Everything about Roaring Twenties totally explained
Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the
1920s, principally in
North America, that emphasizes the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism. Normalcy returned to politics in the wake of
World War I,
jazz music blossomed, the
flapper redefined modern womanhood,
Art Deco peaked, and finally the
Wall Street Crash of 1929 served to punctuate the end of the era, as
The Great Depression set in. The era was further distinguished by several inventions and discoveries of far-reaching import, unprecedented industrial growth and accelerated consumer demand and aspirations, and significant changes in
lifestyle.
The social and societal upheaval known as the Roaring Twenties began in North America and spread to
Europe in the
aftermath of World War I. Europe spent these years rebuilding and coming to terms with the vast human cost of the
conflict. The
Government of the United States did little to aid Europe, opting rather for an
isolationist stance. By the middle of the decade,
economic development soared in Europe, and the Roaring Twenties broke out in
Germany (the
Weimar Republic), Britain and
France, the second half of the decade becoming known as the "
Golden Twenties". In France and Canada, they were also called the "
années folles" ("Crazy Years").
The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of discontinuity associated with
modernity, a break with traditions. Everything seemed to be feasible through modern technology. New technologies, especially automobiles, movies and
radio proliferated 'modernity' to a large part of the population. Formal decorative frills were shed in favor of practicality, in architecture as well as in daily life. At the same time, amusement, fun and lightness were cultivated in jazz and dancing, in defiance of the horrors of World War I, which remained present in people's minds. The period is also often called "
The Jazz Age".
Economy
The Roaring Twenties is traditionally viewed as an era of great economic prosperity driven by the introduction of a wide array of new
consumer goods. The
North American economy, particularly the
economy of the US, transitioned from
a wartime economy to a peacetime economy; the economy subsequently boomed. The United States augmented its standing as the
richest country in the world, its industry aligned to mass production and its society acculturated into
consumerism. In Europe, the economy didn't start to flourish until 1924.
In spite of the social, economic and technological advances, African Americans, recent
immigrants and
farmers—along with a large part of the working class population—were not much affected by this period. In fact, millions of people lived below the
poverty line of US $2,000 per year per family.
The Great Depression demarcates the conceptualization of the Roaring Twenties from the 1930s. The hopefulness in the wake of World War I that had initiated the Roaring Twenties gave way to the debilitating economic hardship of the later era.
Demobilization
At the end of World War I,
soldiers returned to the United States and Canada with money in their pockets and many new products on the market on which to spend it. At first, the recession of wartime production caused a brief but deep recession, known as the
Post-WWI recession. Quickly, however, the U.S. and Canadian economies rebounded as returning soldiers re-entered the
labor force and factories were retooled to produce consumer goods.
Republican economic policies
Various policies initiated by the
Republican Party had a big impact on the boom. The government was associated with
laissez faire economics, which helped create the conditions for the boom. In 1922, the
Fordney-McCumber tariff was passed, allowing American businesses to flourish by protecting them from foreign competition. The
Secretary to the Treasury from 1921 to 1932,
Andrew Mellon, cut
surtax from above 50% to 20%. This aided
corporate industries, allowing them to dominate their respective markets.
New products and technologies
Mass production made technology affordable to the middle class. Many of the devices that became commonplace had been developed before the war but had been unaffordable to most people. The
automobile,
movie,
radio, and
chemical industries skyrocketed during the 1920s. Of chief importance was the
automobile industry. Before the war, cars were a luxury. In the 1920s, cheap mass-produced vehicles became common throughout the U.S. and Canada. By 1927,
Henry Ford had sold 15 million
Model Ts. Only about 300,000 vehicles were registered in 1918 in all of Canada, but by 1929, there were 1.9 million. The automobile industry's effects were widespread, contributing to such disparate economic pursuits as
gas stations, motels, and the
oil industry.
Radio became the first
mass broadcasting medium. Radios were affordable, and their mode of entertainment proved revolutionary. Radio became the grandstand for
mass marketing. Its economic importance led to the
mass culture that has dominated society since. During the "
golden age of radio",
radio programming was as varied as
TV programming today. The 1927 establishment of the
Federal Radio Commission introduced a new era of regulation.
Advertisement reels, shown before early films, augmented the already booming mass market. The "golden age of film", during the 1930s and 1940s, evolved from its humble 1900s origins of short,
silent films. Like radio, film was a medium for the masses. Watching a film was cheap compared to other forms of entertainment, and it was accessible to factory and other
blue-collar workers.
