Out of the Mouths of Babes: Girl Evangelists in the Flapper Era by
The 1920s saw one of the most striking revolutions in manners and morals to have marked North American society, affecting almost every aspect of life, from dress and drink to sex and salvation. Protestant Christianity was being torn apart by a heated controversy between traditionalists and the modernists, as they sought to determine how much their beliefs and practices should be altered by scientific study and more secular attitudes. Out of the controversy arose the Fundamentalist movement, which has become a powerful force in twentieth-century America. During this decade, hundreds (and perhaps thousands) of young girl preachers, some not even school age, joined the conservative Christian cause, proclaiming traditional values and condemning modern experiments with the new morality. Some of the girls drew crowds into the thousands. But the stage these girls gained went far beyond the revivalist platform. The girl evangelist phenomenon was recognized in the wider society as well, and the contrast to the flapper worked well for the press and the public. Girl evangelists stood out as the counter-type of the flapper, who had come to define the modern girl. The striking contrast these girls offered to the racy flapper and to modern culture generally made girl evangelists a convenient and effective tool for conservative and revivalist Christianity, a tool which was used by their adherents in the clash of cultures that marked the 1920s.
Understanding the Great Gatsby: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents by
Today, more than 70 years after its publication, The Great Gatsby seems as fresh and pertinent to American life as it did in the 1920s. The social, cultural, and historical milieu of the 1920s reflected in its pages is not so very different from our own. This interdisciplinary collection of commentary and rich collateral materials will enrich the reader's understanding of those times and their influence on Fitzgerald's novel. The authors have included a wide variety of primary documents that capture the flavor of the era and its notorious and flamboyant players. Included are newspaper stories, first person accounts, and congressional testimony from the scandals of the 1920s.
Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940: How Americans Lived Through the "Roaring Twenties" and the Great Depression by
Publisher description: The twenties and thirties witnessed dramatic changes in American life: increasing urbanization, technological innovation, cultural upheaval, and economic disaster. In this book, the prize-winning historian David Kyvig describes everyday life in these decades, when automobiles and home electricity became commonplace, when radio and the movies became broadly popular. The details of work life, domestic life, and leisure activities make engrossing reading and bring the era clearly into focus.
America in the Twenties by
This is the first book to offer a comprehensive look at American life in the 1920s as framed by the aspirations, scandals, and attitudes of the Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover presidencies. In fascinating detail, Goldberg examines how Victorian values were transformed into the freewheeling lifestyle of the Jazz Age and explores the effects of such far-reaching issues as isolationism vs. internationalism, massive immigration, labor-management relations, and the prevalence of big business. Even as he pierces the era's claim to being a time of "wonderful nonsense," Goldberg balances its giddy fads and foibles with a stinging critique of darker and/or significant social issues. From the rise of the Ku Klux Klan to black protests to the Scopes "Monkey Trial," from bootlegging and Prohibition to the Red Scare, Goldberg shows how the temper of the 1920s shaped the nation's future. Finally, he poses provocative questions about how mistakes might have been avoided and what consequences ensued.
America in the Thirties by
As the newest addition to the America in the Twentieth Century series, this book explores the complexity of America in what is considered its darkest era of thecentury. The decade stood in stark contrast to the carefree, happy-go-lucky days of the Roaring Twenties when prosperity appeared endless. The Stock Market Crash in October 1929 and the economic collapse it unleashed threatened the very foundations of America's economic, political, and social institutions. The ecological disaster produced by the Dust Bowl ravaging the Great Plains only added to the suffering and misery. Yet the decade was not just one mired in complete disorder. The 1930s were also a vibrant period of innovation, transformation, and in some cases, even optimism. Politics, beginning with Herbert Hoover and continuing with Franklin Roosevelt, underwent a fundamental transformation, ushering in an activist state and firmly establishing the idea that through prudent federal policies, it was possible not only to orchestrate an economic recovery but also to prevent future economic downturns. Workers, African Americans, ethnic Americans, and women responded tothe era's challenges through their newfound political voice in Roosevelt's New Deal and through the institutions and communities they created to alleviate their suffering. Culturally, the 1930s also proved to be a boon to America, ushering in the Golden Age of Hollywood as millions of Americans looked to movies as a momentary refuge from their daily plight. For all the hardship and despair of the 1930s, there was also a vitality that defined the decade.
Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression by
Dancing in the Dark shows how our worst economic crisis, as it eroded American individualism and punctured the American dream, produced in the 1930s some of the greatest writing, photography, and mass entertainment ever seen in this country.
The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression by
It's difficult today to imagine how America survived the Great Depression--only through the stories of the common people who struggled during that era can we really understand it. These people are at the heart of this reinterpretation of one of the most crucial events of the twentieth century. Author Shlaes presents the neglected and moving stories of individual Americans, and shows how through brave leadership they helped establish the steadfast character we developed as a nation. Shlaes also traces the mounting agony of the New Dealers themselves as they discovered their errors. She shows how both Hoover and Roosevelt failed to understand the prosperity of the 1920s and heaped massive burdens on the country that more than offset the benefit of New Deal programs. The real question about the Depression, she argues, is not whether Roosevelt ended it--it is why it lasted so long.--From publisher description.
