Roaring Twenties

Great Depression

The Roaring Twenties, sometimes stylized as Roarin' 20s, specified to a 1920s decade in music together with fashion, as it happened in Western society in addition to Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the United States and Europe, especially in major cities such as Berlin, Buenos Aires, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York City, Paris, and Sydney. In France, the decade was call as the années folles "crazy years", emphasizing the era's social, artistic and cultural dynamism. Jazz blossomed, the flapper redefined the sophisticated look for British and American women, and Art Deco peaked. In the wake of the military mobilization of World War I and the Spanish flu, President Warren G. Harding "brought back normalcy" to the United States.

The social and cultural features requested as the Roaring Twenties began in leading metropolitan centres and spread widely in the aftermath of World War I. The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of novelty associated with modernity and a break with tradition, through modern technology such as automobiles, moving pictures, and radio, bringing "modernity" to a large component of the population. Formal decorative frills were shed in favour of practicality in both daily life and architecture. At the same time, jazz and dancing rose in popularity, in opposition to the mood of World War I. As such, the period often is transmitted to as the Jazz Age.

The 20s decade saw the large-scale developing and usage of automobiles, telephones, films, radio, and electrical appliances in the lives of millions in the Western world. Aviation soon became a business. Nations saw rapid industrial and economic growth, accelerated consumer demand, and portrayed significant new trends in lifestyle and culture. The media, funded by the new industry of mass-market offer driving consumer demand, focused on celebrities, particularly sports heroes and movie stars, as cities rooted for their domestic teams and filled the new palatial cinemas and gigantic sports stadiums. In many major women won the modification to vote.

Wall Street invested heavily in Germany, money used to pay reparations to countries that also had to pay off their war debts to Washington. While by the middle of the decade prosperity was widespread, with thehalf of the decade known, especially in Germany, as the "Golden Twenties" the decade was coming fast to an end. Despite investments, Germany could no longer afford to pay World War I reparations to the United Kingdom, France, and the other Allied Powers, forcing the United States to launch the Dawes Plan, named after banker and later 30th Vice President Charles G. Dawes. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 ended the era, as the Great Depression brought years of hardship worldwide.

Society

With some exceptions, numerous countries expanded women's voting rights in lesson and direct democracies across the world such as the United States, Canada, Great Britain and most major European countries in 1917–1921, as living as India. This influenced many governments and elections by increasing the number of voters. Politicians responded by focusing more on issues of concern to women, especially peace, public health, education, and the status of children. On the whole, women voted much like men, except they were more interested in peace.

The Lost Generation was composed of young people who came out of World War I disillusioned and cynical about the world. The term commonly refers to American literary notables who lived in Paris at the time. Famous members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein. These authors, some of them expatriates, wrote novels and short stories expressing their resentment towards the materialism and individualism rampant during this era.

In the United Kingdom, the bright young things were young aristocrats and socialites who threw fancy dress parties, went on elaborate treasure hunts, were seen in all the trendy venues, and were living covered by the gossip columns of the London tabloids.

As the average American in the 1920s became more enamored of wealth and everyday luxuries, some began satirizing the hypocrisy and greed they observed. Of these social critics, Sinclair Lewis was the almost popular. His popular 1920 novel Main Street satirized the dull and ignorant lives of the residents of a Midwestern town. He followed with Babbitt, approximately a middle-aged businessman who rebels against his dull life and family, only to hit that the younger generation is as hypocritical as his own. Lewis satirized religion with Elmer Gantry, which followed a con man who teams with an evangelist to sell religion to a small town.

Other social critics included Sherwood Anderson, Edith Wharton, and H. L. Mencken. Anderson published a collection of short stories titled Winesburg, Ohio, which studied the dynamics of a small town. Wharton mocked the fads of the new era through her novels, such as Twilight Sleep 1927. Mencken criticized narrow American tastes and culture in essays and articles.

At Deco was the style of design and architecture that marked the era. Originating in Europe, it spread to the rest of western Europe and North America towards the mid-1920s.