Modernity In The 1920s Essay

In an decade defined by its distinct air of prosperity, the 1920s are hallmarked by its modernity in the clash between urban and rural values as the era gives birth to a large scale consumer culture and a pro-business agenda while the ever increasing wealth gap reaches all new heights. The 1920s saw a great increase of productivitin due and manufacturing as well as the centrality of the automobile as a symbol for American business and life. Calvin Coolidge, president for most of the 1920s summed up the main focus of the era in one statement, “The chief business of the American people is business.” This single minded focus on business and consumer goods led to the first true modern, mass marketing campaigns across the radio as well as the immergence of leisure activites such as, vactions, moives, sporting events, and the birth of celebrity culture, but the true impact was the fact that people across the country are getting the same ideas at the same rate, a completely modern

concept. This focus of consumerism and business led to a great shift in values in cities as people started to accept consumer debt and people changed their views on prpose and the value of work as the focus shifted from people taking great pride being a skilled craftsman to the singlular focus of employment as means to obtain consumer goods especially household goods such as telephones, cars, and appliances that make life easier, increasing leisure time.

Unfortunately, with the 1920s modernity came the growing acceptance of the wealth gap and even more of a focus on industry over popular well being as large scale poverty and unemployment became as rampant as the consumerism the diffines this era of excess. With the focus on industrialized business there was widespread rural depression as the need of agriculture decreased with the end of World War I and the sharp decrease in income led to skyrocketing foreclosures and a migration out of the farmlands and into the cities, another distinctly modern

problem. The consumer culture and singular obsensition on business was also reflected in the political climate of the time as the 1920s marked a withdrawal of Progressivism as the country shifted its focus on the public good to private matters such as leisure and consumption, which led to the rise of the Republican era and its pro-buiness agenda focusing on high tariffs to promote American businesses, government backing of employer anti-unionism, and the birth of low income and business taxes. An other hallmark of the 1920s was rising corruption as it marked the first presidential cabinet member to be convicted federally. As a reaction to all of this, a great cultural war broke out amongst the people as fundamentalist fought against the modern urban culture including religious and ethnic pluralism, mass entertainment, alchol, and “loose” sexual morals. This cultural war manifested itself in many ways including the Prohibition, the reimmgerence of passionate preaches reministant of the Great Awakening like Billy Sunday, the debate between evolution and the Bible and the reimmgerence of the Ku Klux Klan, who was back and less tolerant than ever as the focused on “Americanism” and used their hate to close the door on immigration. One of the main examples of this battle between “moral” liberty and the freedom of thought can be seen in the 1925 Scopes trial which saw the face off between Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, as John Scopes was a teacher in Tennessee that taught evolution when it was strictly forbidden. While this trial was truly about religion veruses secular, it truly tested the boundaries of this cultural war, as Scopes eventually paid a fine and Fundamentalists retreated temporarily. Strictly defined by its inherent modernity, the 1920s was an era of as much excess as there was poverty as America shifted to a pro-buisness agenda and consumerism laid in the foundation of what it meant to be American, marking a great cultural conflict.