

Ford opened factories around the world and proved a strong competitor in most markets for its low-cost, easy-maintenance vehicles. [[General Motors]], to a lesser degree, followed. European competitors avoided the low-price market and concentrated on more expensive vehicles for upscale consumers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Foreman-Peck |first1=James |title=The American Challenge of the Twenties: Multinationals and the European Motor Industry |journal=The Journal of Economic History |date=1982 |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=865–881 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700028370|s2cid=154328982 }}</ref>

====Radio====
[[File:Youthful radio expert.png|thumb|Early radio in Chicago, 1922]]
Radio became the first [[Mass media|mass broadcasting medium]]. Radios were expensive, but their mode of entertainment proved revolutionary. Radio advertising became a platform for [[mass marketing]]. Its economic importance led to the [[Media culture|mass culture]] that has dominated society since this period. During the "[[Golden Age of Radio]]", radio programming was as varied as the television programming of the 21st century. The 1927 establishment of the [[Federal Radio Commission]] introduced a new era of regulation.

In 1925, [[Gramophone record#Electrical recording|electrical recording]], one of the greater advances in [[Sound recording and reproduction|sound recording]], became available with commercially issued [[gramophone record]]s.

====Cinema====
The cinema boomed, producing a new form of entertainment that virtually ended the old [[vaudeville]] theatrical genre. Watching a film was cheap and accessible; crowds surged into new downtown [[movie palace]]s and neighborhood theaters. Since the early 1910s, lower-priced cinema successfully competed with vaudeville. Many vaudeville performers and other theatrical personalities were recruited by the film industry, lured by greater salaries and less arduous working conditions. The introduction of [[sound film]], a.k.a. "the talkies" which did not surge until the end of the decade of the 1920s, eliminated vaudeville's last major advantage and put it into sharp financial decline. The prestigious [[Orpheum Circuit]], a chain of vaudeville and movie theaters, was absorbed by a new film studio.<ref name="Kendricklove">Kenrick, John. [http://www.musicals101.com/1927-30film2.htm "History of Musical Film, 1927–30: Part II"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190526102704/http://www.musicals101.com/1927-30film2.htm |date=May 26, 2019 }}. Musicals101.com, 2004, accessed May 17, 2010</ref>

=====Sound movies=====
[[File:The Night Court (1927).webm|thumb|''The Night Court'' (1927), an early American sound film and example of Roaring Twenties culture]]
In 1923, inventor [[Lee de Forest]] at [[Phonofilm]] released a number of short films with sound. Meanwhile, inventor [[Theodore Case]] developed the [[Movietone sound system]] and sold the rights to the film studio, [[Fox Film]]. In 1926, the [[Vitaphone]] sound system was introduced. The feature film ''[[Don Juan (1926 film)|Don Juan]]'' (1926) was the first feature-length film to use the Vitaphone sound system with a synchronized musical score and sound effects, though it had no spoken dialogue.<ref>{{cite book|title=Early Warner Bros. Studios|last2=Wanamaker|first2=Marc|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2010|isbn=978-0-738-58091-3|page=25|last1=Stephens|first1=E. J.}}</ref> The film was released by the film studio [[Warner Bros.]] In October 1927, the sound film ''[[The Jazz Singer]]'' (1927) turned out to be a smash box-office success. It was innovative for its use of sound. Produced with the Vitaphone system, most of the film does not contain live-recorded audio, relying on a score and effects. When the movie's star, [[Al Jolson]], sings, however, the film shifts to sound recorded on the set, including both his musical performances and two scenes with ad-libbed speech—one of Jolson's character, Jakie Rabinowitz (Jack Robin), addressing a cabaret audience; the other an exchange between him and his mother. The "natural" sounds of the settings were also audible.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.amps.net/newsletters/issue23/23_jazz.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991022042212/http://www.amps.net/newsletters/Issue23/23_jazz.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 22, 1999 |title=Why ''The Jazz Singer''? |date=Autumn 1997 |publisher=Association of Motion Picture Sound |author=Allen, Bob |work=AMPS Newsletter |access-date=December 12, 2009 }}</ref> The film's profits were proof enough to the film industry that the technology was worth investing in.<ref>Geduld (1975), p. 166.</ref>

In 1928, the film studios [[Famous Players–Lasky]] (later known as [[Paramount Pictures]]), [[First National Pictures]], [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]], and [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]] signed an agreement with Electrical Research Products Inc. (ERPI) for the conversion of production facilities and theaters for sound film. Initially, all ERPI-wired theaters were made Vitaphone-compatible; most were equipped to project Movietone reels as well.<ref>Crafton (1997), p. 148.</ref> Also in 1928, [[RCA Corporation|Radio Corporation of America]] (RCA) marketed a new sound system, the [[RCA Photophone]] system. RCA offered the rights to its system to the subsidiary [[RKO Pictures]]. Warner Bros. continued releasing a few films with live dialogue, though only in a few scenes. It finally released ''[[Lights of New York (1928 film)|Lights of New York]]'' (1928), the first all-talking full-length feature film. The animated short film ''[[Dinner Time (film)|Dinner Time]]'' (1928) by the [[Van Beuren Studios]] was among the first animated sound films. It was followed a few months later by the animated short film ''[[Steamboat Willie]]'' (1928), the first sound film by the [[Walt Disney Animation Studios]]. It was the first commercially successful animated short film and introduced the character [[Mickey Mouse]].<ref>Crafton (1997), p. 390.</ref>''Steamboat Willie'' was the first cartoon to feature a fully post-produced soundtrack, which distinguished it from earlier sound cartoons. It became the most popular cartoon of its day.<ref name="SS">[http://www.screensavour.net/2008/08/steamboat-willie-1928.html ''Steamboat Willie'' (1929)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111121043940/http://www.screensavour.net/2008/08/steamboat-willie-1928.html |date=November 21, 2011 }} at Screen Savour</ref>

For much of 1928, Warner Bros. was the only studio to release [[List of early Warner Bros. talking features|talking features]]. It profited from its innovative films at the box office. Other studios quickened the pace of their conversion to the new technology and started producing their own sound films and talking films. In February 1929, sixteen months after ''The Jazz Singer'', [[Columbia Pictures]] became the eighth and last major studio to release a talking feature. In May 1929, Warner Bros. released ''[[On with the Show (1929 film)|On with the Show!]]'' (1929), the first all-color, all-talking feature film.<ref>Robertson (2001), p. 63.</ref> Soon [[silent film]] production ceased. The last totally silent feature produced in the US for general distribution was ''[[The Poor Millionaire]]'', released by Biltmore Pictures in April 1930. Four other silent features, all low-budget [[Western (genre)|Westerns]], were also released in early 1930.<ref>Robertson (2001), p. 173.</ref>

====Aviation====
The 1920s saw milestones in aviation that seized the world's attention. In 1927, [[Charles Lindbergh]] rose to fame with the first solo nonstop [[transatlantic flight]]. He took off from [[Roosevelt Field (airport)|Roosevelt Field]] in New York and landed at [[Paris–Le Bourget Airport]]. It took Lindbergh 33.5 hours to cross the Atlantic Ocean.<ref>Jackson 2012, pp. 512–516.</ref> His aircraft, the [[Spirit of St. Louis]], was a custom-built, single engine, single-seat [[monoplane]]. It was designed by [[Aerospace engineering|aeronautical engineer]] [[Donald A. Hall]]. In Britain, [[Amy Johnson]] (1903–1941) was the first woman to fly alone from Britain to Australia. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, she set numerous long-distance records during the 1930s.<ref>Spencer Dunmore, ''Undaunted: Long-Distance Flyers in the Golden Age of Aviation'' (2004)</ref>

====Television====
The 1920s saw several inventors advance work on television, but programs did not reach the public until the eve of World War II, and few people saw any television before the mid-1940s.

In July 1928, [[John Logie Baird]] demonstrated the world's first color transmission, using scanning discs at the transmitting and receiving ends with three spirals of apertures, each spiral with a filter of a different primary color; and three light sources at the receiving end, with a commutator to alternate their illumination.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.google.com/patents?id=JRVAAAAAEBAJ|title=Patent US1925554 – Television apparatus and the like|website=Google.com|access-date=February 28, 2022|archive-date=May 18, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518084511/http://www.google.com/patents?id=JRVAAAAAEBAJ|url-status=dead}}</ref> That same year he also demonstrated stereoscopic television.<ref>R. F. Tiltman, [http://www.bairdtelevision.com/stereo.html How "Stereoscopic" Television is Shown] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101019045734/http://www.bairdtelevision.com/stereo.html |date=October 19, 2010 }}, ''Radio News'', November 1928</ref>

In 1927, Baird transmitted a long-distance television signal over {{convert|438|mi|km}} of telephone line between London and Glasgow; Baird transmitted the world's first long-distance television pictures to the Central Hotel at Glasgow Central Station.<ref>[http://www.scotlandontv.tv/scotland_on_tv/video.html?vxSiteId=60fdd544-9c52-4e17-be7e-57a2a2d76992&vxChannel=History%20Places&vxClipId=1380_SMG1671&vxBitrate=300 Interview with Paul Lyons] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202163233/http://www.scotlandontv.tv/scotland_on_tv/video.html?vxSiteId=60fdd544-9c52-4e17-be7e-57a2a2d76992&vxChannel=History%20Places&vxClipId=1380_SMG1671&vxBitrate=300 |date=February 2, 2009 }}, Historian and Control and Information Officer at Glasgow Central Station</ref> Baird then set up the [[Edward Manville|Baird Television Development Company Ltd]] and in 1928 made the first transatlantic television transmission, from London to Hartsdale, New York and the first television programme for the BBC.<ref name="Historical Figures">{{cite web|title=Historic Figures: John Logie Baird (1888–1946)|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/baird_logie.shtml|publisher=BBC|access-date=April 28, 2015|archive-date=October 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191008035514/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/baird_logie.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Medicine====
{{Further|History of penicillin}}

For decades biologists had been at work on the medicine that became penicillin. In 1928, Scottish biologist [[Alexander Fleming]] discovered a substance that killed a number of disease-causing bacteria. In 1929, he named the new substance [[penicillin]]. His publications were largely ignored at first, but it became a significant [[antibiotics|antibiotic]] in the 1930s. In 1930, Cecil George Paine, a [[pathologist]] at [[Sheffield Royal Infirmary]], used penicillin to treat [[sycosis barbae]], eruptions in beard follicles, but was unsuccessful. Moving to [[Neonatal conjunctivitis|ophthalmia neonatorum]], a gonococcal infection in infants, he achieved the first recorded cure with penicillin, on November 25, 1930. He then cured four additional patients (one adult and three infants) of eye infections, but failed to cure a fifth.<ref name="Wainwright, M & Swan, HT 1986 42–56">{{cite journal|author=Wainwright M, Swan HT|title=C.G. Paine and the earliest surviving clinical records of penicillin therapy|journal=Medical History|volume=30|issue=1|pages=42–56|date=January 1986|pmid=3511336|pmc=1139580|doi=10.1017/S0025727300045026|last2=Swan}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|pmc=1340901|year=1986|last1=Howie|first1=J|title=Penicillin: 1929–40|journal=British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Ed.)|volume=293|issue=6540|pages=158–159|doi=10.1136/bmj.293.6540.158|pmid=3089435}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|pmc=1139683|year=1987|last1=Wainwright|first1=M|title=The history of the therapeutic use of crude penicillin|journal=Medical History|volume=31|issue=1|pages=41–50|pmid=3543562|doi=10.1017/s0025727300046305}}</ref>

===New infrastructure===
The automobile's dominance led to a new psychology celebrating mobility.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 2711684|title = Three Stages of American Automobile Consciousness|journal = American Quarterly|volume = 24|issue = 4|pages = 451–473|last1 = Flink|first1 = James J.|year = 1972|doi = 10.2307/2711684}}</ref> Cars and trucks needed road construction, new bridges, and regular highway maintenance, largely funded by local and state government through taxes on gasoline. Farmers were early adopters as they used their pickups to haul people, supplies and animals. New industries were spun off—to make tires and glass and refine fuel, and to service and repair cars and trucks by the millions. New car dealers were franchised by the car makers and became prime movers in the local business community. Tourism gained an enormous boost, with hotels, restaurants and curio shops proliferating.<ref>John A. Jakle, and Keith A. Sculle, ''Fast food: Roadside restaurants in the automobile age'' (2002).</ref><ref>Christopher W. Wells, ''Car Country: Automobiles, Roads and the Shaping of the Modern American Landscape, 1890–1929'' (2004).</ref>

[[Electrification]], having slowed during the war, progressed greatly as more of the US and Canada was added to the [[electrical grid]]. Industries switched from coal power to electricity. At the same time, new [[power plant]]s were constructed. In America, electricity production almost quadrupled.<ref>David E. Nye, ''Electrifying America: Social meanings of a new technology, 1880–1940'' (1992)</ref>

Telephone lines also were being strung across the continent. Indoor plumbing was installed for the first time in many homes, made possible due to modern [[sanitary sewer|sewer system]]s.

