Roaring Twenties
,
colloquial
term for the 1920s, especially within the
United States
and other Western countries where the decade was characterized by economic prosperity, rapid social and cultural change, and a mood of exuberant optimism. The liveliness of the period stands in marked contrast to the historical crises on either side of it:
World War I
(1914?18) and the
Great Depression
(1929?c. 1939). The name may have originated as a play on the nautical term
roaring forties
, referring to latitudes with strong ocean winds.
By the dawn of the 1920s, the
second Industrial Revolution
had transformed the United States into a global economic power and drawn millions of Americans to cities. With a
concurrent
rise in immigration, the 1920 U.S. census was the first in which the majority of the population lived in urban areas. Although World War I had strained the country’s finances, the fact that the United States had entered the war late and that the fighting took place overseas helped it secure a more dominant economic position relative to its European allies.
During the 1920s, the American economy continued to accelerate. One reason was the growing electrification of the country. The portion of U.S. households with
electricity
rose from 12 percent in 1916 to 63 percent in 1927, and its widening use in factories led to increased productivity. Also contributing to the economic boom was the advent of mass-production methods such as the
assembly line
, which spurred the growth of the
automobile
industry. The decade saw the number of passenger cars more than triple, which in turn stimulated the expansion of transportation
infrastructure
and the oil and gas industries. In addition, the overall business sector benefited from the
laissez-faire
economic policies of U.S. presidents
Warren G. Harding
(1921?23) and
Calvin Coolidge
(1923?29). Between 1922 and 1929, the country’s real
gross national product
increased by nearly 40 percent, and the
unemployment rate
remained low.
The technological and manufacturing boom ushered in a modern consumer
culture
. With electricity came a range of new household appliances, such as the refrigerator, vacuum cleaner, and washing machine, and the increased availability of credit made it possible for many Americans to afford them. The growth of the advertising industry and the development of sophisticated marketing techniques also helped create demand for these and other products in an expanding mass-media landscape. Not only was the
radio
one of the most popular new electric devices, installed in 40 percent of homes by 1930, but the airwaves became an effective advertising medium. As labour-saving technologies created more opportunities for leisure, a
plethora
of popular entertainment arose from new media. Moviegoing became an American pastime, especially after the emergence of “
talkies
.” By the decade’s end, 80 million people flocked to cinemas weekly, with radio and magazines boosting interest in the stars on the screen.
The 1920s also brought about social changes for women in the United States. Women had entered the workforce in significant numbers during World War I, filling jobs that had been vacated by men sent to war and taking new jobs that aided the war effort. Their contributions
galvanized
support for the
suffrage
movement, which culminated in the ratification of the
Nineteenth Amendment
in 1920. Many women remained in the workforce after the war, especially as growing industrialization provided greater opportunities. Young women who were employed in cities enjoyed unprecedented economic independence, and the increased use of
contraception
(the country’s first
birth control
clinic was opened in 1916) provided sexual freedom as well. Perhaps the most enduring symbol of the Roaring Twenties is that of the
flapper
, the emancipated “New Woman” who bobbed her hair, wore loose, knee-length dresses, smoked and drank in public, and was more open about sex.
In a rapidly modernizing world, young people guided
creative
movements that often defied convention.
Jazz
music, which had developed into an exciting style defined by improvisation and swinging rhythms, became the dominant sound of the new generation. (Its prominence earned the era another nickname, the Jazz Age, popularized by the writer
F. Scott Fitzgerald
.) The vitality of jazz was part of a broader flourishing of African American art and culture known as the
Harlem Renaissance
, which was centred in
New York City
but reverberated far beyond it. Fitzgerald himself was a leading figure of the
Lost Generation
, a group of writers whose work captured the
era’s
decadence and spoke to the disillusionment of many who came of age during World War I.
Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.
Subscribe Now
Although postwar economic conditions were less
robust
in
western
Europe
than in the United States, the social and cultural
milieus
were similarly
dynamic
. In
France
the 1920s were known as “Les Annees Folles” (“The Crazy Years”). In Germany’s
Weimar Republic
, which produced an explosion of
intellectual
and artistic activity, they were the “Goldene Zwanziger Jahre” (“Golden Twenties”). The British public was scandalized by the exploits of a set of
affluent
youth dubbed the Bright Young Things. In the art world,
Surrealism
grew out of the
Dada
movement that had developed in Zurich during the war, while
Art Deco
, promoted by a 1925 exposition in
Paris
, became highly influential in international architecture and design.
Nevertheless, the popular image of the 1920s as a prosperous, progressive, and jubilant era obscures some realities. In the United States, the decade began with the enactment of the
Eighteenth Amendment
, under which the manufacture and sale of alcohol was prohibited. Despite the emergence of bootleggers and
speakeasies
, and the glamour associated with drinking illegally, the
temperance movement
did succeed in significantly reducing Americans’
consumption
of alcohol. In addition, while the
Great Migration
provided a path for
African Americans
to pursue greater economic and educational opportunities, and the influence of African American culture spread, the 1920s also saw a revival of the
Ku Klux Klan
. Growing anti-foreign
sentiment
(also espoused by the new Klan) led to the Immigration Act of 1924, which severely restricted the number of immigrants arriving in the United States.
More generally, not all Americans shared in the spoils of the roaring national economy. In the late 1920s, the wealthiest 1 percent received nearly one-quarter of all pretax income, and 60 percent of families earned less than $2,000 a year, a
benchmark
that economists regarded as “sufficient to supply only basic necessities.” Rural, nonwhite, and immigrant Americans were among the groups less likely to benefit from the boom. Inequality was one of several factors that contributed to the collapse of the economy in 1929, as the
stock market crash
in October signaled the end of the Roaring Twenties and the start of the Great Depression.