flapper.jpg (12331 bytes)
 		 

The Roaring Twenties

The doughboys returned to the United States after World War I. They found more money available and new products to spend it on.

credit.jpg (29620 bytes)
 "How's My Credit?"
Literary Digest, 7/12/19.
Originally from the New York American (Murphy).
 political cartoon

 

People could buy "on time". Others began investing in the stock market.

In 1920 Warren G. Harding was elected President. His campaign saying was "return to normalcy" after the war. Congress voted in a tax on goods from foreign countries.

When Harding died in 1923 Calvin Coolidge became President. Coolidge would do nothing to control how the money was being spent by business.

On January 16, 1829 the Eighteenth Amendment became law. It made it unlawful to make or sell any alcoholic drink except for medical, industrial, or religious reasons. The sale of alcohol went to gangsters such as Al Capone of Chicago. This caused some major problems.

In 1933 the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed.

Some other changes were:

  1. The Ku Klux Klan came back to life. This was an organization that had begun after the Civil War to frighten and even kill black freemen.

  2. Companies began to advertise. Many chain stores grew.

  3. Women called Flappers began wearing short dresses and smoking cigarettes in public.

  4. The 20's was the time for art hemingway.gif (2876 bytes)
    Ernest Hemingway,    		 fitzgerald.jpg (1121 bytes)
    F. Scott Fitzgerald,
    and     		sinclair.gif (5269 bytes)
    Sinclair Lewis
    were great writers of the time.

     

  5. Sports became popular.

    Jack Dempsey won the world heavyweight boxing championship.
    Babe Ruth hit more home runs for the New York Yankees than any other man in history.
    Gertrude Ederle swam the English Channel in 14 hours.

  6. Many people enjoyed silly entertainment.

    A man named "Shipwreck" Kelly sat on top of a fifty-foot high flagpole for two weeks.
    Some entered marathon dances.
    College students ate goldfish and stuffed themselves into closets and other small places.

  7. lindbergh.jpg (35672 bytes) Charles Lindberg flew his plane The Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris in just over 33 hours.

     

  8. In 1929 higher tariff on goods from other countries was passed in Congress. This hurt farmers because they were not able to sell their goods overseas. Companies could not sell their products. Many people lost money they had invested in companies. The stock market crashed and the Great Depression started.

The Roaring Twenties ||| The Stock Market Crash  ||| The Great Depression ||| The New Deal
 Activities for the 1920's ||| Activities for the 1930's ||| Return to Home Page