The Roaring Twenties

The 1920s in America were a time of great prosperity that ultimately culminated in disaster for the entire nation. But in the early '20s, the U.S. was just coming out of WWI involvement, the success of which left Americans feeling quite proud, and the nation survived a worldwide flu epidemic. Needless to say, many people felt like nothing could bring them down.


Warren G. Harding was elected president in 1920, and he promoted a "return to normalcy": a resurgence of nativism, isolationism, and rejection of the progressive era's governmental activism. Despite that, after making the change from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy, America became the richest nation in the world and developed the consumer mentality with which we are familiar today. "People spent money for better roads, tourism, and holiday resorts. Real estate booms, most notably in Florida, sent land prices soaring." Also, Henry Ford introduced the Model T in this decade, and assembly line production developed in accordance with that.


Then, Black Tuesday: October 29, 1929. The stock market crashed, and the decade of excess and consumerism came to an abrupt halt.

This video sounds like it was made in the '20s, so it's a little scratchy.