The 1920s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1920, to December 31, 1929. It is sometimes referred to as the Roaring Twenties or the Jazz Age, when speaking about the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom. In Europe the decade is sometimes referred to as the "Golden Twenties"[1] because of the economic boom after WW1. Since the end of the 20th century, the economic strength during the 1920s has drawn close comparison with the 1950s and 1990s, especially in the United States. These three decades are regarded as periods of economic prosperity, which lasted throughout nearly each entire decade. Each of the three decades followed a tremendous event that occurred in the previous decade (World War I and Spanish flu in the 1910s, World War II in the 1940s, and the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s). However, not all countries enjoyed this prosperity. The Weimar Republic, like many other European countries, had to face a severe economic downturn in the opening years of the decade, because of the enormous debt caused by the war as well as the Treaty of Versailles. Such a crisis would culminate with a devaluation of the Mark in 1923, eventually leading to severe economic problems and, in the long term, favour the rise of the Nazi Party. Additionally, the decade was characterized by the rise of radical political movements, especially in regions that were once part of empires. Communism began attracting large numbers of followers following the success of the October Revolution and the Bolsheviks' determination to win the subsequent Russian Civil War. The Bolsheviks would eventually adopt a policy of mixed economics, from 1921 to 1928, and also give birth to the USSR, at the end of 1922. The twenties marked the first time in America that the population in the cities surpassed the population of rural areas. This was due to rapid urbanization starting in the 1920s. The 1920s also experienced the rise of the far-right and fascism in Europe and elsewhere, being perceived as a solution to prevent the spread of Communism. The knotty economic problems also favoured the rise of dictatorships in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, such as Józef Piłsudski in Poland and Peter and Alexander Karađorđević of Yugoslavia. The Stock Market collapsed during October 1929 (see Black Thursday) and drew a line under the prosperous 1920s. [edit] Technology [edit] International issues - See also Social issues of the 1920s
- Rise of radical political movements amid the economic and political turmoil after World War I and after the stock market crash such as communism and fascism.
- Kellogg-Briand Pact to end war.
- Women are given the right to vote in multiple countries in the 1920s.
- Stock market crash of 1929 devastates economies across the world and marks the beginning of the Great Depression.
[edit] Africa [edit] United States of America - Prohibition of alcohol occurs in the United States. Prohibition in the United States began January 16, 1919, with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S.Constitution, and it continued throughout the 1920s. Prohibition was finally repealed in 1933. Organized crime related to the illegal sale of alcohol booms, such as by Chicago mob leader Al Capone.
- Restrictions on immigration took effect in 1924. National quotas curbed most Eastern and Southern European nationalities, further enforced the ban on Asians and Africans, and put mild regulations on nationalities from the Western Hemisphere (Latin Americans).
- The major sport was baseball and the most famous player was Babe Ruth.
- The Lost Generation (which characterized disillusionment), was the name Gertrude Stein gave to American writers, poets, and artists living in Europe during the 1920s. Famous members of the Lost Generation include Cole Porter, Gerald Murphy, Patrick Henry Bruce, Waldo Peirce, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and John Steinbeck.
[edit] Europe [edit] Economics [edit] Literature and Arts - Pablo Picasso paints Three Musicians
- Marcel Duchamp completes The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass)
- André Breton publishes the Surrealist Manifesto
- D.H. Lawrence publishes Women in Love, and Lady Chatterley's Lover
- Virginia Woolf publishes Jacob's Room, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, A Room of One's Own and Orlando
- George Gershwin writes Rhapsody in Blue
- T. S. Eliot publishes The Waste Land
- James Joyce publishes Ulysses
- Franz Kafka publishes The Trial
- Erich Maria Remarque publishes All Quiet on the Western Front
- Rene Magritte paints The Treachery of Images
- Hugh MacDiarmid publishes A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle
- Walter Gropius builds the Bauhaus in Dessau
- F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned and The Great Gatsby
- Hermann Hesse publishes Siddhartha
- Ernest Hemingway publishes The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms
- Thornton Wilder publishes The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- Alexey Tolstoy publishes Aelita
- Kahlil Gibran publishes The Prophet
- George Bernard Shaw publishes Back to Methuselah
- Eugene O'Neill awarded Pulitzer Prizes for Beyond the Horizon in 1920, Anna Christie in 1922, and Strange Interlude in 1928.
- Sinclair Lewis publishes Main Street, Babbitt, Dodsworth, Arrowsmith, and Elmer Gantry
- Wallace Stevens publishes his first book of poetry, Harmonium
[edit] Culture and religion - Prohibition — legal attempt to end consumption of alcohol in Canada, the USA, Norway and Finland
 Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol. - Youth culture of The Lost Generation; flappers, the Charleston, and bobbed hair.
- "The Jazz Age" — jazz and jazz-influenced dance music widely popular
- F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes some of the most enduring novels characterizing the Jazz Age. This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, and The Great Gatsby, as well as three short story collections, were all published in these years.
- Women's suffrage movement continues to make gains as women obtain full voting rights in Finland in 1906, New Zealand in 1909, Denmark in 1915, in the USA in 1920, and in the UK in 1918 (women over 30) and in 1928 (full enfranchisement); and women begin to enter the workplace in larger numbers.
- In the US, gangsters and the rise of organized crime, often associated with bootleg liquor, in defiance of Prohibition.
- Rum rows are established to import bootleg alcoholic beverages into U.S.
- Growth and general acceptance of the Ku Klux Klan in America.
- First commercial radio station in the U.S. (KDKA 1020 AM) goes on air in Pittsburgh in 1920; radio quickly becomes a popular entertainment medium.
- Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals defends alcohol prohibition in U.S.
- First feature-length motion picture with a soundtrack (Don Juan) is released in 1926. First part-talkie (The Jazz Singer) released in 1927, first all-talking feature (Lights of New York) released in 1928 and first all-color all-talking feature (On with the Show) released in 1929.
- Beginning of surrealist movement.
- Beginning of the Art Deco movement.
- Fads such as marathon dancing, mah-jongg, Yahtzee, crossword puzzles and pole-sitting are popular.
- The height of the clip joint.
- The Harlem Renaissance centered in a thriving African-American community of Harlem, New York City.
- The Scopes Trial (1925) which declared that John T. Scopes had violated the law by teaching evolution in schools, creating tension between the competing theories of creationism and evolution.
- Bishop James Cannon, Jr. becomes a U.S. temperance movement leader.
- The Group of Seven (artists).
- Repeal organizations organized to fight national prohibition in U.S.
- Minister Daisey Douglas Barr heads Women's Ku Klux Klan (WKKK).
- The tomb of Tutankhamun is discovered intact by Howard Carter (1922). This begins a second revival of Egyptomania.
- Edward Higgins becomes the third General ( international leader) of The Salvation Army. His term is from 1929 to 1934.
- The Wall Street Crash of 1929 or Black Tuesday was the catastrophic crash of the Stock Market in 1929. The market actually began to drop on Thursday October 24, 1929 and the fall continued until the huge crash on Tuesday October 29, 1929.
- The Museum of Modern Art opens in Manhattan, November 7, 1929, nine days after the Wall Street Crash.
- Since the 1920s scholars have methodically dug into the layers of history that lie buried at thousands of sites across China.
- The Civil War of the 24 in Honudras becomes one of the worst civil wars in the country, and in Latin America.
[edit] People [edit] World leaders [edit] Entertainers [edit] Sports figures [edit] Styles - Robert Sobel The Great Bull Market: Wall Street in the 1920s. (1968)
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