9.6The Roaring Twenties

The 1920s brought prosperity, mass consumption, and cultural upheaval. Automobiles, radio, and movies knit the nation together and created a modern consumer culture. Cities pulsed with energy; the Harlem Renaissance flowered as Black artists and writers reshaped American culture, and jazz became the era's soundtrack.

Beneath the glitter ran deep tensions. Prohibition banned alcohol but bred crime and hypocrisy. Nativism surged, producing harsh immigration quotas and a revived Ku Klux Klan. A "Red Scare" targeted radicals and immigrants. Republicans dominated national politics with a pro-business, small-government creed, presiding over a boom that seemed endless. In October 1929, the stock market crash abruptly ended the party and ushered in catastrophe.