# data[].attributes.body
Most radio historians assert that radio broadcasting began in 1920 with the historic broadcast of KDKA.  Few people actually heard the voices and music which were produced because of the dearth of radio receivers at that time.  The public, however, was overcome by a radio craze after the initial broadcast.  Radio became a product of the mass market.  Manufacturers were overwhelmed by the demand for receivers, as customers stood in line to complete order forms for radios after dealers had sold out.  Between 1923 and 1930, 60 percent of American families purchased radios.  Families gathered around their radios for night-time entertainment.  As radio ownership increased, so did the number of radio stations.  In 1920, KDKA was not actually the only operating radio station, but it remains a benchmark in most accounts. And by 1922, 600 radio stations had sprung up around the United States.  Chicago's first radio station, KYW, begun in 1921 by Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, was the first specialized radio station, broadcasting exclusively opera six days a week.  The radio station experienced immediate popularity and continued to be a favorite in Chicago.  After the opera season ended, the station owners saw the need to diversify their programming.  They began broadcasting things like popular music, classical music, sporting events, lectures, fictional stories, newscasts, weather reports, market updates, and political commentary.  Radio stations like KYW enhanced a sense of community among different ethnic groups as each group could listen to programming suited to their interests and needs. However, the advance of radio technology also created a tension between modernity and the traditions and habits of Americans.
The rapid spread of radio listeners and programs lead to inevitable confusion and disruption.  Radio waves were up for grabs, as stations competed with one another for time and listeners.  Many programs overlapped.  Listeners of one program were frequently interrupted by overlapping programs.  In addition, the public, the government, and emerging radio corporations viewed radio as a means of public service, rarely as a vehicle for personal profit.  Radio manufacturers alone experienced financial gain from the radio boom.  Radio announcers, deejays, and stations worked on a non-profit basis.  Advertising was not introduced until later in the 1920s, changing the public service face of radio, to one of private gain.
The federal government hesitated to regulate the airwaves.  Radio stations, listeners, and emerging broadcasting corporations all asked the government for some sort of intervention to end the free-for-all that radio had become.  The government responded slowly, gradually passing laws to govern the radio.  The Federal Radio Commission was set up in 1926; the Radio Act of 1927 organized the Federal Radio Commission.  This Act became the basis for the Communications Act passed after the rise of television.  As the government spent more time investigating radio stations, apportioning time to different groups and programs, and monitoring the growth of the radio industry, they became more and more comfortable with the responsibilities of regulation.  These federal bodies eventually ceased to doubt their right to regulate.

# data[].attributes.headline
Politics (US Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover) PT.4

# data[].attributes.subject
Politics (US Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover) PT.4

# data[].attributes.body
Herbert Hoover's Promise: "Triumph Over Poverty"

In 1928, Coolidge retired to civilian life, leaving office as a highly popular figure among the American people. Coolidge's Republican successor in the White House was Herbert Hoover, a former mining engineer, war-relief administrator, and Secretary of Commerce considered by many to be the greatest man of his generation. Raised in rural Iowa and Oregon, Hoover was a self made millionaire but no rigid adherent of laissez-faire. Hoover might be considered the last Progressive, a believer in the potential of the private market to achieve beneficial results through voluntary cooperation encouraged (but not enforced) by the government. As Commerce Secretary in 1920, Hoover had helped to stave off a postwar depression by successfully encouraging leading businessmen voluntarily to pursue policies of growth rather than retrenchment. As a presidential candidate in 1928, Hoover confidently declared, "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land... we shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation." 11 Hoover won more electoral votes than any previous presidential candidate in American history, but his optimistic vision of a future of universal affluence was soon shattered. In October 1929, just months after Hoover assumed office, the stock market collapsed, ushering in the reat Depression, the worst economic crisis in American history, which Hoover's policies of voluntary cooperation proved utterly unable to solve.

