POLITICAL CONTEXT

• The 1910-1920 period saw the start of the USA as a world power.
• Approximately 10million immigrants arrived in the USA in the 1900 - 10s
• In the late 1870s, the society for the prevention of cruelty to children persuaded the police department to allow society agents to keep children away from immoral activities, this included the theatre.
• For the first time, more Americans lived in the city than on farms. The nations total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929.
• This economic engine swept Americans into an affluent consumer culture that meant people nationwide saw the same advertisements, bought the same goods, listened to the same music and did the same dances.
• In the mid 1920s more than 60% of american households had electricity, with this came new machinery that eliminated some of the drudgeries of household work.
• The most important consumer product of the 1920s was the automobile.
• The representation of gangs in the HS is realistic to the time period as the disillusionment felt by ex-soldiers after World War I led to many taking on violent and corrupt lifestyles as they struggled to re-join conventional society.