America Changes Many Changes Took

America Changes Many changes took place in America from 1900 to the American entrance into World War II in 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. At the turn of the century, America was still living in the Victorian Era, and in less than fifty years, skirts would shorten, men would march off to war for the second time, and new inventions would help them fight. In 1900, there were no airplanes and very few automobiles. By 1941, they were both common.

The "Jazz Age" of the 1920s changed the way people looked at each other and entertainment. Music became more popular and less classical, and people danced and drank liquor, often illegally after prohibition, in popular clubs. Society changed from extremely conservative to a much looser society during these years. America fought in the First World War from 1917 through 1918, and most Americans thought it was the "war to end all wars." It was not. America became even more industrial during the war, and headed toward the looser society of the 1920s.

The economy changed, too. There were several depressions and downturns in the economy, ending with the Great Depression that began after the Stock Market Crash in 1929. This depression lasted for over ten years, and thousands, even millions of people were out of work. One text states, "16 million Americans -- about one-third of the available workforce -- was unemployed" (Lamb 237). It was one of the worst times in American history, and it took President Franklin D.

Roosevelt, elected in 1933, to end it with his radical "New Deal" that created jobs and fiscal security. One historian notes, "The achievements of the New Deal soon came to be not only admired but imitated; the United States became not merely the consumer of social experiments from other lands but the exporter" Leuchtenburg 306). The New Deal was successful, but it was really the entrance into World War II that revved up the economy and finally ended.