The Radio

In the 1920’s, the masses began to have access to in-home radios.  People began to huddle around their radios listening to speeches, sports, and news just like we do today.  The introduction of the radio to relay information to the masses of American people was a huge step forward for both politics and sports.

First of all, the radio allowed for a new platform in which politicians could speak to the American people.  Before, to hear a president or important cabinet member speak, one would have to travel to listen to a speech.  The radio allowed for the masses to stay informed on national politics.  This gave politicians the opportunity to become more intimate with the American people, speaking to them every night in their own homes.  This would have allowed them to speak to an audience that perhaps wouldn’t have ever had the opportunity to hear them speak in person.

With the invention of the radio also came a growth in the sports world.  People began listening to baseball, the great American pastime, whenever and wherever they were.  The radio introduced this new world of sports pop culture, where people would gather together and get excited about the game.  Easy access to the sporting world promoted unity among an increasingly diverse country.  Before radios brought mass media, people of different nationalities or races often felt as though they had no common ground to share with one another.  The introduction of sports on the radio bridged this gap.

Nativism in the 20's and 30's

In the 1920s and 1930s, nativist values were very common among the American people.  Something that can be cited as a cause for this was the anti-German propaganda still relevant in American society following World War I.  Many US citizens felt a strong aversion against anything that could be conceived as “un-American” or that threatened their traditional ways of life.  

In 1924, the Immigration Act granted the wishes of these nativists by only allowing the immigration of 2% of the total number of people of each nationality in the United states according to the 1890 census. This especially discriminated to southern and eastern Europeans, who were particularly looked down upon by Americans.

The KKK is a clear embodiment of these nativist sentiments.  The 1920’s was a time of growth for this extremist uprising against diversity and modernity.  Fueled by anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic, anti-pacifist, anti-communist, and over all anti-foreign sentiments, the KKK gained popularity spreading into the midwest.  The Klu Klux Klan even went as far as to gain control of several state governments.

Nativist Values can also be seen in the isolationist attitude of the US following World War I.  President Wilson returned home from the Paris Peace Conference hoping to receive support for the Treaty of Versaille and the League of Nations from the American people.  Instead, Wilson was greeted by an attitude of isolationism from both republican-dominated congress and the American People.  The isolationist belief of not surrendering control of one’s country to foreign influence is very much in line in the nativist belief of not surrendering the culture and traditions of one’s country to foreigners.

The Lost Generation of Writers

The Lost Generation of Writers

What did some of the most greatest American writers such as Gertrude Stein Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and T.S. Eliot have in common? Why was it that their careers were all launching  during the same time? During the 1920s, these groups of writers were part of social group known as the "Lost Generation." 

In the aftermath of the first World War, there were a group of young people that came out of the conflict horrified. Since the death toll was so high from the war, many of these people became disillusioned with previously inherited values and were categorized as the "lost generation." Being a part of this group meant having the general attitude of feeling a lack of purpose in life. After seeing so much death, many had lost belief in values such as glory and honor. This led to a distrust against abstract ideals that had previously been romanticized. 

The group of writers who became associated as this "Lost Generation" reflected these feelings by writing under the common themes of decadence, commenting on gender roles and impotence, and dreaming of an idealized past. Some of these novels include A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, The Great Gatsby. So despite their dissatisfaction with the world after the war, the "Lost Generation" were able to apply their frustration to works that would define American literature. 

Sources:

https://writersinspire.org/content/lost-generation

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lost-Generation

Reform, Relief, or Recovery?

"Many historians have boiled the goals of the New Deal down to three concepts: Reform, Relief and Recovery. Watch the documentary clips and decide which of the three the New Deal emphasized."

When viewing the New Deal in historical contexts, it's often acknowledged that there were three essential elements in the holistic approach taken by Franklin D. Roosevelt and his team: Reform, Relief, and Recovery. But which one of those elements was most important to the overall effort?

Viewed in context, it seems that, of these, relief was the most essential. Even when the government could not afford to foot the bill for the efforts required to recover the economy by creating long-term jobs, it was able to provide relief, through straight payments or through the creation of temporary jobs that could be used to keep people on their feet.

The most obvious example of these efforts was the Federal Emergency Relief Act, which provided cash grants to relief agencies and which eventually evolved into the more robust Civil Works Administration. More subtle forms, though, came in the temporary jobs afforded to workers through efforts like the Unemployment Relief Act, which essentially created temporary jobs, including six-month stints for artists and muralists across the nation, to keep money flowing in, even if people who would once have made nice wages would now be forced to subsist on plumbers' wages.

The Emergency Banking Relief Act was also significant, a short-term attempt to inspect and reorganize treasury banks in order to try to set things on an improved course.

It would be misleading to look at these as reformative or oriented towards straight recovery; rather, they were meant to keep things on rails and prevent people from starving, creating the temporary relief that defined the New Deal.

1935: Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act

Before the 1930s, various issues that are now considered the jurisdiction of the federal government were addressed by the states. In a past post I discussed the incorporation of the Tennessee Valley Authority -- but in this post, I'm going to discuss the purpose and effect of the Social Security Act of 1935.

The Act was designed to lay out support for the elderly by means of insurance. It functioned a bit differently than the systems for a similar purpose that existed in Europe, for it took funding from taxes while the Europeans took directly from their Government funds -- a difference which may seem simple but which severely changes the connotation and the Constitutional implications of any use of funding.

The Act did not pass without opposition. For starters, there were those who called it socialism and an attempt to "Sovietize" the country. People believed there were flaws in the design; individuals like Republican candidate Alf Landon believed that if employers and workers were required to pay for part of the program with their tax dollars, they would simply pass on the extra cost to the consumer, hurting the common man. There were also charges that it would increase unemployment and bureaucratic attitudes.

