essay on the roaring twenties

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Roaring Twenties

In the Roaring Twenties, a surging economy created an era of mass consumerism, as Jazz-Age flappers flouted Prohibition laws and the Harlem Renaissance redefined arts and culture.

The Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties were a Jazz Age burst of prosperity and freedom for flappers and others during the Prohibition era, until the economy crashed in 1929.

Women’s Independence Multiple factors—political, cultural and technological—led to the rise of the flappers. During World War I, women entered the workforce in large numbers, receiving higher wages that many working women were not inclined to give up during peacetime. In August 1920, women’s independence took another step forward with the passage of the 19th Amendment, […]

Teapot Dome Scandal

The Teapot Dome Scandal of the 1920s shocked Americans by revealing an unprecedented level of greed and corruption within the federal government.

Tulsa Race Massacre

Tulsa’s Black Wall Street In much of the country, the years following World War I saw a spike in racial tensions, including the resurgence of the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan, numerous lynchings and other acts of racially motivated violence, as well as efforts by African Americans to prevent such attacks on their […]

Warren Harding’s presidency was rocked by scandal, including one that didn’t come to light until after he left office.

Prohibition Raid

Police raid a garage in Chicago that contained five hundred and thirty-seven barrels of alcoholic beverage, $30,000 worth of illegal drink.

18th and 21st Amendments

Did you know it wasn’t illegal to drink during Prohibition? Get the whole story behind the “noble experiment.”

Flashback: Scopes Monkey – Rare Footage of the “Trial of the Century”

The 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial was one of the most important legal battles of its time. Two of the greatest speakers of the era, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, faced off in a debate encompassing science, religion, and Constitutional rights.

The Multiple Scandals of President Warren G. Harding

Hush money to mistresses, secret payments for an out-of-wedlock child and far-reaching corruption tainted the 29th president’s legacy.

9 Entrepreneurs Who Helped Build Tulsa’s ‘Black Wall Street’

Before the Tulsa Race Massacre, the city’s African American district thrived as a community of business leaders and visionaries.

7 Writers of the Harlem Renaissance

These writers were part of the larger cultural movement centered in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood and offered complex portraits of Black life in America.

How Prohibition Put the ‘Organized’ in Organized Crime

Kingpins like Al Capone were able to rake in up to $100 million each year thanks to the overwhelming business opportunity of illegal booze.

This Day in History

Chanel No. 5 perfume launches

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AP® US History

The roaring twenties: ap® us history crash course.

• The Albert Team
• Last Updated On: March 1, 2022

Have you ever wondered why the 1920s are called the “Roaring Twenties?” When we hear that phrase, we often picture flapper girls with feathers and pearls, jazz musicians playing in dimly lit speakeasies, and Model-T’s rolling down brightly lit city streets. The 1920s probably felt like a non-stop party for many Americans, but did you know that it was a time of both prosperity and trouble?

For the AP® US History exam, it’s important to know about the economic conditions, politics, culture, and struggles of the 1920s. This will give you a clear picture as to why this time is known as the Roaring Twenties. It will also give you all the information you need to answer any Roaring Twenties question on the APUSH exam with confidence. Let’s get started!

Economic prosperity

The first thing you need to know for the AP® US History exam is that the 1920s was a time of great economic prosperity as consumerism took hold of the nation. World War I had just ended, and as the nation shifted from a time of war to a time of peace, production of goods also changed from that of military goods to that of consumer goods. Washing machines, irons, refrigerators, radios, and vacuums became staples in urban and suburban homes. New technologies, such as electricity and the assembly line, made products faster to produce and cheaper than ever before. Henry Ford’s Model-T automobile became popular in many American homes as the income of families increased and the price of assembly-line products decreased.

But not everything was so prosperous. While the urban middle and working-class in the cities enjoyed a good standard of living, there were signs of trouble in rural areas. Farmers in the Midwest and South were struggling as the price of agricultural products drastically fell. World War I had created a huge demand for agricultural products, but when the nation returned to peace, supply heavily outweighed demand.

Art and entertainment explosion

A very important topic for the APUSH exam is the “Lost Generation of the 1920s.” 40% of the multiple choice questions on the exam cover social and cultural change, it is important to pay close attention to this section of the crash course.

