Roaring Twenties The Decade Of 1920 1929 example essay topic

The Roaring Twenties The decade of 1920-1929 was a time of great change, reform, improvement, adjustment and alteration of everything Americans had come to rely on. In other words everything changed. Not one part of common life was unaffected. Exciting new events happened in sports, entertainment, science, politics, communication and transportation.

It was the age of prohibition, it was the age of prosperity, and it was the age of downfall. The twenties were the age of everything. It has been called the decade of enjoyment, employment, and for some, disappointment. The 20's were a decade to remember and it had an impact on the people living through it. During the 1920's the United States was in an economic high point. Following World War I people had more money to spend due to the wartime boom in the economy.

People were able to buy products on credit, and pay small installments later. This process allowed people more freedom to purchase items, such as refrigerators, radios, and cars, when previously they had not been able to. The 1920's got its reputation as the "Roaring Twenties" from the economy in part because the economy was booming, and people were purchasing products on credit and stocks on margin. All this exchange of currency created a boom era or a "Roaring" period of time.

In sports, athletes were being identified as heroes for the first time in history. This was the time of great athletes such as Babe Ruth. American Football reached the professional leagues and Illinois superstar recruit Harold "Red" Grange attracted huge crowds to the new leagues. In fact, Americans held dominance in most professional sports including golf, tennis and boxing. Some sports brought in millions of dollars in profits at each event! In music, the Jazz Age came about with artists like Bessie Smith and Duke Ellington.

The "Jazz Age" came with dances such as "the Charleston". Jazz and other forms of music became an important way of expressing feelings of the 1920's and these productions were put on in Night Clubs and other settings where people could relax. Jazz was popular for its spontaneity and flare, and it soon captured the new record industry. By 1924, there were more than 2.5 million radios in American households. In 1920 the Westinghouse Company launched the first radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh.

KDKA mostly broadcast news reports and talk shows until 1921, when the first musical radio program was aired. Sound movies were first seen in the 1920's. The sound was not on the film, but on synchronized phonograph records, it became very popular and the first full-length "talkie", "The Jazz Singer", was released. In 1928, a 27-year-old Walt Disney introduced his first animated cartoon. The lead character, "Mickey Mouse" would later go on to star in the first animated cartoon to use sound, "Steamboat Willie". George Eastman demonstrated the first color motion picture and in 1929 the first Academy awards were held.

In Politics, Calvin Coolidge was re-elected president in 1924 and J. Edgar Hoover was appointed to head up the Federal Bureau of Investigation the same year. I n 1928 Republican Herbert Hoover was elected president. History was made in science when Howard Carter assisted Lord Carnarvon in the opening of the tomb of King Tutankhamen or King Tut in Egypt. With improved medicines came increased life-spans.

The Bureau of Public Health determined the average life expectancy for an American in 1920 was 54 years, up from 49 in 1901. Albert Einstein came to the US in 1921 to lecture at Columbia University about his theory of relativity. When the city of New York was darkened entirely by a complete solar eclipse on January 24th, 1925, the locals panicked in a frenzy of "doomsday". All of these incredible events took place within 10 years, one decade of great influence and improvement. But it was not all good. The 1920's carried an undercurrent of economic instability which became evident on October 29th, 1929, when the stock market crashed.

This was mainly because of a sudden flux of selling stocks, and the fact that buying on margin had created a system where the money to pay out was not actually there. This created havoc among those heavily invested, and lead to an economic depression for years to follow.

Bibliography

Hanson, Eric / Lucent Books January 1999'The 1920's, Cultural History throughout the US' Peacock, John / Thames & Hudson May 1997'The 1920's Fashion & Politics " Shi, David E.
Oxford University Press 1995'Thought and Culture 1900-2000'James Madison University Research Page web's Resource Site web 1920's Experience web source.
s html? Category = Education " ABC NEWS-The Century-1920' web source.