Roaring Twenties

The United States experienced an extreme cultural change in the 1920’s. This decade was called “The Roaring twenties”, because the US had an economic boom. Some citizen’s like Henry Ford helped increase the economy by creating the automobile, and the assembly line. However, the 1920’s was a period in time where modernism clashed against tradition. Urban vs. rural, religion vs. science, and Americans vs. communism (the red scare) are examples of this.

As the US entered the 1920’s modern urban communities and traditional rural communities clashed. Rural areas thought that all urban areas were places of sin. This was mainly because of alcohol, gangs, and “inappropriate” dressed women. Liquor was made illegal because of the ratification of the 18th amendment. It was made illegal, because crime and death rates increased during the beginning of the 1920’s. Al Capone of Chicago ran an infamous gang which scared numerous people. In addition, urban women were called flappers because they wore dresses with higher hemlines, drank alcohol, and smoked cigarettes. This angered traditional women.

Another clash was science vs. religion. All traditionalist believed in the word of God over anything else. However, modernist proved that that could be wrong. Traditionalist believed that in order to survive you have to believe in God. A man named Darrow taught his student’s Darwin’s theory of evolution. Darwin’s theory supports that life is based on the survival of the fittest. Darrow was eventually arrested and trailed for teaching the theory against state law. The ironic part of the trial was that the jury ruled Darrow guilty, but the verdict was overturned

Many Americans got scared after the success of the Russian Revolution. Many were afraid that communism might eventually spread to the United States. This became known as the red scare. Practically all Americans became afraid of immigrants fearing they might introduce communism to the American way of life. Many of these Americans call themselves the 100 percenters, which meant they had no affiliation with anyone who was foreign to the US. In addition, the KKK reemerged except not only causing terror to African-Americans they caused terror to all foreigners. The US passed four acts that would limit the amount of total immigrants per year. A major incident regarding immigrants was the Sacco-Vinzetti trail. This was about two Italian men were arrested and convicted of murder. Even though there was inconclusive evidence the two men were executed.

Overall, the Roaring Twenties was good and bad. The US experienced an economic boom. New technologies were created such as: television, sound movies, automobiles, and the assembly line. However, modernism clashed with tradition. Urban vs. rural, religion vs. science, and Americans vs. communism (the red scare) are examples of this.