The ‘20s: Culture, Consumption, and Crash 133was composed of only light-skinned African-American women. Harlem
indeed flourished for a moment during the 1920s, but soon the Great
Depression fueled race riots that ripped through the area and dismantled the
renaissance. The impact of the art, writings, and music, however remained and
is vibrantly remembered today. Still, the Harlem Renaissance, like so many
other movements, was characterized by White power, especially economic
power, being wielded against the people, Black people in this case.
The Rise of a Consumer’s Culture
A couple looks at each other longingly, as the man with the cigarette blows
smoke rings towards his date. As the circle of smoke gets closer to her, it
morphs into an engagement ring. In the bottom left corner of the frame is
a pack of Lucky Strikes cigarettes, which makes the message clear. If you
smoke Lucky Strikes, you’ll find the man or woman of your dreams and be
headed to the altar. Such was the new era of advertising in the 1920s, the
dawn of America’s consumer culture. The U.S. economy after the Civil War was
a “producer’s” capitalism, meaning that most capital was invested in manufac-
turing that occurred on a large scale and in the “producer” goods sector—
railroads, steel mills, machines, iron foundries, mines, lumber yards, and the
like—namely the “stuff” used to make other factories and machines, items not
purchased by any typical consumer to be sure. This is an essential early stage
in capitalism: creating the “means of production” in order to be able to make
more goods and expand the economy. By the 1920s, the producer’s economy
was well-established as factories, machines, railways, mines and banks were
plentiful and profits were great. Businessmen, however, had a tremendous
amount of capital and needed to find new areas for investment and production
since they had already built all the railroads, factories, and ships America could
use at that time.
So the elite, used to building powerful machines and huge factories, also
found a way to use “soft” power to expand their riches by convincing the
typical American into becoming a consumer, someone whom they would con-
vince to buy the new products being put out by U.S. companies. Americans
had never had enough money or had been encouraged to purchase goods in
quantity. Thrift, saving money and spending it only on necessary things like
food or housing, was the American way, and spending too much money and