Urbanization reached a milestone in the 1920 census, the results of which showed that slightly more Americans lived in urban areas, towns, and cities, populated by 2,500 or more people, than in small towns or rural areas. However, the nation was fascinated with its great metropolitan centers that contained about 15% of the population. The cities of New York and Chicago vied in building skyscrapers, and New York pulled ahead with its [[Empire State Building]]. The basic pattern of the modern [[White-collar worker|white-collar]] job was set during the late-19th century, but it now became the norm for life in large and medium-sized cities. Typewriters, filing cabinets, and telephones brought many unmarried women into clerical jobs. In Canada, by the end of the decade, one in five workers were women. Interest in finding jobs, in the now ever-growing manufacturing sector of U.S. cities, became widespread among rural Americans.<ref name=farmdep>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanhistoryusa.com/great-farm-depression-1920s/|title=The Great (Farm) Depression of the 1920s|author=Dan Bryan|publisher=American History USA|access-date=November 10, 2013|archive-date=June 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190628015455/https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/great-farm-depression-1920s/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Society==

===Suffrage===
{{Main|Women's suffrage in the United States}}

Many countries expanded women's voting rights, such as the United States, Canada, Great Britain, India, and various European countries in 1917–1921. This influenced many governments and elections by increasing the number of voters (but not doubling it, because many women did not vote during the early years of suffrage, as can be seen by the large drop in voter turnout). Politicians responded by focusing more on issues of concern to women, especially peace, public health, education, and the status of children. On the whole, women voted much like men, except they were more interested in peace,<ref>June Hannam, Mitzi Auchterlonie, and Katherine Holden, eds. ''International encyclopedia of women's suffrage'' (Abc-Clio Inc, 2000).</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Rosemary Skinner Keller|author2=Rosemary Radford Ruether|author3=Marie Cantlon|title=Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ffc15PaJ74AC&pg=PA1033|year=2006|publisher=Indiana UP|isbn=0-253-34688-6|page=1033}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Josephine Donovan|title=Feminist Theory, Fourth Edition: The Intellectual Traditions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bFbP0DawYPAC&pg=PA60|year=2012|publisher=A&C Black|page=60|isbn=978-1-4411-6830-6}}</ref> even when it meant appeasement.<ref>{{cite book|author=Julie V. Gottlieb|title='Guilty Women', Foreign Policy, and Appeasement in Inter-War Britain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W52FCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA4|year=2016|publisher=Springer|page=4|isbn=978-1-137-31660-8}}</ref>

===Lost Generation===
{{Main|Lost Generation}}

The Lost Generation was composed of young people who came out of World War I disillusioned and cynical about the world. The term usually refers specifically to American literary notables who lived in Paris at the time. Famous members included [[Ernest Hemingway]], [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]], and [[Gertrude Stein]] who wrote novels and short stories criticizing the materialism they perceived to be rampant during this era.

In the United Kingdom, the [[bright young things]] were young aristocrats and socialites who threw fancy dress parties, went on elaborate treasure hunts, were seen in all the trendy venues, and were well covered by the gossip columns of the London tabloids.<ref>{{cite book|author=D. J. Taylor|title=Bright Young People: The Lost Generation of London's Jazz Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W_P5kIqTiRIC&pg=PT303|year=2010|publisher=Macmillan|page=303|isbn=978-1-4299-5895-0}}</ref>

===Social criticism===
[[File:Chrysler Building at night.JPG|thumb|upright|Climax of the new architectural style: the Chrysler Building in New York City was built after the European wave of [[Art Deco]] reached the United States.]]

As the average American in the 1920s became more enamored of wealth and everyday luxuries, some began satirizing the hypocrisy and greed they observed. Of these social critics, [[Sinclair Lewis]] was the most popular. His popular 1920 novel ''[[Main Street (novel)|Main Street]]'' satirized the dull and ignorant lives of the residents of a Midwestern town. He followed with ''[[Babbitt (novel)|Babbitt]]'', about a [[Middle age|middle-aged]] businessman who rebels against his dull life and family, only to realize that the younger generation is as hypocritical as his own. Lewis satirized religion with ''[[Elmer Gantry]]'', which followed a [[Confidence trick|con man]] who teams with an evangelist to sell religion to a small town.

Other social critics included [[Sherwood Anderson]], [[Edith Wharton]], and [[H. L. Mencken]]. Anderson published a collection of short stories titled ''[[Winesburg, Ohio (novel)|Winesburg, Ohio]]'', which studied the dynamics of a small town. Wharton mocked the fads of the new era through her novels, such as ''[[Twilight Sleep (novel)|Twilight Sleep]]'' (1927). Mencken criticized narrow American tastes and culture in essays and articles.

===Art Deco===
{{Main|Art Deco}}

Art Deco was the style of design and architecture that marked the era. Originating in Europe, it spread to the rest of western Europe and North America towards the mid-1920s.

In the U.S., one of the more remarkable buildings featuring this style was constructed as the [[List of tallest buildings and structures in the world|tallest building]] of the time: the [[Chrysler Building]]. The forms of Art Deco were pure and geometric, though the artists often drew inspiration from nature. In the beginning, lines were curved, though rectilinear designs would later become more and more popular.

===Expressionism and surrealism===
Painting in North America during the 1920s developed in a different direction from that of 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===
{{Further|Cinema of the United States|1920s in film|Pre-Code Hollywood}}
[[File:felix-pace.jpg|thumb|left|[[Felix the Cat]], a popular cartoon character of the decade, exhibits his famous pace.]]

At the beginning of the decade, films were silent and colorless. In 1922, the first all-color feature, ''[[The Toll of the Sea]]'', was released. In 1926, [[Warner Bros.]] released ''[[Don Juan (1926 film)|Don Juan]]'', the first feature with [[sound effect]]s and music. In 1927, Warner released ''[[The Jazz Singer]]'', the first sound feature to include limited talking sequences.

The public went wild for sound films, and movie studios converted to sound almost overnight.<ref>[[Harry M. Geduld|Geduld, Harry M.]] (1975). ''The Birth of the Talkies: From Edison to Jolson''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. {{ISBN|0-253-10743-1}}</ref> In 1928, Warner released ''[[Lights of New York (1928 film)|Lights of New York]]'', the first all-talking feature film. In the same year, the first sound cartoon, ''[[Dinner Time (cartoon)|Dinner Time]]'', was released. Warner ended the decade by unveiling ''[[On with the Show (1929 film)|On with the Show]]'' in 1929, the first all-color, all-talking feature film.

Cartoon shorts were popular in movie theaters during this time. In the late 1920s, [[Walt Disney]] emerged. [[Mickey Mouse]] made his debut in ''[[Steamboat Willie]]'' on November 18, 1928, at the Colony Theater in New York City. Mickey was featured in more than 120 cartoon shorts, the [[Mickey Mouse Club]], and other specials. This started Disney and led to creation of other characters going into the 1930s.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://disney.go.com/vault/archives/characterstandard/mickey/mickey.html |title=Mickey Mouse Character History |website=Disney Archives |access-date=February 26, 2011 |archive-date=March 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110309053808/http://disney.go.com/vault/archives/characterstandard/mickey/mickey.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit]], a character created by Disney before Mickey in 1927, was contracted by [[Universal Pictures|Universal]] for distribution purposes, and starred in a series of shorts between 1927 and 1928. Disney lost the rights to the character, but in 2006, regained the rights to Oswald. He was the first Disney character to be merchandised.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://disney.go.com/vault/archives/characters/oswald/oswald.html |title=Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Character History |website=Disney Archives |access-date=February 26, 2011 |archive-date=March 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110307064409/http://disney.go.com/vault/archives/characters/oswald/oswald.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[File:Trianon Theater ad - 25 November 1923, Birmingham, AL.png|thumb|Advertisement for ''[[Flaming Youth (film)|Flaming Youth]]'', 1923]]

The period had the emergence of box-office draws such as [[Mae Murray]], [[Ramón Novarro]], [[Rudolph Valentino]], [[Buster Keaton]], [[Harold Lloyd]], [[Warner Baxter]], [[Clara Bow]], [[Louise Brooks]], [[Diana Serra Cary|Baby Peggy]], [[Bebe Daniels]], [[Billie Dove]], [[Dorothy Mackaill]], [[Mary Astor]], [[Nancy Carroll]], [[Janet Gaynor]], [[Charles Farrell]], [[William Haines]], [[Conrad Nagel]], [[John Gilbert (actor)|John Gilbert]], [[Greta Garbo]], [[Dolores del Río]], [[Norma Talmadge]], [[Colleen Moore]], [[Nita Naldi]], [[Leatrice Joy]], [[John Barrymore]], [[Norma Shearer]], [[Joan Crawford]], [[Anna May Wong]], and [[Al Jolson]].<ref>J. G. Ellrod, ''The Stars of Hollywood Remembered: Career Biographies of 81 Actors and Actesses of the Golden Era, 1920s–1950s'' (1997).</ref>

===Harlem===
{{Main|Harlem Renaissance}}

African American literary and artistic culture developed rapidly during the 1920s under the banner of the "[[Harlem Renaissance]]". In 1921, the [[Black Swan Records|Black Swan Corporation]] was founded. At its height, it issued 10 recordings per month. All-African American musicals also started in 1921. In 1923, the [[New York Renaissance|Harlem Renaissance Basketball Club]] was founded by [[Bob Douglas]]. During the late-1920s, and especially in the 1930s, the basketball team became known as the best in the world.

The first issue of ''[[Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life|Opportunity]]'' was published. The African American playwright Willis Richardson debuted his play ''The Chip Woman's Fortune'' at the Frazee Theatre (also known as the [[Wallacks theatre]]).{{ref|fn_1}} Notable African American authors such as [[Langston Hughes]] and [[Zora Neale Hurston]] began to achieve a level of national public recognition during the 1920s.

===Jazz Age===
{{Further|Jazz|Jazz Age}}

The 1920s brought new styles of music into the mainstream of culture in avant-garde cities. [[Jazz]] became the most popular form of music for youth.<ref>Arnold Shaw, ''The Jazz Age: Popular Music in the 1920s'' (Oxford UP, 1989).</ref> Historian Kathy J. Ogren wrote that, by the 1920s, jazz had become the "dominant influence on America's popular music generally".<ref>Kathy J. Ogren, ''The Jazz Revolution: Twenties America and the Meaning of Jazz'' (1989) p. 11.</ref> Scott DeVeaux argues that a standard history of jazz has emerged such that: "After an obligatory nod to African origins and ragtime antecedents, the music is shown to move through a succession of styles or periods: New Orleans jazz up through the 1920s, swing in the 1930s, bebop in the 1940s, cool jazz and hard bop in the 1950s, free jazz and fusion in the 1960s.... There is substantial agreement on the defining features of each style, the pantheon of great innovators, and the canon of recorded masterpieces."<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Scott |last1=DeVeaux |title=Constructing the Jazz Tradition: Jazz Historiography |journal=Black American Literature Forum |volume=25 |issue=3 |year=1991 |pages=525–60 |url=http://wayneandwax.com/pdfs/deveaux-constructing-jazz-trad.pdf |doi=10.2307/3041812 |jstor=3041812 |access-date=February 9, 2017 |archive-date=April 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412053718/http://wayneandwax.com/pdfs/deveaux-constructing-jazz-trad.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

The pantheon of performers and singers from the 1920s include [[Louis Armstrong]], [[Duke Ellington]], [[Sidney Bechet]], [[Jelly Roll Morton]], [[Joe "King" Oliver]], [[James P. Johnson]], [[Fletcher Henderson]], [[Frankie Trumbauer]], [[Paul Whiteman]], [[Roger Wolfe Kahn]], [[Bix Beiderbecke]], [[Adelaide Hall]], and [[Bing Crosby]]. The development of urban and city blues also began in the 1920s with performers such as [[Bessie Smith]] and [[Ma Rainey]]. In the latter part of the decade, early forms of [[country music]] were pioneered by [[Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)|Jimmie Rodgers]], [[The Carter Family]], [[Uncle Dave Macon]], [[Vernon Dalhart]], and [[Charlie Poole]].<ref>Ted Gioia, ''The History of Jazz'' (Oxford UP, 2011).</ref>

===Dance===
Dance clubs became enormously popular in the 1920s. Their popularity peaked in the late 1920s and reached into the early 1930s. Dance music came to dominate all forms of popular music by the late 1920s. Classical pieces, operettas, folk music, etc., were all transformed into popular dancing melodies to satiate the public craze for dancing. For example, many of the songs from the 1929 [[Technicolor]] musical operetta "[[The Rogue Song]]" (starring the Metropolitan Opera star [[Lawrence Tibbett]]) were rearranged and released as dancing music and became popular dance club hits in 1929.

Dance clubs across the U.S.-sponsored dancing 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 stage circuit across the United States. With the advent of talking pictures (sound film), musicals became all the rage and film studios flooded the box office with extravagant and lavish musical films. The representative was the musical ''[[Gold Diggers of Broadway]]'', which became the highest-grossing film of the decade. Harlem played a key role in the development of dance styles. Several entertainment venues attracted people of all races. The [[Cotton Club]] featured black performers and catered to a white clientele, while the [[Savoy Ballroom]] catered to a mostly black clientele. Some religious moralists preached against "Satan in the dance hall" but had little impact.<ref>Ralph G. Giordano, ''Satan in the dance hall: Rev. John Roach Straton, social dancing, and morality in 1920s New York City'' (2008).</ref>

The most popular dances throughout the decade were the [[foxtrot]], [[waltz]], and [[American tango]]. From the early 1920s, however, a variety of eccentric novelty dances were developed. The first of these were the [[Breakaway (dance)|Breakaway]] and [[Charleston (dance)|Charleston]]. Both were based on African American musical styles and beats, including the widely popular [[blues]]. The Charleston's popularity exploded after its feature in two 1922 Broadway shows. A brief [[Black Bottom (dance)|Black Bottom]] craze, originating from the [[Apollo Theater]], swept dance halls from 1926 to 1927, replacing the Charleston in popularity.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Robinson |first1=Danielle |title='Oh, You Black Bottom!' Appropriation, Authenticity, and Opportunity in the Jazz Dance Teaching of 1920s New York |journal=Dance Research Journal |date=2006 |volume=38 |issue=1–2 |pages=19–42 |doi=10.1017/S0149767700007312|doi-access=free }}</ref> By 1927, the [[Lindy Hop]], a dance based on Breakaway and Charleston and integrating elements of tap, became the dominant [[social dance]]. Developed in the Savoy Ballroom, it was set to [[stride piano]] [[ragtime]] jazz. The Lindy Hop later evolved into other [[Swing (dance)|Swing]] dances.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 3052731|title = Swing and the Lindy Hop: Dance, Venue, Media, and Tradition|journal = American Music|volume = 15|issue = 2|pages = 183–207|last1 = Spring|first1 = Howard|year = 1997|doi = 10.2307/3052731}}</ref> These dances, nonetheless, never became mainstream, and the overwhelming majority of people in Western Europe and the U.S. continued to dance the foxtrot, waltz, and tango throughout the decade.<ref>{{cite book|author=Frances Rust|title=Dance in Society: An Analysis of the Relationship Between the Social Dance and Society in England from the Middle Ages to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OblYAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA189|year=1969|publisher=Routledge|page=189|isbn=978-1-134-55407-2}}</ref>

The dance craze had a large influence on popular music. Large numbers of recordings labeled as foxtrot, tango, and waltz were produced and gave rise to a generation of performers who became famous as recording artists or radio artists. Top vocalists included [[Nick Lucas]], [[Adelaide Hall]], [[Scrappy Lambert]], Frank Munn, [[Lewis James]], [[Chester Gaylord]], [[Gene Austin]], [[James Melton]], [[Franklyn Baur]], Johnny Marvin, [[Annette Hanshaw]], [[Helen Kane]], [[Vaughn De Leath]], and [[Ruth Etting]]. Leading dance orchestra leaders included [[Bob Haring]], [[Harry Horlick (bandleader)|Harry Horlick]], Louis Katzman, [[Leo Reisman]], [[Victor Arden]], [[Phil Ohman]], [[George Olsen]], [[Ted Lewis (musician)|Ted Lewis]], [[Abe Lyman]], [[Ben Selvin]], [[Nat Shilkret]], [[Fred Waring]], and [[Paul Whiteman]].<ref>Jim Cox, ''Music radio: the great performers and programs of the 1920s through early 1960s'' (McFarland, 2005).</ref>

===Fashion===
{{Main|Flapper}}
{{Further|1920s in Western fashion}}

====Attire====
Paris set the fashion trends for Europe and North America.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Roberts |first1=Mary Louise |title=Samson and Delilah Revisited: The Politics of Women's Fashion in 1920s France |journal=The American Historical Review |date=1993 |volume=98 |issue=3 |pages=657–684 |doi=10.1086/ahr/98.3.657}}</ref> The fashion for women was all about getting loose. Women wore dresses all day, every day. Day dresses had a drop waist, which was a sash or belt around the low waist or hip and a skirt that hung anywhere from the ankle on up to the knee, never above. Daywear had sleeves (long to mid-bicep) and a skirt that was straight, pleated, hank hem, or tired. Jewelry was less conspicuous.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bliss |first1=Simon |title=''{{'}}L'intelligence de la parure{{'}}'': Notes on Jewelry Wearing in the 1920s |journal=Fashion Theory |date=2016 |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=5–26 |doi=10.1080/1362704X.2015.1077652|s2cid=191700478 }}</ref> Hair was often bobbed, giving a boyish look.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zdatny |first1=Steven |title=The Boyish Look and the Liberated Woman: The Politics and Aesthetics of Women's Hairstyles |journal=Fashion Theory |date=1997 |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=367–397 |doi=10.2752/136270497779613639}}</ref>

For men in white collar jobs, business suits were the day to day attire. Striped, plaid, or windowpane suits came in dark gray, blue, and brown in the winter and ivory, white, tan, and pastels in the summer. Shirts were white and neckties were essential.<ref>Angel Kwolek-Folland, ''Engendering Business: Men and Women in the Corporate Office, 1870–1930'' (Johns Hopkins UP, 1994).</ref>

[[File:Norma Talmadge 1920.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Actress [[Norma Talmadge]]]]
Immortalized in movies and magazine covers, young women's fashions of the 1920s set both a trend and social statement, a breaking-off from the rigid [[Victorian era|Victorian]] way of life. These young, rebellious, middle-class women, labeled 'flappers' by older generations, did away with the corset and donned slinky knee-length dresses, which exposed their legs and arms. The hairstyle of the decade was a chin-length bob, which had several popular variations. Cosmetics, which until the 1920s were not typically accepted in American society because of their association with prostitution, became extremely popular.<ref>Carolyn Kitch, ''The Girl on the Magazine Cover'' (University of North Carolina Press, 2001). pp. 122–23.</ref>

In the 1920s, new magazines appealed to young German women with a sensuous image and advertisements for the appropriate clothes and accessories they would want to purchase. The glossy pages of ''Die Dame'' and ''Das Blatt der Hausfrau'' displayed the "Neue Frauen", "New Girl" – what Americans called the [[flapper]]. She was young and fashionable, financially independent, and was an eager consumer of the latest fashions. The magazines kept her up to date on styles, clothes, designers, arts, sports, and modern technology such as automobiles and telephones.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sylvester |first1=Nina |title=Before ''Cosmopolitan'': The Girl in German women's magazines in the 1920s |journal=Journalism Studies |date=2007 |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=550–554 |doi=10.1080/14616700701411953|s2cid=220410086 }}</ref>

===Sexuality of women during the 1920s===
The 1920s was a period of social revolution, coming out of World War I, society changed as inhibitions faded and youth demanded new experiences and more freedom from old controls. Chaperones faded in importance as "anything goes" became a slogan for youth taking control of their subculture.<ref>Lucy Moore, ''Anything Goes: A Biography of the Roaring Twenties'' (Atlantic Books, 2015).</ref> A new woman was born—a "flapper" who danced, drank, smoked and voted. This new woman cut her hair, wore make-up, and partied. She was known for being giddy and taking risks.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Popular Culture: 1920–1938|last=Bingham|first=Jane|publisher=Heinemann Library|year=2012|location=Chicago Illinois}}</ref> Women gained the right to vote in most countries. New careers opened for single women in offices and schools, with salaries that helped them to be more independent.<ref>Paula S. Fass, ''The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s'' (Oxford UP, 1977)</ref> With their desire for freedom and independence came change in fashion.<ref>{{cite book|author=Litchfield Historical Society|title=The House of Worth: Fashion Sketches, 1916–1918|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FhUvCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA28|year=2015|publisher=Courier Dover|isbn=978-0-486-79924-7|page=28}}</ref> One of the more dramatic post-war changes in fashion was the woman's silhouette; the dress length went from floor length to ankle and knee length, becoming more bold and seductive. The new dress code emphasized youth: Corsets were left behind and clothing was looser, with more natural lines. The [[hourglass figure]] was not popular anymore, and a slimmer, boyish body type was considered appealing. The flappers were known for this and for their high spirits, flirtation, and recklessness when it came to the search for fun and thrills.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Language of Clothes|url=https://archive.org/details/languageofclothe00luri|url-access=registration|last=Lurie|first=Alison|publisher=New York: Random House|year=1981|location=New York|isbn=9780394513027}}</ref>

[[Coco Chanel]] was one of the more enigmatic fashion figures of the 1920s. She was recognized for her avant-garde designs; her clothing was a mixture of wearable, comfortable, and elegant. She was the one to introduce a different aesthetic into fashion, especially a different sense for what was feminine, and based her design on new ethics; she designed for an active woman, one that could feel at ease in her dress.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Fashion & Accessories|last=Brand|first=Jan|publisher=Arnhem :Terra|year=2007}}</ref> Chanel's primary goal was to empower freedom. She was the pioneer for women wearing pants and for the [[little black dress]], which were signs of a more independent lifestyle.

