Composition: History & Theory: 1920 - 1929
The Roaring Twenties
Description
- 1920s: Expressivist rhetorics
- 1920s: Creative Writing arose as an educational subject in affiliation with the progressive education movement (was created/promoted by Hughes Meams)
- 1922: US Supreme court case ruled Japanese not “white”
- 1922: The MPPDA came under increasing censorship pressure from the feds and appealed for the support of the NEA at its annual meeting
- 1923: Brigham published a book that led to the development of the SAT
- 1924: Immigration Act—limited immigration numbers and introduced quota system that favored northern European folks
- 1925: Hughes Meams published Creative Youth
- 1926: Two Ohio University professors, Jefferson and Houston, published Creative Prose Writing
- 1929: Stock Market Crash
- 1929: Beginning of the Great Depression (lasting until around 1940)
Prior to the 1920s, WWI gave America a feeling of invincibility and technological verve that allowed the 20s to be as carefree and artistic as they were. Because the USA came rushing in to save the world during WWI and with the technological advances of the time (automobile, airplane, tank, x-ray), America had a feeling of invincibility and patriotism that was coupled with a pseudo-symbiosis with these new technologies. This thinking led to the boom of the 20s, but also to the fall of the Market, which then started WWII. The phrase “Roaring Twenties” emphasized the period’s social, artistic, and cultural dynamism. ‘Normalcy’ returned to politics in the wake of World War I, jazz music blossomed, the flapper redefined modern womanhood, and Art Deco peaked. The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of discontinuity associated with modernity, a break with tradition. Formal decorative frills were shed in favor of practicality. At the same time, amusement, fun and lightness were cultivated in jazz and dancing. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 came during a period of declining real estate values in the United States (which peaked in 1925) near the beginning of a chain of events that led to the Great Depression, a period of economic decline in the industrialized nations. The Great Depression is defined as a worldwide economic downturn starting in most places in 1929 and ending around 1940. In some countries, desperate citizens turned toward nationalist demagogues, the most infamous being Adolf Hitler, setting the stage for WWII.
Date of Upload
3/13/09