# data[].attributes.headline
Politics (US Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover) PT.3

# data[].attributes.subject
Politics (US Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover) PT.3

# data[].attributes.body
Silent Cal Coolidge

Harding's replacement, stern New Englander Calvin Coolidge, shared Harding's economic conservatism but not his stench of impropriety. "Silent Cal" Coolidge exhibited zero personal charisma, but his strong reputation for personal respectability helped the Republicans to avoid electoral consequences for Harding's indiscretions. Coolidge, most famous for declaring that "the business of America is business" easily won election for a second term in 1924 , ensuring that the pro-business, free-market policies of Andrew Mellon, whom Coolidge retained as Treasury Secretary, would define the political economy of the entire decade. The result was "Coolidge Prosperity," half a decade of robust economic growth and widespread affluence.

# data[].attributes.headline
Politics (US Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover) PT.2

# data[].attributes.subject
Politics (US Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover) PT.2

# data[].attributes.body
Warren G. Harding's Pro-Business "Normalcy"

By the war's end, however, the American people supported neither Wilson's international commitments nor his domestic interventions into the economy and society. In 1920, they elected to the presidency, by a landslide, Republican Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio. Harding, who might best be described as an affable simpleton, campaigned on the simple promise of a "return to normalcy." Normalcy, under the Harding administration, meant a government that was pro-business, anti-tax, and anti-regulation.

Harding's Treasury Secretary, financier Andrew Mellon, cut income tax rates for the wealthiest Americans from 73% to 25%. The capital thus liberated fueled the skyrocketing stock market and helped the Jay Gatsbys of the world to achieve an unprecedented level of material affluence, but it also exacerbated the maldistribution of wealth between rich and poor—by 1929, the richest one-tenth of one percent of Americans owned as much wealth as the bottom 42%—and may have created an unsustainable financial bubble that led directly to the Great Depression.

Harding, hostile to the government regulation of business instituted under the Progressive administrations of Teddy Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, stocked the federal regulatory agencies with officials plucked from the industries meant to be regulated. Many of these anti-regulation regulators proved to be not merely philosophically opposed to government regulation but also deeply corrupt. Under Harding's administration, scandal tainted many departments of the government, with the corrupt looting of public property costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. In the most infamous incident, the memorably-named Teapot Dome scandal, Harding's anticonservationist Interior Secretary accepted bribes of nearly half a million dollars from cronies in the oil industry in exchange for giving away drilling rights in the invaluable federal oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California.

# data[].attributes.headline
Politics (US Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover) PT.1

# data[].attributes.subject
Politics (US Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover) PT.1

# data[].attributes.body
The End of Wilsonianism

The Republican politics of the 1920s sprung from the repudiation of Woodrow Wilson, the only Democrat elected to the presidency between 1892 and 1932. Wilson had never governed with the support of a majority of voters, winning office in 1912 only because two Republicans (popular ex-President Teddy Roosevelt and incumbent William Howard Taft) split the vote by running against each other, then barely retaining the presidency with less the half the popular vote in 1916. Despite his dubious mandate, Wilson pursued aggressive reforms at home and abroad, culminating in the virtual nationalization of the economy during World War I and the ambitious internationalism of the League of Nations after the armistice.

# data[].attributes.body
Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863 in Greenfield Township, Dearborn, Michigan U.S.A. He was the son of a farmer, William Ford, who was born in County Cork, Ireland, and his mother, Mary Litogot, who was born in Michigan.

He introduced the Model T automobile as an owner of the Ford Motor Company. He became the richest and best known man in the world at that time. He produced many cars that were not so expensive using the assembly line. His workers got paid way more than anybody else. His famous invention of the car cost $850 which was a reasonable price for back then.

After World War I, Henry joined the Stout Metal Airplane Company. Henry’s most successful aircraft was the Ford 4AT Trimotor- also called the “Tin Goose” because of its corrugated metal construction. The Trimotor first flew on June 11, 1926, and was the first successful US passenger airliner. It could carry 12 passengers. The Ford airplane division closed down in 1933, because of bad sales during the GREAT DEPRESSION.