New infrastructure
The new technologies led to an unprecedented need for new
infrastructure, largely funded by the
government. Road construction was crucial to the motor vehicle industry; several roads were upgraded to
highways, and
expressways were constructed. A class of Americans emerged with surplus money and a desire to spend more, spurring the demand for consumer goods, including the automobile.
Electrification, having slowed during the war, progressed greatly as more of the U.S. and Canada was added to the
electric grid. Most industries switched from
coal power to
electricity. At the same time, new
power plants were constructed. In America, electricity production almost quadrupled.
Telephone lines also were being strung across the continent. Indoor
plumbing and modern
sewer systems were installed for the first time in many regions.
These infrastructure programs were mostly left to the local governments in both Canada and the United States. Most
local governments went deeply into debt under the assumption that an investment in such infrastructure would pay off in the future. This caused major problems during the Great Depression. In both Canada and the United States, the federal governments did the reverse, using the decade to pay down
war debts and roll back some of the
taxes that had been introduced during the war.
Demographics
Urbanization was one of the most important trends. For the first time, more Americans and Canadians lived in cities than in small towns or rural areas.
Mass transit systems, the first
skyscrapers, and the growing importance of industry contributed to this. A growing
service sector was also increasingly important, with the
finance and
insurance industries doubling or tripling in size. The basic pattern of the modern
white collar job is often believed to have been established during this period. Many of the clerical jobs went to women, who entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers. In Canada, one in five workers were women by the end of the decade. The fastest growing cities were those in the
Midwest and the
Great Lakes region, including
Chicago and
Toronto. These cities prospered because of their vast agricultural
hinterlands. Cities on the
West Coast received increasing benefits from the 1914 opening of the
Panama Canal.
Culture
Suffrage
On
August 18,
1920,
Tennessee became the last of 36 states needed to ratify the
Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the
right to vote. Equality at the polls marked a pivotal moment in the
women's rights movement.
Lost Generation
The Lost Generation were young people who came out of World War I disillusioned and cynical about the world. The term usually refers to American literary notables who lived in
Paris at the time. Famous members included
Ernest Hemingway,
F. Scott Fitzgerald, and
Gertrude Stein.
Social criticism
As the average American in the 1920s became more enamored of wealth and everyday luxuries, some began satirizing the hypocrisy and greed they observed. Of these social critics,
Sinclair Lewis was the most popular. His popular 1920 novel
Main Street satirized the dull and ignorant lives of the residents of a Midwestern town. He followed with
Babbitt, about a
middle-aged businessman who rebels against his safe life and family, only to realize that the young generation is as hypocritical as his own. Lewis satirized religion with
Elmer Gantry, which followed a
con man who teams up with an evangelist to sell religion to a small town.
Other social critics included
Sherwood Anderson and
H.L. Mencken. Anderson published a collection of short stories titled
Winesburg, Ohio, which studied the dynamics of a small town. Mencken criticized narrow American tastes and culture in various essays and articles.
Art Deco
Art Deco was the style of design and architecture that marked the era. Originating in Belgium, it spread to the rest of western Europe and North America towards the mid-1920s.
In the U.S., one of the most remarkable buildings featuring this style was constructed as the
tallest building of the time: the
Chrysler Building. The forms of art deco were pure and geometric, even though the artists often drew inspiration from nature. In the beginning, lines were curved, though rectilinear designs would later become more and more popular.
Expressionism and Surrealism
Painting in North America during the 1920s developed in a different direction than that of Europe. In Europe, the 1920s were the era of
expressionism, and later
surrealism. As
Man Ray stated in 1920 after the publication of a unique issue of
New York Dada: "Dada can't live in New York".
Cinema
At the beginning of the decade, films were silent and colorless. In 1922, the first all-color feature,
Toll of the Sea, was released. In 1926,
Warner Bros. released
Don Juan, the first feature with
sound effects and music. In 1927, Warner released
The Jazz Singer, the first sound feature to include limited talking sequences.
The public went wild for
talkies, and movie studios converted to sound almost overnight. In 1928, Warner released
Lights of New York, the first all-talking feature film. In the same year, the first sound cartoon,
Dinner Time, was released. Warner ended the decade by unveiling, in 1929, the first all-color, all-talking feature film,
On with the Show.
