You Say You Want a Revolution

As I mentioned in a previous post, America followed Europe on the path to Modernism, which was hardly unusual.  Historically, America has tended to adapt movements that begun elsewhere, rather than develop movements, and then subsequently transformed those movements for its own cultural context.  The infusion of Modernism into American culture is particularly interesting, given our staunch Puritan heritage.

What we also want to keep in mind here is that America itself was in a particularly favorable position with respect to Europe at the end of World War I.  For one thing, we were late entering the war, so we did not suffer anywhere near the casualties that European armies suffered.  It’s pretty well known, for example, how devastating the war was to the younger generation of Great Britain, and the impact that had upon its literature and art.  Conversely, note how many of the writers we will be looking at are in their twenties during the 1920s.  Our young writers were pretty much intact, and so we had a generation of writers prepared to dramatically and irreversibly alter the American literary landscape.  Furthermore, the war was fought on European soil, not American soil, and so the physical destruction Europe suffered did not occur here.  While Europe had to rebuild, we could build on what we already had and overtake everyone else.  In many ways WW I led to American becoming a world power.

Josephine Baker

When we talk about Modernism in America, we don’t want to think of it as grass roots, widespread movement.  Modernist thinking tended to be the purview of intellectuals, artists and the young.  The so-called common folk had little use for the kinds of abstractions and uncertainties Modernist thought provided.  Given that generally American enjoyed economic prosperity during the 20s, the middle class and working class weren’t in much of a mood for Cultural Revolution. Most importantly, Modernist thinking took hold among the young (though as always, keep in mind that this is a generalization).  Remember, Modernism itself was largely a rejection of stagnant, hypocritical traditional values; the young positioned themselves to replace those who not only had their chance to lead the world, but also led it to destruction.  No surprise, then, that Modernism would take hold among America’s youth, who may not have seen the consequences of war, but certainly knew what it was like to live in a culture governed  by institutional values and thinking.  It’s not a coincidence that it’s in the 1920s that we can begin to identify something we can call “youth culture”—a set of shared values and behaviors. 

Follow this link to read “A Flapper’s Appeal to Parents,” written in 1922.  This article asks for understanding from parents concerned about what parents perceived as the moral decadence of youth.  Take special note how Page, the author, articulates the values of youth in the Modern era. (“The war tore away our spiritual foundations and challenged our faith.”)  A Flapper's Appeal

What energized American culture in the 1920s, then, was the war between the Traditional and the Modern.  Because we were untouched by WW I, and because we were in the midst of economic prosperity and a boom in production, there seemed to be little evidence that Traditional values needed to be displaced.  While we call this time The Roaring Twenties, The Jazz Age, the era of Flaming Youth—all terms that signal the volatility of the time—we also must recognize that Traditional values still held strong.  This was also the time of Prohibition, the Scopes Monkey Trial, a rabid anti-immigration movement (no, we didn’t invent that in the 21^st century), a Red Scare, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.

The fact, then, that Modernism took hold suggests that in America the passion for a new way of thinking had less to do with international politics and more to do with a simmering disillusionment with the Traditionalist status quo.  Certainly, Modernism was nothing more than fashionable and an opportunity for self-indulgence for many.  But it says a great deal that it flourished in a place that on the surface seemed to be doing just fine with the way things were.  The flourishing of Modernism strongly indicates that the surface veneer of calm and prosperity covered an undercurrent of growing disaffection and disdain.