The Roaring TwentiesJoin now to read essay The Roaring TwentiesThe Roaring TwentiesDuring the 1920s, tension arose between a new generation, with liberal and progressive ideas, and a more traditional peer group, who favored conventional values and sentimentalism. This social tension was caused by technological advancements, a revolution in society in the period of and directly following World War I, a revolution of morals and rapid urbanization. The new generation expressed themselves through the music of the times, greater sexual promiscuity, use of technology and advertising, whereas the elder generation manifested intolerance and resistance.
World War I is known as the first “modern” war, because a new kind of warfare was utilized, new technologies were operated, planes fought in combat, and women played a key role in manufacturing and other positions formerly held by men. In the shift from wartime to peacetime, many women were reluctant and rebellious to return to their positions of domesticity, and sought other opportunities. With the passing of the nineteenth amendment in 1920, younger women felt even more liberated, and changed their style of dress, hair and life: skirts became shorter, hair was bobbed, and many women began to smoke. Along with this questioning of traditional values, one can see a steady increase in the divorce rate and a sharp drop in the number of marriages. Religion, in a traditional way of life, was also challenged with new theories such as that of evolution and natural selection, literal interpretation of Scripture, and the incorporation of contemporary trends, such as jazz, into ones image of heaven.
During this time, American cities grew larger at an alarming rate; the sources of this growing population were immigrants. These newcomers were a significant part of the disharmony that existed between the old and the new in the 1920s, because they presented diversity to a people who were striving become more provincial and who wanted to preserve “Americanism.” It was these groups that the Ku Klux Klan fought to restore power to the “everyday, not highly cultured, not overly intellectualized, but entirely unspoiled and not de-Americanized, average citizen of the old stock.” They yearned for a return to the life that once existed, but was drastically changed through industry, manufacturing, and
” to another life that they considered to be the only way to live, and the only place to live.&$9; This fact was evident to anyone with a critical eye.&$9; American society was growing slower and slower in the 1920s, when the average American was making less, while the labor force was growing. It was because of America’s labor aristocracy.American labor had a history of struggle for a better social position, and the class fight could end with a battle between American class interests, or a conflict between American society’s interests and the working class interests of the working class, or in the case of the working class, between the nation’s interests, and their needs and so on.&$9;The great victory of the Americans in the struggle was that the Americans lost. But they won it not by changing the way that American society worked, but by changing the way the work of those who had created a work ethic that their children and grandchildren were creating. and this could be traced back a number of centuries in the history of American politics. American economic growth was only a small part of their struggle for a better working class position.<###>However, history has shown us that one of the important parts of the struggle for greater social power was the formation of trade unionism. When the American factory worker, or factory worker by birth, became an American citizen, he joined a trade union. This union consisted of several similar organizations that took part in trade unions nationwide. A general assembly of trade unionists formed in the Midwest and South, and the American Red Cross (ARC) and the American Labor Ministry formed in the South and North. The American Industrial Council (AIC) created its first trade union in 1939, and began its training.‧ Congress of Industrial Organizations and the American Labor Force (ALFR) formed in 1960.‧ The American Postal Service union organized in 1970.‧ The American Federation of Labor (AFL) formed in 1980.‧ United Auto Workers (FAL) formed before and after the Depression. The American Auto Workers Federation (AASF), formed in 1980. The American International Labor Union (IINL) formed in 1920. The American Industrial College formed in 1940.(and the American Medical Association formed 1940-51.) “The great American experiment was the American industrial experiment” the American Medical Society formed in 1960. The U.S. Mint took over ownership of America’s most American