# data[].attributes.body
Built by the wealthy industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1891, Carnegie Hall hosted scores of symphonies and jazz concerts in the 1920s. Carnegie intended for his Italian Renaissance-style concert hall to be as grand as those of Europe, and indeed it was. George Gershwin conducted a symphony there in 1925, but Carnegie Hall wasn’t just home to classical music. Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Dizzie Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Charlie Parker all performed there. Before television, the hall was used as a public forum, and provided the stage for Clarence Darrow’s debate against prohibitionist Wayne B. Wheeler. In The Great Gatsby, a concert by fictional composer Vladimir Tostoff takes place in its hallowed auditorium. The venue still hosts regular concerts and guests can take tours of the building with plenty of interesting anecdotes. Even if the music is contemporary, the architecture and stories of the past can transport you to the past.

# data[].attributes.body
While not properly a Jazz Age industrialist, he retired from active business life in the late 1890s, Rockefeller nonetheless made our list as one of the biggest names of all time. So vast was his fortune that Rockefeller could probably make a spot on the top 10 richest people of all-time list. In United States history, Rockefeller easily ranks as the single richest man ever, clearly outstripping the likes of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates by a good margin; both in total wealth (adjusted for inflation) and in share of GNP (gross national product). And, because he lived all the way until 1937, Rockefeller stands as a multigenerational titan of industry, easily placing on any list of wealthy men covering the Gilded Age, the Jazz Age, or the Depression era.

Born in New York in 1839, Rockefeller took his first regular job as a clerk in 1855 at the age of 16. Within just a few years he had worked up to a partnership in an Ohio oil refinery which, by 1882 had turned into the American Standard Oil Company which, at that time, controlled 90% of the American petroleum industry. Busted by the Supreme Court in 1911 for violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, Standard Oil was eventually broken into 30 separate companies. By this time, however, Rockefeller had already been in retirement for over 10 years and his personal fortune was left largely intact.

# data[].attributes.body
The capture and sale of Africans for the American slave markets were barbaric and often lethal. Two out of five West African captives died on the march to the Atlantic seacoast where they were sold to European slavers. On board the slave vessels, they were chained below decks in coffin-sized racks. An estimated one-third of these unfortunate individuals died at sea.

In America, they were sold at auction to owners, who wanted them primarily as plantation workers. Slave owners could punish slaves harshly. They could break up families by selling off family members.

Despite the hardships, slaves managed to develop a strong cultural identity. On plantations, all adults looked after all children. Although they risked separation, slaves frequently married and maintained strong family ties. Introduced to Christianity, they developed their own forms of worship.

Spirituals, the music of worship, expressed both slave endurance and religious belief. Slaves frequently altered the lyrics of spirituals to carry the hope of freedom or to celebrate resistance.

In time, African culture enriched much of American music, theater, and dance. African rhythms found their way into Christian hymns and European marches. The banjo evolved from an African stringed instrument. The sound of the blues is nothing more than a combination of African and European musical scales. Vaudeville was partially an extension of song-and-dance forms first performed by black street artists.

# data[].attributes.body
The 1920s marked a decade of increasing conveniences that were made available to the middle class. By and large Americans as a whole were weary of war and looking for a way to put the horrors of the last few years behind them. New products made chores around the home easier and resulted in increased leisure time. Products that had once been too expensive were suddenly affordable due to new forms of financing that made it possible for families to spend beyond more existing means. New forms of advertising resulted in the sale of increased goods through the capitalisation of consumer hopes and dreams.

For the first time it became possible for Americans to buy on credit through the credo of ‘buy now, pay later’ practices that ushered in the Roaring Twenties. Generous lines of credit were offered by department stores for families who were not able to pay upfront but who could demonstrate their ability to pay in the future. Installment plans were also offered to buyers who were not able to pay upfront. More than half of the automobiles in the nation were sold on credit by the end of the 1920s. As a result, consumer debt more than doubled during the decade.

# data[].attributes.body
The roaring 1920s was an era of dramatic change. Among the most enduring manifestations of this change was the rise of the big city. The centrality of urban growth to the social, political, and economic changes of the 1920s gives it a special place in the study of that decade, the twentieth century, and the United States in the modern century. The changes that took place in New York City, America’s largest city by this time (see the interactive activity in the March 2007 issue of History Now), were in response to the changes that were taking place in the nation. New York, New York, would become the symbol of the nation during this exciting decade.

