Comparison between 1920s
and 1950s
Post WWI America was prosperous. The
20s offered plentiful jobs & soaring
incomes.
 Post WWII America was prosperous as
well. Because of rationing during the war,
workers saved their money rather than
spend it.

Consumerism

1920s

1950s

Higher wages & more leisure
time

Advertising & mass marketing
Television
New markets
 Baby Boom
 Teenagers (Movies, Music,
Comic books)
Expansion of Interstate
Highway system– more travel




Advertising
Installment purchase plans
Unprecedented growth in
industrial output & business
expansion


Radio



Assembly line production
Margin buying & Stock Market
Crash


Shopping centers
Higher educated work-force
Literature



1920s
Lost Generation
(Fitzgerald,
Hemmingway, Faulkner)
 Disillusioned by the
hopeful optimism
before the war.
 Disgusted by the
prevalent materialism
of Americans after the
war
Harlem Renaissance


1950s
Beat Movement (Jack
Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg)
 Sense of alienation
with the consumer
society, explored their
sexuality, mindaltering drugs, far
Eastern religions
Roles of Women


1920s
Advances for women




Right to vote
More opportunity for work

Short dresses, smoked in
public, dances, a lot of
makeup
More independent
Divorce rate rose
1950s
Conformity toward more
traditional gender roles

“New Woman” (Flappers)






More child centered with
the baby boom
Women left the work force
for returning veterans
Workplace inequalities
Divorce rate drops
Religion


1920s
Fundamentalist believed
in the literal truth of the
Bible


Clashes between
fundamentalists and
modernists
Scopes Trial


1950s
Push to increase religion
in society (due to fear of
communism)

Government promoted
religion (a belief in God
made Americans different
from Soviets)
• “Under God” added to
Pledge of Allegiance
• “In God We Trust’ added
to money
Race/Ethnic Relations

1920s

1950s

Focus on separation of the
races/ethnicities

Strides towards integration




Re-emergence of the KKK
Marcus Garvey
Anti-immigration laws
(Emergency Quota Act, 1921;
National Origins Act, 1924)


Sacco & Vanzetti
Segregated schools



Integrated military
Brown v Board of Education
Jackie Robinson first AA in
major league baseball
Discrimination against those
thought to be ‘communist’


Eastern Europeans
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg