The Italian Community in Greenwich Village in the 1920s

by 

Gritt Hönighaus

Contents

1. Introduction
1.1. The 1920s in the United States
1.2. Greenwich Village in the 1920s
1.3. People in Greenwich Village

2. The Italian Community
2.1. Immigration and Settlement
2.2. Religion
2.3. Education
2.4. Recreation
2.5. Family

3. Conclusion

4. Bibliography

1. Introduction

1.1. The 1920s in the United States

The 1920s - also called the Roaring Twenties - proved to be a decade of triumphant capitalism in the United States. The American economy which was characterized by recession after World War I began to recover. By 1922 it was growing rapidly and prospering. New industries like the car industry stimulated other industries like rubber, oil and steel production and the construction of new highways. Besides, the mass production of cars brought hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Technological innovations like the assembly line increased the productivity by more than 40 per cent. The proportion of women working outside home went up, too. There was a need for secretaries, typists and filing clerks, which were new women′s jobs. Real wages increased dramatically.

This rapid process of modernization took place without governmental intervention. American politics went back to a tradition of the late 19th century, namely the faith in a strong economy with a weak state. Warren G. Harding′s presidency which was marked by bribery scandals was followed by President Calvin Coolidge whose motto was "The business of America is business."

The 1920s were a bad time for organized labor. Union membership went down because the managements of the factories discouraged its growth by intimidation and brutal violence.
In summary one can say it was a time of severe hardship and repression for working-class men and women but a time of prosperity for the middle and upper classes.

A series of laws passed had imposed increasingly severe restrictions on immigration. The first so-called Quota Law had been passed in 1921. It limited immigration in any one year to 3 per cent of the number of each nationality according to the census of 1910, with a maximum of 356,000. Its purpose was to limit the number of Southern and Eastern European immigrants. Three years later the quota was cut in half and immigrants further restricted to 2 per cent of the "nationals" in the census of 1890. Although the new quota did not go into effect until 1929, it demonstrated the growing hostility to immigration as such and to such nationals as Italians, Poles, Serbs and other Slavs.

In terms of culture, the 1920s are characterized by the Lost Generation, the Jazz Age, the Speakeasy Era and the Age of Flaming Youth. It was a decade of terrible disillusionment on the part of most idealistic young Americans and at the same time a period of American history when youth seized the center of the stage and insisted on its right to speak and act for the society. It was the age in which a literary and intellectual culture defined itself in highly dramatic fashion in opposition to the great mass of ordinary Americans. There were two Americas: One was literate, knowledgeable and, above all, emancipated. The other was puritanical, repressed, uninformed about Freud, Marx and other modern thinkers and obsessed by numerous prejudices.

When talking about the 1920s one must not forget Prohibition. It lasted from 1920 till 1933 and was a unique matter. But it did not lead to the desired learning process of the population, it rather led to the criminalizing of drinking and to a flourishing of criminality. The bootleggers met the need of illegal liquor by organized crime.

The economic prosperity came to an end on October 25, 1929, the Black Friday at the New York Stock Exchange. It was followed by the Great Depression which has been the most severe economic crisis since the beginning of the industrial revolution.

1.2. Greenwich Village in the 1920s

At the turn of the 20th century Greenwich Village was quaintly picturesque and ethnically diverse. By the start of World War I it was widely known as a bohemian enclave with secluded side streets, low rents and a tolerance for radicalism and nonconformity. Attention became increasingly focused on artists and writers noted for their boldly innovative work: books and little magazines were published by small presses, art galleries exhibited the work of the avant-garde and experimental theater companies ignored the financial considerations of Broadway.

Entrepreneurs provided amusements ranging from evenings in artists′ studios to bacchanalian costume balls. During Prohibition local speakeasies attracted uptown patrons.
Decrepit rowhouses were remodeled into "artistic flats" for the well-to-do and in 1926 luxury apartment towers appeared at the Northern edge of Washington Square. The stock market crash of 1929 halted the momentum of new construction.

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