The 1920's, also known as the Roaring Twenties, was an age of social and political change. For the first time ever, More Americans lived in cities rather than farms. The nation's total wealth doubled and this economic growth put many Americans into "consumer society." Consumer society is defined as, "a community in which the buying and selling of mass-produced goods and services promoted through mass media and is the dominant economic activity." People all around bought the same goods, listened to the same music, did the same dances, and even used the same slang language. There were mixed emotions on this new culture, some were for it while others found more conflict. The Roaring Twenties was filled with The "New Women", Mass Culture, Jazz Age, Volstead Act, and The Cultural Civil War!
The "New Women"
- The "flapper", was a young women with bobbed hair and short skirts who drank, smoked, and was more sexually free than the women from previous generations.
- The 19th Amendment was finally ratified in 1920 which gave women the right to vote.
- Increased availability of birth-control devices made it possible for women to have fewer children.
- New machines like the vacuum cleaner and washing machine were invented.
Cultural Civil War
- The Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North.
- Millions from Indiana and Illinois joined the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.
- The National Origins Act set immigration quotas that excluded some people passed in 1924.
- Harlem Renaissance