When I taught American History to college students, I tried to make a case for the revolution of 1920s consumer culture. The changes brought by 1920s consumer culture improved the lives of Americans so drastically, it’s hard to image what life would be like before they became available. It’s why I hypothesize that the 1920s was the first “modern” decade in U.S. history.

Consider some of the things that either became available or much more widespread during the 1920s. Automobiles, radios, and washing machines. Refrigerators, vacuums, and telephones. The number of homes in the United States with electricity roughly doubled during the 1920s.

This was revolutionary. Yet, we regard these inventions as so mundane today, it’s easy to forget when they weren’t found in nearly every home.

That’s why I tried to make the case to students that, if someone magically teleported them back to 1875, they’d be lost as to how to behave and how to accomplish basic tasks. But, teleported back to 1925, they’d have a fighting chance. Things would look quaint and old-fashioned, obviously. The pace of life would seem slow-motion to them. But, if they ended up in a middle-class home in an urban area, they could adjust, given a little time.

What Helped Drive 1920s Consumer Culture?

A few prerequisites existed for this transformation, of course. Many goods from 1920s consumer culture, like electric irons, vacuums, and so forth, needed electricity. That required connecting wires to homes. One consequence was that electricity was common in urban areas but much rarer in rural ones.

The reason is simple. Stringing a power line to a farmhouse three miles from the last farmhouse was ridiculously expensive for a company to do. The return on their expense from that one farmhouse in electricity consumption wouldn’t be worth it. So, rural areas lagged behind urban ones in access to this critical input. This is also why the 1936 Rural Electrification Act remains one of the most underappreciated acts of Congress in U.S. history. It brought electricity to millions who would never have had access to it otherwise.

People also needed what we call disposable income. They had to have money to buy things after their basic needs were met. Some people in the 1920s had the income. For people in urban areas with professional jobs, the 1920s were a good time, economically speaking. These are also the people most likely to have access to electricity.

An important caveat, however. Although we call the 1920s the “Roaring Twenties,” they didn’t roar for everyone, or even for most. Wages for factory workers weren’t roaring. Farmers, who were still half the population in the 1920s, were in a depression after 1922 or so. African Americans in the South were held down by racism and lack of opportunity. So, we can easily go too far and think the 1920s were great times for everyone. They weren’t. Not everyone was partying with Jay Gatsby. But the 1920s were good times for some—say, 20% or so of the population.

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Another Revolution

So, electricity was important. Many consumer items wouldn’t work without it. So was disposable income. But they weren’t the only things. For the people who sold irons, vacuums, and so forth, they had to convince consumers to buy things they’d never owned before. This can be tougher than it sounds. We’ve all been there, right? We know our lives would probably be easier if we used something new, but we get scared away by change and the learning curve involved in adopting a new technology.

Enter advertising. This is the decade when advertising came into its own—people who specialized in convincing others to buy things they didn’t need. And, thanks to the popularity of the radio, advertisers had a wonderful tool to help them.

The 1920s, therefore, is when companies could really advertise items nationwide. The U.S. railroad network was developed enough that goods could reach almost anywhere. This had several interesting consequences. National culture became a little more homogeneous because of people nationwide hearing the same things on the radio. It also allowed for national brands and helped pave the way for the consumer society that was to come.

How Did 1920s Consumer Culture Change Lives?

This was the real revolution of the 1920s, it seems to me. The washing machine was a giant step forward for (mostly) women. Prior to this invention, women usually had a washing day. It got that name because washing clothes by hand took up a good portion of the day. It was also strenuous work. Imagine the joy of a housewife or domestic servant loading clothes into a machine for the first time!

Likewise with refrigerators. Without one, it was hard to keep food from spoiling, especially in the middle of the year. Food that we store for several days and eat later had to be consumed on the spot. This meant few leftovers, which meant that food preparation took a much larger portion of the day then it does at present because people (again, often wives or domestic servants) had to make every meal fresh. The refrigerator might be the most underappreciated convenience ever devised.

I could go on like this for a number of items. Telephones—think of life before you could speak instantly with someone miles away. The telegraph had been around for decades by the 1920s, but wasn’t really proper for conversations, and people didn’t have telegraphs in their homes, generally speaking.

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Continuing On

When it came to electricity, not only did it power devices, it lit homes. People without electricity had a few options for artificial light, but they were quite inferior. Candles worked, but their light is rather weak. Some homes had illumination by various types of gas. This worked as well, but proved quite dangerous, either because of the occasional explosion or because people forgot to turn off the gas when they went to bed. Flipping a switch to turn on electric lights was so much better. The light was bright and the danger minimal.

By the end of the 1920s, about one in ten Americans had a refrigerator. About one in five had a washing machine, one in four a vacuum cleaner, and two in five a telephone. Roughly two-thirds had electricity. (These numbers also back up my earlier statement about the 1920s. Many people didn’t partake in the prosperity, but a fraction did. And for that fraction, life got better in a number of ways.)

A Major Driver

One aspect of 1920s consumer culture overshadowed the rest, both in terms of impact on lives and popularity, and that was automobiles. Automobiles were so important, in fact, I’ve decided to give them their own post. So, please, continue on to learn about automobiles in the 1920s.

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