Roaring Twenties
The 1920s were a decade of great vitality and social change in America. Some writers
called it the Roaring Twenties.
The changes of the 1920s were, in part, a reaction to the sacrifice and ill feelings
following the World War I experience. Many Americans were bitter about America's
participation in that "European war," feared that the communist ideas behind the 1917
Bolshevik revolution in Russia might spread to the U.S., or were tired of the reforming
zeal of progressives.
Sensing these postwar feelings, the conservative Republican presidential candidate of
1920, Warren G. Harding, a U.S. Senator from Ohio, promised the voters a "return to
normalcy." His running mate was Calvin Coolidge, the governor of Massachusetts. The
Democratic candidates were James M. Cox, the reformist governor of Ohio, and the
young Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the
Wilson administration. Harding won the presidential election with 16,152,200 of the
over 25,000,000 votes cast - the widest popular margin to date (60.3%).
The reaction to the war also helped produce a carefree, self-indulgent mood in
America. Many people cast aside then-traditional ethics and spent freely on new cars,
movies, professional sports, illegal liquor, and other thrills of the time. The government's
laissez-faire approach to the economy during the 1920s also allowed for greater industrial
growth and an economic boom. However, not all people shared in the prosperity -- for
example, farmers were plagued by falling prices.
Women had experienced expanded job opportunities and economic independence
during the war. They finally achieved their goal of woman suffrage in 1920. The sense
of liberation also prompted literary and artistic creativity of all kinds.
Some Americans opposed changes in what they saw as the traditional American way
of life. Some were shocked at the "unfeminine" behavior of "liberated" women, such as
the "flappers." Many were also intolerant of immigrants and their "un-American"
customs and demanded restrictions on immigration. Unions also demanded a reduction
in immigrant labor. Responding to this pressure, the federal government enacted a
quota system that limited immigration in 1921.
A new Ku Klux Klan (KKK) voiced extreme intolerance of change. It vowed to
oppose "un-American" types such as socialists, immigrants, Catholics, Jews, and blacks
who tried to enter the mainstream of American life. This intolerance was a dark side of
the Roaring Twenties.