===Changing role of women===
[[File:Map of US Suffrage, 1920.svg|thumb|left|Map of local U.S. suffrage laws just prior to passing of the 19th Amendment<br />Dark blue = full women's suffrage<br />Bright red = no women's suffrage]]

Most British historians depict the 1920s as an era of domesticity for women with little feminist progress, apart from full suffrage which came in 1928.<ref>{{cite journal| doi=10.1191/1478003804cs0014ra|title='An Era of Domesticity'? Histories of Women and Gender in Interwar Britain| journal=Cultural and Social History|volume=1| issue=2|pages=225–233|year=2004| last1=Bingham| first1=Adrian|s2cid=145681847}}</ref> On the contrary, argues [[Alison Light]], literary sources reveal that many British women enjoyed:

{{blockquote|...{{nbsp}}the buoyant sense of excitement and release which animates so many of the more broadly cultural activities which different groups of women enjoyed in this period. What new kinds of social and personal opportunity, for example, were offered by the changing cultures of sport and entertainment{{nbsp}}... by new patterns of domestic life{{nbsp}}... new forms of a household appliance, new attitudes to housework?<ref>Alison Light, ''Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism between the Wars'' (1991) p. 9.</ref>}}

With the passage of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|19th Amendment]] in 1920, that [[Women's suffrage|gave women the right to vote]], American feminists attained the [[Political egalitarianism|political equality]] they had been waiting for. A generational gap began to form between the "new" women of the 1920s and the previous generation. Prior to the 19th Amendment, feminists commonly thought women could not pursue both a career and a family successfully, believing one would inherently inhibit the development of the other. This mentality began to change in the 1920s, as more women began to desire not only successful careers of their own, but also families.<ref>Brown, Dorothy M. ''Setting a Course: American Women in the 1920s'' (Twayne Publishers, 1987) p. 33.</ref> The "new" woman was less invested in social service than the [[Progressivism in the United States|progressive]] generations, and in tune with the consumerist spirit of the era, she was eager to compete and to find personal fulfillment.<ref>Nancy Woloch, ''Women and the American Experience: A Concise History'' (2002). p. 256.</ref>
Higher education was rapidly expanding for women. Linda Eisenmann claims, "New collegiate opportunities for women profoundly redefined womanhood by challenging the Victorian belief that men's and women's social roles were rooted in biology."<ref>Linda Eisenmann, ''Historical Dictionary of Women's Education in the United States'' (1998) p. 440.</ref>

Advertising agencies exploited the new status of women, for example in publishing automobile ads in women's magazines, at a time when the vast majority of purchasers and drivers were men. The new ads promoted new freedoms for affluent women while also suggesting the outer limits of the new freedoms. Automobiles were more than practical devices. They were also highly visible symbols of affluence, mobility, and modernity. The advertisements, wrote Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, "offered women a visual vocabulary to imagine their new social and political roles as citizens and to play an active role in shaping their identity as modern women".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rabinovitch-Fox |first1=Einav |title=Baby, You Can Drive My Car: Advertising Women's Freedom in 1920s America |journal=American Journalism |date=2016 |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=372–400 |doi=10.1080/08821127.2016.1241641|s2cid=157498769 }}</ref>

Significant changes in the lives of [[Women in the workforce|working women]] occurred in the 1920s. [[World War I]] had temporarily allowed women to enter into industries such as chemical, automobile, and iron and steel manufacturing, which were once deemed inappropriate work for women.<ref>Alice Kessler-Harris, ''Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States'' (Oxford University Press, 2003) p. 219.</ref> Black women, who had been historically closed out of factory jobs, began to find a place in industry during World War I by accepting lower wages and replacing the lost immigrant labor and in heavy work. Yet, like other women during World War I, their success was only temporary; most black women were also pushed out of their factory jobs after the war. In 1920, 75% of the black female labor force consisted of agricultural laborers, domestic servants, and laundry workers.<ref name="Kessler-Harris, Alice 2003. p. 237">Kessler-Harris, Alice. ''Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States'' p. 237.</ref>

[[File:Equal Rights Envoys 159003v.jpg|thumb|right|Equal rights envoys of the National Woman's Party, 1927]]
Legislation passed at the beginning of the 20th century mandated a [[minimum wage]] and forced many factories to shorten their workdays. This shifted the focus in the 1920s to job performance to meet demand. Factories encouraged workers to produce more quickly and efficiently with speedups and bonus systems, increasing the pressure on factory workers. Despite the strain on women in the factories, the booming economy of the 1920s meant more opportunities even for the lower classes. Many young girls from working-class backgrounds did not need to help support their families as prior generations did and were often encouraged to seek work or receive vocational training which would result in social mobility.<ref>Kessler-Harris, '' Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States'' pp 237, 288.</ref>

The achievement of suffrage led to feminists refocusing their efforts towards other goals. Groups such as the [[National Woman's Party]] continued the political fight, proposing the [[Equal Rights Amendment]] in 1923 and working to remove laws that used sex to discriminate against women,<ref>Nancy Woloch, ''Women and the American Experience: A Concise History'' (McGraw–Hill, 2002) p. 246.</ref> but many women shifted their focus from politics to challenge traditional definitions of womanhood.

Young women, especially, began staking claim to their own bodies and took part in a [[Sexual revolution|sexual liberation]] of their generation. Many of the ideas that fueled this change in sexual thought were already floating around New York intellectual circles prior to World War I, with the writings of [[Sigmund Freud]], [[Havelock Ellis]], and [[Ellen Key]]. There, thinkers claimed that sex was not only central to the human experience, but also that women were sexual beings with human impulses and desires, and restraining these impulses was self-destructive. By the 1920s, these ideas had permeated the mainstream.<ref>Woloch, ''Women and the American Experience: A Concise History'' p. 274.</ref>

In the 1920s, the [[co-ed]] emerged, as women began attending large state colleges and universities. Women entered into the mainstream middle class experience but took on a gendered role within society. Women typically took classes such as home economics, "Husband and Wife", "Motherhood" and "The Family as an Economic Unit". In an increasingly conservative postwar era, a young woman commonly would attend college with the intention of finding a suitable husband. Fueled by ideas of sexual liberation, dating underwent major changes on college campuses. With the advent of the automobile, courtship occurred in a much more private setting. "[[Making out|Petting]]", sexual relations without intercourse, became the social norm for a portion of college students.<ref>Woloch, ''Women and the American Experience: A Concise History'', pp. 28–3.</ref>

Despite women's increased knowledge of pleasure and sex, the decade of unfettered capitalism that was the 1920s gave birth to the "feminine mystique". With this formulation, all women wanted to marry, all good women stayed at home with their children, cooking and cleaning, and the best women did the aforementioned and in addition, exercised their purchasing power freely and as frequently as possible to better their families and their homes.<ref>Ruth Schwartz Cowan, ''Two Washes in the Morning and a Bridge Party at Night: The American Housewife between the Wars'' (1976) p. 184.</ref>

===Liberalism in Europe===
The Allied victory in World War I seemed to mark the triumph of [[History of Liberalism|liberalism]], not just in the Allied countries themselves, but also in Germany and in the new states of Eastern Europe, as well as Japan. Authoritarian militarism as typified by Germany had been defeated and discredited. Historian Martin Blinkhorn argues that the liberal themes were ascendant in terms of "cultural pluralism, religious and ethnic toleration, national self-determination, free-market economics, representative and responsible government, free trade, unionism, and the peaceful settlement of international disputes through a new body, the League of Nations".<ref>{{cite book|author1=Nicholas Atkin|author2=Michael Biddiss|title=Themes in Modern European History, 1890–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DFN_AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA244|year=2008|publisher=Routledge|pages=243–44|isbn=978-1-134-22257-5}}</ref> However, as early as 1917, the emerging liberal order was being challenged by the new [[Communist International|communist movement]] taking inspiration from the [[Russian Revolution]]. Communist revolts were beaten back everywhere else, but they did succeed in Russia.<ref>Gregory M. Luebbert, ''Liberalism, fascism, or social democracy: Social classes and the political origins of regimes in interwar Europe'' (Oxford UP, 1991).</ref>

===Homosexuality===
[[File:WeMustGrowAMustache.jpg|thumb|right|[[Speed Langworthy]]'s sheet music poking fun at the masculine traits many women adopted during the 1920s]]

{{Further|LGBT history in the United States|List of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender-related films of the 1920s}}
[[Homosexuality]] became much more visible and somewhat more acceptable. London, New York, Paris, Rome,<ref>{{cite book|author=Julian Jackson|title=Living in Arcadia: Homosexuality, Politics, and Morality in France from the Liberation to AIDS|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i5OfesofLXcC&pg=PA32|year=2009|publisher=University of Chicago Press|page=32|isbn=978-0-226-38928-8}}</ref> and Berlin were important centers of the new ethic.<ref>{{cite book|author=Florence Tamagne|title=A History of Homosexuality in Europe: Berlin, London, Paris, 1919–1939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PW1GjP0_6Y4C&pg=PA309|year=2006|publisher=Algora Publishing|page=309|isbn=978-0-87586-357-3}}</ref> Historian Jason Crouthamel argues that in Germany, the First World War promoted homosexual emancipation because it provided an ideal of comradeship which redefined homosexuality and masculinity. The many gay rights groups in Weimar Germany favored a militarised rhetoric with a vision of a spiritually and politically emancipated hypermasculine gay man who fought to legitimize "friendship" and secure civil rights.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Crouthamel |first1=Jason |title='Comradeship' and 'Friendship': Masculinity and Militarisation in Germany's Homosexual Emancipation Movement after the First World War: Masculinity and Militarisation in Germany's Homosexual Emancipation Movement |journal=Gender & History |date=2011 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=111–129 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0424.2010.01626.x|s2cid=143240617 }}</ref> Ramsey explores several variations. On the left, the ''Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee'' ([[Scientific-Humanitarian Committee]]; WhK) reasserted the traditional view that homosexuals were an effeminate "[[third gender|third sex]]" whose sexual ambiguity and nonconformity was biologically determined. The radical nationalist ''Gemeinschaft der Eigenen'' (Community of the Self-Owned) proudly proclaimed homosexuality as heir to the manly German and classical Greek traditions of homoerotic male bonding, which enhanced the arts and glorified relationships with young men. The politically centrist ''Bund für Menschenrecht'' (League for Human Rights) engaged in a struggle for human rights, advising gays to live in accordance with the mores of middle-class German respectability.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ramsey |first1=Glenn |title=The Rites of ''Artgenossen'': Contesting Homosexual Political Culture in Weimar Germany |journal=Journal of the History of Sexuality |date=2007 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=85–109 |doi=10.1353/sex.2008.0009|pmid=19260158 |s2cid=22292105 }}</ref>

