The Roaring Twenties

John F Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” The Roaring Twenties were filled with many changes from social and political change to important consumer products arising. There were new fashion trends, new technologies, and new possibilities. Thanks to the spread of chain stores and nationwide advertising, people from everywhere were listening to the same things, buying the same objects, and also using the same informal language. Though a small number of young people quite enjoyed the new beginnings the twenties brought, for others it brought many cultural conflicts. There were many important consumer products that rose in the 1920s for instance the radio

For with this new freedom to go anywhere they wanted to go it was, as the elders saw, when the younger generation rebelled against traditional prohibitions. Dancing became a popular outing for the young people while elder people were against the newly popular jazz music for they did not like its “vulgarity” and “moral corruption” it influenced. From out of the streets of New Orleans, New York and Chicago were filled with newly discovered jazz bands while radio stations and phonograph records brought the tunes across the nation to thousands of listeners. Jazz music was not only the way it influenced Americans but also through ways such as Jazz poetry. Jazz poetry was created when property and music were merged together. It also influenced the popular society through fashion. “The Women's Liberation Movement was furthered by jazz music, as it provided means of rebellion against set standards of society.” For the first time in history, the culture of a minority became the desire of the

The Prohibition, for example was the ban of liquor from being manufactured and sold. In 1906 the Anti- Saloon League started making attacks on the sale of liquor. In turn many factories supported the ban of alcohol, (the Prohibition) so they could prevent any accidents to come and increase worker efficiency. In order to save grain for producing food there was, in 1917 after World War one started, a wartime prohibition. The 18th Amendment was then suggested by Congress which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors, for state ratification. Within just 11 months three-quarters of the United States supported the 18th Amendment. The 18th Amendment went into effect a year later in 1919 and that October the Nation Prohibition Act was enforced which gave the guidelines for the Prohibition. On January 16, 1920 at 12 A.M. the federal Volstead Act had had every tavern, saloon and bar in the United States shut down. Though there was a decline in arrests for drunkenness and there was a 30 percent drop in alcohol consumption, there were people who still wanted to drink and they did find a way to do it. From this came bootleggers, racketeers, and other crime figures who sold illegal drinks under the table. Throughout the years it was hard for the federal government to control the enforcement of the Prohibition for there was a growth in the smuggling of alcohol across state lines, sells of