The 18th and 19th amendments both had a huge impact on American life in the 1920s. the 1920s was a decade of expanding and exploring new boundaries for people living in the city, with the 18th amendment came prohibition which banned all alcohol manufacturing and selling of it. This heavily impacted some Americans as alcohol was important to many especially but, there were some that agreed with this amendment. This lead to many people selling alcoholic illegally and giving rise to crime lords such as al Capone. With the introduction of the 19th amendment it gave women the right to vote, it is important to note that during this time many women weren’t considered to be eligible to do such things by many Americans. So, with the introduction of this came a new era of life and controversy such as the social roles women played in society and a women’s role in marriage to not have political opinions.
With the red scare or also known as the communist scare came the Cold War. The cold was was a time of great fear for the American people as they quickly turned against themselves. Organizations such as HUAC were created to try and find communists living among American people and made people lose their jobs and worse if they failed to provide the correct answer they wanted. With the red scare as well came the fear of nuclear weapons as the Soviet Union and America rushed to produce better nuclear arms. In all, this was a time of great fear and stress on the American people.
With Henry Fords influence on Car ownership many families now found themselves living in a new era of technology and transportation. Henry Ford’s mass production of cars across America gave it a stronger economy as more people spent money and more people were working because of the factory jobs to produce the cars.
There was many changes in culture and immigration that was seen during this time. The most notable was changes in gender roles,race,evolution vs. religion, and the banning of alcohol. All of these lead to tons of controversy amongst the American people and all made their mark in history. For example gender roles and race during this time marked the start of the progress we see today in equality. Another example is the evolution vs. religion which was brought to court in which many religious households opposed the teaching of evolution in schools.
Colonial courts were used to control local affairs and to protect individual freedoms. The Great Awakening was more influencial for common people who began to demand more political equality.
