The Roaring Twenties Was A Step Backward For America
The Roaring Twenties Was A Step Backward For America
There's no denying that the Roaring 20s was a huge step for American culture. From the new technology like automobile and planes to the abundance of parties around there were definitely huge changes coming to America but... Was it a step in the right direction? It makes you wonder, who actually benefitted from the roaring 20s changes in culture and were those benefits short or long term?
Men's rights were the same as pre-war meaning they could work for, or heck, start businesses where they saw fit. But regarding Women, there were tons of new opportunities. Since the war had ended, the public realized that Women could work most of the jobs that Men could, and just as efficiently too. They even got the right to vote! African American culture saw a huge rise in popularity as well, jazz musicians and writers were gaining more publicity than ever before and for once it was positive publicity.
But while all these job opportunities were nice and the direction of America's culture seemed bright to some, there were also some glaring issues that everyone just seemed to ignore during the roaring 20s.
American culture seemed good to some, but not to all. "The Lost Generation" was a group of writers that left the United States because of the sudden changes in behavior from citizens. During this era all everyone wanted to do is party and drink (Which was illegal), which this particular group wasn't very fond of. Why was that?
Al Capone was a major icon of the roaring 20s, made a huge impact on American culture in the 20s, and he had public nicknames and movies.
But how did Al Capone gain all of his popularity? Through gambling, mass bootlegging and even prostitution, much to the government's dismay especially because of the prohibition laws. But he was still popular among the public, so much so that people started imitating him. Even after his downfall, organized crimes still thrived in America. He began the ideology that you can break the law and people will still support you. Considering all of that, you can probably tell why some people weren't very fond of these changes and left. The only lasting impacts that this law left was the popularization of organized crime because only a few people followed the prohibition law.
During the roaring 20s, the rich believed that they were made rich because it was hereditary and because of that mindset there were several dirty schemes and even laws to keep minorities from growing in population.
One of which it sterilization. More often than not these sterilizations were nonconsensual. What would happen is if a person wasn't seen as "fit" for reproduction they would get sterilized and could never have children ever again.
The other was the Quota system, it was put in place to ensure that there weren't too many immigrants of the same race entering the U.S. at the same time. These same people were also the ones who had traits that were "undesirable" which made them "unsuitable for reproduction". Looking back, this reasoning is very similar to the views that the Nazis had.
The last point I want to touch on is how sorry the farms had become. Farms thrived during WWI and gained a ton of profit from having to export a lot of crops to support the war effort. However after the war was over there was a surplus of crops, making them much less valuable for example, a loaf of bread would have cost $1.50 back then. Rather than the average 2.50-3.50 range seen today. Since the crops were so cheap, it was hard to make a living on the farm, During the 1920s more than 600,000 farmers went bankrupt and had to give up their land. And they didn't get to see the light of day for more than 2 entire decades.
While it's true that the roaring twenties was a step in American culture, it was only a step forward for a select group of people who happened to be in a certain line of work as the era started. For those who weren't apart of that group, it got more and more difficult as the era went on.
Citations
Information
http://www.striking-women.org/module/women-and-work/world-war-i-1914-1918
http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/tbacig/studproj/is3099/jazzcult/20sjazz/musicians.html
Images
https://www.biography.com/.image/c_fill%2Ccs_srgb%2Cg_face%2Ch_170%2Cq_80%2Cw_300/MTQ1NDY3Nzk4MDk5ODYzMzEz/louis-armstrong---streets-of-new-orleans.jpg
https://www.google.com/search?q=scarface+the+shame+of+a+nation&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi83a_LjbDXAhWj5YMKHRVFCkcQvQ4IKigF&biw=1422&bih=818
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/571816483909724564
There's no denying that the Roaring 20s was a huge step for American culture. From the new technology like automobile and planes to the abundance of parties around there were definitely huge changes coming to America but... Was it a step in the right direction? It makes you wonder, who actually benefitted from the roaring 20s changes in culture and were those benefits short or long term?
Men's rights were the same as pre-war meaning they could work for, or heck, start businesses where they saw fit. But regarding Women, there were tons of new opportunities. Since the war had ended, the public realized that Women could work most of the jobs that Men could, and just as efficiently too. They even got the right to vote! African American culture saw a huge rise in popularity as well, jazz musicians and writers were gaining more publicity than ever before and for once it was positive publicity.
But while all these job opportunities were nice and the direction of America's culture seemed bright to some, there were also some glaring issues that everyone just seemed to ignore during the roaring 20s.
American culture seemed good to some, but not to all. "The Lost Generation" was a group of writers that left the United States because of the sudden changes in behavior from citizens. During this era all everyone wanted to do is party and drink (Which was illegal), which this particular group wasn't very fond of. Why was that?
Al Capone was a major icon of the roaring 20s, made a huge impact on American culture in the 20s, and he had public nicknames and movies.
But how did Al Capone gain all of his popularity? Through gambling, mass bootlegging and even prostitution, much to the government's dismay especially because of the prohibition laws. But he was still popular among the public, so much so that people started imitating him. Even after his downfall, organized crimes still thrived in America. He began the ideology that you can break the law and people will still support you. Considering all of that, you can probably tell why some people weren't very fond of these changes and left. The only lasting impacts that this law left was the popularization of organized crime because only a few people followed the prohibition law.
During the roaring 20s, the rich believed that they were made rich because it was hereditary and because of that mindset there were several dirty schemes and even laws to keep minorities from growing in population.
One of which it sterilization. More often than not these sterilizations were nonconsensual. What would happen is if a person wasn't seen as "fit" for reproduction they would get sterilized and could never have children ever again.
The other was the Quota system, it was put in place to ensure that there weren't too many immigrants of the same race entering the U.S. at the same time. These same people were also the ones who had traits that were "undesirable" which made them "unsuitable for reproduction". Looking back, this reasoning is very similar to the views that the Nazis had.
The last point I want to touch on is how sorry the farms had become. Farms thrived during WWI and gained a ton of profit from having to export a lot of crops to support the war effort. However after the war was over there was a surplus of crops, making them much less valuable for example, a loaf of bread would have cost $1.50 back then. Rather than the average 2.50-3.50 range seen today. Since the crops were so cheap, it was hard to make a living on the farm, During the 1920s more than 600,000 farmers went bankrupt and had to give up their land. And they didn't get to see the light of day for more than 2 entire decades.
While it's true that the roaring twenties was a step in American culture, it was only a step forward for a select group of people who happened to be in a certain line of work as the era started. For those who weren't apart of that group, it got more and more difficult as the era went on.
Citations
Information
http://www.striking-women.org/module/women-and-work/world-war-i-1914-1918
http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/tbacig/studproj/is3099/jazzcult/20sjazz/musicians.html
Images
https://www.biography.com/.image/c_fill%2Ccs_srgb%2Cg_face%2Ch_170%2Cq_80%2Cw_300/MTQ1NDY3Nzk4MDk5ODYzMzEz/louis-armstrong---streets-of-new-orleans.jpg
https://www.google.com/search?q=scarface+the+shame+of+a+nation&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi83a_LjbDXAhWj5YMKHRVFCkcQvQ4IKigF&biw=1422&bih=818
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/571816483909724564
Hey Preston I wanted to say great job of having a very diverse blog in including many aspects of the 1920’s. I really found it intriguing on how much the general public admired Al Capone. In your blog you said, “But he was still popular among the public, so much so that people started imitating him.“ This sparked the question in my mind. Do you think Al Capone in the present day would be able to be just as influential as he was back then?
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