The Culture of the 1920s
The Roaring Twenties started in North America and spread to Europe as the effects of World War I diminished. In Europe, the years following the First World War (1919-1923) were marked by a deep recession. Europe spent these years in rebuilding and coming to terms with the vast human cost of the conflict. Unlike in the aftermath of World War II, the United States did little to try to rebuild Europe. Instead, it took an increasingly isolationist stance (Answers, 2006).
In Canada, an important economic transformation accelerated as Britain was wholly supplanted by the United States as Canada's main economic partner. By the middle of the decade, economic development started to soar in Europe and the Roaring Twenties broke out in Germany, Britain and France, where the second half of this decade was termed "The Golden Twenties". In France and Canada, they were also called the "Crazy Years" (années folles) (Answers, 2006).
The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of discontinuity associated with modernity, and a break with traditions. A new and different era was felt to be coming up. Everything seemed to be feasible through modern technology; the limits that ecology and sustainability pose to economic and technological growth were yet unknown. Technologies, such as trains, cars and mass communication by radio and telephone, spread the idea of modernity to a large part of the population. Formal decorative frills were shed in favor of practicality, in architecture as well as in daily life. At the same time, amusement, fun and lightness were cultivated in jazz and dancing, in defiance of the horrors of World War I, which were still present in people's minds. The period is often called the "Jazz Age" (Answers, ...