US History: Resources by Decade: 1920s

The 'roaring' twenties were a time of optimism and economic prosperity following the end of World War I. Chapters discuss topics such as Prohibition, the stock market crash of 1929, and the emerging influence of radio.

This new resource is designed to give students and researchers new insight into the 1920s in American history, through an in-depth analysis of forty important primary source documents and their lasting effect on American history. Defining Documents in American History: The 1920s offers in-depth critical analysis of 40 primary source documents important to this uproarious decade in American history. Articles begin by introducing readers to the historical context, followed by a description of the author's life and circumstances in which the document was written. A document analysis, written by professional writers and historians, guides readers in understanding key elements of language, rhetoric, and social and political meaning that define the significance of the author and document in American history. Defining Documents in American History: The 1920s provides detailed analysis of a wide array of topics, including: Treaty of Versailles & The League of Nations Prohibition Women's Right to Vote The Great Migration of African Americans & the Harlem Renaissance Stock Market Collapse & the onset of the Great Depression This collection will introduce students and educators to a diverse range of genres, including journals, letters, speeches, government legislation, and court opinions. Documents represent the diversity of ideas and contexts that define social, political and cultural subjects throughout American history.

Many of the heralded writers of the 20th century including Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner first made their mark in the 1920s, while established authors like Willa Cather and Sinclair Lewis produced some of their most important works during this period. Classic novels like The Sun Also Rises, The Great Gatsby, Elmer Gantry, and The Sound and the Fury not only mark prodigious advances in American fiction, they show us the wonder, the struggle, and the promise of the American dream. In Beyond Gatsby: How Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Writers of the 1920s Shaped American Culture, Robert McParland looks at the key contributions of this fertile period in literature. Rather than provide a compendium of details about major American writers, this book explores the culture that created F. Scott Fitzgerald and his literary contemporaries. The source material ranges from the minutes of reading circles and critical commentary in periodicals to the archives of writers works as well as the diaries, journals, and letters of common readers. This work reveals how the nation s fiction stimulated conversations of shared images and stories among a growing reading public. Signifying a cultural shift in the aftermath of World War I, the collective works by these authors represent what many consider to be a golden age of American literature. By examining how these authors influenced the reading habits of a generation, Beyond Gatsby enables readers to gain a deeper comprehension of how literature shapes culture."

Christopher Knowlton, author of Cattle Kingdom and former Fortune writer, takes an in-depth look at the spectacular Florida land boom of the 1920s and shows how it led directly to the Great Depression. The 1920s in Florida was a time of incredible excess, immense wealth, and precipitous collapse. The decade there produced the largest human migration in American history, far exceeding the settlement of the West, as millions flocked to the grand hotels and the new cities that rose rapidly from the teeming wetlands. The boom spawned a new subdivision civilization--and the most egregious large-scale assault on the environment in the name of "progress." Nowhere was the glitz and froth of the Roaring Twenties more excessive than in Florida. Here was Vegas before there was a Vegas: gambling was condoned and so was drinking, since prohibition was not enforced. Tycoons, crooks, and celebrities arrived en masse to promote or exploit this new and dazzling American frontier in the sunshine. Yet, the import and deep impact of these historical events have never been explored thoroughly until now. In Bubble in the Sun Christopher Knowlton examines the grand artistic and entrepreneurial visions behind Coral Gables, Boca Raton, Miami Beach, and other storied sites, as well as the darker side of the frenzy. For while giant fortunes were being made and lost and the nightlife raged more raucously than anywhere else, the pure beauty of the Everglades suffered wanton ruination and the workers, mostly black, who built and maintained the boom, endured grievous abuses. Knowlton breathes dynamic life into the forces that made and wrecked Florida during the decade: the real estate moguls Carl Fisher, George Merrick, and Addison Mizner, and the once-in-a-century hurricane whose aftermath triggered the stock market crash. This essential account is a revelatory--and riveting--history of an era that still affects our country today.