The “Lost Generation” was a group of writers who were disillusioned with 1920s American society. The significant writers you need to know about are Sinclair Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In his novels Babbitt and Main Street, Lewis criticized the materialism, consumerism, and conformity of Roaring Twenties society. These writers believed that a nation of consumers made it impossible to find personal fulfillment. Many moved to Europe to escape a society they viewed as hypocritical and fraudulent.

In the Great Gatsby , Fitzgerald described the 1920s as the “Jazz Age.” This is a very accurate description of the time. Music experienced a revolution as black musicians such as Louis Armstrong, W.C. Handy, and “Jelly Roll” Morton helped create and popularize jazz. This new type of music created a shift in society as young people, both black and white, desired to break from tradition. The older generation viewed jazz as too sensual, which only made young people more rebellious.

The final things you need to know about the entertainment explosion of the Roaring Twenties is that Hollywood movies, such as the first movie with sound The Jazz Singer , became popular, baseball became big business, and national radio network audiences grew to the millions.

Nativism and Science vs. Religion

Immigration and migration reached a historical high in the 1920s. Southern and Eastern Europeans arrived in droves from 1880 to 1920. The Great Migration was a mass-movement of Black Americans from the south to cities in the North and West. All of these “New Immigrants” create anti-immigrant backlash.

For the APUSH exam, it’s important to know about a few examples of nativist sentiment. The first is the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), which believed in White supremacy and immigration restriction. During the 1920s, the KKK grew in great numbers and became aggressive, not just towards African Americans, but towards Catholics, European immigrants, and Jews, too. Make sure you are aware of the film The Birth of a Nation, by D.W. Griffith, which praises the KKK.

You also need to know about the National Origins Act of 1924, which was a discriminatory law that limited Eastern and Southern European immigration. This act caused a huge decrease in immigrants from those areas, but did nothing to effect the increasing numbers of Mexican and Puerto Rican immigrants.

Finally, it’s important to know about religious Fundamentalism during the time. For the AP® exam, know about the Scopes Trial, which tackled the issue of teaching evolution in high school. This is especially important because it is a good example of the push and pull between the flowering modernism and science of the time, and the traditional religious views of many Americans.

African Americans and women

The most important thing you need to know about African American culture during the Roaring Twenties is the Harlem Renaissance. This explosion of art, music, and literature challenged the social, racial and political inequalities that many Black Americans faced. Key Harlem Renaissance figures you need to know are Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston and James Weldon Johnson.

The Feminist movement grew in great strides during the Roaring Twenties, too. Flappers, independent young women who smoked cigarettes, cut their hair into short bobs, and wore makeup, challenged the social norm and traditional gender roles. Margaret Sanger, a birth control activist, attempted to legalize birth control, and even opened the first birth control clinic in America. Another step towards equality for women was the passing of the 19 th amendment in 1919, which guaranteed women the right to vote. However, during the 1920s, women did not receive equal wages and were often discriminated against in the workplace.

Politics and foreign policy

You don’t really need to know a lot about the politics of the Roaring Twenties, but just know that the Republican Party prospered. It’s also helpful to remember that the 1920s presidents were Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.

For foreign policy, understand that the 1920s was an isolationist period, with minor exceptions for war reparation payments and international war agreements. The Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) ratified by 62 nations, was an agreement that outlawed war as an instrument of foreign policy. The Dawes Plan was a reparation payment plan between Germany and the US.

Why is the Roaring Twenties important for APUSH?

Many AP® US History exam questions focus on social, intellectual and cultural change. 1920s America is a perfect example of this. The Roaring Twenties came to an abrupt end with the beginning of the Great Depression, but it was a time that greatly changed the nation. It was a time of consumerism, technological evolution, artistic expression, and social and creative expression for women and African Americans. It was also a time of struggle for farmers, and a time of discrimination for immigrants, women, and African Americans.

If you can understand the contradictions of the Roaring Twenties and how the social, technological, and economic advancements that took place during the time changed the nation for good, you are on your way to a great score on the APUSH exam!

By the way, you should check out Albert.io for your AP® US History review . We have hundreds of APUSH practice questions written just for you!

