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Hunter Berry
APUSH
Mr. Reinking
February 25, 2016
The Roaring 20s
The "Roaring 20's" was an amazing time for the United States. The economy flourished,
and society was changed forever through new technology and availability, as people adapted to
political changes and advancements in the world. The 1920's, while generally being described as
a fully conservative era, was distinctly split between a socially liberal aspect and a politically
conservative aspect, shown through the election of conservative officials, passing of conservative
laws, and the new social trends seen throughout the decade.
Throughout the 1920's, a plethora of conservative officials from all throughout the
country were elected to the state and national governments, and the conservative party grew in
numbers. During the 1920's the people elected three consecutive conservatives, Warren Harding,
Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, to the highest office of the land: the President of the
United States. Under these conservatives, the economy boomed well into the late 1920's, and
America grew in prosperity, power, wealth, and population. The president's brought conservatism
into the White House and governments and used their powers to limit the power of the federal
government, along with reducing taxes and increasing the national income by roughly 8.5%.
And, while conservatives dominated the presidency, they also held Congress for most of the
twenties. In the 1919 election, conservatives won more than 55% of the seats in both chambers
open for reelection, and held a majority in both houses. This trend would continue for years to
come until the 1929 election, and conservatives would have majority of both houses for the same

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period of time. With a majority in both houses of Congress, conservatives were able to push
through many of their plans, like Supreme Court justice nominations, immigration laws, and
numerous other ideals and laws. A lot of these elections and trends of conservatives winning
elections were greatly influenced by people identifying as conservatives increasing in number.
Throughout the entire country, many liberals and independents changed their views, and
realigned to support many conservative ideas. Many American citizens liked what conservative
fiscal policies, like higher tariffs to increase domestic sales, lower taxes so people had more
money to spend, and job protection against foreign immigrants Furthermore, the conservative
ideals were greatly supported by Christians throughout the nation, as well as many in the south
and rural areas of America, which, with the 20's population boom, only helped conservative
numbers.
During the 1920's, a great deal of conservative laws were passed, pertaining to liquor
sales, immigration, and modern science. Starting in many towns and small cities and moving up
into the state and federal government, laws banning the sale of alcohol became very popular.
Nicknamed "Prohibition Laws", these laws prohibited the purchase, selling, consumption, and
transportation of any alcohol substance, enforced by the 18th Amendment. While frequently
broken by the citizens in larger, more urban areas, the laws were respected by many in the rural
towns, and none the less were effective in reducing the amount of alcohol on the streets and in
American houses, and representing the conservative and Christian belief that alcohol negatively
influenced the American society. More conservative laws came in the place of immigration laws.
As many Americans feared their jobs were at risk from floods of immigrants, and disliked the
new religious and political views they brought into the country, conservatives in office pushed
new immigration policies through. For instance, one conservative policy in place was that the

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number of immigrants that could enter America from a certain country was based upon how
many Americans had families in the country. This allowed for countries like Britain
and France, who had similar ideals to America, to have more immigrants enter the country, but
denied many Italian and other smaller European countries much immigration access. This
conservative ideal was strongly supported nationwide as it protected many American's and their
jobs. A third and final conservative law push pertained to modern sciences. As conservative
officials represented a large Christian base, many elected congressmen at both the state and
national levels pushed for laws to be made that prohibited the teaching of things like evolution in
the classroom. Many of these laws were successfully passed, despite resistance, seen in trials like
the Scopes case, where a teacher taught evolution and broke the law. However, the laws
remained, for a while, and protected conservative and Christian ideals based on biblical
teachings in the school.
While the political field was dominated by a conservative base and their ideals were basis
for many laws passed in the era, the "roaring twenties" were a period of social liberalism marked
by sex, drugs, anti-prohibition sentiment, and new liberal social ideals influenced by the stars of
the day. In this decade, the out of wedlock sex rate in the twenties skyrocket, going up as much
as 20% according to some sources. Furthermore, drug abuse became more popular in the 20's, as
antihistamines became easier to access and therefore easier to abuse, and remained the most
abused drug behind alcohol, and was closely followed by new drugs of the age - heroin and
cocaine. And, while drugs and sex were popular in the 1920's so was the abuse of alcohol. While
prohibition laws like the 18th Amendment were in place, many people broke the laws.
Underground bars called "speakeasies" became wildly popular for people, and became citywide
hotspots for people to have a drink and relax with fellow citizens. Additionally, hundreds of

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thousands, even millions of citizens were involved in bootlegging alcohol by creating it in the
domestic liquor factories and illegally importing liquors from Europe and the Caribbean. Many
of these acts were supported and influenced by the big Hollywood stars of the day. When people
saw or heard that their favorite movie actor or TV actress had done cocaine before, or went to the
speakeasy every day after shooting a scene, American citizens hopped onto the bandwagon and
did the same. This was seen in the new flapper scene hit the streets, and the Victorian style
ankle dresses were transformed into thigh high and knee high dresses, completely changing the
fashion of the country. These Hollywood stars, while sometimes being a positive influence on the
society, were for the most part negatively impacting America through an indirect promotion of
out of wedlock sex, drug usage, and alcohol consumption, and greatly enhanced and supported
the social liberalism views of the time.
Throughout the 1920's, America greatly changed and was impacted forever. The
implication of TV and radio allowed for new communications and influences to come by, and
modern sciences, inventions, and political philosophies changed how America would operate to
this day. Conservatives dominated the political field by electing many of their numbers to local,
state, and the federal positions, and passed their laws to bring their ideals to the forefront, while
liberalism ruled the streets and cities socially, creating a new era of drugs, sex, and short dresses.
To this day, we still see the influence of conservative and liberal ideals in the 20's, represented in
tax rates, immigration policies, tv, movies, and so much more.