SPRING BREAK through BOOM and BUST: the 1920s and 1930s



Boom, Bust, and Back Again: Culture, Society, and Economics in America, 1920-1941

The 1920s

American business boomed in the decade after the First World War, ignited by a surge in manufacturing, construction, and advertising, with American presidents even seeing themselves as corporate managers. The sense of roaring newness in the 1920s could be felt in the Jazz culture of American nightlife, the explosive growth of American cities, and the revolutionary new lifestyles created by the automobile and the telephone. Entertainment culture gushed across movie screens and out of home radios as glamorous Hollywood film icons and sports heroes became household names. While some of America glittered and spent, much of the prosperity was uneven, and a cultural underbelly seethed with intolerance and discontent. Cultural divisions revealed camps of literary disillusionment, Christian fundamentalism, and Black Nationalism. The decade of boom came to a halt in 1929 when the playground of American prosperity—the stock market—plummeted to a crash, signaling an economic collapse of unprecedented proportions.

The 1930s

While severe economic downturns had gripped the nation before, the dramatic suddenness and prolonged severity of the “Great Depression” of the 1930s left a mark on American generations for decades. Whether they lost a business, a life savings, a job, a home, or an opportunity for education, Americans dealt with downturn in a variety of ways, from neighborly cooperation to desperate wandering to outright protest. A disabled nation would find political leadership in a disabled and charismatic upper-class New Yorker who told the nation that they had “nothing to fear but fear itself.” When Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke those words in 1933—at his first of four presidential inaugurations—unemployment rates had soared to nearly forty per cent and faith in the country’s boundless future was badly damaged. Assembling a blockbuster cabinet, FDR would set the federal government on its most active and ambitious set of tasks to date. In a flurry of legislation and an alphabet soup of government agencies, the federal government rolled out a “New Deal” for the relationship between the state, the American people, and the economy. Federal action, whether it was aimed at relief and recovery or social reform, had its opponents and Roosevelt was assailed by critics on the left and right. In the end, FDR’s momentum proved unstoppable and the scope of a modern welfare state had been established, with the foundations of industrial capitalism reinforced and politically unchallenged. While Europe lurched toward fascism and dictatorship, American economic institutions and governing structures proved remarkably resilient through the worst economic downturn in history. At the end of the decade, the economic depression was clearly not over, but the federal government’s stewardship over the nation’s economic infrastructure had become the new bedrock of American capitalism and American governance.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS (that could become essay questions)

1920s

1. In what ways did economic conditions and developments in the arts and entertainment help create the reputation of the 1920s as the Roaring Twenties?

2. Analyze and evaluate who benefited from the prosperity of the 1920s and who did not.

3. To what extent were the 1920s revolutionary for women?

1930s

1. "Cries that the New Deal was too radical were off target. The New Deal shored up and rationalized the capitalist system." Discuss the extent to which you agree with this assessment.

2. “The FDR administration’s response to the problems of the Great Depression fundamentally changed the role of the federal government.” Assess the validity of this statement.

1920 1930 1940

READING QUESTIONS

CHAPTER 23

1. Why was the U.S. struggling economically immediately after World War I?

2. Explain the causes of the Red Scare and the Palmer Raids.

3. How does Sacco and Vanzetti case typify the intolerance of the 1920s?

4. How was the 1920s incarnation of the Klan different from the 19th century version?

5. What was the Harlem Renaissance?

6. Did the Prohibition experiment succeed or fail?

7. Assess Prohibition’s effect of organized crime.

8. Assess how “isolated” the United States was in foreign policy during the 20s.

9. What happened to immigration during the 20s?

10. What does the Scopes trial reveal about the cultural divide in the 20s?

11. What groups did not share in the prosperity of the decade?

12. Account for the appeal of Marcus Garvey to the black community.

13. Why did so many American artists (The Harlem Renaissance, the Lost Generation) feel alienated from American society?

14. What has contributed to the low historical opinion of Presidents Harding and Coolidge?

15. In what ways did life change for American women in the 20s?

16. Who were the flappers?

17. How did farmers and workers fare in the 20s?

18. What caused the stock market crash? Identify the idea of “buying on margin” and a “stock bubble”

19. Did the crash create the Great Depression? Explain.

20. Was Hoover really laissez faire? What was his approach to the depression?

21. Name 4 programs Hoover tried.

22. Explain why Hoover quickly became so reviled.

CHAPTER 24

1. Explain the origins of the Great Depression. How was the Depression in the United States related to global economic factors?

2. Describe why so many banks failed in the years following the crash.

3. What were the effects of widespread and continuous unemployment?

4. What was the Dustbowl?

5. How did the depression worsen race relations?

6. Explain the two major phases of the New Deal. What programs were enacted in each phase, and what did they seek to accomplish?

7. Identify the CCC, the NRA, the TVA, and the WPA.

8. Who criticized the New Deal and why? Be able to summarize the challenges posed by:

a. Huey Long

b. Father Charles Coughlin

c. Francis Townsend

9. How did communication technologies and popular culture change during the 1930s?

10. What were the accomplishments of FDR’s second term in:

a. housing (HOLC, FHA)

b. agriculture (second AAA)

c. labor (Fair Labor Standards Act)

11. How did the following create political difficulties for FDR?

a. “Roosevelt recession”

b. court packing fight

c. party purge

d. sit down strikes

12. What sort of gains did women and Blacks make (and not make) under the New Deal?

13. Why has it been said that in the court fight FDR lost the battle but won the war? (or did he win the battle but lose the war?)

14. What is Social Security?

15. What event was most influential in bringing the U.S. out of the Depression?

16. Why are the Depression and the New Deal considered to have a mixed legacy?

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download