Only Yesterday Sparknotes

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Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920's In the book, Only Yesterday: An informal History of the 1920's, the author Frederick Lewis Allen started the book by introducing a family (the smith's) in the year 1919. Mrs. Allen depicted the normal woman of the times, who dressed modestly (wearing a dress about 6 inches length from the ground), had long hair and basically took care of all of the household maintenance including doing chores around the house and preparing the meals. Whereas Mr. Smith on the other hand was the head of the household and the bread winner. Allen goes on to depict things that were popular among the normal folks during that time period. For example, the Chicago tribune was widely popular as a reputable newspaper. Other things that were popular during this time were certain sports (mainly baseball), the news (peace conference at Paris), and the economy (the stock market). During this time ordinary commodities such as food, transportation and normal goods were becoming more expensive which is the reason for this being the “age of inflation”. Then author goes on to talk about how the current president sends a message to the people of America saying that the war is over now and everything will return back to normal. The only problem is that the soldiers were ready to come back to America, but America’s employment was not ready for the soldiers to come back. The returning of soldiers to America sky rocketed unemployment and caused there to be massive outcry for more job opportunities. People were looking to President Wilson to do something about this crisis. Then comes the red scare where the U.S. is involved with the war going on and people are starting to panic about the revolution. Bombing were becoming ... ... middle of paper ... ... crashed and many people were left penniless and had to return to their jobs in order to survive. So basically, the 1920's or “Roaring Twenties” was a time of major change for America as a nation. Just following the Great War America was on the fast track to new times. There was the model t car, the stock market boom and crash, the banning of alcohol, the radio, jazz music, women seeking independence, Americans seeking higher education, union strikes, the red scare, the death of President Harding and many more. Many people say this was an enjoyable time of constant dancing and entertainment galore, while others would say that the hardships of racism and poverty made this time period one of struggle and hardships. While others only remember the 1920's as the creation of mickey mouse or babe Ruth. This decade truly was “The Roaring Twenties”.

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