1920s America Business Essay

Calvin Coolidge once said, “The business of America, is business.” The quote is pretty self-explanatory and one dimensional, it is just talking about how America should focus mainly on its businesses. However, this focus on American business was the primary emphasis of the Roaring 20s, affecting everything from society, economy, and most importantly politics. After the first World War, the 1920s era began, and it was a time of prosperity for the nation's economy and considerable change compared to previous decades. There was a number of reasons why the economy began to prosper at this time, but one of them was due to the Great War. The economy prospered shortly because of wartime efforts like saving money aided in managing the economy. As

was not as damaged compared to European countries, thus allowing the U.S. to expand around the world and within itself. During the era of the 1920s, there were three presidents: Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. All of which were Republican and had very similar views on how America should be run, and how Warren G. Harding once said, he wanted “a return to normalcy”. After the whole series of events with the first world war, it would make sense for presidents like Harding to focus on America solely. However, modernists challenged the old values of traditionalists and wanted to bring a change not only in society but also in politics (“Traditionalism vs. Modernism”, Roaring Twenties). Although some Americans looked into modernism, radicalism, and had socialist political views, politics in the 1920s became increasingly conservative because of the Republican leaders that governed the era, fundamentalist movements challenging modernist ideals, and the redesigned assembly of delegates and

Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover; and all of which had their own separate set of beliefs for the way the country should be run, yet all of them also had very similar objectives. The first Republican leader to be president during the start of the 20s was Warren G. Harding. Elected as the 29th president of the United States in 1921, he pledged to the people of America, “a return to normalcy” (“What Were the Causes of the Economic Boom?” BBC). He declared this statement for one main reason: because after World War One, his sole purpose as president was for the United States to focus only on themselves. According to the article GCSE Bitesize: What Were the Causes of the Economic Boom?” from BBC.com, because of this goal to focus only on the United States, Harding adopted a “laissez-faire (free market) policy”. The article also stated that Harding, “reduced taxes to give businesses more money to grow and to put more money in the pockets of ordinary Americans” (“What Were the Causes of the Economic Boom?”, BBC). Moreover, this was also why he introduced the “Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act”, which basically put higher taxes on imported goods from other countries, “This made foreign goods more expensive than domestic goods” (“What Were the Causes of the Economic Boom?”, BBC). Also known as protectionism, this made people want to buy domestic goods rather than foreign ones, thus helping the