The late 1920s were characterized by the world's highest standards of living as one of its contradictions. In this case, a controversial rise in the standards of living went beyond the capability of most people. In some cases, people were forced to queue for meals in a bid to deal with the harsh realities occasioned by the highest living standards that preceded the 1929 crash. Before this period, most people engaged in purchasing goods and services on credit while also paying for things whose costs were beyond their means and affordability. At this point, everything appeared to be moving in the right direction since there were sufficient jobs for people, and those in businesses were making high levels of profit. However, the economy eventually took a turn for the worse, and people struggled to come to terms with the harsh economic realities of the 1920s. During this time, most businesses experienced some of the greatest losses before closing down while others lost their jobs. The outcomes of such losses were people rendered homeless and unable to cater for their basic needs forcing them to beg and scramble for food (Palmer, 2007). The 1920s was a decade characterized by several contradictions, including the world's highest standards of living and cultural war that contributed to the development of America in the 1920s and beyond.
The observation by Soffer (1995) indicates that the United States appeared to be prosperous for the better part of the 1920s. As such, most people were employed and doing well in their business engaged in overproduction and overspending on consumer goods such as furniture, home appliances, and automobiles, among others. Besides, the level of satisfaction displayed by America's workers was demonstrated by a considerable decline in the significance and membership of labor unions. A sense of speculative fever gripped several Americans to the extent that they decided to invest in uncertain foreign currencies, real estates, shares of new companies that were not yet well-grounded in the market (Shi & Tindall, 2016). All these investments were being made based on speculations that the prosperity of businesses and jobs at that time would continue into the future. Such a high level of speculative investment and decision making was not healthy.
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When the situation in the stock market started to plummet, some Americans confronted it with shock and disbelief. Others had already experienced depressed times. Besides, failure to have an active involvement by the government to perform its advisory and regulatory roles could have been among the major reasons that led to the worsening of the situation (Palmer, 2007). Eventually, according to Palmer (2007), the situation deteriorated to the extent of experience the stock market crash and the Great Depression which left Americans grappling with the effects of a phase controversially described as the world's highest cost of living. The world's highest standards of living contradiction made significant contributions to the development of America during the 1920s and beyond. Such developments included the emergence of changes in the political environment of the United States. Franklin Delano Roosevelt eventually took over leadership from President Herbert Hoover based on the promise of spearheading an economic recovery plan coupled with the institution of programs for reform, recovery, and relief.
Cultural war and disagreements was another contradiction that was experienced during the 1920s. During this time, there were exciting social changes and cultural accelerations that led to profound cultural disagreements and conflicts. For most of the members of the public in America, the introduction of consumer culture, growth of cities, the upsurge of tendencies of mass entertainment as well as the revolution manners and morals represented the liberation of the restrictions that had previously existed against people from other cultural backgrounds. There were significant changes seen concerning dressing styles, hairstyles, gender roles, and sexual mores during the 1920s, which were regarded as being largely contradictory (Soffer, 1995). In this regard, a section of the American members of the public believed that such cultural accelerations and changes were necessary and desirable. However, several others thought that America was changing through undesirable means and completely headed in the wrong direction.
The outcome of this particular contradiction was the gradual emergence of a thin veiled cultural war where a pluralistic society was involved in bitter disagreements with people among the immigrants over concerns such as evolution, different races, new gender roles, various prohibitions, and the Ku Klux Klan. During this decade, an anti-Communist inspired a widespread nativist which led to the introduction and enactment of extremely restrictive laws and regulations on immigration in 1924 known as the National Origins Act. Such regulations led to the setting up of immigration quotas that were discriminatory to people from other cultural backgrounds such as Asia and Eastern Europe in favor of those that included North Europe and others like Great Britain (Shi & Tindall, 2016).
There were also cultural differences that emerged between residents of small towns and city-dwellers, Whites and Blacks, Catholics and Protestants, as well as new women and those women who advocated family values that regarded as being old-fashioned. In contributing the development during the 1920s and beyond, the cultural war and disagreements contradiction led to the emergence of groups, movements, and organizations that advocated against racial and cultural restrictions America's social and political spheres (Palmer, 2007). Some of these movements went ahead to fight against marginalization, discrimination, slavery, and oppression. This situation led to considerable changes in American society in the sense that the Americans learned to embrace and live with people from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. To that extent, America was able to introduce several legislations, and that contributed significantly to the expansion of freedoms, rights, and democratic space enjoyed by most people today.
References
Palmer, B. (2007). American Communism in the 1920s: Striving for a Panoramic View.
American Communist History , 6 (2), 139-149. doi: 10.1080/14743890701701929
Shi, D., & Tindall, G. (2016). America (10th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.
Soffer, J. (1995). Oral History and the History of American Foreign Relations. The Journal
of American History , 82 (2), 607. doi: 10.2307/2082190
