The History of the Twentieth Century

The French know the Roaring Twenties as the "crazy years," when Coco Chanel was the queen of fashion and Dada art was making everyone scratch their heads.

Music has always been a part of theatre, from opera to vaudeville. But in the 1920s, the first true stage musicals appeared.

New York City grew to be the most populous city in the world in the 1920s, as well as home to the world's tallest buildings and the world's champion smart alecks.

In the early twentieth century, France had the world's largest motion picture industry, but it was soon eclipsed by that of the USA, a larger nation where movies were extremely popular. By 1920, 8 out of 10 motion pictures made in the world came from the United States.

The vibrant cultural shifts in 1920s Germany marked a departure from imperial traditions. Soldiers found intimacy through unconventional means, reshaping societal norms around sexuality. The Bauhaus movement revolutionized design and cinematography in the Weimar Republic, influencing future architecture. The themes of 'I Am a Camera' and its adaptations reflect the complexities of Weimar culture amid moral chaos. Lastly, Bertolt Brecht's impactful works underscore the struggles of artists living under political oppression.

Churchill was out of Parliament for a couple of years following the 1922 general election. When he returned, it was as a Conservative and as chancellor of the exchequer in the new Tory government of Stanley Baldwin.

History seemed to teach that the gold standard was the key to prosperity. But the postwar world was a different place. Economist John Maynard Keynes dismissed the gold standard as a "barbarous relic."

The RCA partners settled their dispute, new technologies appeared on the horizon, including television, and the radio series, an ongoing show chronicling the adventures of a fixed cast, became a new form of entertainment.

Radio broadcasts were begun by companies that wanted to sell radios and were offered free of charge. But as the radio craze bloomed, it became apparent that broadcasting was going to have to pay its own way somehow.

From its invention, radio was conceived as a means for wireless two-way communication. Radio telegrams. Radio telephones. But as the technology matured, some in the field saw the potential for radio to become much more.