Humor was used to assist in acceptability. One popular American song, "Masculine Women, Feminine Men",<ref>The song was written by Edgar Leslie (words) and James V. Monaco (music) and featured in Hugh J. Ward's Musical Comedy "Lady Be Good."</ref> was released in 1926 and recorded by numerous artists of the day; it included these lyrics:<ref>Artists who recorded this song include: 1. Frank Harris (Irving Kaufman), (Columbia 569D,1/29/26) 2. Bill Meyerl & Gwen Farrar (the UK, 1926) 3. Joy Boys (the UK, 1926) 4. Harry Reser's Six Jumping Jacks (the UK, 2/13/26) 5. Hotel Savoy Opheans ([[His Master's Voice (British record label)|His Master's Voice]] 5027, (UK), 1927, aka Savoy Havana Band) 6. Merrit Brunies & His Friar's Inn
Orchestra on Okeh 40593, 3/2/26</ref>

{{Poemquote|''Masculine women, Feminine men''
''Which is the rooster, which is the hen?''
''It's hard to tell 'em apart today! And, say!''
''Sister is busy learning to shave,''
''Brother just loves his permanent wave,''
''It's hard to tell 'em apart today! Hey, hey!''
''Girls were girls and boys were boys when I was a tot,''
''Now we don't know who is who, or even what's what!''
''Knickers and trousers, baggy and wide,''
''Nobody knows who's walking inside,''
''Those masculine women and feminine men!''<ref>A full reproduction of the original sheet music with the complete lyrics can be found at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.mus-an6301650 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013212916/http://nla.gov.au/nla.mus-an6301650|date=2007-10-13}}</ref>
|char=|sign=|title=|source=}}

The relative liberalism of the decade is demonstrated by the fact that the actor [[William Haines]], regularly named in newspapers and magazines as the No. 1 male box-office draw, openly lived in a gay relationship with his partner, [[Jimmie Shields]]. Other popular gay actors/actresses of the decade included [[Alla Nazimova]] and [[Ramón Novarro]].<ref>Mann, William J., '' Wisecracker: the life and times of William Haines, Hollywood's first openly gay star'' (Viking, 1998) pp 2–6, 12–13, 80–83.</ref> In 1927, [[Mae West]] wrote a play about homosexuality called ''The Drag'',<ref>See [https://www.amazon.com/Three-Plays-Mae-West-Pleasure/dp/0415909325 ''Three Plays by Mae West: Sex, The Drag and Pleasure Man''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305043317/http://www.amazon.com/Three-Plays-Mae-West-Pleasure/dp/0415909325 |date=March 5, 2016 }}</ref> and alluded to the work of [[Karl Heinrich Ulrichs]]. It was a box-office success. West regarded talking about sex as a basic human rights issue, and was also an early advocate of [[LGBT social movements|gay rights]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Jill Watts|title=Mae West: An Icon in Black and White|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xpMzyL6w2v4C&pg=PA300|year=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=300|isbn=978-0-19-534767-8}}</ref>

Profound hostility did not abate in more remote areas such as western Canada.<ref>T{{cite journal|first1=Terry L. |last1=Chapman|title='An Oscar Wilde Type': 'The Abominable Crime of Buggery' in Western Canada, 1890–1920|journal=Criminal Justice History|date=1983|volume= 4|pages= 97–118}}</ref> With the return of a conservative mood in the 1930s, the public grew intolerant of homosexuality, and [[gay actors]] were forced to choose between retiring or agreeing to hide their sexuality even in Hollywood.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hurewitz |first1=Daniel |title=Goody-Goodies, Sissies, and Long-Hairs: The Dangerous Figures in 1930s Los Angeles Political Culture |journal=Journal of Urban History |date=2006 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=26–50 |doi=10.1177/0096144206291106|s2cid=145242206 }}</ref>

===Psychoanalysis===
Austrian psychiatrist [[Sigmund Freud]] (1856–1939) played a major role in [[psychoanalysis]], which impacted avant-garde thinking, especially in the humanities and artistic fields. Historian [[Roy Porter]] wrote:
:He advanced challenging theoretical concepts such as unconscious mental states and their repression, infantile sexuality and the symbolic meaning of dreams and hysterical symptoms, and he prized the investigative techniques of free association and dream interpretation, to methods for overcoming resistance and uncovering hidden unconscious wishes.<ref name=Porter>{{cite book|author=Roy Porter|title=The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zcpFAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA516|year=1999|publisher=W. W. Norton|pages=516–517|isbn=978-0-393-24244-7}}</ref>

Other influential proponents of psychoanalysis included [[Alfred Adler]] (1870–1937), [[Karen Horney]] (1885–1952), [[Carl Jung]] (1875–1961), [[Otto Rank]] (1884–1939), [[Helene Deutsch]] (1884–1982), and Freud's daughter [[Anna Freud|Anna]] (1895–1982). Adler argued that a neurotic individual would overcompensate by manifesting aggression. Porter notes that Adler's views became part of "an American commitment to social stability based on individual adjustment and adaptation to healthy, social forms".<ref name=Porter/>

==Culture==

===Immigration restrictions===
The United States became more anti-immigration in policy. The [[Emergency Quota Act|Emergency Quota Act of 1921]], intended to be a temporary measure, set numerical limitations on immigration from countries outside the [[Western Hemisphere]], capped at approximately 357,000 total annually. The [[Immigration Act of 1924]] made permanent a more restrictive total cap of around 150,000 per annum, based on the [[National Origins Formula]] system of quotas limiting immigration to a fraction proportionate to an ethnic group's existing share of the United States population in 1920.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Beaman|first=Middleton|date=1924|title=CURRENT LEGISLATION: The Immigration Act of 1924|journal=American Bar Association Journal|volume=10|issue=7|pages=490–492|issn=0002-7596|jstor=25709038}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|date=August 1931|title=Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1931.|url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1931/compendia/statab/53ed/1931-03.pdf|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce|pages=103–107|edition=53rd|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210329144712/https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1931/compendia/statab/53ed/1931-03.pdf|archive-date=March 29, 2021|access-date=August 24, 2021}}</ref> The goal was to freeze the pattern of European ethnic composition, and to exclude almost all Asians. Hispanics were not restricted.<ref>John Higham, ''Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860–1925'' (1955) pp 312–30</ref>

Australia, New Zealand, and Canada also sharply restricted or ended Asian immigration. In Canada, the [[Chinese Immigration Act, 1923|Chinese Immigration Act of 1923]] prevented almost all immigration from Asia. Other laws curbed immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bashford |first1=Alison |title=Immigration restriction: rethinking period and place from settler colonies to postcolonial nations |journal=Journal of Global History |date=2014 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=26–48 |doi=10.1017/S174002281300048X|s2cid=144901101 }}</ref><ref>W. Peter Ward, ''White Canada forever: popular attitudes and public policy towards Orientals in British Columbia'' (McGill-Queens UP, 1990).</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first1=P.|last1=O'Connor|title=Keeping New Zealand white, 1908–1920|journal=New Zealand Journal of History|volume=2|issue=1|date=1968|pages=41–65|url=http://www.nzjh.auckland.ac.nz/document.php?wid=1655|access-date=January 2, 2021|archive-date=August 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815201931/http://www.nzjh.auckland.ac.nz/document.php?wid=1655|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Sean Brawley, ''The white peril: foreign relations and Asian immigration to Australia and North America, 1919–1978'' (U of New South Wales Press, 1995).</ref>

===Prohibition===
{{Main|Prohibition in the United States}}

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the [[Progressivism|progressive movement]] gradually caused local communities in many parts of Western Europe and North America to tighten restrictions of vice activities, particularly gambling, alcohol, and narcotics (though splinters of this same movement were also involved in racial segregation in the U.S.). This movement gained its strongest traction in the U.S. leading to the passage of the [[Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution]] and the associated [[Volstead Act]] which made illegal the manufacture, import and sale of beer, wine and hard liquor (though drinking was technically not illegal). The laws were specifically promoted by evangelical Protestant churches and the [[Anti-Saloon League]] to reduce drunkenness, petty crime, domestic abuse, corrupt saloon-politics, and (in 1918), Germanic influences. The [[Ku Klux Klan]] (KKK) was an active supporter in rural areas, but cities generally left enforcement to a small number of federal officials. The various restrictions on alcohol and gambling were widely unpopular leading to rampant and flagrant violations of the law, and consequently to a rapid rise of [[organized crime]] around the nation (as typified by Chicago's [[Al Capone]]).<ref>{{cite book|author=Daniel Okrent|title=Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition|year=2010|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781439171691}}</ref> [[Prohibition in Canada|In Canada]], prohibition ended much earlier than in the U.S., and barely took effect at all in the province of Quebec, which led to Montreal's becoming a tourist destination for legal alcohol consumption. The continuation of legal alcohol production in Canada soon led to a new industry in smuggling liquor into the U.S.<ref>Gerald Hallowell, [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/prohibition "Prohibition in Canada"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140723012311/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/prohibition/ |date=July 23, 2014 }}. ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (1988)</ref>

====Rise of the speakeasy====
{{Listen
|filename    = Save a Little Dram for Me.ogg
|title       = "Save A Little Dram For Me"
|description = Prohibition era song recorded by [[Thomas Edison]] studio, 1922. Duration 3:29.
|format      = [[Ogg]]}}

[[Speakeasy|Speakeasies]] were illegal bars selling beer and liquor after paying off local police and government officials. They became popular in major cities and helped fund large-scale gangsters operations such as those of [[Lucky Luciano]], [[Al Capone]], [[Meyer Lansky]], [[Bugs Moran]], [[Moe Dalitz]], [[Joseph Ardizzone]], and [[Sam Maceo]]. They operated with connections to organized crime and liquor smuggling. While the U.S. Federal Government agents raided such establishments and arrested many of the small figures and 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. Many shows in cities such as New York, Paris, London, Berlin, and San Francisco featured [[Drag queen|female impersonators]] or drag performers in a wave of popularity known as the [[Pansy Craze]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Bullock |first=Darryl W. |date=September 14, 2017 |title=Pansy Craze: the wild 1930s drag parties that kickstarted gay nightlife |url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/14/pansy-craze-the-wild-1930s-drag-parties-that-kickstarted-gay-nightlife |access-date=October 27, 2022 |website=[[The Guardian]] |language=en |issn=1756-3224}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=May 11, 2018 |title=The Pansy Craze: When gay nightlife in Los Angeles really kicked off |url=https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/curious-coast/the-pansy-craze-when-gay-nightlife-in-los-angeles-really-kicked-off |access-date=October 27, 2022 |website=KCRW |language=en}}</ref> 
Police were notoriously bribed by speakeasy operators to either leave them alone or at least give them advance notice of any planned raid.<ref>Michael A. Lerner, ''Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City'' (2007).</ref>

===Literature===
{{Further|1920s#Literature}}

The Roaring Twenties was a period of literary creativity, and works of several notable authors<!-- no need for lists; see category if desired—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. After an initially mixed response, [[T. S. Eliot|T. S. Eliot's]] multi-part poem ''[[The Waste Land]]'' came to be regarded as a seminal Modernist work, and its experimentation with [[intertextuality]] would heavily influence the evolution of 20th Century poetry.
Books that take the 1920s as their subject include:
* ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'' by [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]], set in 1922 in the vicinity of New York City, is often described as the symbolic meditation on the "Jazz Age" in American literature.
* ''[[All Quiet on the Western Front]]'' by [[Erich Maria Remarque]] recounts the horrors of World War I 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, primarily set up in post-World War I Princeton University, portrays the lives and morality of youth.
* ''[[The Sun Also Rises]]'' by [[Ernest Hemingway]] is about a group of expatriate Americans in Europe during the 1920s.

