Overview of the 1920s
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The Era of Prohibition
This is one of the events that really made the 1920s roar. From jazz music, to gangsters, to illegal bars, to a new woman - this topic should have something of interest for everyone. But, one must find out why the United States decided to ban alcohol and how it drastically impacted society.
Prohibition Images and Maps
"I am like any other man. All I do is supply a demand." - Al Capone
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" For every prohibition you create you also create an underground." - Jello Biafra
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"Prohibition has made nothing but trouble." - Al Capone
Era of Prohibition Political Cartoons
The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was in full effect. The abilities of African-Americans on the forefront of American society. Who would of thought that a country so steeped in racial issues would be celebrating the talents of the very people held down throughout much of United States history? Although this resurgence was short lived, its impacts are still felt today.
The Great Migration: Precursor to the Harlem Renaissance
"An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose."
- Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes
"I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go."
- Langston Hughes
Harlem Renaissance Art
The Flapper
Times were changing for sure. The traditional role of women was not only being challenged by a younger generation, but legal changes were being made as well. The passing of the 19th amendment ushered in a "new woman" that has continued to progress to modern day.
“…the New Woman of the 1920s boldly asserted her right to dance, drink, smoke, and date—to work her own property, to live free of the strictures that governed her mother’s generation…She flouted Victorian-era conventions and scandalized her parents. In many ways, she controlled her own destiny.” ― Joshua Zeitz
“Now I am old-fashioned. A woman, I consider, should be womanly. I have no patience with the modern neurotic girl who jazzes from morning to night, smokes like a chimney, and uses language which would make a billingsgate fishwoman blush!” ― Agatha Christie, Murder on the Links
The Evolution of Women
“They were smart and sophisticated, with an air of independence about them, and so casual about their looks and clothes and manners as to be almost slapdash. I don't know if I realized as soon as I began seeing them that they represented the wave of the future, but I do know I was drawn to them. I shared their restlessness, understood their determination to free themselves of the Victorian shackles of the pre-World War I era and find out for themselves what life was all about.” ― Colleen Moore
Celebrities of the 1920s
In today's society, an immense amount of scrunity is placed on the famous athletes, actors, and reality stars. Who, though, were the biggest names of the 1920s?