A “New Era” of Consumption

• The American economy grew at its fastest rate in history during the 1920s, led by an explosion in mass production and sales of new consumer goods. Innovations in production, advertising, and financing, and a jump in the use of electricity, enabled and encouraged millions of Americans to purchase automobiles, radios, and other electrical appliances. The automobile industry was at the center of these changes, as Ford Motor Company pioneered mass production using moving assembly lines, a highly efficient method that helped make its cars affordable for a majority of Americans. The new consumer culture valued leisure, self-expression, and self-indulgence. During the twenties, consumer debt tripled. Innovations in communications (especially the growth in radio ownership), transportation, finance, and advertising also brought about a mass culture, as more and more Americans purchased national brand-name items from retail chain stores, listened to the same radio shows, watched the same movies, and followed the lives and careers of national celebrities and superstars.

The “Jazz Age”

• Other new social and cultural trends and movements rapidly challenged the traditional order. The carefree fads and attitudes of the 1920s, perhaps best represented by the frantic rhythms of jazz music, led writer F. Scott Fitzgerald to call the decade the Jazz Age. A “new woman” appeared, best represented by flappers—young women who challenged prewar restrictions with their short hemlines, drinking, smoking, and open discussions of sex. The majority of women, however, remained full-time housewives and mothers or domestic servants, and fewer young women pursued professional careers. With the Great Migration continuing, African Americans in northern cities felt freer to speak out against racial injustice and express pride in their race. The Harlem Renaissance movement gave voice to African American literature and music. Racial separatism and black nationalism grew popular under the leadership of Marcus Garvey, while other African Americans joined white supporters in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and supported its efforts to undo racism through education, legislation, and court challenges.

The Modernist Revolt

• Many American artists and intellectuals were attracted to modernism, a movement that had begun in Europe before the Great War and reflected new developments in science, particularly Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and Sigmund Freud’s exploration of how the subconscious mind shapes human behavior. To be “modern” meant to break free of tradition, to violate restrictions, to shock the public, and to make one’s works difficult to explain or interpret. Americans were first exposed to modern art in a substantial way with the Armory Show of 1913.