The 1920s also saw the widespread popularity of the [[pulp magazine]]. Printed on cheap [[Pulp (paper)|pulp paper]], these magazines provided affordable entertainment to the masses and quickly became one of the most popular forms of media during the decade. Many prominent writers of the 20th century would get their start writing for pulps, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, [[Dashiell Hammett]], and [[H. P. Lovecraft]]. Pulp fiction magazines would last in popularity until the 1950s.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.nrm.org/2013/04/pulp-magazines-and-their-influence-on-entertainment-today-by-mai-ly-degnan/|title = Pulp Magazines and their Influence on Entertainment Today by Mai Ly Degnan – Norman Rockwell Museum – the Home for American Illustration|date = April 12, 2013|access-date = January 23, 2020|archive-date = June 14, 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200614075220/https://www.nrm.org/2013/04/pulp-magazines-and-their-influence-on-entertainment-today-by-mai-ly-degnan/|url-status = live}}</ref>

===Solo flight across the Atlantic===
[[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, New York|Nassau County]], Long Island), New York to Paris on May 20–21, 1927. He had a single-engine airplane, the "[[Spirit of St. Louis]]", which had been designed by [[Donald A. Hall]] and custom built by [[Ryan Aeronautical Company|Ryan Airlines]] of San Diego, California. His flight took 33.5 hours. The [[President of the French Republic|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 (United States)|Distinguished Flying Cross]].

===Sports===
The Roaring Twenties was the breakout decade for sports across the modern world. Citizens from all parts of the country flocked to see the top athletes of the day compete in arenas and stadiums. 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]] in American sports literature presented a new form of heroism departing from the traditional models of masculinity.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Imhoof |first1=D. |title=The Game of Political Change: Sports in Göttingen during the Weimar and Nazi Eras |journal=German History |date=2009 |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=374–394 |doi=10.1093/gerhis/ghp032}}</ref>

High school and junior high school students were offered to play sports that they had not been able to play in the past. Several sports, such as golf, that had previously been unavailable to the middle-class finally became available.

In 1929, driver [[Henry Segrave]] reached a record land speed of 231.44&nbsp;mph in his car, the [[Golden Arrow (car)|Golden Arrow]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Sir Henry Segrave, British race–car driver|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sir-Henry-ONeal-de-Hane-Segrave}}</ref>

====Olympics====
Following the 1922 Latin American Games in Rio de Janeiro, [[International Olympic Committee|IOC]] officials toured the region, helping countries establish national Olympic committees and prepare for future competition. In some countries, such as Brazil, sporting and political rivalries hindered progress as opposing factions battled for control of the international sport. The 1924 Olympic Games in Paris and the 1928 games in Amsterdam saw greatly increased participation from Latin American athletes.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Torres |first1=Cesar R. |title=The Latin American 'Olympic explosion' of the 1920s: Causes and consequences |journal=The International Journal of the History of Sport |date=2006 |volume=23 |issue=7 |pages=1088–1111 |doi=10.1080/09523360600832320|s2cid=144085742 }}</ref>

Sports journalism, modernity, and nationalism excited Egypt. Egyptians of all classes were captivated by news of the Egyptian national soccer team's performance in international competitions. Success or failure in the Olympics of 1924 and 1928 was more than a betting opportunity but became an index of Egyptian independence and a desire to be seen as modern by Europe. Egyptians also saw these competitions as a way to distinguish themselves from the traditionalism of the rest of Africa.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lopez |first1=Shaun |title=Football as National Allegory: ''Al-Ahram'' and the Olympics in 1920s Egypt |journal=History Compass |date=2009 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=282–305 |doi=10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00576.x}}</ref>

====Balkans====
The Greek government of [[Eleftherios Venizelos]] initiated a number of programs involving physical education in the public schools and raised the profile of sports competition. Other Balkan nations also became more involved in sports and participated in several precursors of the Balkan Games, competing sometimes with Western European teams. The Balkan Games, first held in Athens in 1929 as an experiment, proved a sporting and a diplomatic success. From the beginning, the games, held in Greece through 1933, sought to improve relations among Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Albania. As a political and diplomatic event, the games worked in conjunction with an annual Balkan Conference, which resolved issues between these often-feuding nations. The results were quite successful; officials from all countries routinely praised the games' athletes and organizers. During a period of persistent and systematic efforts to create rapprochement and unity in the region, this series of athletic meetings played a key role.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kissoudi |first1=P. |title=Sport, Politics and International Relations in the Balkans: the Balkan Games from 1929 to 1932 |journal=The International Journal of the History of Sport |date=2008 |volume=25 |issue=13 |pages=1771–1813 |doi=10.1080/09523360802367349|s2cid=216150051 }}</ref>

====United States====
The most popular American athlete of the 1920s 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 home runs, setting a new single-season home run record that was not broken until 1961. Together with [[Lou Gehrig]], another star athlete, Ruth laid the foundation of future [[New York Yankees]] dynasties.

A former bar room brawler named [[Jack Dempsey]], also known as The Manassa Mauler, won the world heavyweight boxing title and became the most celebrated [[Boxing|pugilist]] of his time. [[Enrique Chaffardet]] the Venezuelan [[Featherweight]] [[Boxing world champions|World Champion]] was the most sought-after boxer in 1920s Brooklyn, New York City. College football captivated fans, with notables such as [[Red Grange]], [[running back]] of the University of Illinois, and [[Knute Rockne]] who coached Notre Dame's football program to great success on the field and nationwide notoriety. Grange also played a role in the development of professional football in the mid-1920s by signing on with the [[National Football League|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. [[Bobby Jones (golfer)|Bobby Jones]] also popularized golf with his spectacular successes on the links. Ruth, Dempsey, Grange, Tilden, and Jones are collectively referred to as the "Big Five" sporting icons of the Roaring Twenties.

===Organized crime===
{{See also|American Mafia}}
[[File:Balinese_room_galveston.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Balinese Room]], famed [[Free State of Galveston|Galveston, Texas]], casino/nightclub opened in the 1920s by the [[Sam Maceo|Maceo]] crime syndicate]]

During the 19th century, vices such as gambling, alcohol, and narcotics had been popular throughout the United States in spite of not always being technically legal. Enforcement against these vices had always been spotty. Indeed, most major cities established [[red-light district]]s to regulate gambling and prostitution despite the fact that these vices were typically illegal. However, with the rise of the [[Progressivism|progressive movement]] in the early 20th century, laws gradually became tighter with most gambling, alcohol, and narcotics outlawed by the 1920s. Because of widespread public opposition to these prohibitions, especially alcohol, a great economic opportunity was created for criminal enterprises. Organized crime blossomed during this era, particularly the [[American Mafia]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Mafia in the United States | website=History.com | date=October 22, 2009 | url=http://www.history.com/topics/mafia-in-the-united-states | access-date=December 21, 2017 | archive-date=December 22, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222052641/http://www.history.com/topics/mafia-in-the-united-states | url-status=live }}</ref> After the 18th Amendment went into effect, bootlegging became widespread. So lucrative were these vices that some entire cities in the U.S. became illegal gaming centers with vice actually supported by the local governments. Notable examples include Miami, Florida, and [[Free State of Galveston|Galveston, Texas]]. Many of these criminal enterprises would long outlast the Roaring Twenties and ultimately were instrumental in establishing Las Vegas as a gambling center.

==Culture of Weimar Germany==
{{Main|Weimar culture}}
[[File:Bauhaus08Oct09.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.15|[[Bauhaus Dessau]], built from 1925 to 1926 to a design by [[Walter Gropius]] ]]
[[File: Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-P062899, Berlin, Tanzkabarett im Europahaus.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|The [[Europahaus]], one of the hundreds of [[cabaret]]s in Weimar Berlin, 1931]]

[[Weimar culture]] was the flourishing of the arts and sciences in Germany during the [[Weimar Republic]], from 1918 until [[Adolf Hitler]]'s rise to power in 1933.<ref name="isbn=978-0-393-32239-2">{{cite book |last1=Gay |first1=Peter |title=Weimar Culture: The Outsider As Insider |date=December 17, 2001 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-32239-2 <!-- |access-date=1 November 2023 --> |language=en}}</ref> [[1920s Berlin]] was at the hectic center of the Weimar culture. Although not part of Germany, German-speaking Austria, and particularly Vienna, is often included as part of Weimar culture.<ref>Lee Congdon, ''Exile and Social Thought: Hungarian Intellectuals in Germany and Austria, 1919–1933'' (1991).</ref> [[Bauhaus]] was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts. Its goal of unifying art, craft, and technology became influential worldwide, especially in architecture.<ref>[[Kathleen James-Chakraborty]], ''Bauhaus Culture: From Weimar to the Cold War'' (2006).</ref>

Germany, and Berlin in particular, was fertile ground for intellectuals, artists, and innovators from many fields. The social environment was chaotic, and politics were passionate. German university faculties became universally open to Jewish scholars in 1918. Leading Jewish intellectuals on university faculties included physicist [[Albert Einstein]]; sociologists [[Karl Mannheim]], [[Erich Fromm]], [[Theodor Adorno]], [[Max Horkheimer]], and [[Herbert Marcuse]]; philosophers [[Ernst Cassirer]] and [[Edmund Husserl]]; sexologist [[Magnus Hirschfeld]]; political theorists [[Arthur Rosenberg]] and [[Gustav Meyer]]; and many others. Nine German citizens were awarded Nobel Prizes during the Weimar Republic, five of whom were Jewish scientists, including two in medicine.<ref>{{cite book|last=Niewyk|first=Donald L.|title=The Jews in Weimar Germany|year=2001|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-0-7658-0692-5|pages=39–40}}</ref>

Sport took on a new importance as the human body became a focus that pointed away from the heated rhetoric of standard politics. The new emphasis reflected the search for freedom by young Germans alienated from rationalized work routines.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 30038070|title = Athletics, Aesthetics, and Politics in the Weimar Press|journal = German Studies Review|volume = 28|issue = 1|pages = 85–106|last1 = Rippey|first1 = Theodore F.|year = 2005}}</ref>

==American politics==
{{See also|1920 United States presidential election}}

The 1920s saw dramatic innovations in American political campaign techniques, based especially on new advertising methods that had worked so well selling war bonds during [[World War I]]. Governor [[James M. Cox]] of Ohio, the Democratic Party candidate, made a whirlwind campaign that took him to rallies, train station speeches, and formal addresses, reaching audiences totaling perhaps 2,000,000 people. It resembled the [[William Jennings Bryan]] campaign of 1896. By contrast, the Republican Party candidate Senator [[Warren G. Harding]] of Ohio relied upon a "[[front porch campaign]]". It brought 600,000 voters to Marion, Ohio, where Harding spoke from his home. Republican campaign manager [[Will H. Hays|Will Hays]] spent some $8,100,000; nearly four times the money Cox's campaign spent. Hays used national advertising in a major way (with advice from adman [[Albert Lasker]]). The theme was Harding's own slogan "America First". Thus the Republican advertisement in ''Collier's Magazine'' for October 30, 1920, demanded, "Let's be done with wiggle and wobble." The image presented in the ads was nationalistic, using catchphrases like "absolute control of the United States by the United States," "Independence means independence, now as in 1776," "This country will remain American. Its next President will remain in our own country," and "We decided long ago that we objected to a foreign government of our people."<ref>Andrew Sinclair, ''The Available Man: The Life behind the Masks of Warren Gamaliel Harding'' (1965) p. 162</ref>

1920 was the first presidential campaign to be heavily covered by the press and to receive widespread newsreel coverage, and 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 celebrities to make the pilgrimage. Business icons [[Thomas Edison]], [[Henry Ford]], and [[Harvey Firestone]] also lent their cachet to the Front Porch Campaign.<ref>John Morello, ''Selling the President, 1920: Albert D. Lasker, Advertising, and the Election of Warren G. Harding'' (2001).</ref> On election night, November 2, 1920, commercial radio broadcast coverage of election returns for the first time. Announcers at [[KDKA (AM)|KDKA-AM]] in Pittsburgh, PA read telegraph ticker results over the air as they came in. This single station could be heard over most of the Eastern United States by the small percentage of the population that had radio receivers.

