Argumentative Essay On The 1920s

After World War 1, America was trying to return to some normalcy in the economy and in society. This period of time led into the 1920s. The decade of the 1920s was a time of modernization for the country but was also a time where Americans tried to return to their traditional values. There is still controversy on whether the 1920s should be recognized for its new values and pop culture, or whether it was just a period of Americans going back to their original values from before the war. The 1920s can’t be recognized as just one of those things, though. As a whole, the 1920s can be viewed mostly as a time of modernization because of events such as the Harlem Renaissance and important inventions like automobiles, but it was also a time when American

Although they still struggled with racism and discrimination, there was also a big step forward in their culture. This became known as the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a period after the Great Migration when African Americans left the south and moved to areas in the north like Harlem, New York. During this time there was a lot of improvements to the culture of African Americans. Robert J Allison claims, “Between the end of World War 1 and the beginning of the great depression, African Americans musicians, writers, and performers dominated the American cultural scene” (Allison). At the time, the African culture wasn’t generally accepted, so they found the Harlem Renaissance as a way to express themselves and have pride in their culture, which was a big step forward for them. During the era, there were lots of stories, poems, songs, and artworks

Factories and places of work were changed by welfare capitalism the provided workers with shorter hours, paid vacations, and sick days. The workplace also changed due to the invention of new products. One product that was developed in the 1920s was the automobile. The automobile was already invented at the time, but it was made much cheaper and more accessible to the general public. Henry Ford was the founder of the Ford motor company who “built the famous Model T car that was affordable to the middle class due in part to the efficiency of his signature assembly-line manufacturing technique”(Riggs). Not only did Ford make a model of car that was affordable to people in the middle class, he also developed techniques for manufacturing, like the assembly line, that we still use today. He was able to find a way to modernize the model and price of the cars and also the workplace that they were made in. The development of cars also made it possible for suburbs to develop. Judith Baughman says that the suburbs were developed due to the ability to get there with automobiles (Baughman). Cars made is possible for people to easily get in and out of the city, and since more people were able to afford them, the suburbs were able to expand even more. The advancement of automobiles was a step in modernizing the country because of the new methods of transportation and the new techniques used in