Rainbow's End: The Crash of 1929 by
The first major history of the Crash in over a decade, Rainbow's End tells the story of the stock market collapse in a colorful, swift-moving narrative that blends a vivid portrait of the 1920s with an intensely gripping account of Wall Street's greatest catastrophe.The book offers a vibrant picture of a world full of plungers, powerful bankers, corporate titans, millionaire brokers, and buoyantly optimistic stock market bulls. We meet Sunshine Charley Mitchell, head of the National City Bank, powerful financiers Jack Morgan and Jacob Schiff, Wall Streetmanipulators such as the legendary Jesse Livermore, and the lavish-living Billy Durant, founder of General Motors. As Klein follows the careers of these men, he shows us how the financial house of cards gradually grew taller, as the irrational exuberance of an earlier age gripped America andconvinced us that the market would continue to rise forever. Then, in October 1929, came a "perfect storm"-like convergence of factors that shook Wall Street to its foundations. We relive Black Thursday, when police lined Wall Street, brokers grew hysterical, customers "bellowed like lunatics," andthe ticker tape fell hours behind. This is followed by the even worse Bloody Tuesday, when an irrational desire to sell at any price gripped the market and even blue chip stocks plummeted precariously.This compelling history of the Crash--the first to follow the market closely for the two years leading up to the disaster--illuminates a major turning point in our history.
The Twenties in America by
This new, revisionist approach to the Twenties in America offers the first balanced account of the history and politics of this much-maligned decade. Focusing on the two Presidents of the 1920s, the book points out key distinctions between the governing styles and political philosophies of Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. It suggests Harding's executive style and achievements were not as poor as traditional portraits have claimed. Coolidge is presented in terms of his largely successful efforts to distance himself from the financial scandals associated with his predecessor and his encouragement of the major revival of much of the US economy. The author argues that the pace of social and technological change resulted in lines of conflict over poverty, race, religion and employment rights being redrawn as living standards rose, home and working conditions changed and old prejudices were challenged. Consequently, politicians found that old solutions became increasingly irrelevant to new realities. The narrative is placed in the familiar context of the Twenties: the motor car, jazz, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hollywood, mass consumerism and the flapper. Key Features: The only balanced overview of the history and politics of America in the 1920s Revises the traditional views of the Presidencies of Harding and Coolidge Places the politics in its social and cultural context.
Twilight of the Idols by
This book revisits some of the sensational scandals of early Hollywood to evaluate their importance for our contemporary understanding of human deviance. By analyzing changes in the star system and by exploring the careers of individual starsWallace Reid, Rudolph Valentino, and Mabel Normand among themMark Lynn Anderson shows how the eras celebrity culture shaped public ideas about personality and human conduct and played a pivotal role in the emergent human sciences of psychology, anthropology, and sociology. Anderson looks at motion picture stars who embodied various forms of deviancenarcotic addiction, criminality, sexual perversion, and racial indeterminacy. He considers how the studios profited from popularizing ideas about deviance, and how the debates generated by the early Hollywood scandals continue to affect our notions of personality, sexuality, and public morals.
The Great Depression and the New Deal by
Pranav Gupta and Jonathan Lee present information on the Great Depression of the 1930s and the New Deal of 1933 to 1938 in the United States. The authors provide definitions of key terms and highlight the causes and problems of the Great Depression, the philosophies of President Herbert Hoover and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the successes and failures of Roosevelt's New Deal programs. The causes of the Great Depression include the stock market crash of 1929, an unstable economy, and speculation on the financial markets.
Shortfall: Family Secrets, Financial Collapse, and a Hidden History of American Banking by
The rollicking true story of a 1930s version of Bernie Madoff—and the building and loan crash he helped precipitate—in a wonderful work of narrative nonfiction by the Gustavus Myers book award winnerShortfall opens with a surprise discovery in an attic—boxes filled with letters and documents hidden for more than seventy years—and launches into a fast-paced story that uncovers the dark secrets in Echols's family—an upside-down version of the building and loan story at the center of Frank Capra's 1946 movie, It's a Wonderful Life. In a narrative filled with colorful characters and profound insights into the American past, Shortfall is also the essential backstory to more recent financial crises, from the savings and loan debacle of the 1980s and 1990s to the subprime collapse of 2008. Shortfall chronicles the collapse of the building and loan industry during the Great Depression—a story told in microcosm through the firestorm that erupted in one hard-hit American city during the early 1930s. Over a six-month period in 1932, all four of the building and loan associations in Colorado Springs, Colorado, crashed in an awful domino-like fashion, leaving some of the town's citizens destitute. The largest of these associations was owned by author Alice Echols's grandfather, Walter Davis, who absconded with millions of dollars in a case that riveted the national media. This book tells the dramatic story of his rise and shocking fall.
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