Harlem Renaissance
African-American literary and artistic culture developed rapidly during the 1920s under the banner of "
The Harlem Renaissance". In 1921, the
Black Swan Corporation opened. At its height, it issued ten recordings per month. All-African-American musicals also started in 1921. In 1923, the
Harlem Renaissance Basketball Club was founded by
Bob Douglas. During the later 1920s, and especially in the 1930s, the
basketball team became known as the best in the world.
The first issue of
Opportunity was published. The African-American
playwright, Willis Richardson, debuted his play
The Chip Woman's Fortune, at the Frazee Theatre (also known as the
Wallacks theatre). Notable African-American authors such as
Langston Hughes and
Zora Neale Hurston began to achieve a level of national public recognition during the 1920s.
African American culture has contributed the largest part to the rise of jazz.
Jazz Age
The first commercial
radio station in the United States,
KDKA, began broadcasting in
Pittsburgh in 1922. Radio stations subsequently proliferated at a remarkable rate, and with them spread the popularity of jazz. Jazz became associated with all things modern, sophisticated, and also decadent. Men tended to sing in a high pitched voice, typified by
Harold Scrappy Lambert, one of the popular recording artists of the decade.
The music that people consider today as "jazz" tended to be played by minorities. In the 1920s, the majority of people listened to what we'd call today "sweet music", with hardcore jazz categorized as "hot music" or "race music."
Louis Armstrong marked the time with improvisations and endless variations on a single melody, popularizing
scat singing, an improvisational vocal technique in which nonsensical
syllables are sung or otherwise vocalized, often as part of a
call-and-response interaction with other
musicians on-stage. Apart from the
clarinet,
Sidney Bechet popularized the
saxophone. Dance venues increased the demand for professional musicians and jazz adopted the 4/4 beat of
dance music.
Tap dancers entertained people in
Vaudeville theaters, out on the streets or accompanying bands. At the end of the Roaring Twenties,
Duke Ellington initiated the
big band era.
Dance
Starting in the 1920s, ballrooms across the U.S. sponsored dance contests, where dancers invented, tried, and competed with new moves. Professionals began to hone their skills in tap dance and other dances of the era throughout the Vaudeville circuit across the United States. Electric lighting made evening social entertainment more comfortable, giving rise to an era of
dance halls and
live music. The most popular dances were the
fox-trot, waltz and tango, and the
Charleston.
Harlem played a key role in the development of dance styles. With several entertainment venues, people from all walks of life, all races, and all classes came together. The
Cotton Club featured black performers and catered to a white clientele, while the
Savoy Ballroom catered to a mostly black clientele.
From the early 1920s, a variety of eccentric dances were developed. The first of these were the
Breakaway and Charleston. Both were based on African-American musical styles and beats, including the widely popular
blues. The Charleston's popularity exploded after its feature in two 1922
Broadway shows. A brief
Black Bottom craze, originating from the
Apollo Theater, swept dance halls from 1926 to 1927, replacing the Charleston in popularity. By 1927, the
Lindy Hop, a dance based on Breakaway and Charleston and integrating elements of tap, became the dominant
social dance. Developed in the Savoy Ballroom, it was set to
stride piano ragtime jazz. The Lindy Hop remained popular for over a decade, before evolving into
Swing dance. These dances, nonetheless, were never mainstreamed, and the overwhelming majority of people continued to dance the fox-trot, waltz and tango throughout the decade.
Fashion
Immortalized in movies and magazine covers, young women’s fashion of the 1920s was both a trend and a social statement, a breaking-off from the rigid Victorian way of life. These young, rebellious, middle-class women labeled, ‘flappers’ by older generations did away with the corset and donned slinky knee-length dresses, which exposed their legs and arms. The hairstyle of the decade was a chin-length bob, of which there were several popular variations. Make-up, which until the 1920s wasn't typically accepted in American society because of its association with prostitutes, became for the first time extremely popular.
The Changing Role of Women
With the passing of the 19th Amendment in 1920, women finally attained the political equality that they'd so long been fighting for. A generational gap began to form between the “new” women of the 20s and the previous generation. Prior to the 19th Amendment, feminists commonly thought that you could have a career or you could have husband and a family, but not both because one would inherently inhibit the development of the other. This mentality began to change in the 20s as more women began to desire not only successful careers of their own but also families. The “new” woman was less invested in social service than the Progressive generations, and in tune with the capitalistic spirit of the era, she was eager to compete and to find personal fulfillment.
