Eighteenth & Nineteenth Amendments
1920
Background Information
The 18th Amendment
- Prohibited alcohol
- Passed the Volstead Act
- Women's groups being formed
- Enforcement of amendment difficult because it was a way of life
- Cultures affected literary writers
The 19th Amendment
- Woman's suffrage
- Women given right to vote
- Writers had more to write about
Impact on American Literature
The change in cultures with the alcohol affected the writers of American Literature. As women gained more rights, writers had more the write about. More women writers also got more books published and got greatly noticed. Some writers lived on alcohol. When it became a problem, they couldn't write or would stop writing. These changes gave writers more genres to write about. Biographies, novels, short stories, etc. were being recognized more.