Consumerism In The 1920s Essay

Consumerism came into its own throughout the 1920s as a result of mass production, new products on the market, and improved advertising techniques. With more leisure time available and money to spend, Americans were eager to own the latest items. Advertisers used this to their advantage, often stressing luxury and convenience. Through mediums like radio and print advertisements, consumer culture was more visible than ever before.
From the colonial era until the late nineteenth century, the United States was a producer-oriented nation. Simply, most Americans produced what they needed, generating only what their immediate families or villages could use. Farmers—sometimes inaccurately called "subsistence farmers"—grew a variety of crops and vegetables

Progressivism refers to the different responses to the economic and social evolutions that occurred as a result of America’s rapid urbanization and industrialization at the end of the 19th century. In the late 1800s, millions of Americans migrated west and into urban areas, and hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved to northern cities. Moreover, the United States experienced unprecedented levels of immigration at this time (George Washington University, n.d.).Rapid advances in technology and industrialization took its toll on Americans. While urban areas benefited from electricity and running water, rural farmers struggled to maintain their farms as they battled increased competition, costly machinery, and falling prices. Thus, progressivism began as a social movement to cope with the various social needs of the time and ultimately evolved into a reform movement. Early progressives rejected Social Darwinism and believed that society’s problems, such as poverty, poor health, violence, greed, racism, and class warfare, could be best eradicated through better education, a safer environment, a more efficient workplace, and a more honest government. Progressives at this time were primarily college-educated urban dwellers who believed that the government could be used as a tool for change (George Washington University, n.d.).On a national level, progressivism garnered further support

Borders were redrawn and homecomings, expulsions, and burials were under way. But the massive efforts to rebuild had just begun. When the war began in the late 1930s, the world's population was approximately 2 billion. In less than a decade, the war between the Axis the Allied powers had resulted in 80 million deaths -- killing off about 4 percent of the whole world. Allied forces now became occupiers, taking control of Germany, Japan, and much of the territory they had formerly ruled. Efforts were made to permanently dismantle the war-making abilities of those nations, as factories were destroyed and former leadership was removed or prosecuted. War crimes trials took place in Europe and Asia, leading to many executions and prison sentences. Millions of Germans and Japanese were forcibly expelled from territories they called home. Allied occupations and United Nations decisions led to many long-lasting problems in the future, including the tensions that created East and West Germany, and divergent plans on the Korean Peninsula that led to the creation of North and South Korea and -- the Korean War in 1950. The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine paved the way for Israel to declare its independence in 1948 and marked the start of the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict. The growing tensions between Western powers and the Soviet Eastern Bloc developed into the Cold War, and the