The irrationally exuberant highs and lows of the 1920s can help students recognize boom and bust cycles past, present, and future. Speculation--an economic reality for centuries--is a hallmark of the modern U.S. economy. But how does speculation work? Is it really caused, as some insist, by popular delusions and the madness of crowds, or do failed regulations play a greater part? And why is it that investors never seem to learn the lessons of past speculative bubbles? Crash! explores these questions by examining the rise and fall of the American economy in the 1920s. Phillip G. Payne frames the story of the 1929 stock market crash within the booming New Era economy of the 1920s and the bust of the Great Depression. Taking into account the emotional drivers of the consumer market, he offers a clear, concise explanation of speculation's complex role in creating one of the greatest financial panics in U. S. history. Crash! explains how postWorld War I changes in the global financial markets transformed the world economy, examines the role of boosters and politicians in promoting speculation, and describes in detail the disastrous aftermath of the 1929 panic. Payne's book will help students recognize the telltale signs of bubbles and busts, so that they may become savvier consumers and investors.

During the 1920s and 1930s, changes in the American population, increasing urbanization, and innovations in technology exerted major influences on the daily lives of ordinary people. Explore how everyday living changed during these years when use of automobiles and home electrification first became commonplace, when radio emerged, and when cinema, with the addition of sound, became broadly popular. Find out how worklife, domestic life, and leisure-time activities were affected by these factors as well as by the politics of the time. Details of matters such as the creation of the pickup truck, the development of radio programming, and the first mass use of cosmetics provide an enjoyable read that brings the period clearly into focus. Centering its attention on the broad masses of the population, this animated reference resource emphasizes the wide variety of experiences of people living through The Roaring Twenties and The Great Depression. Readers will be surprised to discover that some of the assumptions we have about the lives of average Americans during these eras are historically inaccurate. A final chapter provides a unique look at six American communities and gives a vivid sense of the diversity of American experience over the course of these tumultuous years.

This intriguing study examines the truth behind the myths and misconceptions that defined the Roaring Twenties, as portrayed through the popular literary works of the time.This one-stop reference to the "Jazz Age"--the period that began after the First World War and ended with the stock market crash of 1929--digs into the cultural, historical, and literary contexts of the era. Author Linda De Roche examines the writing of the time to look beyond the common conceptions of the Roaring Twenties and instead reflect on the era's complexities and contradictions, including how gender and race influenced social mores. The book profiles key American literature of the time, including F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, Sinclair Lewis's Babbit, Anita Loos's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Nella Larsen's Passing. Filled with essays that offer historical explorations of each work as well as suggested learning activities, chapters also feature study questions, primary source documents, and chronologies. Support materials include activities, lesson plans, discussion questions, topics for further research, and suggested readings.

This invaluable resource covers all aspects of 1920s political, artistic, popular, and economic culture in America, supporting the AP U.S. history curriculum through topical and biographical entries, primary documents, sample documents-based essay questions, and period-specific learning objectives.The 1920s, despite President Harding's "return to normalcy," were a time of both great cultural and social advancement as well as various forms of oppression in the United States. Bookended in history by two world wars, this period saw the rise of tabloid journalism and mass media; the banning and reinstatement of alcohol; the advent of voting rights for women and Native Americans; movements such as the Red Scare, labor strikes, the Harlem Renaissance, and racial protests; and the global reorganization that occurred as the major powers fumbled their way through postwar foreign policy and the League of Nations. Almost no element of U.S. society was untouched.The New Era of the 1920s: Key Themes and Documents provides high school students taking the Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. history course and undergraduates taking a lower level American history survey course with an invaluable study guide and targeted test preparation material. Much more than just an AP test-taking study guide, this new title in ABC-CLIO's Unlocking American History series is a true reference source for the societal, political, and economic history of a specific period covered in the AP U.S. history course. Readers will also benefit from features designed for student exam preparation, such as a sample documents-based essay question and period-specific learning objectives that are in alignment with the 2014 AP U.S. History Curriculum Framework.

This is Who We Were: In the 1920s explores American life in the 1920s. This new series is sure to be of value as both a serious research tool for students of American history as well as an intriguing climb up America's family tree. The richly-illustrated text provides an interesting way to study a truly unique time in American history.

"From the colorful battles of Prohibition to Lindbergh’s epic transatlantic flight, from the race riots in Chicago to the speculative frenzy of the Florida land boom, THE TWENTIES recounts the vigorous, carefree, intolerant temper of our nation in the era of the New Economic Prosperity. This panorama of contemporary magazine articles, newspaper stories, and personal accounts contradicts the charge of political historians and critics that the Twenties was a decade of sterility. Juxtaposing gaiety and incontinence with the bitter struggle between the old and the new social elements, THE TWENTIES is a testament to the amazing vitality of social invention and change which characterized the formative years of modern American society." From ProQuest Ebook Central's description

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