The 1920’s and the 1930’s
The 1920’s and 1930’s were both very memorable decades in American history. The 1920’s brought with it a sense of adventure. The 1920’s were known as the “Roaring Twenties,” but with the end of the twenties and the beginning of the thirties brought the biggest economic down fall in United States history; the Great Depression. With the passing of the eighteenth amendment which started the era of prohibition, it also brought with it a very dangerous side that of the speakeasies and organized crime (“Roaring”). While the 1930’s brought with it a sense of desperation and despair, which was direct result of the Great Depression (“Snapshot”). There are many aspects of each decade that differ but the most significant differences are the family roles, the economy, and the culture.
The family roles of the 1920’s differ from that of the 1930’s. In the 1920’s women would in most cases did not go to work. They would stay home with the children or by themselves, while their husbands went off to work every day. The women would be at home cleaning or baking or cooking. However, in 1920, the United States passed the 19th amendment in which women were granted the right to vote (“Women”). This led to the start of women in the workplace, specifically in office jobs. (“Women”). With the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, the family changed in very dramatic ways (“Snapshot”). Birth rates dropped, and many couples delayed their marriages. However the divorce rate went down because no one could afford the cost of the legal fees (“Snapshot”). Many families suffered a dramatic loss of income, which put a great deal of stress on the families. Traditional roles within the family changed a lot during the 1930’s. Many men would found themselves out of work and would ultimately have to rely on their wives and children to bring home the families income (“Snapshot”). However some women found that their status’ had been enhanced by their new roles, so these women went against all previous historic opposition of unmarried women working outside the home, to support their families (“Snapshot”).
The economy is another difference between the 1920’s and the 1930’s. The new decade which was called the “Roaring Twenties,” would be known as a time of change for everyone (“Roaring Twenties”). At the beginning of the twenties, the United States was adapting from wartime to a peacetime economy (“Roaring”). When the weapons manufacturing for world war one was no longer needed, there was a temporary hold on the economy (“Roaring Twenties”). However, after a few years the country bloomed, and in this decade the United Sates became the richest nation on Earth (“Roaring Twenties”). October 24, 1929, was the infamous stock market crash, which led to more than a decade of despair and depression (“Roaring Twenties”). In 1929 only three percent of Americans were without a job but by 1933, the unemployment rate had grew to nearly twenty-five percent (“Snapshot”). The life of the people that felt the hardship of the great depression were drastically changed. Between 1929 and 1932 the average income of an American family was decreased by forty percent, from two thousand three hundred dollars to one thousand five hundred dollars (“American”). For American’s in the 1930’s the keyword was survival, not advancement.
The culture of the 1920’s is dramatically different than that of the 1930’s. With the ending of the First World War brought a new outlook on life, which flowed nicely into the new decade. The 1920’s were called the “Roaring Twenties” or a time of celebration, because the United States was going though such great economic, cultural, and industrial prosperity (“Roaring”). The women of the “Roaring Twenties,” are great example of how the culture had changed from that of the decade before. The women adopted new fashion ideas, haircuts became shorter, and so did the clothing (“Women”). A major symbol of the 20’s was the flapper. Flappers were younger women that typically had a short bob like hair style, and wore shorter dresses than that of what their mothers would have worn when they were their age (“Women”). People of the United States may have gone to dance marathon. Dance marathons were popular; the most common dances were the “shimmy,” and the “Charleston” (“The 1920’s”). The story is not the same for the 1930’s. Because, of the Great Depression many people could not afford to go places. So many people would just stay at home with their families. While at home the family would listen to the radio together, if they had one (“Snapshot”). They didn’t have the opportunity or the money to go and do thing that they could have in the 1920’s.
In the 1920’s the United States was the land of possibility and in the 1930’s it became the land of desperation. America had been the land of hope and anticipation and became the land of sorrow. The family roles, the economy and the culture drastically changed between the 1920’s and the 1930’s. The main reason why the United States became such a land of hopelessness was because of the stock market crash of 1929, which ultimately led to the Great Depression. It was not until 1940 with the start of World War Two, and the military buildup that took up America, that this nation’s economy improved, and the Great Depression faded into history (“Snapshot”).
Works Cited
"American Cultural History - 1930-1939." LSC-Kingwood Library. Web. 02 Oct. 2011. http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade30.html.
"Roaring Twenties." United States American History. Web. 02 Oct. 2011. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1564.html.
"The 1920's." Kyrene School District - Redirect. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. http://www.kyrene.org/schools/brisas/sunda/decade/1920.htm.
"Snapshots - America in the 1930s." Eyewitness to History - History through the Eyes of Those Who Lived It. Web. 02 Oct. 2011. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snprelief.htm.
"Women Gain Rights, Faison, and Flappers." The Roaring Twenties. World News, 2000. Web. 2 Oct. 2011. http://library.thinkquest.org/C005846/categories/worldnews/worldn.htm.
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