Political and Social Climate of the U.S.

¶ … political and social climate of the U.S. during the 1920s and what brought about the 'roaring '20s."

The apocalyptic environment of World War I with its finale brought about a relief throughout Western Europe and the U.S.A. And the feeling that the world was about to start anew. This led to excesses of spending, behavior, hedonistic indulgences, and revolutions in sexual conduct, morals, and cultural trends such as music. The economic boom also attributed to the description of this decade as the Roaring 20s.

A series of insignificant and troubled presidents ran the state during this time ranging from Harding to Hoover. Whilst their presidency was unremarkable, the times themselves were not. This was the period of the flappers and jazz with break from traditions and a surge of modern technology. Ford came out with his automobile for he masses. The moving picture (and Charlie Chaplin) made its appearance. Radio propelled modernity and art, architecture, and music took on unprecedented, revolutionary -- to many disturbing -- forms. Women turned to pants, voting, cigarettes, and jobs with Freud helping them along with the 'Sexual Liberation' and the suffrage movement reached its peak condemning the traditional housewife in the process. Jazz and dancing became a reaction to World War I and singularly, therefore, the age also became known as the 'Jazz Age'.

Authors included Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Edith Wharton, GB Shaw, and Stein and, characteristic of this generation (also called the 'Lost Generation'), produced material (such as the Great Gatsby) that was cynical and disillusioned. Art Deco - simplistic and geometric -- was the architectural style of the period, whilst expressionism and surrealism disturbed the art world. The Jazz singer (1927) was the first talking movie. Mickey Mouse made his debut in 1928, and the Harlem Renaissance initiated in the '20s.

Edison and Ford were two of the premier inventors of that age, the one introducing the radio and electricity, the other producing the automobile. Chaplin played the Tramp and Charles "Lucky Lindy" Lindburgh flew into the sky. Radio disseminated mass values and developments in television and Flemming's studies of penicillin were to lay the groundwork for the next decade.

The economy of the 1920s. What made it roar. The role of the government during this time

America had taken advantage of Germany's inability to pay reparations to Britain, France, and other Allies by coming up with the Dawes Plan where Wall Street invested in Germany, and Germany, in turn, repaid their war debts to Washington. This caused the economic prosperity of America to boom and by the second half of the decade, known as the 'Golden Twenties', America had become a tinderbox of affluence with its reputation as the most modern and wealthiest country in the world secured. Unfortunately, overconfidence and reckless speculation caused this bubble to burst by the end of the decade leading to the Great Depression. The roaring twenties, in other wards, was demarcated by unprecedented heights plunging into unprecedented lows.

Other economic policies that encouraged increased consumer spending and economic growth resulted from Harding's Emergency Tariff in 1921 and the Forney-McCumber Tariff of 1922 where reduced national debt, reduced taxes (particularly on the wealthy), and restricted immigration led to the 'boom' in the Coolidge years.

Mass production also spurred the country's economy making previous luxuries such as the automobile accessible to the 'common' American. Automobiles introduced highways and urban infrastructure. Surplus money encouraged consumerism and wild spending and the finance and insurance industries doubled and tripled in size.