8.3 The Roaring Twenties

• Although Germany suffered a severe economic downturn during the 1920s (as it struggled to meet the terms set out in the Treaty of Versailles), this decade was a time of great economic prosperity in many other parts of the world, including the USA, Britain, France and Australia.
• Economic prosperity, together with a new hope and optimism brought about by the end of war, resulted in a wide range of social changes and technological advances during this decade – hence the term 'the Roaring Twenties'.
• Automated methods of mass production, using machinery and assembly lines


  Meant that large volumes of cars and a wide range of goods could be produced more quickly and efficiently
• As a result of mass production


  These items were no longer luxury products that could only be bought by the rich
• For the first time since the war, people had regular work and money to spend.
• Advertising campaigns encouraged ordinary people to buy these new labour-saving appliances, with toasters, vacuum cleaners and refrigerators in high demand.
• Electrical appliances in Australia in the 1920s


  • Electric lighting was installed in many homes for the first time, although many did not have power points
  • Vacuum cleaners, fridges and irons became available, but their use did not become widespread until the 1940s
• Cars in Australia in the 1920s

  • Mostly imported from overseas until Ford and General Motors established themselves in Australia in 1925
  • In 1921, there were just under 100 000 cars registered in Australia. By 1939, this had risen to over 560 000
  • By comparison, there were 26 201 400 passenger cars registered in the United States by 1939
• Radio


  Became the first mass broadcasting medium
• The advertising industry grew rapidly as companies began to deliver their sales pitches over the airwaves to families who gathered nightly around the radio.
• Radio also helped bring in the Jazz Age of the 1920s. Originating in black communities in New Orleans around the turn of the century, jazz became an international phenomenon thanks to radio broadcasts.
• Australia's first radio station, using the call-sign 2SB, went to air on 23 November 1923. It was later renamed 2BL then 702 ABC.
• The Hollywood motion-picture industry also emerged during the 1920s. Silent films had been popular for some years, but in 1927 the first 'talking picture' (or 'talkie') was released. The Jazz Singer was the first motion picture to feature synchronised sound and spoken words. It revolutionised the film industry.
• By 1930, over 100 million Americans were going to the movies every week.
• Actors and actresses like Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo and Rudolf Valentino became the first 'movie stars' and were recognised all over the world.
• Fashion in the 1920s

  • Celebrated youth and freedom
  • Women in particular saw changes in the way they could present themselves publicly
  • A boyish 'flapper' style became popular, with daringly short skirts (showing the knees), and waistlines slung low on the hip
  • Women covered their short cropped hair under tight bell-shaped hats
  • Flappers danced, smoked and drank alcohol in public, and went out without chaperones, flaunting their disregard for more traditional codes of behaviour
• This behaviour outraged more conservative elements of Australian society and churches called for a return to traditional family values.
• In many ways, flappers were rebelling against the social expectations that had been placed upon them during the war and shaking off traditional expectations of women that were common at the time.
• During the war the range and variety of jobs available to women had grown. For the first time in the 1920s, many girls leaving high school now expected to work.
• Pay rates for women, however, were still half those of men. Male-dominated trade unions argued that if they supported females, they would be putting the hard-working men of Australia out of work. The government was also generally opposed to the working ambitions of women.
• There was still a common perception that a woman's primary responsibility was to maintain the home and raise children.
• The 1920s may have been a time of prosperity for non-Indigenous Australians, but many Indigenous people suffered hardship and turmoil from government policies of protection and assimilation. This involved the forced segregation of Indigenous Australians on missions and reserves, and the forced removal of children from their families.