1920s and 1930s

Trina Dimaranan
Hammerson Period 2
January 12, 2010
Essay: The 1920s and the 1930s
In the United States in the early 1920s, a new stage appeared with different movements in the areas of politics, economics, society, and foreign policies. By the events that led to the 1930s, new crazes had developed in many of these areas, while other areas remained in continuity. The 1920s began shortly after WWI when the United States and the Allies defeated the Germans. In 1918, many Americans were fed up with Woodrow Wilson who was the 28th president. The start of the new conservative era restored the power to the Republicans after the presidential election of the 1920. Socially, America did return to tradition in the 1930s. Many felt that the great depression of the 30s served as God’s punishment for the sinning of the 20s.
With the end of WWI and the stock market crash followed the depression years. Americans entered the distinctive 1920s, which was an era of republican leadership, nationalistic, unlimited prosperity, while fear of radicals and foreigners combined to almost completely close off American to immigration and contributed to the resurgence of hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. The politics during the 1920s were Warren G. Harding who promised to “return to normal”; Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. The 19302 was referred to as the age of FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he was the dominant political presence of age, serving to reinspire faith after Hoover who was blamed for the stock market crash and subsequent depression. Roosevelt was almost successful in creating a new political alliance between the working class and the farmers.
The United States economy experienced growth and expansion during the 1920s. Three factors fueled the economic growth were machines, factories, and the process of standardized mass production. These factors created a self-perpetuating cycle, it standardized mass production which led to better machinery in factories that led...