The Roaring Twenties
By Kayla Horstmeier
Consumer Economy
Between 1920-1929, the nation’s wealth more than doubled! America became a “consumer society” and it changed the way people lived from coast to coast. Many Americans were uncomfortable with such a change. People were buying so many things like clothes, food, supplies, tools and so much more. The role of credit is what people used to buy things out of the catalog, when they didn't have money at that time. This is positive and negative at the same time. It’s a good thing that our country seemed to be doing so well, but it seems that the adjustment to money and wealth was difficult for some. When people buy buy buy judgment takes place a lot ,for example some people will be in major debt.
Scopes Trials
Scopes used a textbook that didn't follow the law in Tennessee. The law said that you can only tell about the bible, not evolution. He was found guilty for using the textbook that talks about evolution but his case got overturned. There were many negatives and positives. Scopes did good by teaching about evolution, it changed peoples thoughts and gave them a choice on what they wanted to believe in. This law was bad because it was forcing people to be taught things that they may not believe in.
Photo Credit: Mike Litch, 2012. Licensed under public domain at wikimedia.org.
KKK
The KKK is a group of people who judge others. They hate on different races and religions like Catholics, Jews, blacks and organized labor. People constantly live in fear because of their violence. They have killed and beaten anyone that gets in their way. There are still people from the KKK living in our country today.
Sports
Sports are a great way of entertaining. In the 1920's they had sports like swimming, golf, boxing, football, baseball and tennis. Sports became popular because people could hear it on the radio and see it in newspapers and magazines. People who play in popular sports can make a lot of money. There were also many famous athletes like Babe Ruth. People looked up to athletes as their heroes.
Beauty pageant
Making drastic fashion statements in the 20's is very risky. Beauty pageaants are good for girls to let them express themselves. During pageants girls compete to win a prize or to be miss america. Clothes worn in the pageant were much like the clothes that flappers wear. Some people are against pageants, they see the clothes as scandalous. A big negative is that girls could get arrested for wearing the "scandalous clothes." Overall this gave girls an opportunity to show off.
Al Capone
Al Capone was a famous gangster, who was admired by many. He was also known as scar-face. He was a leader of a gang in Chicago. He stole 100 million dollars because he was the leader of a gang. As a kid Al Capone was always good in school. During the prohibition era he organized different crimes. After committing many crimes he finally ended up in prison in the year of 1934. He had a negative impact on most people in the 1920's. Some who admired him wanted to be like him, this caused more gangs.
Entertainment
There were many forms of entertainment in the 20's. Movies was the most popular form of entertainment. It was most popular because the first movie with sound came out in 1927. Music was also very popular. Music lead to dancing and dancing lead to clubs! Friends got the chance to go out and have fun with friends at clubs. Another form of entertainment was sports. Friends could gather around the radio or go to a ginormous stadium filled with fans to listen and watch these magnificent sports. Entertainment was a great thing in the 20's, it allowed people to relax and have fun.