The Original Roaring Twenties by History.com
The Roaring Twenties was a period in American history of dramatic social, economic 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 gross national product (GNP) expanded by 40 percent from 1922 to 1929. This
economic engine swept many Americans into an affluent “consumer culture” in which people nationwide saw
the same advertisements, bought the same goods, listened to the same music and did the same dances. Many
Americans, however, were uncomfortable with this racy urban lifestyle, and the decade of Prohibition brought
more conflict than celebration. But for some, the Jazz Age of the 1920s roared loud and long, until the excesses
of the Roaring Twenties came crashing down as the economy tanked at the decade’s end.
Flappers: The ‘New Woman’
Perhaps the most familiar symbol of the “Roaring Twenties” is probably the flapper: a young woman with bobbed
hair and short skirts who drank, smoked and said “unladylike” things, in addition to being more sexually “free”
than previous generations. In reality, most young women in the 1920s did none of these things (though many did
adopt a fashionable flapper wardrobe), but even those women who were not flappers gained some unprecedented
freedoms.
They could vote at last: The 19th Amendment to the Constitution had guaranteed that right in 1920, though it
would be decades before Black women in the South could fully exercise their right to vote without Jim Crow
segregation laws.
Millions of women worked in blue-collar jobs, as well as white-collar jobs (as stenographers, for example) and
could afford to participate in the burgeoning consumer economy. The increased availability of birth-control
devices such as the diaphragm made it possible for women to have fewer children.
In 1912, an estimated 16 percent of American households had electricity; by the mid-1920s, more than 60 percent
did. And with this electrification came new machines and technologies like the washing machine, the freezer and
the vacuum cleaner eliminated some of the drudgeries of household work.
Fashion, Fads and Film Stars
During the 1920s, many Americans had extra money to spend—and spend it they did, on movies, fashion and
consumer goods such as ready-to-wear clothing and home appliances like electric refrigerators. In particular,
they bought radios.
The first commercial radio station in the United States, Pittsburgh’s KDKA, hit the airwaves in 1920. Two years
later Warren G. Harding became the first president to address the nation by radio—and three years later there
were more than 500 stations in the nation. By the end of the 1920s, there were radios in more than 12 million HHs.
Perhaps the most familiar symbol of the “Roaring Twenties” is probably the flapper: a young woman with bobbed hair and short skirts who drank, smoked and said “unladylike” things, in addition to being more sexually “free” than previous generations. In reality, most young women in the 1920s did none of these things (though many did adopt a fashionable flapper wardrobe), but even those women who were not flappers gained some unprecedented freedoms.
They could vote at last: The 19th Amendment to the Constitution had guaranteed that right in 1920, though it would be decades before Black women in the South could fully exercise their right to vote without Jim Crow segregation laws.
Millions of women worked in blue-collar jobs, as well as white-collar jobs (as stenographers, for example) and could afford to participate in the burgeoning consumer economy. The increased availability of birth-control devices such as the diaphragm made it possible for women to have fewer children.
In 1912, an estimated 16 percent of American households had electricity; by the mid-1920s, more than 60 percent did. And with this electrification came new machines and technologies like the washing machine, the freezer and the vacuum cleaner eliminated some of the drudgeries of household work.
Did you know? Because the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act did not make it illegal to drink alcohol, only to manufacture and sell it, many people stockpiled liquor before the ban went into effect. Rumor had it that the Yale Club in New York City had a 14-year supply of booze in its basement.
Fashion, Fads and Film Stars
During the 1920s, many Americans had extra money to spend—and spend it they did, on movies, fashion and consumer goods such as ready-to-wear clothing and home appliances like electric refrigerators. In particular, they bought radios.
The first commercial radio station in the United States, Pittsburgh’s KDKA, hit the airwaves in 1920. Two years later Warren G. Harding became the first president to address the nation by radio—and three years later there were more than 500 stations in the nation. By the end of the 1920s, there were radios in more than 12 million households.
People also swarmed to see Hollywood movies: Historians estimate that, by the end of the decades, three-quarters of the American population visited a movie theater every week, and actors like Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino and Tallulah Bankhead became household names.
But the most important consumer product of the 1920s was the automobile. Low prices (the Ford Model T cost just $260 in 1924) and generous credit made cars affordable luxuries at the beginning of the decade; by the end, they were practically necessities.
By 1929 there was one car on the road for every five Americans. Meanwhile, an economy of automobiles was born: Businesses like service stations and motels sprang up to meet drivers’ needs—as did the burgeoning oil industry.