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The World Since 1914

Part 1​—1920-1928 The Roaring Twenties—​Lull Before a Storm

In 1983 Awake! published three articles dealing with World War I. We now undertake to cover in a series of eight articles some of the major events that have occurred since that war. These events have affected everyone alive, and they are of greater significance than many of us might imagine. We are sure you will enjoy reading THE WORLD SINCE 1914, part one of which follows.

MOST people “did not realize they were witnessing the turning point in modern history,” says historian Hans Kohn about the effect of the first total war in mankind’s history, World War I. He explains that even after the war was over, “few were aware of the profound revolution that had taken place in the minds of peoples all over the globe, or that this revolution would express itself one day soon in the reordering of national and international society.” And why should they be? After all, the 1910’s appeared to be ending on such a positive note.

Had there not been a formal end to the war with the signing in 1919 of the Treaty of Versailles at the Paris Peace Conference? Had this conference not provided for the establishment of a League of Nations designed to unite the world in peace? Was not its formal inauguration on January 16, 1920, reason enough to believe that another world war could now be avoided?

The Roaring Twenties​—An Appropriate Name

The carefree world of the Gay Nineties (the name given the 1890’s) was destroyed at the latest by the global nightmare that started in 1914. Now that the war was over, disillusioned people wanted to forget it as soon as possible. Particularly in Europe, the situation was marked by political confusion and economic chaos. Historian R. B. Gruver says that “many of the young saw themselves as survivors of a purposeless war to which they had been condemned by their elders. Because of this perspective, they began to regard the values of the older generation as highly suspect. . . . They became preoccupied with material success and physical comfort.”

And in the United States? “Most Americans,” says Gruver, “seemed to believe that the value of goods and property would increase indefinitely and that the individual who bought something today could sell it tomorrow at a profit. . . . Speculation in stocks became widespread [as] barbers, stenographers, and elevator boys seized their opportunity to make money in an expanding economy.”

On both sides of the Atlantic, the happy-go-lucky, materialistic spirit of the period was mirrored in its morals and attitudes, as well as in its music, of which Gruver says: “The popular music of the 1920s also expressed a rejection of tradition and a new emphasis on spontaneity, individualism, and sensuality.” Jazz, the United States’ contribution to 20th-century music, now came of age. It was a “music that represented a generation’s disdain for restraint and respectability.” This rejection of long-accepted standards of conduct and values caused author F. Scott Fitzgerald to refer to the 1920’s as the Jazz Age. And as jazz rapidly gained worldwide acceptance, so did the pleasure-seeking attitude it represented.

There may be disagreement about who it was that first dubbed this postwar period the Roaring Twenties. But there can be little disagreement about the appropriateness of the name. One definition of “roaring” is: “Marked by prosperity . . . esp[ecially] of a temporary nature.” That certainly fits the 1920’s. They were years marked by prosperity and were characterized by an uninhibited search for pleasure, riches, and gratification. Long before the decade was over, however, danger signals indicated that the “good times” were of only temporary nature.

Gathering Clouds of Political Tension

Throughout the 1920’s the League of Nations went about its delicate task of preserving peace. This was extremely difficult. Gerhard Schulz, Professor of Modern History at Germany’s University of Tübingen, explains: “The initial political, moral and economic burdens of peace were aggravated by the fact that nationalism had survived the world war, in fact had even been rekindled.” In Italy nationalism was rekindled in the form of fascism under Benito Mussolini, whereas in Japan it was in the form of increased military influence. In China communism was making inroads, after having consolidated its power in Russia following the October 1917 revolution. All this nationalism worked contrary to the interests of the League of Nations.

Meanwhile, in Germany the National Socialists, later to become known by the originally taunting nickname “Nazis,” were gaining support. In 1928 their flamboyant leader, Adolf Hitler, spoke out for the rekindling of nationalism when he declared: “Our people must first of all be liberated from the hopeless confusion of internationalism, and be deliberately and systematically trained in fanatical nationalism. . . . There is only one right in the world, and this right lies in one’s own strength.”

In the United States nationalism appeared in the form of isolationism. More and more Americans were in favor of letting Europe stew in its own juice. They were also opposed to membership in “the evil thing with a holy name,” as some called the League of Nations. Despite President Wilson’s pleas, Congress bowed to the prevalent spirit of the times and voted in 1920 against U.S. membership.

The intrinsic dangers hidden in these gathering clouds of political tension were magnified by the fact that they went largely unnoticed, or they were simply ignored. Nevertheless, they were building the basis for a storm more terrifying and destructive than any ever experienced before.

