apsuki-2006

1920s ESSAY

After the World War I ended in 1918, the "Roaring Twenties" emerged until the collapse of the nation's economy in 1929. During this period, the nation experienced an economic boom, with the new technologies and the entertainments. New cultural forms such as jazz and modern art developed as well, and the Harlem Renaissance gave opportunities for Balcks to contribute to American cultural life as being black poets, artists, and authors.This period also represented social, economic, and cultural disagreement among Americans. Such include the urban versus rural attitudes, nativism versus immigration, and science versus religion.

In 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment was passed to prohibit the sale, distribution, and the consumption of alcoholic beverages, and was enforced by the Volstead Act. The rural Americans sought of it as a provocative lifestyle, which led to the uprise of gangs. By their response, the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed in 1933 by the Twenty-first Amendment. There were also a group of women called the "flappers" in the urban. Their clothing, behavior, and smoking challenged the traditional role of a women in the American society.

During this period, immigrants from south and eastern Europe had tremendously grew and also the Ku Klux Klan had reemerged. They were against Jews, eastern Europeans, Catholics, radicals, unions, and Blacks. There was also another group called the "Hundren Percenters", who declared themselves 100 percent American and they limited foreign cultural and political influences on the U.S. Some Acts were passed to limit the immigration. They included the Literacy Test Act (1917), the Emergency Quota Act ( 1921), and the Immigration Act (1924).

One of the famous trial of science versus religion was the Scopes Monkey Trial. In 1925, a teacher was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in defiance of state law. This case gave Christians an opportunity to silence those who questioned the theory of creation as described in the Book of Genesis. Even today, the role of religion in education is debated in Congress and across the nation.

The Roaring Twenties was a time of economic boom, the development of Black culture and women, and the clash of ideals of modernism with stability of tradition and religion. Although there were many conflicts between many things, they indicate the development of the American culture within the racial mix, although they might not have been all positive.

posted by Yoshimi Nomura @ 4:46 PM