[[Calvin Coolidge]] was inaugurated as president after the sudden death of President Warren G. Harding in 1923; he was re-elected in 1924 in a landslide against a divided opposition. Coolidge made use of the new medium of radio and made [[History of radio|radio history]] several times while president: his inauguration was the first [[Inauguration Day|presidential inauguration]] broadcast on radio; on February 12, 1924, he became the first American president to deliver a political speech on radio. [[Herbert Hoover]] was elected president in 1928.

===Decline of labor unions===
{{Main|Labor history of the United States#Weakness of organized labor 1920–1929}}

Unions grew very rapidly during the war but after a series of failed major strikes in steel, meatpacking and other industries, a long decade of decline weakened most unions and membership fell even as employment grew rapidly. Radical unionism virtually collapsed, in large part because of Federal repression during World War I by means of the [[Espionage Act of 1917]] and the [[Sedition Act of 1918]].

The 1920s marked a period of sharp decline for the labor movement. Union membership and activities fell sharply in the face of economic prosperity, a lack of leadership within the movement, and anti-union sentiments from both employers and the government. The unions were much less able to organize strikes. In 1919, more than 4,000,000 workers (or 21% of the labor force) participated in about 3,600 strikes. In contrast, 1929 witnessed about 289,000 workers (or 1.2% of the workforce) staged only 900 strikes. Unemployment rarely dipped below 5% in the 1920s and few workers faced real wage losses.<ref>Robert Zieger, ''American Workers, American Unions'' (1994) pp. 5–6</ref>

===Progressivism in 1920s===
{{main|Progressive Era}}
The Progressive Era in the United States was a period of social activism and political reform that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s. The politics of the 1920s was unfriendly toward the labor unions and liberal crusaders against business and so many, if not all, historians who emphasize those themes write off the decade. Urban cosmopolitan scholars recoiled at the moralism of prohibition and the intolerance of the nativists of the KKK and denounced the era. Historian [[Richard Hofstadter]], for example, wrote in 1955 that prohibition "was a pseudo-reform, a pinched, parochial substitute for reform" that "was carried about America by the rural-evangelical virus."<ref>Richard Hofstadter, ''The Age of Reform'' (1955) p. 287</ref> However, as [[Arthur S. Link]] emphasized, the progressives did not simply roll over and play dead.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 1905118|title = What Happened to the Progressive Movement in the 1920's?|journal = The American Historical Review|volume = 64|issue = 4|pages = 833–851|last1 = Link|first1 = Arthur S.|year = 1959|doi = 10.2307/1905118}}</ref> Link's argument for continuity through the 1920s stimulated a historiography that found Progressivism to be a potent force. Palmer, pointing to people like George Norris, wrote, "It is worth noting that progressivism, whilst temporarily losing the political initiative, remained popular in many western states and made its presence felt in Washington during both the Harding and Coolidge presidencies."<ref>Niall A. Palmer, ''The twenties in America: politics and history'' (2006) p 176</ref> Gerster and Cords argued, "Since progressivism was a 'spirit' or an 'enthusiasm' rather than an easily definable force with common goals, it seems more accurate to argue that it produced a climate for reform which lasted well into the 1920s, if not beyond."<ref>Patrick Gerster and Nicholas Cords, ''Myth in American history'' (1977) p 203</ref>

Even the Klan has been seen in a new light as numerous social historians reported that Klansmen were "ordinary white Protestants" primarily interested in purification of the system, which had long been a core progressive goal.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Coben |first1=S. |title=Ordinary White Protestants: The KKK of the 1920s |journal=Journal of Social History |date=1994 |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=155–165 |doi=10.1353/jsh/28.1.155}}</ref> In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan experienced a resurgence, spread all over the country, and found a significant popularity that has lingered to this day in the Midwest. It was claimed at the height of the second incarnation of the KKK, its membership exceeded 4 million people nationwide. The Klan did not shy away from using burning crosses and other intimidation tools to strike fear into their opponents, who included not just blacks but also Catholics, Jews, and anyone else who was not a white Protestant.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Capatosto|first=Victoria|title=A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States|url=https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/blackrights/jimcrow|access-date=October 24, 2021|website=library.law.howard.edu|language=en|archive-date=October 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211024034238/https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/blackrights/jimcrow|url-status=live}}</ref> Several massacres of black people took place in the 1920s, including on May 31, 1921, when a white mob descended on "Black Wall Street", a prosperous black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Over the next two days, they killed as many as 300 people, burned down 40 city blocks, and left 10,000 black residents homeless.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Brockell|first=Gillian|date=June 1, 2021|title=Tulsa isn't the only race massacre you were never taught in school. Here are others.|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/06/01/tulsa-race-massacres-silence-schools/|url-status=live|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=October 24, 2021|archive-date=August 21, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210821201403/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/06/01/tulsa-race-massacres-silence-schools/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=White |first=Walter F. |date=August 23, 2001 |title=Tulsa, 1921 |magazine=The Nation |language=en-US |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/tulsa-1921/|access-date=January 29, 2025 |issn=0027-8378|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200612231040/https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/tulsa-1921/|archive-date=June 12, 2020|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Business progressivism====
What historians have identified as "business progressivism," with its emphasis on efficiency and typified by [[Henry Ford]] and [[Herbert Hoover]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Morris |first1=Stuart |title=The Wisconsin Idea and Business Progressivism |journal=Journal of American Studies |date=1970 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=39–60 |doi=10.1017/S0021875800000050|s2cid=145740015 }}</ref> reached an apogee in the 1920s. Reynold M. Wik, for example, argues that Ford's "views on technology and the mechanization of rural America were generally enlightened, progressive, and often far ahead of his times."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wik |first1=Reynold Millard |title=Henry Ford's Science and Technology for Rural America |journal=Technology and Culture |date=1962 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=247–258 |doi=10.2307/3100818|jstor=3100818 |s2cid=111428281 }}</ref>

Tindall stresses the continuing importance of the progressive movement in the South in the 1920s involving increased democracy, efficient government, corporate regulation, social justice, and governmental public service.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=George B.|last1= Tindall|title=Business Progressivism: Southern Politics in the Twenties|journal=South Atlantic Quarterly|volume= 62 |date= 1963|pages= 92–106|doi= 10.1215/00382876-62-1-92|s2cid= 257872305}}</ref><ref>George B. Tindall, ''The Emergence of the New South, 1913–1945'' (1970)</ref> William Link finds political progressivism dominant in most of the South in the 1920s.<ref>William A. Link, ''The Paradox of Southern Progressivism, 1880–1930'' (1997) p 294</ref> Likewise, it was influential in Midwest.<ref>Judith Sealander, ''Grand Plans: Business Progressivism and Social Change in Ohio's Miami Valley, 1890–1929'' (1991)</ref> In Birmingham, Alabama, the Klan violently repressed mixed-race unions but joined with white Protestant workers in a political movement that enacted reforms beneficial to the white working class. But Klan attention to working-class interests was circumstantial and rigidly restricted by race, religion, and ethnicity.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Pegram|first=Thomas R.|title=The Ku Klux Klan, Labor, and the White Working Class During the 1920S|date=April 27, 2018|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-gilded-age-and-progressive-era/article/ku-klux-klan-labor-and-the-white-working-class-during-the-1920s/900D18A539124548FB5366DF335AB970|journal=The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era|language=en|volume=17|issue=2|pages=373–396|doi=10.1017/S1537781417000871|s2cid=165797003|issn=1537-7814|access-date=October 24, 2021|archive-date=October 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211024034227/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-gilded-age-and-progressive-era/article/ku-klux-klan-labor-and-the-white-working-class-during-the-1920s/900D18A539124548FB5366DF335AB970|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Historians of women and of youth emphasize the strength of the progressive impulse in the 1920s.<ref>Maureen A. Flanagan, ''America Reformed: Progressives and Progressivisms, 1890s–1920s'' (2006)</ref> Women consolidated their gains after the success of the suffrage movement, and moved into causes such as world peace,<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 3787631|title = Finding a Cure for War: Women's Politics and the Peace Movement in the 1920s|journal = Journal of Social History|volume = 24|issue = 1|pages = 69–86|last1 = Zeiger|first1 = Susan|year = 1990|doi = 10.1353/jsh/24.1.69}}</ref> good government, maternal care (the [[Sheppard–Towner Act]] of 1921),<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 1900152|title = The Sheppard-Towner Act: Progressivism in the 1920s|journal = The Journal of American History|volume = 55|issue = 4|pages = 776–786|last1 = Lemons|first1 = J. Stanley|year = 1969|doi = 10.2307/1900152|pmid = 19591257}}</ref> and local support for education and public health.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Morris-Crowther |first1=Jayne |title=Municipal Housekeeping: The Political Activities of the Detroit Federation of Women's Clubs in the 1920s |journal=Michigan Historical Review |date=2004 |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=31–57 |doi=10.2307/20174059|jstor=20174059 }}</ref> The work was not nearly as dramatic as the suffrage crusade, but women voted<ref>[[Kristi Andersen]], ''After suffrage: women in partisan and electoral politics before the New Deal'' (1996)</ref> and operated quietly and effectively. Paul Fass, speaking of youth, wrote "Progressivism as an angle of vision, as an optimistic approach to social problems, was very much alive."<ref>Paula S. Fass, ''The damned and the beautiful: American youth in the 1920s'' (1977) p 30</ref> The international influences which had sparked a great many reform ideas likewise continued into the 1920s, as American ideas of modernity began to influence Europe.<ref>Daniel T. Rodgers, ''Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age'' (2000) ch 9</ref>

There is general agreement that the Progressive Era was over by 1932, especially since a majority of the remaining progressives opposed the New Deal.<ref>Otis L. Graham, ''An Encore for Reform: The Old Progressives and the New Deal'' (1968)</ref>

==Canadian politics==
Canadian 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 over expansion. After the booming wheat economy of the early part of the century, the [[Canadian Prairies|prairie provinces]] were troubled by low wheat prices. This played an important role in the development of Canada's first highly successful third political party, the [[Progressive Party of Canada]] that won the second most seats in the [[1921 Canadian federal election|1921 national election]]. As well with the creation of the [[Balfour Declaration of 1926]], Canada achieved with other British former colonies autonomy, forming the [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]].

