The 1920's was a period of change and turmoil for the US on all fronts. Suffering from post-war withdrawal and home grown prosperity this decade can be argued as a period of anxiety, intolerance, hedonism, and liberation. While one aspect of the American lifestyle burgeoned with new culture and technology the other spiraled towards isolationism and nativism.
The fear of communism and foreign encroachment on American government and values led to much anxiety and intolerance. The red scare, for example, 'red listed' Hollywood actors and blue collar workers alike, causing employers to shun them. Labor unions and strikes were blamed on communists while traditional fundamentalism was reinforced. This time period also came with the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan which had largely died out by the turn of the century. With this new birth, the list of the hated grew longer, including Jews, modernists, and foreigners. Foreigners were also discriminated by the nativists, who's members grew to include the general US population, causing the creation of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the Immigration Act of 1924 each plugging the flow on the new immigration.
A color poster of the movie The Birth of a Nation
United StatesAlong with this anxiety and intolerance was the new US hedonism and liberation. Restructuring of American morals led to 'hedonism' to the old world values. One piece bathing suits, shorter skirts, and sexual exploration all came along with the youths disillusionment directly caused by the literature of the times and Freudian thinking. The advent of the radio, car, and talking movie also helped spread American culture. Liberation was also benefited by the car allowing youths and women to travel beyond the grasps of husbands and parents allowing for more job availability for women and more freedom for kids.
The age of the 1920's although shunning and discriminating against many new groups of Americans...