Rapid urban growth was the source of a whole new range of problems and challenges. The solution to increased population density and demand for office space came from new buildings that enabled the cities to expand upward rather than outward. New technologies and innovations—steel framing, concrete, improved heating and plumbing, and elevators—played a role in the construction of taller-than-ever-before buildings. In America’s preeminent city of the twentieth century—New York—the skyscraper came to be a symbol of America's modernity.

# data[].attributes.body
Model T (or Tin Lizzie) was the first model car made by Henry Ford in the Roaring 20s. It change the live-style. Ford advanced car manufacturing to make his product more affordable for his clients.

- "..More than 15 million Model T's were built in Detroit and Highland Park, Michigan, and the automobile was also assembled at a Ford plant in Manchester, England, and at plants in continental Europe..."

# data[].attributes.body
- "...the buying and selling of products..."

- new advertising strategies (; radio and newspaper/print)'

- Sears, Roebuck & Co./Consumer's Bible (revolutionised how people purchased items)

- buying on credit and paying for the item gradually over time

- Calvin Coolidge (president of US from 1923-1929)- Coolidge prosperity effected modern day economics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Roaring Economy of the 1920s

The 1920s have been called the Roaring '20s and for good reason. Not only was American culture 'roaring' in terms of style and social trends, but the economy was 'roaring' as well. The decade was a time of tremendous prosperity. Following the end of World War I, the industrial might of the United States was unleashed for domestic, peaceful purposes. Within a few short years, an economic shift took place as the economy transitioned from wartime production to peacetime production. New technologies like the automobile, household appliances, and other mass-produced products led to a vibrant consumer culture, stimulating economic growth. Furthermore, under the administration of three consecutive Republican presidents, the government adopted fiscally conservative policies that fueled private business.

Consumerism in the 1920s

Consumerism can be thought of as the culture surrounding the buying and selling of products. Consumerism came into its own throughout the 1920s as a result of mass production, new products on the market, and improved advertising techniques. With more leisure time available and money to spend, Americans were eager to own the latest items. Advertisers used this to their advantage, often stressing luxury and convenience. Through mediums like radio and print advertisements, consumer culture was more visible than ever before.

Sears, Roebuck & Co., a company founded in 1893, regularly issued a mail-order catalog. By the 1920s, the catalog, nicknamed the consumer's bible, had become enormously popular. It completely revolutionized how people purchased items. The catalog contained literally hundreds of pages featuring products like sewing machines, bicycles, clothing, radios, and just about everything else imaginable. Installment buying, or buying on credit, was also popular, allowing families to purchase large items like automobiles or refrigerators and pay them off gradually over a period of time. Large department stores also became popular during this time.

Coolidge Prosperity

Nicknamed Silent Cal because he was a man of few words, Calvin Coolidge was president of the United States from 1923-1929. His fiscally conservative policies helped usher in the era of 'Coolidge Prosperity.' Coolidge slashed taxes and supported legislation that encouraged private business. He also talked incessantly about the virtue of thrift. Coolidge deserves considerable credit for the economic success of the 1920s.

The Stock Market

With money to invest, many Americans began buying stock. This was the thing to do in the 1920s. It was seen as modern: a venture for those who were smart, sophisticated, and urbane. And while it carried risks, it was generally seen as a sound investment. As the economy continued to grow throughout the decade, some people came to see investing in stock as a foolproof way to get rich quick.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
american economy in the 1920s: consumerism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
stock market & economic shift - video & lesson transcript | study.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
American Economy in the 1920s: Consumerism, Stock Market & Economic Shift - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The 1920s have been called the Roaring '20s and for good reason. Not only was American culture 'roaring' in terms of style and social trends, but the economy was 'roaring' as well. The decade was a time of tremendous prosperity. Following the end of World War I, the industrial might of the United States was unleashed for domestic, peaceful purposes.

# data[].attributes.body
- a small group of profitable 'white' americans that terrorise the 'black slaves' without any mercy or mortal reasoning.