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Course: US history   >   Unit 7

• The Nineteenth Amendment
• 1920s urbanization and immigration
• The reemergence of the KKK
• Prohibition
• Republican ascendancy: politics in the 1920s
• The presidency of Calvin Coolidge
• 1920s consumption
• Movies, radio, and sports in the 1920s

American culture in the 1920s

• Nativism and fundamentalism in the 1920s
• America in the 1920s
• The Lost Generation refers to the generation of artists, writers, and intellectuals that came of age during the First World War (1914-1918) and the “Roaring Twenties.”
• The utter carnage and uncertain outcome of the war was disillusioning, and many began to question the values and assumptions of Western civilization.
• Economic, political, and technological developments heightened the popularity of jazz music in the 1920s, a decade of unprecedented economic growth and prosperity in the United States.
• African Americans were highly influential in the music and literature of the 1920s.

The First World War

The lost generation, jazz and the “roaring twenties”, the harlem renaissance, what do you think.

• For more, see David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980).
• For more, see Noel Riley Fitch, Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1985).
• See Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s (New York: Hill and Wang, 1995).
• See Kathy J. Ogren, The Jazz Revolution: Twenties America and the Meaning of Jazz (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
• For more on the Harlem Renaissance, see Jeffrey B. Ferguson, The Harlem Renaissance: A Brief History with Documents (New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007).

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The Roaring 1920s Research Paper

Introduction, the icons of the roaring twenties, the mob in the united states, stock market crash of 1929, reference list.

The roaring 1920’s describes a period in the American history after World War I distinguished by significant socio-cultural changes, organized crimes and the great economic depression. Fashion entered the modern era with the trendy flipper fashion making a significant impression.

The film and music industry underwent a transformation with the introduction of sound featured films. The dance clubs gained popularity during this epoch often christened ‘the Jazz age.’ The 1920s period was marked with breaking away from traditions caused by the introduction of new fashion and dance.

At the same time, the 1920s era was marked by rise in the level of organized crime including the Mob who had much influence in the American society and government coupled with speculative investment that led to decline in stock prices causing a major economic depression.

The 1920s epoch was characterized by a flourishing nightlife in cities such as Chicago with many nightlife establishments hosting popular dance bands, dancing contests and life radiobroadcasts for the audience (Kyvig 2001, 234).

However, social evils such as prostitution and gambling flourished at the same time leading to prohibitive drinking laws in major cities. Dancing boomed in the 1920s with many social and ethnic groups attending nightly recreational dance halls popularly known as cabarets. The cabarets were influential to the majority of fashionable middle class.

The nightclubs combined fashionable jazz music, public dance halls that hosted dancing competitions, and beer gardens for drinking. The nightlife flourished despite prohibition from the council authorities regulating drinking. Prostitution and gambling arose with the active nightlife

The entertainment industry including the film industry flourished in the 1920’s with a rise of music stars and motion picture production (O’Neal 2005, 58). The film industry’s relocation to Los Angeles facilitated the rise of Hollywood movie stars who lived luxurious lifestyles and had a lot of fanatical support.

This marked the Golden era of Hollywood. Silent films were predominant in the early twenties but all this changed in 1927 with the introduction of the jazz singer, Al Jolsen. Before then, stars of silent films like Greta Garbo and Charlie Chaplin were the only brilliant entertainers of the early 1920s.

Buster Keaton is another comedian star of the silent films before the invention of the talkies that transformed the film industry. The genres of the films included war, romance, biblical stories performed by Cecil Demille and silent comedies.

The fashion of the 1920s was marked by the introduction of the flipper fashions, new hairstyles that were a breakaway from the traditional past and the jazz music. The flapper fashion and hairstyles faced resistance from older generation up to 1925 when the new fashion was embraced contributing to significant transformation of the 1920s. The flapper dresses were short, unlike the traditional long Victoria-like dresses. The flappers also wore stockings and makeup unlike the traditional mode of dressing.

The 1920s saw the rise of organized criminal gangs in the American Society. ‘The American Mafia’, also called the ‘Mob’ arose with the aim of offering protection to the immigrant community without the involvement of the police or local authorities (Dickie 2004, 125).

The 1920s National prohibition to regulate drinking gave rise to organized gangs with national and international connections. Enforcement of the prohibition legislation faced opposition from notorious gangs such as the Al Capone’s mob of Chicago. The efforts to stop drug smuggling were deterred by organized smugglers with support from corrupt government officials and other international gangs.

The roaring 1920s decade was a period of wealth and economic prosperity especially in the manufacturing industry; for instance, “the automobile output increased exponentially between 1925 and 1929 period” (Henretta and Brody 2010, 67).