==End of an era==

===Black Tuesday===
{{Main|Wall Street crash of 1929}}

The [[Dow Jones Industrial Average|Dow Jones Industrial Stock Index]] had continued its upward move for weeks, and coupled with heightened [[speculation|speculative]] activities, it gave an illusion that the [[bull market]] of 1928 to 1929 would last forever. On October 29, 1929, also known as [[Wall Street Crash of 1929|Black Tuesday]], stock prices on [[Wall Street]] collapsed. The events in the United States added to a worldwide [[depression (economics)|depression]], later called the [[Great Depression]], that put millions of people out of work around the world throughout the 1930s.

===Repeal of Prohibition===
The [[Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution|21st Amendment]], which repealed the [[Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|18th Amendment]], was proposed on February 20, 1933. The choice to legalize alcohol was left up to the states, and many states quickly took this opportunity to allow alcohol. Prohibition was officially ended with the ratification of the amendment on December 5, 1933.

==See also==
{{Portal|1920s}}
* [[Depression of 1920–1921]]
* [[Interwar Britain]]
* [[Interwar France]]
* [[Interwar period]], worldwide
* [[Los Angeles in the 1920s]]
{{Clear}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Blom, Philipp. ''Fracture: Life and Culture in the West, 1918–1938'' (Basic Books, 2015).
* Jobs, Richard Ivan, and David M. Pomfret, eds. ''The Transnationality of Youth." Transnational Histories of Youth in the Twentieth Century'' (Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2015) [http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137469892 contents].

===Europe===
* Abra, Allison. "Going to the palais: a social and cultural history of dancing and dance halls in Britain, 1918–1960." ''Contemporary British History'' (Sep 2016) 30#3 pp 432–433.
* Archer-Straw, Petrine. ''Negrophilia: Avant-Garde Paris and Black Culture in the 1920s'' (2000).
* Berghahn, Volker Rolf. ''Modern Germany: society, economy, and politics in the twentieth century'' (1987) [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.01673 ACLS E-book]
* Berliner, Brett A. ''Ambivalent Desire: The Exotic Black Other in Jazz-Age France'' (2002)
* Bernard, Philippe, and Henri Dubief. ''The Decline of the Third Republic, 1914–1938'' (The Cambridge History of Modern France) (1988) [https://www.amazon.com/dp/052135854X excerpt and text search]
* Bingham, Adrian. ''Gender, Modernity & the Popular Press in Inter-War Britain'' (2004) 271pp.
* Branson, Noreen. ''Britain in the Nineteen Twenties'' (1976).
* Brockmann, Stephen, and Thomas W. Kniesche, eds. ''Dancing on the Volcano: Essays on the Culture of the Weimar Republic'' (1994); Germany
* {{cite journal |last1=Ferguson |first1=Neal A. |title=Women's Work: Employment Opportunities and Economic Roles, 1918–1939 |journal=Albion |date=1975 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=55–68 |doi=10.2307/4048398|jstor=4048398 }}
* Guerin, Frances. ''Culture of Light: Cinema and Technology in 1920s Germany'' (2005)
* Jones, Andrew F. ''Yellow Music: Media Culture & Colonial Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age'' (2001)
* Kolb, Eberhard. ''The Weimar Republic'' (2005), Germany 1919–1933
* McAuliffe, Mary. ''When Paris Sizzled: The 1920s Paris of Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and Their Friends'' (2016) [https://www.amazon.com/When-Paris-Sizzled-Hemingway-Josephine/dp/1442253320/ excerpt]
* [[Mowat, C.L.]] ''Britain Between the Wars, 1918–1940'' (1955), Thorough scholarly coverage; emphasis on politics [https://archive.org/details/britainbetweenwa00mowa online free to borrow]
* {{cite journal |last1=Rippey |first1=Theodore F. |title=Rationalisation, Race, and the Weimar Response to Jazz |journal=German Life and Letters |date=2007 |volume=60 |issue=1 |pages=75–97 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0483.2007.00374.x}}
* Schloesser, Stephen. ''Jazz Age Catholicism: Mystic Modernism in Postwar Paris 1919–1933'' (2005)
* Søland, Birgitte. ''Becoming modern: young women and the reconstruction of womanhood in the 1920s.'' (Princeton UP, 2000). On Denmark; [http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6956.html contents]
* Szreter, Simon, and Kate Fisher. ''Sex before the sexual revolution: Intimate life in England 1918–1963'' (Cambridge UP, 2010).
* Tebbutt, Melanie. ''Making Youth: A History of Youth in Modern Britain'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).
* Taylor, D.J. ''Bright Young People: The Lost Generation of London's Jazz Age'' (2009)
* Zeldin, Theodore. ''France: 1848–1945: Politics and Anger; Anxiety and Hypocrisy; Taste and Corruption; Intellect and Pride; Ambition and Love'' (2 vol 1979), topical history

===United States===
* [[Frederick Lewis Allen|Allen, Frederick Lewis]]. ''Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen-Twenties''. (1931), the first and still the most widely read survey of the era, complete text online free.
* Best, Gary Dean. '' The Dollar Decade: Mammon and the Machine in 1920s America''. (2003).
* Cohen, Lizabeth. ''Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919–1939'' (1990) pp.99–158 on " Encountering Mass Culture". [https://archive.org/details/makingnewdealind0000cohe_g2u0 online]
* {{cite journal|jstor=2713191|title=Encountering Mass Culture at the Grassroots: The Experience of Chicago Workers in the 1920s|journal=American Quarterly|volume=41|issue=1|pages=6–33|last1=Cohen|first1=Lizabeth|year=1989|doi=10.2307/2713191}}
* Conor, Liz. ''The Spectacular Modern Woman: Feminine Visibility in the 1920s''. (2004). 329pp.
* Cowley, Malcolm. ''Exile's Return: A Literary Odyssey of the 1920s''. (1934) [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98482652 online 1999 edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525082411/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98482652 |date=May 25, 2012 }}
* Crafton, Donald (1997). ''The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926–1931''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. {{ISBN|0-684-19585-2}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Delgadillo|first1= Charles E.|title= 'A Pretty Weedy Flower': William Allen White, Midwestern Liberalism, and the 1920s Culture War|journal=Kansas History|volume= 35|date= 2012|pages= 186–202}}
* Dumenil, Lynn. ''The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s''. 1995
* Fass, Paula. ''The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s''. 1977.
* {{Cite book |last=Fuess |first=Claude Moore |author-link=Claude Fuess |title=Calvin Coolidge: The Man from Vermont |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.157145 |publisher=Little, Brown |year=1940 |isbn=978-1-4067-5673-9 }}
* Geduld, Harry M. (1975). ''The Birth of the Talkies: From Edison to Jolson''. Bloomington: Indiana UP, {{ISBN|0-253-10743-1}}
* Hicks, John D. ''Republican ascendancy, 1921-1933'' (1960). political and economic survey [https://archive.org/details/republicanascend001161mbp/page/n4/mode/1up online]
* {{Hounshell1984}}
* Huggins, Nathan Irvin. ''Harlem Renaissance''. (1971).
* Jackson, Joe. ''Atlantic Fever: Lindbergh, His Competitors, and the Race to Cross the Atlantic''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-37410-675-1}}.
* Kallen, Stuart A. ''The Roaring Twenties'' (2001) {{ISBN|0-7377-0885-9}}
* Kyvig, David E.; ''Daily Life in the United States, 1920–1939: Decades of Promise and Pain'', 2002 [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101545426 online edition]
* [[William E. Leuchtenburg|Leuchtenburg, William E.]] ''The Perils of Prosperity, 1914–1932'' (1958), influential survey by scholar
* [[Lynd, Robert Staughton]] and [[Helen Lynd|Lynd, Helen]]. ''Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture''. (1929); highly influential sociological study of [[Muncie, Indiana|Muncie]], Indiana
* McNeese, Tim, and Richard Jensen, ''https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=iluZC7DnU7oC World War I and the Roaring Twenties: 1914–1928]'' (2010), pp 75–118; textbook
* Marchand, Roland. ''Advertising the American dream: Making way for modernity, 1920-1940'' (Univ of California Press, 2023).

* Marsden, George M. ''Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870–1925'' (1980)
* {{Cite book|last=Murray|first=Robert K.|title=The Harding Era 1921–1923: Warren G. Harding and his Administration|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|date=1969|ref={{sfnRef|Murray 1969}}|isbn=0-8166-0541-6}}
* Myers, Margaret G. ''Financial History of the United States'' (1970). pp 293–316. [https://archive.org/details/financialhistory00myerrich online]
* Noggle, Burl. ''Into the Twenties: The United States from Armistice to Normalcy''. (1974).
* [[David Pietrusza|Pietrusza, David]]. ''Gangsterland: A Tour of the Dark Heart of Jazz Age New York City''. New York: Diversion Books. (2023)
* [[David Pietrusza|Pietrusza, David]]. ''The roaring twenties'' (1998) [https://archive.org/details/roaringtwenties0000piet_x6d7 online]

* Robertson, Patrick (2001). ''Film Facts''. New York: Billboard Books. {{ISBN|0-8230-7943-0}}
* Scharf, Lois, and Joan M. Jensen, eds. ''The American Housewife between the Wars. Decades of Discontent: The Women's Movement, 1920–1940''. (1983).
* {{Sloan1964}}
* {{Sorensen1956}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Stricker |first1=Frank |title=Affluence for whom?—another look at prosperity and the working classes in the 1920s |journal=Labor History |date=1983 |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=5–33 |doi=10.1080/00236568308584692}}
* Soule, George. ''Prosperity Decade: From War to Depression: 1917–1929'' (1947), comprehensive economic history
* Starr, Kevin. ''Material Dreams: Southern California through the 1920s''. (1996) [https://web.archive.org/web/20120525080427/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=59159756 online edition]
* [[George Brown Tindall|Tindall, George Brown]]. ''The Emergence of the New South, 1913–1945'' (1967) comprehensive regional history
* Wallace, David. ''Capital of the World: A Portrait of New York City in the Roaring Twenties'' (2011) [https://archive.org/details/capitalofworldpo0000wall online]

* Williams, Iain Cameron. "Underneath a Harlem Moon: The Harlem to Paris Years of Adelaide Hall" (Bayou Jazz Lives), Continuum, 2003, {{ISBN|0826458939}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050508074759/http://www.kidsnewsroom.org/elmer/infoCentral/frameset/decade/1920.htm The 1920s]
* [http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/keys/games/game_0_1920s/ Quiz: Life in the Roaring Twenties]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180217100533/http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/educator/modules/teachingthetwenties/ Teaching the American Twenties Exhibit from the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050524103852/http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/timex/timeline.html 1920s timeline, Harlem]
* [http://www.shmoop.com/1920s/ Roaring Twenties] study guide and teacher resources – timeline, quotes, analysis, multimedia
* [http://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties The Roaring Twenties] – [[History (U.S. TV network)|History.com]]
* {{youTube|G7-uIKyavxE|Video (48:15) − ''America in color: The 1920s''}}

{{Prohibition}}
{{United States – Commonwealth of Nations recessions}}
{{US history}}
{{United States topics}}

[[Category:Roaring Twenties| ]]
[[Category:1920s in economic history]]
[[Category:Economic booms]]