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Boom and Bust
All throughout the 1920s the standard of living went up as new technological age boomed. Automobiles, airplanes, radios, and movies were mass produced on assembly lines and then became available. New appliances and an increased reliance on electricity to run them also changed the daily lives of many Americans, particularly women. -
Radio
"... The mechanical inventions of the day were keeping up with the events. Radio not only reported the events but shaped them. Radio strengthened a tendency already working to make the people of the United States feel united and whole; for the first time, it seemed as if they could have thoughts and feelings simultaneously. For certain individuals this was comforting and strengthening. It had the effect of making people wish to have simultaneous sensations. ..." -
Flappers
Flappers are young women known for their energetic freedom, embracing a lifestyle viewed by many at the time as outrageous, immoral or downright dangerous. Now considered the first generation of independent American women, flappers pushed barriers in economic, political and sexual freedom for women. -
Installment Plan
By the 1920's almost everyone was using installment plans, it was the easiest way for people to buy things more affordably. The installment plan enabled people to buy goods over an extended period of time, without having to put down very much money at the time of purchase. People were able to purchase automobile, household appliances, homes, furniture, and other items. -
Period: to
1920s
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Teapot Dome
This was a scandal in the 1920s surrounding the secret leasing of federal oil reserves by the secretary of the interior, Albert Bacon Fall. When the leases and contracts came under investigation by the U.S. Senate, it was disclosed that shortly after the signing of the Teapot Dome lease, Fall and members of his family had received from an unknown source more than $200,000 in bonds. Also, Doheny, at Fall’s request, sent $100,000 in currency to Fall as a “loan” that had not been repaid. -
Anarchism
Anarchist thoughts began in the West and spread throughout the world in the twentieth century. It is the belief in the abolition of all government and the organization of society on a voluntary, cooperative basis without recourse to force or compulsion. -
Klu Klux Klan
The Klu Klux Klan had been around for years before the 1920s but in the 1920s the amount of Klansmen went from 3 million to 8 million, a skyrocketed amount. All types of different people were apart of the KKK ranging from the poor to high class lawyers, all dressed in white robes. -
Quota System
It limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. The quota provided immigration visas to two percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census. -
Automobile becomes affordable
By 1924, around 10,000 Ford Motor Company dealerships operated throughout the United States. Ford's method of assembly line production and stable wages for workers made the Model T a popular car. The price of the car was affordable because of the fact that Ford was able to pay people less since they did small jobs. -
Jazz Age
The Jazz Age was a post-World War I movement in which jazz music and dance emerged. Originating in New Orleans jazz played a significant part in wider cultural changes in this period, and its influence on pop culture continued long afterwards. The Jazz Age is often referred to in conjunction with the Roaring Twenties, and in the United States it overlapped in significant cross-cultural ways with the Prohibition Era.