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1920 - 1929. Location: Europe. United States. Roaring Twenties, colloquial term for the 1920s, especially within the United States and other Western countries where the decade was characterized by economic prosperity, rapid social and cultural change, and a mood of exuberant optimism.
- Flappers: The 'New Woman'
- Fashion, Fads and Film Stars
- The Jazz Age
- Prohibition Era
- Immigration and Racism in The 1920s
- Early Civil Rights Activism
- Sources
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Perhaps the most familiar symbol of the “Roaring Twenties” is probably the flapper: a young woman with bobbed hair and short skirts who drank, smoked and said “unladylike” things, in addition to being more sexually “free” than previous generations. In reality, most young women in the 1920s did none of these things (though many did adopt a fashionab...
During the 1920s, many Americans had extra money to spend—and spend it they did, on movies, fashion and consumer goods such as ready-to-wear clothing and home appliances like electric refrigerators. In particular, they bought radios. The first commercial radio station in the United States, Pittsburgh’s KDKA, hit the airwaves in 1920. Two years late...
Cars also gave young people the freedom to go where they pleased and do what they wanted. (Some pundits called them “bedrooms on wheels.”) What many young people wanted to do was dance: the Charleston, the cake walk, the black bottom and the flea hop were popular dances of the era. Jazz bands played at venues like the Savoy and the Cotton Club in N...
During the 1920s, some freedoms were expanded while others were curtailed. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1919, had banned the manufacture and sale of “intoxicating liquors,” and at 12 a.m. on January 16, 1920, the federal Volstead Actclosed every tavern, bar and saloon in the United States. From then on, it was illegal to sell...
Prohibition was not the only source of social tension during the 1920s. An anti-Communist “Red Scare” in 1919 and 1920 encouraged a widespread nativist and anti-immigrant hysteria. This led to the passage of an extremely restrictive immigration law, the National Origins Act of 1924, which set immigration quotas that excluded some people (Eastern Eu...
During this decade, Black Americans sought stable employment, better living conditions and political participation. Many who migrated to the North found jobs in the automobile, steel, shipbuilding and meatpacking industries. But with more work came more exploitation. In 1925, civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph founded the first predominantly ...
What Caused the Roaring Twenties? Not the End of a Pandemic (Probably). Smithsonian Magazine. The Roaring Twenties. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The Roaring 20s. PBS: American Experience.
Learn about the social, economic and political changes that shaped the 1920s in America. Explore the flappers, jazz, consumer culture, Prohibition and the Mafia that made the decade roar.
The Roaring Twenties, sometimes stylized as Roaring '20s, refers to the 1920s decade in music and fashion, as it happened in Western society and Western culture.
Learn about the Roaring Twenties, a decade of prosperity, freedom and cultural innovation in the United States. Explore topics such as flappers, Prohibition, Harlem Renaissance, scandals and more.
Mar 20, 2022 · Learn how the 1920s in the West was a time of political, economic, and social change, marked by Prohibition, women's suffrage, Flappers, and jazz culture. Explore the stories, images, and influences of the Jazz Age and its iconic era.
Learn about the Lost Generation, jazz music, flappers, and the Harlem Renaissance in the US after World War I. Explore the themes, influences, and impacts of these cultural movements and their artists.
Explore the images of the 1920s, a decade of prosperity, innovation, and excess. See how Americans celebrated, worked, and played in the age of jazz, radios, and Prohibition.
