. Dana ZwolinskiThe BeginningEducationThis decade was full of changes in the education area. The firstelementary school was formed by John Dewey. Looking out for man-kind, somepeople encouraged the schooling and educating of Afro-Americans, but theSouth, and parts of the North still remained under their policy of racialsegregation.
Annual teachers pay was around $325. Mary McLeod Bethunestarted the first school for Negro girls. High schools were popular, andjunior high schools were in the near future. Home LifeIn 1925, a law was passed requiring all pasteurized milk plants toobtain a license from the Department and to abide by minimum standards.
The average life expectancies of people were fairly low. Men’s lifeexpectancies were about 53. 6 years, while women’s were around 54. 6 years. There were 106,521,537 people living in the United States at this time.
Ofthem, 2,132,000 were unemployed, and the unemployment rate was at 5. 2%. The illiteracy rate reached a low of 6% of the United States population. ClothesIn the 1920s, women loved short skirts and dropped waistlines. Inthe earlier years of the decade, the skirt fell 7-10″ below the knee.
Theskirts and dresses of the time were exceptionally detailed. Even the mostinexpensive chain-store lines were greatly meticulous. Bobbed haircutswere very popular in the time, and were popularized by Irene Castle, justafter World War I. Silk, cotton, linen, and wool were big fabrics beingused in the clothing industry at this time. Clothes were being cut tocling tighter on a woman’s body, and the term “flapper” came about in thisera. FoodThe 1920s was a remarkable time for the food industry.
Foreign food,such as Chinese food, was very popular at the time. It was also the timeof the Prohibition, where there was no selling, manufacturing,transporting, possession, or consumption of alcoholic beverages. Some ofthe foods of the time were as follows: Jell-O, oatmeal, Swiss steak, hash,chiffon pies, Caesar salad, and Cobb, salad. JobThe 1920s was the end of the Great War. Following this was a time ofspending, cheap cars, and new consumer products. Then in 1929 came thecrash.
The stock market crashed, and the Great Depression followed formany reasons. There was about a 25% unemployment rate in the United Statesduring the 1920s. The average annual earnings were $1368. Teachers werebeing paid about $970. Dating”Marriage is one aspect of sexual life in which there was continuitybetween generations.
Young and unmarried women on the whole by the 1910sand 1920s preferred to participate in a consumer-oriented, heterosocial (ormixed-sex) culture situated in the public sphere and saturated withheterosexuality, but they tended to settle into family life upon marriage,much as earlier generations had. Unlike their predecessors, however, thesewomen could flirt and date in the world of cheap amusements, which cateredto sensual pleasures and small pocketbooks. Meanwhile, the femalesolidarity of nineteenth- and twentieth-century women’s reform movements,clubs, and colleges-the late Victorian new woman’s realm of activity-declined in popularity(http://www. people. memphis.
edu/~kenichls/2602NewWoman1920s. html). “Health and LongevityLaws are passed requiring all pasteurized milk plants to acquire alicense from the Department and to abide by minimum standards. In 1922,Morgan County, Illinois, established the first full-time county healthdepartment. SummaryThrough the years, as time went on, prices rose due to higher costsof manufacturing.
Cars back in the 1920s cost on average, $2550, now, mostcars cost around $20,000. You could buy a loaf of bread in 1924 for $0. 10,but now a loaf costs about $1. 89. ConclusionI would rather live in the 1970s-1980s because it was a time whenfashion was awesome, prices were still fairly low, life expectancy waspretty high, and you could get along with just about eeverybody.
