1920s

1920s

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1920s

The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the "Jazz Age" or the "Roaring Twenties", usually when speaking about the United States. In Canada the decade is usually referred to as the "Roaring Twenties", much like in the United States. In Europe the decade is sometimes referred to as the "Golden Twenties". Since the closing of the 20th century, the economic strength during the 1920s has drawn close associations with the 1950s and 1990s, especially in the United States. These three decades are regarded as periods of economic prosperity, which lasted throughout almost the entire decades following a tremendous event that occurred in the previous decade (World War I and Spanish flu in the 1910s, World War II in the 1940s, and the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s).

However, not all countries enjoyed this prosperity. The Weimar Republic, like many other European countries, had to face a severe economic downturn in the opening years of the decade, because of the enormous debt caused by the war as well as the one-sided Treaty of Versailles. Such a crisis would culminate with a devaluation of the Mark in 1923, eventually leading to severe economic problems and, in the long term, favour the rise of the Nazi Party.

Additionally, the decade was characterized by the rise of radical political movements, especially in regions that were once part of empires. Communism began attracting large numbers of followers following the success of the October Revolution and the Bolsheviks' determination to win the subsequent Russian Civil War. The Bolsheviks would eventually adopt a policy of mixed economics, from 1921 to 1928, and also give birth to the USSR, at the end of 1922.

The twenties marked the first time in America that the population in the cities surpassed the population of rural areas. This was due to rapid urbanization starting in the 1920s.

The 1920s also experienced the rise of the far-right in Europe and elsewhere, starting with Fascism in Italy as a perceived antidote to Communism. The knotty economic problems also favoured the rise of dictatorships and monarchies in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, such as Józef Pi?sudski in Poland and Peter and Alexander Kara?or?evi? of Yugoslavia.

The Stock Market collapsed during October 1929 (see Black Tuesday) and drew a line under the prosperous 1920s.

Technology
War, peace and politics
Economics
Literature and Arts
Culture and religion
People

World leaders
Entertainers
Sports figures

Styles

Technology

Poster for the second All-Color All-Talking movie: Gold Diggers of Broadway 1929.

John Logie Baird invents the first working mechanical television system (1925). In 1928 he invents and demonstrates the first color television.
Warner Brothers produces the first movie with a soundtrack Don Juan in 1926, followed by the first Part-Talkie The Jazz Singer in 1927, the first All-Talking movie Lights of New York in 1928 and the first All-Color All-Talking movie On with the Show 1929.
Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean (20 May-21 May 1927)
Karl Ferdinand Braun invented the modern electronic cathode ray tube in 1897. The CRT became a commercial product in 1922.
Record companies (such as Victor, Brunswick and Columbia) introduce an Electrical Recording process on their phonograph records in 1925 (that had been developed by Western Electric), resulting in a more life-like sound.
Robert Goddard makes the first flight of a liquid-fueled rocket in 1926.

War, peace and politics

See also Social issues of the 1920s

Vladimir Lenin in 1920. He was the leading figure of the Communist movement until his death in 1924.

Rise of communism after World War I
The Red Scare in the United States (1920-1921)
In the United States, peak of the Ku Klux Klan (about five million members)
In the United States, KKK auxiliaries established.
Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) and Irish Civil War (1922-23)
The Irish Free State gains independence from the United Kingdom in 1922
Marie C. Brehm becomes temperance movement leader.
Turkish War of Independence
Moderation League of New York worked for repeal of prohibition.
Polish-Soviet war
First Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald formed in the United Kingdom
Kellogg-Briand Pact to end war
Prohibition leaders were at the height of their power.
The Qajar dynasty ended under Ahmad Shah Qajar and Reza Shah Pahlavi formed the Pahlavi Dynasty, which would later become the last monarchy of Iran.
Hitler publishes Mein Kampf, a book that foreshadows many of the events in the 1930s.
Mussolini became Italy's Prime Minister and started a fascist dictatorship.
Women in the United States received the right to vote following the passage of the 19th amendment.

Economics

The New Economic Policy is created by the Bolsheviks in Russia.
The Dawes Plan, which lasted from 1924-1928
Economic boom ended by "Black Tuesday" (October 29, 1929); the stock market crashes, leading to the Great Depression

Literature and Arts

Virginia Woolf publishes Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and A Room of One's Own
George Gershwin writes Rhapsody in Blue
T. S. Eliot publishes The Waste Land
James Joyce publishes Ulysses
Franz Kafka publishes The Trial
Erich Maria Remarque publishes All Quiet on the Western Front
Rene Magritte paints The Treachery of Images
Walter Gropius builds the Bauhaus in Dessau
F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby
Hermann Hesse publishes Siddhartha
Ernest Hemingway publishes The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms
Thornton Wilder publishes The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Alexey Tolstoy publishes Aelita
George Bernard Shaw publishes Back to Methuselah
Eugene O'Neill awarded Pulitzer Prizes for Beyond the Horizon in 1920, Anna Christie in 1922, and Strange Interlude in 1928.
Sinclair Lewis publishes Babbitt, Dodsworth, Arrowsmith, and Elmer Gantry
Wallace Stevens publishes his first book of poetry, Harmonium

Culture and religion

Prohibition — legal attempt to end consumption of alcohol in Canada, the USA, Norway and Finland

Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol.
Youth culture of The Lost Generation; flappers, the Charleston, and bobbed hair
"The Jazz Age" — jazz and jazz-influenced dance music widely popular
F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes some of the most enduring novels characterizing the Jazz Age. This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, and The Great Gatsby, as well as three short story collections, were all published in these years.
Women's suffrage movement continues to make gains as women obtain full voting rights in Denmark in 1915, in the USA in 1920, and in the UK in 1918 (women over 30) and in 1928 (full enfranchisement); and women begin to enter the workplace in larger numbers
In the US, gangsters and the rise of organized crime, often associated with bootleg liquor, in defiance of Prohibition.
Rum rows are established to import bootleg alcoholic beverages into U.S.
First commercial radio station in the U.S. goes on air in Pittsburgh, in 1920, and radio quickly becomes a popular entertainment medium
Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals defends alcohol prohibition in U.S.
First feature-length motion picture with a sound track (Don Juan) is released in 1926. First part-talkie (The Jazz Singer) released in 1927, first all-talking feature (Lights of New York) released in 1928 and first all-color all-talking feature (On with the Show) released in 1929.
Beginning of surrealist movement
Beginning of the Art Deco movement
Fads such as marathon dancing, mah-jongg, crossword puzzles and pole-sitting are popular
The height of the clip joint
The Harlem Renaissance
The Scopes Monkey Trial (1925) which declared that John T. Scopes had violated the law by teaching evolution in schools, creating tension between the competing theories of creationism and evolution.
Bishop James Cannon, Jr. becomes a U.S. temperance movement leader.
The Group of Seven (artists)
Repeal organizations organized to fight national prohibition in U.S.
Minister Daisey Douglas Barr heads Women's Ku Klux Klan (WKKK).
The tomb of Tutankhamun is discovered intact by Howard Carter (1922). This begins a second revival of Egyptomania.
Edward Higgins becomes the third General ( international leader) of The Salvation Army . His term is from 1929-1934.