The Roaring 20s: Dramatic Social And Political Change

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Research Paper 6/3/13 The Roaring 20s The “Roaring 20s” was a time of dramatic social and political change. The Auto Industry made is possible for people to live far away from their workplace, which was unheard of previously. This caused a lot of people to become carefree, women especially, considering a car made it possible for them to escape from their parents. People who were religious that didn’t like that these roles were changing, thought that prohibition would fix that, which didn’t end up being the case. But for the most part, the 1920s brought people together. The entertainment industry such as radios and sports brought people a sense of shared experience that helped unify the nation. The 1920s completely reconstructed American…show more content…
This freedom encouraged women to go out with their friends instead of socializing at home with the family. In order to break away from their parental authority even more, they joined the workforce. Women in the workforce began to define the new morality. Fashion was also a factor that changed during the 1920s. Women began copying the look of movie stars by shortening their hair and dressing differently. A movie star named “The Flapper” influenced a lot of women. “Flappers were women who were characterized by their choice of bobbed hair, short skirts, and their enjoyment of jazz music. They were branded as brash for their enjoyment of casual sex, drinking, immoderate makeup, driving cars and smoking.” This influenced many women to want to look like that. Not all women just wanted to look acceptable though, attending college was a big deal. Women who were known for attending college were thought to have an emerging sense of independence. These students often went against what other women wanted to look like in society. Typically, they wanted to challenge traditional ideas about women’s roles in society. Sophisticated women had an interest in contributing to science and medicine, and a lot of them succeeded. “Margaret Sanger believe that families could improve their standard of living by limiting the number of children they had. She founded the American Birth Control League in 1921 to promote…show more content…
Prohibition was a national ban on the sale, production, and transportation of alcohol. Their goal was basically achieved when the 18th amendment and the Volstead act went into effect. These two things set down the rules for enforcing the ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. “Once the laws were passed they did little to help enforce them,” (“Prohibition”). Countless stores began selling liquor as a sideline to get an additional income. The people living on the countryside made their own alcoholic beverages. The rich had liquor delivered to their homes and the poor drank beer which was close to water, or spirits which were close to poison. Prohibition simply made the consumption of alcohol more of a challenge and more expensive. There were more than 540,000 arrests made due to people ignoring the law. The illegal production and distribution of alcohol or liquor became common. Huge profits were made smuggling liquor. All over the country police and politicians were more interested in being paid off well than in trying to fight the increasing criminality. Organized crime on the illegal trade of alcohol became big business. Alcohol consumption did decrease during this time period because alcohol got so expensive, but, people died each year due to poisoned liquor made at home or at industries that did not have all the additives removed. If people
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