Posted on 12/31/2019 4:12:08 AM PST by Kaslin
It's can be useful and instructive to observe the turning of a decade by looking back on what life was like in America a mere 100 years ago.
On Jan. 2, 1920, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 108.76. Today it is over 28,000 points.
In 1920, the U.S. had become an economic power, which is remarkable considering the bloody "war to end all wars" that ended just two years earlier. Republican presidents shifted their attention from foreign entanglements to economic growth (sound familiar?).
The beginning of the Roaring 20s featured new rights for women, including the right to vote, daring flapper outfits and cigarette smoking. It also included Prohibition, which lead to the rise of Al Capone and the Mafia. People should have been convinced that attempts to regulate human behavior by government fiat only works if the public is willing to obey the law, which in the case of liquor it clearly was not.
The one thing that hasn't changed in the last 100 years -- and for that matter since the first humans walked the Earth -- is human nature. One can change styles of clothing and hair, change modes of transportation, even change politicians, but human nature never changes. Greed, lust and the quest for power are embedded in each of us in every generation.
The impact of the Industrial Revolution found more people living in big cities than on farms for the first time beginning in 1920. That year also launched what we today call the "consumer society." America's total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929.
As the website history.com notes: People from coast to coast bought the same goods (thanks to nationwide advertising and the spread of chain stores), listened to the same music, did the same dances and even used the same slang. Many Americans were uncomfortable with this urban, sometimes racy mass culture, and for many people in the U.S., the 1920s brought more conflict than celebration.
Isn't it the same today? Have we learned nothing? The tension between people with opposing political and social views and religious beliefs has increased these last 100 years because of contemporary social media and the 24/7 news cycle in which revolution sells better than resolution.
Cars, washing machines, new forms of birth control and other creations gave especially women new freedoms. Radio united the nation and phonograph records, which sold 100 million in 1927 alone, created a common culture, even if some older people didn't like the "modern" music.
As with Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley in the 1940s and 50s, some older folks in the 1920s rejected the dance hall lifestyle and what they saw as the vulgarity and depravity of jazz music and the moral erosion they claimed it caused. But for the younger generation, it was a new world in which the future looked bright.
What will America be like in 2120? In 1920 no one could have foreseen a Great Depression, or a second World War, much less the prosperity and cultural changes that would come, or the threat of nuclear annihilation.
The saying that "the more things change, the more they remain the same" has never seemed more accurate and providential.
Happy new decade!
A very good read. Thank you for posting.
The population back in the 1920s was just 106 million - and all legal! An interesting fact I discovered: only 1% of the population owned any stock at the time of the 1929 crash.
Surprised to learn that in the 1920s, immigration quotas did not apply to Mexicans (or Canadians) who were allowed to cross the borders freely to work.
So yeah, pretty much everyone here was here legally.
Indoor plumbing, hot running water, ice for refrigeration were scarce. Electricity, like internal combustion cars and trucks were newfangled inventions. Phones were crank and ask the operator to connect; passenger planes were rare and only for the wealthy. Computers were something in science fiction had there been such a genre. Man landing on the moon nearly impossible to imagine. Weather was what happened when you looked outside; tornadoes, northeasters, hurricanes were things that happened not predicted. and so on.
Men all wore hats and overcoats. My grandfather raised 9 kids and made $45 a week. No medical insurance when he broke both his legs and couldn’t work. The kids did.
My grandfather was 25 in 1920. As he got older his short term memory was gone, but his memories of his younger days was sharp as ever. He told me about life on a farm and how their days went then.
Weather was better understood that we might think.
There is a great book called “Isaac’s Storm” that recounts the 1900 Galveston TX hurricane that was one of the most powerful and deadly storms to hit the US in recorded history.
Isaac was a meteorologist that had just stepped into the role after the previous scandal-plagued guy got tossed out. He realized that the storm was coming but couldn’t convince anyone else what was about to happen.
Great Book, also a good Documentary. The story about the orphange left me in tears.
The 1920’s were a really wild time. My grandmother used to tell me stories. I think she had personally been to every speakeasy within 100 miles of Pittsburgh.
“Isaac was a meteorologist that had just stepped into the role after the previous scandal-plagued guy got tossed out. He realized that the storm was coming but couldn’t convince anyone else what was about to happen.”
Thanks for the details, I was about the post the same regarding Galveston. Back then you looked at the clues you could (cloud type, movement, speed, water temps, wave types, etc.). He had nailed it...but it was tourist season. Who knows, there may be stuff we still could learn from him.
100 years ago we also treated diabetics* with the Ketogenic Diet. Why? Because it worked, or at least worked better than any other available option.
Funny thing is that it’s still the case, but shortly after 1920 Insulin was isolated and there were big bucks to make with it...so out with the old, in with the new!
(the above sarcasm refers to Type 2 Diabetes; Type 1 requires Insulin...to stay alive, it was a lifesaver for them)
Weather was not predictable except in the most general sense - there was naught but ships at sea and weather balloons to get readings beyond what earth-bound instruments could discover. Predictions were more like prophesy and disregarded by most like you said.
Bm
We've a year to get ready to observe the turning of a decade, which will happen at midnight 12/31/2020.
I went through that with the beginning of the 21st century. There was no year zero, so by convention in 1900 no one looked at that as the start of the 20th century. That was considered to begin in 1901. But that all went by the wayside ten years ago. Starting tomorrow everyone will refer to the new decade just begun.
Me, too also...And was met with quizzical or blank faced stares...
We all count 1-10, not 0-9...Unless we’re talking about a media ignoramus (apologies for redundancy)…
In which case, for the ignoramus all that matters is being first to say or write something demonstrably stupid...Truth is irrelevant next to popular “culture” groupthink...
tensions are about the same imho. It's just that the media advertises it for the sake of profit and takes sides.
The masses understood weather better back then. Today, people can go a week without setting foot outside or looking out the window. They rely on the Weather Channel to tell them if they need an umbrella that day.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict weather events. Little ol’ me knows when there’s a storm or flood coming just by paying attention and watching the skies. Too bad the authorities can’t and do nothing but pull lint from their navels instead of sending out alerts and regulating the river a week prior to massive flooding. Like duuuuuuh, if up stream is flooding then what do think down stream will be like in a few days, huh?
Red sky at night, sailors’delight.
Red sky in the morning, sailors’ take warning.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.