The 1920s saw significant change in the lives of working women. World War I'd allowed women to temporarily enter into industries that were once deemed inappropriate for them such as chemical, automobile, iron and steel manufacturing. Black women, who had been historically closed out of factory jobs, began to find a place in industry during World War I by accepting lower wages and replacing the lost immigrant labor and in heavy work. Yet like other of women during World War I, their success was only temporary and most black women, too, were pushed out of their factory jobs after the war. In 1920, seventy-five percent of the black female labor force consisted of agricultural laborers, domestic servants, and laundry workers. Legislation passed at the beginning of the 20th century forced many factories to shorten their workdays and pay a minimum wage. This shifted the focus in the 1920s to job performance in order to meet demand. Factories encouraged workers to produce more quickly and efficiently with speedups and bonus systems, increasing the pressure on factory workers. Despite the strain on women in the factories, the booming economy of the 1920s meant more opportunities even for the lower classes. Many young girls from working-class backgrounds didn't need to help support their families as prior generations did and were often encouraged to seek work or receive vocational training which would result in social mobility.
Achieving suffrage meant having to refocus feminism. Groups such as the National Women’s Party (NWP) continued the political fight, proposing the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 and working to remove laws that used sex to discriminate against women. But many women shifted their focus from politics to challenge traditional definitions of womanhood.
Young women especially, began staking claim to their own bodies and took part in a sexual liberation of their generation. Many of the ideas that fueled this change in sexual thought were already floating around New York intellectual circles prior to World War I, with the writings of Sigmund Freud, Havelock Ellis, and Ellen Key. There, thinkers outed that sex wasn't only central to the human experience but that women were sexual beings with human impulses and desires just like men and restraining these impulses was self-destructive. By the 1920s, these ideas had permeated the mainstream.
The 1920s saw the emergence of the co-ed, as women began attending large state colleges and universities. Women entered into the mainstream middle-class experience, but took on a gendered role within society. Women typically took classes such as, home economics, “Husband and Wife”, “Motherhood” and “The Family as an Economic Unit”. In an increasingly conservative post-war era, it was common for a young woman to attend college with the intention of finding a suitable husband. Fueled by ideas of sexual liberation, dating underwent major changes on college campuses. With the advent of the automobile, courtship occurred in a much more private setting. “Petting”, sexual relations without intercourse became the social norm for college students.
Despite women’s increase knowledge of pleasure and sex, the decade of unfettered capitalism that was the 20s gave birth to the ‘feminine mystique’. With this formulation, all women wanted to marry, all good women stayed at home with their children, cooking and cleaning, and the best women did the aforementioned and in addition, exercised their purchasing power freely and as frequently as possible in order to better their families and their homes. This left many housewives feeling frustrated and unsatisfied.
Minorities and homosexuals
In
urban areas, minorities were treated with more equality than they'd been accustomed to previously. This was reflected in some of the films of the decade.
Redskin (1929) and
Son of the Gods (1929), for instance, deal sympathetically with
Native Americans and
Asian Americans, openly reviling social bias. On the stage and in movies, black and white players appeared together for the first time. It became possible to go to
nightclubs and see whites and minorities dancing and eating together. Even popular songs poked fun at the new social acceptance of homosexuality. One of these songs had the title "Masculine Women, Feminine Men." It was released in 1926 and recorded by numerous artists of the day and included the following lyrics:
Masculine women, Feminine men
Which is the rooster, which is the hen?
It's hard to tell 'em apart today! And, say!
Sister is busy learning to shave,
Brother just loves his permanent wave,
It's hard to tell 'em apart today! Hey, hey!
Girls were girls and boys were boys when I was a tot,
Now we don't know who is who, or even what's what!
Knickers and trousers, baggy and wide,
Nobody knows who's walking inside,
Those masculine women and feminine men!
