Gabriel Redmond

Mr. Dorrian
United States History Part II
February 15, 2011

Political, Social, and Economic Changes of America:

The Greater Good

Many changes took place between the beginning of World War One, and the end

of the 1920’s. For example, some major changes were the invention of the automobile,

and the primarily republican politicians that would replace the previously progressive

politicians in office during the gilded age. There are many different opinions on the affect

these changes had on America. The facts show that the changes that occurred between the

gilded age, and the roaring twenties would benefit America in the long run.

During World War One, America had a long string of “progressive” politicians,

like Widrow Wilson, and Theodore Roosevelt. These politicians instituted socialist-like

policies on American Industry, to increase America’s ability to make war. In the roaring

twenties, this all changed with the introduction of a new, rather conservative government.

There were three presidents during the twenties, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover. All of

these people were pro labor and attempted to scale back the government. They did it

through the “open shop” ideal, this was an attempt to reduce the strangle hold many

unions had on many corporations. During this time period, American politicians tried to

keep American industry booming through the Fordny - McCumber tariff, passed in 1922,

as well as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1933, passed in 1930. Smoot-Hawley Tariff, set

tariffs on over 20,000 imported items to record high levels. During this time period, there

was also a ban put in place on Alcohol, through the passing of the 18th amendment,

which, to be more specific banned the selling and production of alcoholic beverages,
which ironically increased the demand of alcohol rate, and the crime rate for the selling

and distribution of illegal alcohol.

The economic changes during the roaring twenties, was caused mainly by the

surge of revolutionary inventions like the Automobile, and the Airplane. Henry Ford was

one of the greatest inventors of his time. Not only did he revolutionize America through

the mass production, affordability of the automobile, but through the way he produced his

cars. He did this, by creating a constantly working production line that worked by

division of labor. He also centralized everything necessary to build his Ford Model T at

his massive industrial complex on the banks of the Rouge River. By centralizing

everything, Henry Ford was able to cut production costs in half. Another affect the

automobile had on the economy, was that the United States now had to build an

infrastructure that could handle the volume of cars being used, this required people to

build the roads, for the many cars to drive on. Another major invention, was on January

12, 1910, when Lee De Forest conducted an experimental broadcast of the Metropolitan

Opera’s performance of Tosca. On this day radio broadcasting was truly born, and with it

a whole new area of marketing. With the new form of communication, this allowed for

radio stations to sell time slots to companies wishing to advertise on that specific

frequency.

Political and economic changes weren’t the only major shifts occurring during the

1920’s. There was also a huge social switch during the roaring twenties. This change was

lead head on by the new lady, known as “The flapper”. A flapper was a girl or woman

who was opposed to the sophistication of The Victorian Era of women during the Gilded

Age. A flapper would typically wear short, low-cut dresses, drink, smoke, and do other
tasks that would show their resent towards the previous era of women. During this time

period, idolization of sports became popular, most likely because of an increase of

available stats and play-by-play descriptions of games as they were happening. Kids were

idolizing and dreaming of being sports stars like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. But, one of

the Celebrities that was looked up to the most, was Charles A. Lindbergh. Charles A.

Lindbergh was almost like the Justin Timberlake of his time, he was a talented musician,

actor, and he also made the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Music remained

generally the same the only major change was that the ragtime bands of Scott Joplin,

evolved into blues and jazz bands of Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Joe “King”

Oliver. This change is style was part of an explosion a black fine arts known as the

Harlem Renaissance. At the end of the decade Americans had spent $4.5 billion on

entertainment purposes.

So I can honestly say that at the end of the day, these changes benefited America

in the long run. For example, without the advancement of the airplane, we may not have

been able to travel far distances in short amounts of time, or without the car, we would

have never had the ability to commute into work from a suburban location. Plus, with out

Henry Ford, we may have never gotten such great works of automotive art such as the

Mustang or Camaro. Without the airplanes people like Jimmy Dolittle would never

gotten the chance to act in such courageous ways for their country.