- The KKK victimised freed slaves ('blacks'), because of the employment issues and racial discriminations >> they needed someone to blame for economically destructive effects that disadvantaged them as rural workers.

- "the KKK uses violence to enforce it's rule..."

- 'patrols'

- outside of the law

- used to 'control' the 'black' race of men.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Contents

1. Founding of the Ku Klux Klan

2. Ku Klux Klan Violence in the South

3. The Ku Klux Klan and the End of Reconstruction

4. Revival of the Ku Klux Klan

Founded in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party's Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. Its members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black Republican leaders. Though Congress passed legislation designed to curb Klan terrorism, the organization saw its primary goal-the reestablishment of white supremacy-fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the South in the 1870s. After a period of decline, white Protestant nativist groups revived the Klan in the early 20th century, burning crosses and staging rallies, parades and marches denouncing immigrants, Catholics, Jews, blacks and organized labor. The civil rights movement of the 1960s also saw a surge of Ku Klux Klan activity, including bombings of black schools and churches and violence against black and white activists in the South.

Founding of the Ku Klux Klan

A group including many former Confederate veterans founded the first branch of the Ku Klux Klan as a social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866. The first two words of the organization's name supposedly derived from the Greek word "kyklos," meaning circle. In the summer of 1867, local branches of the Klan met in a general organizing convention and established what they called an "Invisible Empire of the South." Leading Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest was chosen as the first leader, or "grand wizard," of the Klan; he presided over a hierarchy of grand dragons, grand titans and grand cyclopses.

The organization of the Ku Klux Klan coincided with the beginning of the second phase of post- Civil War Reconstruction, put into place by the more radical members of the Republican Party in Congress. After rejecting President Andrew Johnson's relatively lenient Reconstruction policies, in place from 1865 to 1866, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act over the presidential veto. Under its provisions, the South was divided into five military districts, and each state was required to approve the 14th Amendment, which granted "equal protection" of the Constitution to former slaves and enacted universal male suffrage.

Ku Klux Klan Violence in the South

From 1867 onward, African-American participation in public life in the South became one of the most radical aspects of Reconstruction, as blacks won election to southern state governments and even to the U.S. Congress. For its part, the Ku Klux Klan dedicated itself to an underground campaign of violence against Republican leaders and voters (both black and white) in an effort to reverse the policies of Radical Reconstruction and restore white supremacy in the South. They were joined in this struggle by similar organizations such as the Knights of the White Camelia (launched in Louisiana in 1867) and the White Brotherhood. At least 10 percent of the black legislators elected during the 1867-1868 constitutional conventions became victims of violence during Reconstruction, including seven who were killed. White Republicans (derided as "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags") and black institutions such as schools and churches-symbols of black autonomy-were also targets for Klan attacks.

By 1870, the Ku Klux Klan had branches in nearly every southern state. Even at its height, the Klan did not boast a well-organized structure or clear leadership. Local Klan members-often wearing masks and dressed in the organization's signature long white robes and hoods-usually carried out their attacks at night, acting on their own but in support of the common goals of defeating Radical Reconstruction and restoring white supremacy in the South. Klan activity flourished particularly in the regions of the South where blacks were a minority or a small majority of the population, and was relatively limited in others. Among the most notorious zones of Klan activity was South Carolina, where in January 1871 500 masked men attacked the Union county jail and lynched eight black prisoners.

The Ku Klux Klan and the End of Reconstruction

Though Democratic leaders would later attribute Ku Klux Klan violence to poorer southern whites, the organization's membership crossed class lines, from small farmers and laborers to planters, lawyers, merchants, physicians and ministers. In the regions where most Klan activity took place, local law enforcement officials either belonged to the Klan or declined to take action against it, and even those who arrested accused Klansmen found it difficult to find witnesses willing to testify against them. Other leading white citizens in the South declined to speak out against the group's actions, giving them tacit approval. After 1870, Republican state governments in the South turned to Congress for help, resulting in the passage of three Enforcement Acts, the strongest of which was the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.

