5. The Roaring Twenties (1920-1929) and the Great Depression (1919-1941) Flashcards
the Spanish Flu
1918-1920: 2 year pandemic
- not Spanish in origin: censorship everywhere but not in neutral Spain
- possible that it might have originated in the US (Kansas)
- mobilisation of American soldiers brought it to Europe and spread it in the US
- some 17 to possibly 100 million dead
The Roaring Twenties
Economics: US takes charge of developing global capitalism
- consumer goods
- US becomes richest country in the world
- Backlash: authors take aim at materialism and individualism
Cultural life: putting the roaring in the twenties > US becomes a cultural force
- phenomenon of city life
- growing American film industry
- Jazz Age in US and export of US culture across the Atlanticc
- 1ste time in history: Youth seperates from older moralities and habits
- key social change in 1920: women’s suffrage
- cautious exploration of identities outside of gender norms > some acceptance of gay lifestyles
- Harlem Renaissance
- Cultural power contrast with reality
Jazz Age
Jazz Age in US and export of US culture across the Atlantic
- Southern Black origins, with roles for women singers »_space; toned down for white audiences
- Prohibition vs. speakeasy = rise of the mob
- Invention of popular music—enormous influence on modern music and self-expression
- Invention of the popular artist: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bing Crosby, Cole Porter (next generation: Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, etc.)
Flappers
Flapper girls = icon of the ”free woman”
- “Boyish”: challenging conventions through fashion, behaviour, looks
- Brash, feminist, defying social and sexual norms; smoking, drinking, makeup
- Freedom expressed through rising hemlines; trousers (!) for women; end of corsets; less time-consuming clothing
Harlem Renaissance
Invigoration of Black culture and literature
» Redefines image of Black Americans
- From Southern, impoverished, uneducated peasants leading miserable lives
- To (for some) urban, cosmopolitan cultural vanguard, innate sense of sophistication
Dust Bowl
Another hit in 1934–40
- Dust Bowl due to bad farming practices and drought > hit Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado
FDR
Franklin D Roosevelt 1933-45
- first televised president and first to really make use of that
- to be admired
- redefined the American presidency
- US becomes powerhouse that is more focused on the welfare and the wellbeing of its citizens
- powerhouse that projects more power to the rest of the world
- redefines the Democrats
> up to now party pf the soith
> realises during the Depression that the time is ripe for a realignment because the Rep Party are being blamed for the depression
> realises if the Rep are aligning themselves with a failed system, that creates an opportunity for the Dem to align themselves with the solution
> so he redefines the Dem Party - it will not be about Southern values anymore and about resisting change, instead it is going to be about change - reinventing the system in order to soften the blow from the Depression, not in order to return to the SOuthern past
> redefines the Dem Party as socially progressive (the caring party)
- introduces New Deal
New Deal
New social contract = deal btw citizen and people who govern, corporate and political elite
Measures; acts; governmental programmes; public works; progressive tax hikes to end Depression
- Support for youth, the elderly, farmers, unemployed
- Keynesianism»_space; public works = most American highways are built in this period, a way to make sure that people have work, a way for the government to pump money into the economy and to get something in return
- Makes taxes high because of the massive wealth inequality + they’re moving into WWII and wars cost money
- First New Deal: focused on repairing financial system, urgent help and infrastructure projects
- Second New Deal: focused on labour rights, social provisions, benefits, etc.
3 Rs = main ideas
- Relief for the unemployed
- Recovery of the economy
- Reform of financial system