Stormy Winds of Social Change

The threatening political clouds were accompanied by stormy winds of social change. Attitudes and standards changed as people were caught up in a consumer market hitherto unknown. For the first time, modern conveniences like automobiles, radios, and refrigerators could be produced in sufficient quantities to supply everyone. To promote their sale the advertising industry rapidly developed into a billion-dollar business. It introduced easy credit and installment-plan buying and strove to convince people to buy things they possibly did not need, perhaps did not even want, and to do so with money they probably did not have.a In the radio it saw a powerful medium for achieving its goals, and it used it to the full.

All the newfangled contraptions now available, although saving time and energy, were not always appreciated; neither were the lazy, easygoing, spoiled tendencies that some people felt they fostered. One elderly lady, for example, was highly distressed upon discovering sliced bread at her grocery store for the first time. Shaking her head in disbelief, she muttered: “When people get too lazy to cut their own bread, you really wonder what the world is coming to.” What would she think today?

But the situation was actually more serious than this. The ready availability of products that the advertising world made so appealing caused people’s attention to shift slowly away from spiritual needs and values and to focus more upon material things. Organized religion had long failed to supply needed spiritual guidance and was helpless in preventing this drift away from God. An increasing number of people began promoting human theories and philosophies. For example, as Gruver tells us, Sigmund Freud’s “new science of psychoanalysis fascinated a generation that had become supremely interested in itself and in its own experiences.”

Darwin’s theory of evolution also helped erode belief in God and the Bible. Its effects upon world history should not be underestimated, as the book Europa zwischen den Kriegen (Europe Between the Wars) tells us. It calls Hitler a “genuine social Darwinist” who firmly believed that survival of the fittest is a law of nature. “His concept of war,” explains its author, Hermann Graml, was that it “was a completely normal form of national intercourse necessary for strengthening ones own people, and which the true statesman would repeatedly try to bring about himself.”

Of course, not everyone allowed the stormy winds of social change to weaken their faith in God and his Word. Some took advantage of new technology, for example the radio, to help defend their Creator. This was in sharp contrast with those who were using the radio waves solely in the pursuit of selfish commercial interests. In 1924 a group of Christians associated with the Watch Tower Society inaugurated WBBR, New York City’s first noncommercial radio station. They continued to use it until 1957, at which time it was sold, after having served its purpose and the interests of God’s Kingdom for over three decades.

The Roaring Twenties and “a Roaring Lion”

“Lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, . . . lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power.” A description of the Roaring Twenties? Yes, although the Christian apostle Paul wrote these words almost two thousand years ago. That the human weaknesses mentioned here became more pronounced in the money-oriented, pleasure-mad, spiritually weak society of the Roaring Twenties is no coincidence. It is an unmistakable indication that the world had moved into the period of time called by Paul “the last days.” It also indicates that “the Devil . . . like a roaring lion” was stepping up his activity to turn people away from their Creator.​—2 Timothy 3:1-5; 1 Peter 5:8.

To counteract this, Christians associated with the Watch Tower Society began stepping up their own activity in defense of true religion. In 1922 they intensified an advertising campaign designed to publicize God’s incoming Kingdom. In 1927, to facilitate the printing of Bible literature, they constructed their own factory in Brooklyn. The number of “advertisers” was still small, yet during 1928, as the Roaring Twenties were reaching their end, 44,080 of them were preaching God’s Kingdom in 32 countries around the world. The “roaring lion” was powerless to prevent this.

Their message was everywhere the same: the folly of placing one’s trust in materialism, human theories, or political schemes, like the League of Nations, instead of in God’s Kingdom. The Watch Tower of July 15, 1926, boldly declared the League of Nations to be against God, saying: “Its approval by the clergymen, as a substitute for Messiah’s kingdom, has caused gross darkness to settle down upon the peoples of the world. . . . The Lord foretold its birth, its short existence, and its everlasting end.​—Revelation 17:10, 11; Isaiah 8:9, 10.”

These Christians were convinced that the storm of God’s judgment day was fast approaching. But first, the Roaring Twenties were destined to end with another kind of storm, a financial storm, one that would strike with unexpected suddenness. It in turn would pave the way for a political storm that would give new meaning to the word “war.” Read part two of this series in the next Awake!: “Worldwide Depression and On to War Again.”

[Footnotes]

[Box on page 14]

Other Items That Made the News

1921​—Insulin for treating sugar diabetes is discovered

Ireland divided into Irish Free State and Northern Ireland

1923​—Over a hundred thousand killed in Tokyo earthquake

1924​—Ten millionth Ford rolls from Detroit assembly line; its Model T selling for less than $300, U.S.

Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaître formulates big bang theory of expanding universe

First Hollywood talkies produced

1928​—Penicillin discovered

Walt Disney’s first Mickey Mouse film

Kingsford Smith and companions make first trans-Pacific flight

[Picture on page 13]

Gaiety and wild antics characterized the Roaring Twenties

[Credit Line]

The Bettmann Archive

[Picture on page 15]

J. F. Rutherford, president of the Watch Tower Society, used the radio from 1922 onward to announce God’s Kingdom