Homosexuals also received a level of acceptance that wasn't seen again until the 1960s . Until the early 1930s,
gay clubs were openly operated, commonly known as "pansy clubs". The relative
liberalism of the decade is demonstrated by the fact that the actor
William Haines, regularly named in newspapers and magazines as the number-one male box-office draw, openly lived in a gay relationship with his lover,
Jimmy Shields. Other popular gay actors/actresses of the decade included
Alla Nazimova and
Ramon Novarro. In 1927,
Mae West wrote a play about homosexuality called
The Drag, and alluded to the work of
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs. It was a box-office success. West regarded talking about sex as a basic
human rights issue, and was also an early advocate of
gay rights. With the return of conservatism in the 1930s, the public grew intolerant of homosexuality, and
gay actors were forced to choose between retiring or agreeing to hide their sexuality.
Society
Immigration laws
The United States, and to a lesser degree Canada, became more
xenophobic or, at least,
anti-immigrant. The American
Immigration Act of 1924 limited immigration from countries where 2% of the total
U.S. population, per the 1890
census (not counting African Americans), were immigrants from that country. Thus, the massive influx of Europeans that had come to America during the first two decades of the century slowed to a trickle.
Asians and
citizens of India were prohibited from immigrating altogether. Alien Land Laws, such as
California's
Webb-Haney Act in 1913, prevented aliens ineligible for citizenship, (except Filipinos, who were subjects of U.S.) of the right to own land in California. It also limited the leasing of land by said aliens to three years. Many Japanese immigrants, or Issei, circumvented this law by transferring the title of their land to their American-born children, or Nisei, who were citizens. Similar laws were passed in 11 other states.
In Canada, the
Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 prevented almost all immigration from Asia. Other laws curbed immigration from
Southern and
Eastern Europe. A
Gentlemen's Act gave America the right to prevent any
Japanese immigrants from entering the country.
Prohibition
In 1920, the
manufacture, sale,
import and export of
alcohol was prohibited by the
Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in an attempt to alleviate various
social problems; this came to be known as "Prohibition". It was enacted through the
Volstead Act, supported greatly by churches and leagues such as 'The Anti Saloon League'. America's continued desire for alcohol under prohibition led to the rise of
organized crime, smuggling and gangster associations all over the U.S. In Canada, prohibition was only imposed nationally for a short period of time, but the American
liquor laws nonetheless had an important impact.
Rise of the speakeasy
Speakeasies became popular and numerous as the Prohibition years progressed and led to the rise of gangsters such as
Al Capone. They commonly operated with connections to organized crime and liquor smuggling. While police and
U.S. Federal Government agents raided such establishments and arrested many of the small figures and smugglers, they rarely managed to get the big bosses; the business of running speakeasies was so lucrative that such establishments continued to flourish throughout the nation. In major cities, speakeasies could often be elaborate, offering food, live bands, and floor shows. Police were notoriously
bribed by speakeasy operators to either leave them alone or at least give them advance notice of any planned raid.
Literature
The Roaring Twenties was a period of literary creativity, and works of several notable authors appeared during the period.
D. H. Lawrence's novel
Lady Chatterley's Lover was a scandal at the time because of its explicit descriptions of sex.
Books that take the 1920s as their subject include:
Solo flight across the Atlantic
Charles Lindbergh gained sudden great international fame as the first pilot to fly solo and non-stop across the
Atlantic Ocean, flying from
Roosevelt Airfield (
Nassau County,
Long Island),
New York to
Paris on
May 20-
May 21 1927. He had a single-engine airplane, "
The Spirit of St. Louis", which had been designed by
Donald Hall and custom built by
Ryan Airlines of
San Diego, California. His flight took 33.5 hours. The
President of France bestowed on him the
French Legion of Honor and, on his arrival back in the United States, a fleet of warships and aircraft escorted him to
Washington, D.C., where President
Calvin Coolidge awarded him the
Distinguished Flying Cross.
Sports
The Roaring Twenties is seen as the breakout decade for sports in America. Citizens from all parts of the country flocked to see the top athletes of the day compete in arenas and stadiums. Their exploits were loudly and highly praised in the new "gee whiz" style of
sports journalism that was emerging; champions of this style of writing included the legendary writers
Grantland Rice and
Damon Runyon.
The most popular American athlete of the twenties was baseball player
Babe Ruth. His characteristic
home run hitting heralded a new epoch in the history of the sport (the "
Live-ball era"), and his high style of living fascinated the nation and made him one of the highest-profile figures of the decade. Fans were enthralled in 1927 when Ruth hit 60 home runs, setting a new single-season home run record that wasn't broken until 1961. Together with another up-and-coming star named
Lou Gehrig, Ruth laid the foundation of future
New York Yankees dynasties.