For the first time, the Ku Klux Klan Act designated certain crimes committed by individuals as federal offenses, including conspiracies to deprive citizens of the right to hold office, serve on juries and enjoy the equal protection of the law. The act authorized the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and arrest accused individuals without charge, and to send federal forces to suppress Klan violence. This expansion of federal authority-which Ulysses S. Grant promptly used in 1871 to crush Klan activity in South Carolina and other areas of the South-outraged Democrats and even alarmed many Republicans. From the early 1870s onward, white supremacy gradually reasserted its hold on the South as support for Reconstruction waned; by the end of 1876, the entire South was under Democratic control once again.

Revival of the Ku Klux Klan

In 1915, white Protestant nativists organized a revival of the Ku Klux Klan near Atlanta, Georgia, inspired by their romantic view of the Old South as well as Thomas Dixon's 1905 book "The Clansman" and D.W. Griffith's 1915 film "Birth of a Nation." This second generation of the Klan was not only anti-black but also took a stand against Roman Catholics, Jews, foreigners and organized labor. It was fueled by growing hostility to the surge in immigration that America experienced in the early 20th century along with fears of communist revolution akin to the Bolshevik triumph in Russia in 1917. The organization took as its symbol a burning cross and held rallies, parades and marches around the country. At its peak in the 1920s, Klan membership exceeded 4 million people nationwide.
READ MORE: How 'The Birth of a Nation' Revived the Ku Klux Klan
The Great Depression in the 1930s depleted the Klan's membership ranks, and the organization temporarily disbanded in 1944. The civil rights movement of the 1960s saw a surge of local Klan activity across the South, including the bombings, beatings and shootings of black and white activists. These actions, carried out in secret but apparently the work of local Klansmen, outraged the nation and helped win support for the civil rights cause. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson delivered a speech publicly condemning the Klan and announcing the arrest of four Klansmen in connection with the murder of a white female civil rights worker in Alabama. The cases of Klan-related violence became more isolated in the decades to come, though fragmented groups became aligned with neo-Nazi or other right-wing extremist organizations from the 1970s onward. In the early 1990s, the Klan was estimated to have between 6,000 and 10,000 active members, mostly in the Deep South.
See America's First Memorial to its 4,400 Lynching Victims

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Founding of the Ku Klux Klan Ku Klux Klan Violence in the South The Ku Klux Klan and the End of Reconstruction Revival of the Ku Klux Klan Founded in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party's Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks.

# data[].attributes.body
Definition; a member of a gang of violent criminals."gangsters threatened to kill him if he did not cooperate in the theft"

Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who attained fame during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit. His seven-year reign as crime boss ended when he was 33 years old.

# data[].attributes.body
The banning of product, transport and sale of intoxicating liquors.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution-which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors-ushered in a period in American history known as Prohibition. Prohibition was ratified by the states on January 16, 1919 and officially went into effect on January 17, 1920, with the passage of the Volstead Act. Despite the new legislation, Prohibition was difficult to enforce. The increase of the illegal production and sale of liquor (known as "bootlegging"), the proliferation of speakeasies (illegal drinking spots) and the accompanying rise in gang violence and other crimes led to waning support for Prohibition by the end of the 1920s. In early 1933, Congress adopted a resolution proposing a 21st Amendment to the Constitution that would repeal the 18th. The 21st Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933, ending Prohibition.

Origins of Prohibition

In the 1820s and '30s, a wave of religious revivalism swept the United States, leading to increased calls for temperance, as well as other "perfectionist" movements such as the abolitionist movement to end slavery. In 1838, the state of Massachusetts passed a temperance law banning the sale of spirits in less than 15-gallon quantities; though the law was repealed two years later, it set a precedent for such legislation. Maine passed the first state prohibition laws in 1846, followed by a stricter law in 1851. A number of other states had followed suit by the time the Civil War began in 1861.

Did you know? In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated the incumbent President Herbert Hoover, who once called Prohibition "the great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far reaching in purpose." Some say FDR celebrated the repeal of Prohibition by enjoying a dirty martini, his preferred drink.

