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



SPRING BREAK through WORLD WAR, BOOM, and BUST: the 1920s and 1930s

Over Spring Break, you will have the exciting opportunity to blaze through three crucial decades in American history. Here’s the nutshell. You’ll read three chapters; keep track of facts, figures, and dates. You are responsible for the chapter on World War I, but I will not be testing you on it. You will be held accountable for five essay questions covering the chapters on the 1920s and 30s, two of which you’ll face upon your return.

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 thoroughgoing 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 who told the nation 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 the modern welfare state had been established. 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.

Over break, you will read chapters 23 and 24 in Nash, answering the discussion questions on the back of this sheet to guide you.

On the day you return to school on April 5th, you will write TWO IN-CLASS ESSAYS to be chosen by me—one from each of the two sets below. You will prepare your answers to ALL of the questions, but I will only present you with two of them to write. You won’t know which ones!

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.

READING QUESTIONS

CHAPTER 22

1. What was the Wilsonian vision for foreign policy? How did this change over time (see Folly of Empire for this question)?

2. Analyze Wilson’s policies in the Caribbean and Mexico in light of his vision for foreign policy

3. Was Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policy imperialistic?

4. Why was the U.S. neutral? Should we have been?

5. How neutral was Wilson’s policy? What was Wilson’s dilemma regarding use of the seas?

6. What was Wilson’s plan for peace?

7. Why did the U.S. enter the war? Do you agree with this decision?

8. What were the conditions of African American participation in the war?

9. What contributions did the doughboys make to Allied victory?

10. What was WWI’s impact on Progressivism? Was WWI a “progressive war”?

11. What general political issues did the war raise?

12. How did the U.S. mobilize the following to fight the war:

a. manpower?

b. finances?

c. production and labor?

d. morale?

13. Note the purpose and specifics of the 14 Points

14. To what extent were the 14 points included in the actual Treaty of Versailles?

15. Evaluate Wilson as a peacemaker. What were his goals? Did he achieve them?

16. Why did the U.S. reject the League? What is your view of this decision?

17. Assessing the validity of the following statement: “It was the strength of the opposition forces, both liberal and conservative, rather than the ineptitude and stubbornness of President Wilson that led to the Senate defeat of the Treaty of Versailles.”

CHAPTER 23

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

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

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

4. What was the Harlem Renaissance?

5. Did the Prohibition experiment succeed or fail?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

14. What caused the stock market crash?

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

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

17. Name 4 programs Hoover tried.

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

3. Who criticized the New Deal and why?

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

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

a. housing (HOLC, FHA)

b. agriculture (second AAA)

c. labor (Fair Labor Standards Act)

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

a. “Roosevelt recession”

b. court packing fight

c. party purge

d. sit down strikes

7. 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?)

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

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