The roaring twenties was a time of partying.  With World War I over people were ready to celebrate.  President Warren G. Harding's slogan, "Back to
Normalcy" meant a return to life as it was before World War I.  However things would not be as it was before World War I.

The roaring twenties was a time of economic prosperity.  Product production increased tremendously and most Americans incomes also rose.  New inventions flooded the market with new items that people felt that had to have.
Henry Ford's assembly line reduced the time required to produce a car and the price of cars was reduced greatly.  During the twenties the stock market soared.
With the demand for stocks the price of stocks rose.  The problem was that the stock prices rose faster than the value of the companies.

The roaring twenties was a time of gangsters.  Organized crime grew rapidly.
Al Capone is the most well known gangster of the twenties.  One thing that led to the growth of organized crime was prohibition (a ban on making and selling alcohol anywhere in the United States).  Speakeasies (illegal bars) sprung up everywhere and the gangsters forced the owners to buy their alcohol from them.
There were mass murders between the gangsters as they fought for control of their territories.

The roaring twenties was a time of entertainment.  During this time the first moving picture cameras were developed.  To begin with the movies were without sound and someone would play a piano during the movie.  But the twenties not only saw the first moving picture cameras but also developed the first "talkie"--a movie with sound (The Jazz Singer).  During the twenties a new kind of music surfaced (Jazz).  The twenties has become known as the Jazz Age.  Jazz was a combination of African rhythms and European harmonies.

The roaring twenties was a time of new women.  The women got the right to vote in 1920 with the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment.  During the twenties more and more women began to work outside of the home.  Some women became known as flappers.  These were young women who rebelled against traditional ways.  Flappers wore their hair bobbed or cut short.  They wore their dresses shorter than Americans had ever seen.  They wore bright red lipstick, smoked cigarettes in public and hung out at speakeasies.

The roaring twenties was truly a wild time.  Life was lived in the fast lane.  Now join me as we look at some of the features of the Roaring Twenties.
Click on the topics below to begin your look at the Roaring Twenties.