By the turn of the century, temperance societies were a common fixture in communities across the United States. Women played a strong role in the temperance movement, as alcohol was seen as a destructive force in families and marriages. In 1906, a new wave of attacks began on the sale of liquor, led by the Anti-Saloon League (established in 1893) and driven by a reaction to urban growth, as well as the rise of evangelical Protestantism and its view of saloon culture as corrupt and ungodly. In addition, many factory owners supported prohibition in their desire to prevent accidents and increase the efficiency of their workers in an era of increased industrial production and extended working hours.

READ MORE: See All the Crafty Ways Americans Hid Alcohol During Prohibition

Passage of the Prohibition Amendment

In 1917, after the United States entered World War I, President Woodrow Wilson instituted a temporary wartime prohibition in order to save grain for producing food. That same year, Congress submitted the 18th Amendment, which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors, for state ratification. Though Congress had stipulated a seven-year time limit for the process, the amendment received the support of the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states in just 11 months.

Ratified on January 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment went into effect a year later, by which time no fewer than 33 states had already enacted their own prohibition legislation. In October 1919, Congress put forth the National Prohibition Act, which provided guidelines for the federal enforcement of Prohibition. Championed by Representative Andrew Volstead of Minnesota, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, the legislation was more commonly known as the Volstead Act.

Enforcement of Prohibition

Both federal and local government struggled to enforce Prohibition over the course of the 1920s. Enforcement was initially assigned to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and was later transferred to the Justice Department and the Bureau of Prohibition, or Prohibition Bureau. In general, Prohibition was enforced much more strongly in areas where the population was sympathetic to the legislation-mainly rural areas and small towns-and much more loosely in urban areas. Despite very early signs of success, including a decline in arrests for drunkenness and a reported 30 percent drop in alcohol consumption, those who wanted to keep drinking found ever-more inventive ways to do it. The illegal manufacturing and sale of liquor (known as "bootlegging") went on throughout the decade, along with the operation of " speakeasies " (stores or nightclubs selling alcohol), the smuggling of alcohol across state lines and the informal production of liquor ("moonshine" or "bathtub gin") in private homes.

In addition, the Prohibition era encouraged the rise of criminal activity associated with bootlegging. The most notorious example was the Chicago gangster Al Capone, who earned a staggering $60 million annually from bootleg operations and speakeasies. Such illegal operations fueled a corresponding rise in gang violence, including the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago in 1929, in which several men dressed as policemen (and believed to be have associated with Capone) shot and killed a group of men in an enemy gang.

Prohibition Comes to an End

The high price of bootleg liquor meant that the nation's working class and poor were far more restricted during Prohibition than middle or upper class Americans. Even as costs for law enforcement, jails and prisons spiraled upward, support for Prohibition was waning by the end of the 1920s. In addition, fundamentalist and nativist forces had gained more control over the temperance movement, alienating its more moderate members.

With the country mired in the Great Depression by 1932, creating jobs and revenue by legalizing the liquor industry had an undeniable appeal. Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for president that year on a platform calling for Prohibition's repeal, and easily won victory over the incumbent President Herbert Hoover. FDR's victory meant the end for Prohibition, and in February 1933 Congress adopted a resolution proposing a 21st Amendment to the Constitution that would repeal the 18th. The amendment was submitted to the states, and in December 1933 Utah provided the 36th and final necessary vote for ratification. Though a few states continued to prohibit alcohol after Prohibition's end, all had abandoned the ban by 1966.

Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault. Start your free trial today.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution-which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors-ushered in a period in American history known as Prohibition. Prohibition was ratified by the states on January 16, 1919 and officially went into effect on January 17, 1920, with the passage of the Volstead Act.

# data[].attributes.body
"...a young woman, especially one who, during the 1920s, behaved and dressed in a boldly unconventional manner...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
More than any other illustrator, John Held Jr.'s comic art captured the style and exuberant tenor of the "Decade that Roared."

The battle for suffrage was finally over. After a 72-year struggle, women had won the precious right to vote. The generations of suffragists that had fought for so long proudly entered the political world. Carrie Chapman Catt carried the struggle into voting awareness with the founding of the League of Women Voters. Alice Paul vowed to fight until an Equal Rights Amendment was added to the Constitution. Margaret Sanger declared that female independence could be accomplished only with proper birth control methods. To their dismay, the daughters of this generation seemed uninterested in these grand causes. As the 1920s roared along, many young women of the age wanted to have fun.

