Political Aspect
...dancing throughout the 1920's
They say that the 1920’s were all about success, prosperity, jazz, and liquor, but behind the wall of the white house, there were many scandals no one knew about. After World War I, the United States’ economy boomed. Americans began to work less hours, earn more money, invest in the stock market, and spend more money than ever on leisure items. With all the jazz clubs and dance-a-thons, dancing was the main form of entertainment.
The aftermath of WWI led the country into “The New Age” which was a time for prosperity and wealth. There was a rapid increase of worker productivity, which was probably from the invigoration rush of “living the high life.” The president was Warren G. Harding, and at the time the highest way of earning money was the all-important stock market, where buyers bought shares of companies that eventually increased in value, and made the shares worth more. Then the buyers would sell them and earn money. The stock market seemed like a perfect way to earn easy money, but sometimes the company’s value went down and the buyers lost money. Harding wanted a “return to normalcy” which was put into action by taxes, tariffs, immigration restriction, and labor rights. Prohibition was also adopted on a national level, which in the 18th Amendment, limits the manufacture and sale of alcohol. Harding was opposed to drinking, dancing, and partying. He was very conservative, and disliked the jazz and dancing of the 1920’s.
After Harding died of a heart attack while in office, Calvin Coolidge took office and make federal tax cuts and high tariffs, which most people favored until the 1930’s. He decided not to run for Presidential office in 1928. Herbert Hoover took office in 1928, which is when the Depression started. The stock market crashed and much of the joyful, excitement of jazz clubs began to lose their popularity.
The rapid increase and decrease of the country’s economy affected the way people expressed their creativity in dance. The inequality between men and women had a slight influence on the social dances of the time. There was still a division among races, but not a clubs. Women gained the right to vote in 1920, which allowed less of a division. It was a time of prosperity and wealth that directly affected the way Americans danced during the “Roaring Twenties”, and by no means will we forget the high spirits that altered dancing in this country forever.