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I want to formulate my thoughts on The Roaring 20s because I think it is an interesting period of time with respect to the Great Depression. Also, as of my writing this, we are currently in a neo-roaring 20s era with us currently in the 2020s; so, with respect relevancy I wouldn’t be surprised to discover parallels between the two respective turns of a century. One of if not the most notable thing that happened at the beginning of the 1900s was the first world war. Known at that time as The Great War or The War to End All Wars, WWI contributed to setting the stage for The Roaring 20s. World War 1 lasted from 1914 until 1918 and in the immediate years following the war the world was reeling and seeking to recover and stabilize. 

As the winner of the war America flourished the most after it, but that is in part because of the various cause and effect relationships that took place within society in response to the war. There was a large expansion of government power and industriousness to scale up the country to join the war. Instinctually Americans tend to be more isolationist and with respect to WWI, part of the American government’s preparation for war was propagandizing the citizenry, and cracking down on dissent. 

For America, part of the backdrop of the 1920s is rebellion from the expansion of the federal government’s power, disillusionment with the politicians of the day, grief and mourning, economic inequality, a desire and a push for liberty, and prosperity. Following the war Germany was a pariah state and impoverished. While they were in debt paying for their war crimes and while France, the UK and their allies were recovering, America made off like a bandit. Between selling resources to the allies, investing in our own military and technological capabilities, and only being part of the war for a relatively short period of time, this combination of good fortune despite any social dismay undoubtedly helped make The Roaring 20s, roaring.   

America’s wealth expanded greatly during the 1920s. Culturally America leaned into consumerism and purchased new domestic and consumer goods and converted technologies from weapons manufacturing during the war. Americans expressed themselves through new cultural means like dancing, going to the movies, purchasing cars, enjoying new music, and utilizing credit and margin. Women dressed and behaved more liberally, men got into sports, people would drink alcohol, smoke and otherwise relish in the splendor of economic wealth and prosperity during a time of peace with more and more things to do every day thanks to technology. 

Ultimately it was the decadence of the 1920s that led to the great depression which further exacerbated inequalities amongst the less and unfortunate and the losers of WWI, mainly Germany. This is really all I wanted to get at with respect to the 1920s. It was a difficult decade for me to grasp and understand at first. I knew Americans were wilding out during that time but I wanted to better know what contributed to that behavior. The long and short answer is war. WWI came at a time in history when the world was still developing. Prior to WWI America dealt with western expansionism, our own civil war, and reconstruction. As the world industrialized, globalization proliferated, and people groups continued to quarrel for one reason or another; America’s unity and isolationist instincts kept us preserved. 

By WWI America was militarizing its society with no direct threat of war on our soil, while at the same time selling resources to the allies. Once the war ended and the U.S. came out of it relatively unscathed, not to misrepresent the pain of post war trauma for American soldiers and their families who dealt with conditions like being shell shocked, America didn’t demilitarize or scale back production; instead we repurposed production facilities to make consumer goods. We converted tools of war into household appliances and means for entertainment and leisure. America used the spoils of war to enrich herself and then she used those riches to propagate a war machine that has through the years become what we colloquially refer to as the swamp and or deep state. War literally was the cause and effect of The Roaring 20s; but what implications if any does this have on society and what does this mean for us today?

Apparently war can be good for quite a bit actually. Liberals who endorsed the war are an important part to understanding the social benefits of war. Thinkers of the day during WWI generally thought of war in two camps, either to avoid it and make peace, or to benefit from it. Woodrow Wilson was the president during WWI and he was a progressive. Wilson was the first progressive to become president following America’s civil war; and to his credit he didn’t like war. Both of his terms took place during WWI and for the first half of the war he insisted America stay neutral. That said, in addition to ongoing propaganda and lobbying for war, Wilson also wanted to focus on domestic issues. 

Earlier I mentioned that war consolidates power and for the federal government this can be beneficial particularly if you’re looking for a way to amass more. Progressives in the marxist tradition are critical of war and this way of amassing power as it only benefits capital, denigrates society, and oppresses laborers. American intellectual Randolph Bourne is famous for writing that war is the health of a state, echoing marxist talking points and perspectives. Yet and still during WWI there were progressives who took on an abundance mindset with respect to war and argued that the context of war would lead to conditions that could be ideologically and politically advantageous. 

Despite entering the war towards the end of it and originally not wanting to be part of it at all and running and winning on that stance, Woodrow Wilson effectively prepared and primed the country for war campaigns. From instituting the income tax, to armed neutrality, expanding the army, and then ultimately declaring war on Germany. Wilson didn’t want to spend all of his time on foreign affairs and he wanted to put his energy towards domestic efforts. He didn’t share in the idea that more good could come from war and he wanted to take a diplomatic approach to ending WWI. Ultimately from a reductive standpoint, Wilson who wasn’t ready for war, prepared America to be the military power that it is. Wilson may not have fully subscribed to the abundance theory of war but that’s what he ended up perpetuating knowingly or unknowingly. 

Finally, this makes me consider the current era the world and America is in. I don’t know if there was a psy-op in the White House or the degree to which there was one during Wilson’s administration. Dwight Eisenhower didn’t give his Military Industrial Complex speech until 1961. Is it possible business interests and nation building interests existed in the U.S. prior to WWI? Certainly so. I know there were several factors that contributed to Wilson’s decisions but I wonder how much of what he had to weigh was true and how much was just told to him to get him on board with a larger agenda. We see clues of that kind of influence on modern presidents with issues like WMDs, instigating revolution in Africa and the middle east, seemingly unyielding loyalty to Israel, provocations with Russia, kidnapping a country’s president, and the covering up of particular crimes. Regardless of the will of the citizenry, the American federal government seems to only be capable of some form of neo-conservatism. So, either Wilson missed the mark with his progressive agenda, or tyranny and authoritarianism is the only natural evolution of a federal system.

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