Life of the Flappers

Flappers were northern, urban, single, young, middle-class women. Many held steady jobs in the changing American economy. The clerking jobs that blossomed in the Gilded Age were more numerous than ever. Increasing phone usage required more and more operators. The consumer-oriented economy of the 1920s saw a burgeoning number of department stores. Women were needed on the sales floor to relate to the most precious customers - other women. But the flapper was not all work and no play.

By night, flappers engaged in the active city nightlife. They frequented jazz clubs and vaudeville shows. Speakeasies were a common destination, as the new woman of the twenties adopted the same carefree attitude toward prohibition as her male counterpart. Ironically, more young women consumed alcohol in the decade it was illegal than ever before. Smoking, another activity previously reserved for men, became popular among flappers. With the political field leveled by the Nineteenth Amendment, women sought to eliminate social double standards. Consequently, the flapper was less hesitant to experiment sexually than previous generations. Sigmund Freud's declaration that the libido was one of the most natural of human needs seemed to give the green light to explore.

The Flapper Look

The flapper had an unmistakable look. The long locks of Victorian women lay on the floors of beauty parlors as young women cut their hair to shoulder length. Hemlines of dresses rose dramatically to the knee. The cosmetics industry flowered as women used make-up in large numbers. Flappers bound their chests and wore high heels. Clara Bow, Hollywood's "It" Girl, captured the flapper image for the nation to see.

Many women celebrated the age of the flapper as a female declaration of independence. Experimentation with new looks, jobs, and lifestyles seemed liberating compared with the socially silenced woman in the Victorian Age. The flappers chose activities to please themselves, not a father or husband. But critics were quick to elucidate the shortcomings of flapperism. The political agenda embraced by the previous generation was largely ignored until the feminist revival of the 1960s. Many wondered if flappers were expressing themselves or acting like men. Smoking, drinking, and sexual experimentation were characteristic of the modern young woman. Short hair and bound chests added to the effect. One thing was certain: Despite the potential political and social gains or losses, the flappers of the 1920s sure managed to have a good time.

John Held, Jr.
Check out this biographical sketch of John Held, Jr., the young artist of the 1920s whose style defined the "Roaring Twenties" and immortalized the flapper look. Lots of illustrations, of course.

Report broken link

Women wearing makeup and not wearing stockings? The flappers' dress revolution was more shocking in its day than the bra-burning of the 1960's!
Learn More...

Report broken link

If you like our content, please share it on social media!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Horrible Histories Song about the women working in WWII. Rights to BBC. Original video from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spQ_5tPPny4. Used for a WWII history project.

# data[].attributes.body
- The rights of women was a course worth fighting for. After protests and appeals that had proven the 'worst' of their gender, WW2 commenced. With all the men at war, the economy, trade and working system had fallen without the male employees- women had then taken the rails and had proven their worth.

- 1920, women were given the right to vote.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Exam board content from BBC Bitesize for students in England, Northern Ireland or Wales. Choose the exam specification that matches the one you study.

# data[].attributes.body
The Jazz Age was a cultural movement that took place in America during the 1920's (also known as "the Roaring Twenties") from which both jazz music and dance emerged. This movement coincided with both the equally phenomenal introduction of mainstream radio and the conclusion of World War I. Although the era ended as the Great Depression victimized America in the 1930's, jazz has lived on in American pop culture.

# data[].attributes.body
-the deflationary recession (lack of money) after WW1 (1929-1939

- U.S. suffered greatly

# data[].attributes.body
In the 1920s, not many experienced prosperity- or, rather, it wasn't shared fairly. Farmers, homeless, african-americans ("Blacks") and industrial workers didn't have the luxury of prosperity. Instead, the rich or people how were pale-skinned and able to afford a meal were 'prosperous'.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
BBC - GCSE Bitesize: How did this prosperity affect American society?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
BBC Wales providing an online resource of revision help for GCSE students.