Difference between revisions of "Roaring Twenties"
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| − | The "Roaring Twenties" is a term for the 1920s, when American economy was booming. | + | The "Roaring Twenties" is a term for the 1920s, when the American economy was booming. |
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| + | This was the first time in which ordinary working and middle-class people knew about the existence of the stock market and invested in it. Millions of people put their savings into stocks. | ||
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| + | One of the high-flyers was "Radio" (Radio Corporation of America) going from about $15 in 1927 to a peak of $114 in 1929, to crash to less than $3 a share in 1933. | ||
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| + | Despite prohibition, people went to illegal "speakeasies" to drink, financing an underworld and making celebrities of gangsters like [[Al Capone]]. It was a period of licentiousness. "Flappers" wore short skirts and danced in ways that showed off their bodies. | ||
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| + | This period was also known as the "Jazz Age," a term associated with [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]] and his novels of the period. | ||
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| + | New York's "Tin Pan Alley" thrived, and composers like [[George Gershwin]] and [[Irving Berlin]] became popular. | ||
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| + | Frederick Lewis Allen's nonfiction book, ''Only Yesterday,'' paints a vivid picture of the 1920s. | ||
Revision as of 16:52, January 4, 2007
The "Roaring Twenties" is a term for the 1920s, when the American economy was booming.
This was the first time in which ordinary working and middle-class people knew about the existence of the stock market and invested in it. Millions of people put their savings into stocks.
One of the high-flyers was "Radio" (Radio Corporation of America) going from about $15 in 1927 to a peak of $114 in 1929, to crash to less than $3 a share in 1933.
Despite prohibition, people went to illegal "speakeasies" to drink, financing an underworld and making celebrities of gangsters like Al Capone. It was a period of licentiousness. "Flappers" wore short skirts and danced in ways that showed off their bodies.
This period was also known as the "Jazz Age," a term associated with F. Scott Fitzgerald and his novels of the period.
New York's "Tin Pan Alley" thrived, and composers like George Gershwin and Irving Berlin became popular.
Frederick Lewis Allen's nonfiction book, Only Yesterday, paints a vivid picture of the 1920s.