The 1920’s were full of surprises, accomplishments, and unrest among the nation’s people. While the nation was busy growing in size, individual communities were busy making progress too. To me, one of the most important things to recognize about this era was how it grew to better society and to help develop the next generation.
One of the more notable accomplishments of the 1920’s, in my opinion, was the development of a youth culture. During this time, the age of adolescence became known as a distinct period in the life of an individual. One thing contributing to this was that schools expanded what they taught and what age group could attend classes. This gave older kids the training they needed to survive in the real world as well as provide them with a way to express and develop themselves both individually and as a whole. Thanks to the rise in numbers of colleges and high schools, kids were able to join sororities and fraternities, get jobs, participate in athletics, join clubs, and define themselves less in terms of their families and more in terms of their peer groups. The only issue that came of this was the subjects schools were allowed to teach.
During the 1920’s, religion played a big part in peoples lives. Because of this, many people were unhappy that Darwinism was being taught to their children. This is because people believed this theory contradicted the teachings of creation in the Bible. This issue eventually lead to the Scopes Trial. This trial was named for John T. Scopes, a teacher who volunteered to continue teaching Darwinism even though he know it would result in his arrest. This then lead to a major trial (which he lost) that opened everyone’s eyes to the idea that religion and science could potentially co-exist.
A second major accomplishment of the 1920’s was that people began to buy items for pleasure and no longer just based on need. People began to purchase items that had once been a luxury to own, even for the upper class. Electric refrigerators and irons, vacuum cleaners, and washing machines became a common item in most homes. Automobiles also became a regular occurrence on and off the streets. The rise in the number of cars is a result of the improvements made in factories.
A third, and I believe it could potentially be argued that is was the biggest, accomplishment was the change in factory life. Factory owners began to instill health codes in their workspace.This helped to keep unrest among the workers to a minimum. Shorter work weeks and a raise in pay also helped keep the workers willing to work as well as allowing more family time and rest for the workers. They also began to encourage workers to take vacations by offering pay because they believed it helped keep a happy and positive environment. The improvements in the factories also helped to improve overall standard of living amongst the people.
While these were all great advances for the 1920’s it helped to establish the foundation for the people of today’s society. Now, even more people attend high school and college, almost every home has refrigerators and freezers, washing machines inspired dryers to be made, adolescence is now called teenage years and is a thriving culture, and factories have subsided into respectable establishments. It is because of this and much more that these are the most important aspects of the 1920’s.
