The Roaring Twenties: A New America

Written by: Anna Pafenberg

Before 1920, Americans had lived through the first world war and some people wanted things to stay the same, and others wanted change. The people who wanted change were called Modernists, they did not like what the government was going and thought America needed a bit of an update. Traditionalists wanted things to stay the same. They wanted to keep modest Christian values like how America was dictated beforehand.

Despite not wanting change, the Traditionalists got the opposite of what they wanted. Henry Ford invented the car, and until the twenties it was not a common object in the American home. Thanks to the assembly line and supply and demand, cars became cheaper and many more people could afford them. Now that people had cars, they could venture far from their homes for vacations and journeys they would not typically go on. Soon, people in cities could leave and go to more rural areas and spend time with new people. This led to things usually only in cities being brought to the country, and the Traditionalists that stayed there did not like the spread of new ideas. The invention of the radio in this era allowed more ideas to spread as well. However, this meant that people weren’t spending as much time with their neighbors or in their community like how they were before. 

Women in the twenties were changing too. The 19th amendment gave them the right to finally vote! Along with this freedom, many women started dressing or acting differently. In the cities especially, they started to wear shorter skirts, smoke cigarettes, and even drink. These new freedoms for women changed lives for many. However, people didn’t like change. Traditionalists wanted things to be more modest and for women to be at home. But now, women had jobs and financial freedom as well as their rights to act the way that they wanted. 

In 1919, the 18th amendment banned alcohol in the United States. This era was called Prohibition. All bars and taverns were closed and it was illegal to sell alcohol. While people hoped this would stop people from drinking and create a more wholesome society, it only made people drink more than ever! Alcohol was bought and sold through organized crime members. This was the start of the Mafia and organized crime as a whole. Because different gangs wanted control of sales, they got into fights and many were killed. It seemed like Prohibition was causing more violence and drinking than it stopped. Speakeasies started to pop up. These were secret bars that sold alcohol. Flappers, or young women who were free sexually and financially. They drank, smoked, and were not considered ladylike. 

While the twenties have much more to offer, so much happened. New economic opportunities like the car and radio as well as social freedoms for women changed lives in just a single decade. The twenties brought more change to America than ever had been!