Dewey and the Roaring 20s

Dewey (p. 115) lamented that "The creation of political unity has also promoted social and intellectual uniformity, a standardization favorable to mediocrity. Opinion has been regimented as well as outward behavior. The temper and flavor of the pioneer have evaporated with extraordinary rapidity." He noted that half of the population don't bother to vote, and that people are much more interested in "easy and cheap"amusements than they are in serious dialog about the future of democracy.

Looking back at the 1920s from our current perspective, it was a revolutionary time in which old conventions and behaviors were overturned, women voted, and cut their skirts and hair short, and African American music (The Jazz Age) and dance (the Charleston, Suzie Q) entered mainstream culture for the first time. (In 1923 the first all-Black Broadway musical made the Charleston a worldwide sensation). All this rapid change brought about Prohibition and a conservative backlash. Thus, I disagree with Dewey's assessment of his era as uniform and mediocre. Culturally, the 1920s was a highly creative time when the public was reinventing itself, with women and African Americans making their mark in a new amd more public way. People enjoyed new technologies such as the automobile, radio, and movies, and used technology for the rapid transmission of culture around the world.