Business earnings also increased sharply during this period and the middle-class became wealthier investing in residential homes especially in Florida. However, towards the end of this decade, “a slump in share prices in New York Stock Exchange led to a major financial crisis that halted the flourishing economy” (Lange 2007, 81).

This crash is the infamous 1929 ‘Great Depression’ which led to business uncertainty affecting job security of American workers. Because of decline in stock prices, many investors faced financial difficulties that led to shut down of many businesses and resultant mass unemployment. This affected all industries including the then booming film industry.

New economic policies developed by the new administration helped to overcome the effects of the great depression. The economic recovery programs; known as the New Deal, allowed the federal government participation in social and economic projects of the citizens.

The New Deal led to the establishment of democratic governance that enhanced support for individual and community rights for all citizens. Before the 1929 stock market slump, the stock prices were rising which attracted huge investments. However, speculations over instability of the stock market led to panic selling of the shares causing the prices to go down.

The decade of 1920s was an era of break away from traditional lifestyles into modernity. Introduction of trendy fashions like flappers, jazz music and musical bands were popular in this era. The film industry underwent a major transformation with the relocation of the movie industry to Hollywood and the innovation of ‘talkies’ in sound films.

However, the roaring era faced threats from organized criminal gangs like the Mafia that increased insecurity in cities. In addition, the stock market slumping of 1929 affected the flourishing investment industry affecting the lives of many Americans.

Dickie, John. 2004. Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia . New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Henretta, James, and Brody, David. 2010. America: A Concise History, Volume ll: Since1877 . Fourth Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Kyvig, David E. 2001. Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1939: Decades of Promise & Pain . Westport: Greenwood Press.

Lange, Brenda. 2007. Milestones in American History: Stock Market Crash of 1929: The End of Prosperity. London: Chelsea House.

O’Neal, Michael J. 2005. America in the 1920s. London: Chelsea House.

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Home / Essay Samples / History / Contemporary History / Roaring Twenties

Roaring Twenties Essay Examples

The roaring twenties and its impact on america.

The end of World War I brought a time of relief, excitement and prosperity known at the Roaring 20’s. President Coolidge was residing in office during this era of mass cultural changes and advances. A few of the more notable advances were in transportation, radios...

Roaring Twenties – an Explosive Decade of an Alteration of America

The start of the Roaring Twenties began as World War I had come to an end, as many soldiers returned home. Reforms were made that replaced corrupt political leaders to show progress. Films were produced to demonstrate to the public the events of the war...

The Divided Dichotomy of Roaring Twenties

The roaring twenties in American history brought both social and political change to a vast majority of peoples public and personal lifestyle. The economic wealth of the country doubled in numbers, leading the way for a new lifestyle of abundance many have never experienced before....

Changes in Canadian Society in Roaring Twenties

Did you know that 15 million Ford cars were sold by the end of 1927? The Roaring Twenties was a time where consumerism changed Canadian society in a positive way. One way was the introduction of new products that supported daily living. In addition, mass...

Roaring 20s: Decade of Prosperity and Growth

The 20's marked a decade of prosperity and growth. It was a time of transition in culture and in society. It took place in Canada, the UK and particularly the United States, the most notable countries. Metropolitan towns developed and the economy was high for...

The Great Changes During 1920s in America

America in the 1920s was a period of great change. This was the decade in which there was mass production, jazz, cinema, dating, and the introduction of prohibition. Life was very great for all Americans and so that is why this time period is known...

Flappers in Roaring Twenties

The roaring twenties describes a period in American history after World War 1 that experienced dramatic social and political change. The Roaring Twenties was a transitional time period for women in terms of redefining womanhood, expressing themselves, and voicing their opinions. No cultural symbol of...

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About Roaring Twenties

Roaring Twenties is a common reference to the social change and turmoil associated with the 1920s. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the United States and Europe.

League of Nations, Prohibition, Tulsa race massacre, pinnacle Of The KKK, Harlem Renaissance, Jazz Age, Teapot Dome scandal, Scopes Monkey Trial, first Radio broadcasting, Rise of the automobile, Lindbergh's flight.

The 20s decade 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. Nations saw rapid industrial and economic growth, accelerated consumer demand, and introduced significant new trends in lifestyle and culture.

On October 29, 1929, also known as Black Tuesday, stock prices on Wall Street collapsed. The events in the United States added to a worldwide depression, later called the Great Depression, that put millions of people out of work around the world throughout the 1930s.

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