Roaring Twenties Analysis

Nicholas Waldron

The Changes and Motives of the Roaring Twenties

HIST 151-005

History Since 1876

“I pledge on my honor that I have not received or given any unauthorized assistance on this writing assignment.” The 1920s were an age of dramatic social and political change. For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on farms. The nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929, and this economic growth swept many Americans into an affluent but unfamiliar “consumer society.” People from coast to coast bought the same goods (thanks to nationwide advertising and the spread of chain stores), listened to the same music, did the same dances and even used the same slang! Many

“Not the romantic violin but the barbaric saxophone now dominated the orchestra, and to its passionate crooning and wailing the fox-trotters moved in what the editor of the Hobart College Herald disgustedly called a syncopated embrace” (Allen, p.70). This new sound and movement caused a more sexual dancing style. “No longer did even an inch of space separate them; they danced as if glued together, body to body, cheek to cheek” (Allen, p.68). The Catholic Telegraph of Cincinnati was in an uproar at this sexual dancing style, calling it “absolutely indecent” for a female to be half dressed and dancing in such a crude way in public (Allen, p.68). Fredrick Allen also focused on the major conflict of how the younger generation acted out during the roaring twenties. The younger generation became a topic of concern “from coast to coast” (Allen, p.70). Before the 1920s companies across the nation believed that it would be “suicidal to portray a woman smoking” in an advertisement. But soon enough women began to smoke and billboards went up portraying a women smoking a cigarette (Allen, p.82). Women began to drink and smoke in public and before the 1920s if a women was seen in public doing these things she would be considered loose and undesirable. Women before the 1920s were forbidden to kiss a man in public, but during the 1920s women participated in “petty parties” and “necking” (Allen, p.69). Young men and women at this time were free and wild breaking all kinds of past society roles. What caused all this wild and loose acts amongst the younger