A former bar room brawler named
Jack Dempsey won the world heavyweight
boxing title and became the most celebrated pugilist of his time.
College football also captivated fans, partly because of
Red Grange,
running back of the
University of Illinois. Grange played a role in the development of professional football in the mid-1920s by signing on with the
NFL's
Chicago Bears.
Bill Tilden thoroughly dominated his competition in
tennis, cementing his reputation as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. And
Bobby Jones popularized
golf with his spectacular successes on the links; the game didn't see another major star of his stature come along until
Jack Nicklaus. Ruth, Dempsey, Grange, Tilden, and Jones are collectively referred to as the "Big Five" sporting icons of the Roaring Twenties.
American politics
Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding ran on a promise to "
Return to Normalcy", a term he coined, which reflected three trends of his time: a renewed
isolationism in reaction to World War I, a resurgence of
nativism, and a turning away from the government
activism of the reform era. Throughout his administration, Harding adopted
laissez-faire policies. Harding's "Front Porch Campaign" during the late summer and fall of 1920 captured the imagination of the country. It was the first campaign to be heavily covered by the press and to receive widespread newsreel coverage, and it was also the first modern campaign to use the power of
Hollywood and Broadway stars who traveled to
Marion for
photo opportunities with Harding and his wife.
Al Jolson,
Lillian Russell,
Douglas Fairbanks and
Mary Pickford, were among the luminaries to make the pilgrimage to central
Ohio. Business icons
Thomas Edison,
Henry Ford and
Harvey Firestone also lent their cachet to the Front Porch Campaign. From the onset of the campaign until the November election, over 600,000 people traveled to Marion to participate. His administration was plagued with scandals with which he was likely not involved. On the scandals, he commented, "My God, this is a hell of a job!" and, "I have no trouble with my enemies, but my damn friends, they're the ones that keep me walking the floors at night."
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge was inaugurated as president after the death of President Harding. He was easily elected in 1924 when he ran on a basis of order and prosperity. Coolidge made use of the new medium of radio and made
radio history several times while president: his inauguration was the first
presidential inauguration broadcast on radio; on
12 February 1924, he became the first
President of the United States to deliver a political speech on radio, and only ten days thereafter, on
22 February, he also became the first to deliver such a speech from the
White House. He is famous for his quotation "The chief business of the American people is business".
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover was the final president of the 1920s, taking office in 1929. He stated in 1928, "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over
poverty than ever before in the history of any land."
Fall of labor unions
Several
labor strikes in 1918 and 1919 marked a turning point in American's view of
labor unions. State
militias began to be used to break up strikes and state officials started enacting
criminal laws against disturbances. Labor union membership fell drastically throughout the country. Radical
unionism declined as well, in large part because of Federal repression during World War I by means of the
Espionage Act and the
Sedition Act of 1918. Socialist
Eugene V. Debs had been sentenced to prison for 10 years as a result of the latter, although he was released early by Harding.
Canadian politics
Canadian politics were dominated federally by the
Liberal Party of Canada under
William Lyon Mackenzie King. The federal government spent most of the decade disengaged from the economy and focused on paying off the large debts amassed during the war and during the era of railway over expansion. After the booming wheat economy of the early part of the century, the
prairie provinces were troubled by low wheat prices. This played an important role in the development of Canada's first highly successful
third party, the
Progressive Party of Canada that won the second most seats in the
1921 national election. However the 1920s were also a decade of independence for Canada as the
Balfour Declaration of 1926 made them equal in status with Britain and the other former colonies (exempting
India) within the
Commonwealth of Nations.
End of the Roaring Twenties
Black Tuesday
The
Dow Jones Industrial Stock Index had continued its upward move for weeks, and coupled with heightened
speculative activities, it gave an illusion that the
bull market of 1928 to 1929 would last forever. On
October 29 1929, also known as
Black Tuesday, stock prices on
Wall Street collapsed. The events in the United States were the final shock to an unsound
economic system, leading to a worldwide
depression that put millions of people out of work across the
capitalist world throughout the 1930s.
Repeal of Prohibition
The 21st Amendment, which repealed the
18th Amendment, was proposed on
February 20 1933. The choice to legalize alcohol was left up to the states, and many states quickly took this opportunity to allow alcohol.
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