In the end, the Act has come to be known as an essential element of the way that we help Americans in need, and not just the elderly; it included provisions for children, the blind, and the unemployed. And despite the accusations, it never did succeed in Sovietizing the country in any meaningful way.

Note that, like the Tennessee Valley Authority, new methods of upper-level organization were required to make this new system work, resulting in the creation of the Social Security Board. This Board worked to register citizens for available benefits, send them their payments, and administer any contributions to their funding by the Federal Government.

The atmosphere that surrounded the passage of the Act is important to consider today; considering the positive impact that it was able to have, it's a historical lesson to which we can look to understand how something's intuitive predicted effects might differ from its actual impact.

Sources:
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=68
http://classroom.synonym.com/opposition-social-security-1930s-23530.html

1934 Chicago World Fair

In 1934, the Chicago World's Fair, known as the A Century of Progress International Exposition, was held to celebrate the city's 100th anniversary. While it first symbolized Chicago's past, the Century of Progress Exposition came to be an expression of hope and possibility amidst the Great Depression. By the time it closed the World's Fair had been visited by nearly 40 million fairgoers.

In its State of its Plan and Purposes, it said the fair was an "attempt to demonstrate to an international audience the nature and significance of scientific discoveries, the methods of achieving them, and the changes which their application has wrought in industry and in living conditions."

Next to Lake Michigan, the Century of Progress received much public funding despite the Depression. The US federal government appropriated $1,725,000 to erect its own building, but $809,154 was raised by the sale of memberships of different sorts, which fueled the fair.

The Panama-Pacific Exposition, called the Tower of Jewels

The Century of Progress created a "Rainbow City," which held multi-colored fair buildings, which generally followed Moderne architecture, which emphasized curving long forms and long horizontal lines. The buildings drove home the message of hope from cooperation between science, business, and government. Nearly two dozen corporations created their own displays which featured model homes with synthetic building materials and different cars. The House of Tomorrow featured the "future house," with dishwashers and air conditioning.

Along with the House of Tomorrow, the fair held the Skyride (almost a rollercoaster), the Hall of Science, and the Transportation Building. The Midway became one of the most popular exhibits, with an Enchanted Island and Magic Mountain set aside for children.

Eventually, Roosevelt was so taken by the power of the Fair to create consumer spending that he extended it for another year. Henry Ford, who previously declined to participate, began to put his products on display.

In the midst of the Great Depression, the Century of Progress became a symbol not only of technology, but of consumerism. As dozens of companies put their products on display -- expensive and credit-requiring products -- consumer confidence and spending was foreshadowed. It created a lasting push for technological and capitalistic advance that reflected the era's, despite the Great Depression, consumerist viewpoint.

The New Deal: Reform, Relief, and Recovery

Naomi Zimmermann

The New Deal: Reform, Relief, and Recovery

The New Deal emphasized Reform the most, and it sought to bring ultimate relief to the American people through its programs. This contrasts with immediate reform, which the New Deal centered less on. The reforms sought to change the structure of the American

Although there were some programs that provided immediate relief to the people, the most notable of which is the Federal Emergency Relief Act, most of them didn’t provide immediate relief. FDR was critical of just handing people money or food, and preferred providing them with the means to make money and afford these things. The Unemployment Relief Act established the Civil Conservation Corps(CCC), which was an opportunity for urban young men to work in environmental conservation and other public works. The Tennessee Valley Authority also provided jobs to people in the TN Valley to build dams. There was also legislation that helped the workers help themselves in the form of unions. The NIRA allotted workers the right to unionize and bargain with employers through elected officials. Later, the Wagner Act, which allowed workers to bargain and outlawed spying in factories. The National Labor Relations Board was established with this to regulate union activity and serve as a compliance officer for labor union actions with employers.

Banks were also reformed so that there wouldn’t be bank failures again. The Emergency Banking Relief Act inspected and reorganized the banks which established a more effective system. The Glass-Steagall Act separated banks out into separate industries.

FDR embraced the idea that the government should spend lots of money to try to help the economy and the people, even if it meant that the US would accumulate a considerable amount of debt.

Sources:

People’s Century Breadline

Alphabetocracy

Chapter 36 from textbook

The Ku Klux Klan during the 20th Century

    Viewed by many as a racist, prejudiced group individuals who ran rampant in the United States in the mid 19th and again early 20th century, the Ku Klux Klan is defined more simply defined by most as one of the many white supremacist groups that have existed during United States history. While such a definition is a true description of the Klan, it is also important to see how the Klan changed when it reemerged in the United States during the early 1900's after a long period of being quite dormant. Eventually growing to gain over 5,000,000 followers in the 1920's, the KKK transformed into more than just an anti-black society, but also one that excluded countless other groups of people in the nation and embodied the spirit of nativism and isolationism that existed during the time period.

    Founded in the 1860's as largely an anti-black society, the KKK was incredibly prejudiced and cruel to African-Americans that they captured and even punished large groups of blacks for crimes that only one had committed. Lynchings, torture, humiliation, and killings were common in the Klan's demonstrations of racism, their message one of prejudice opinions of inferiority toward blacks. Gaining some speed over the next decade after its founding, the Klan gained a good amount of supporters who were largely ex-confederates and southerners, however it could not flourish in the environment of the Reconstruction era and eventually disbanded in the late 19th century. Returning back to existence in the 20th century only about 20 years later, the Klan reached its all-time strength in under a decade, gaining 5,000,000 followers by the 1920's and becoming such a force that they marched garbed in their white attire through a place as sacred to our nation as the front of our capital building in Washington D.C. More interestingly, though, was the Klan's adaption of what some historians brand as "new prejudices," now acting out demonstrations against immigrants, Catholics, and Jews alongside their previous enemies in black Americans. While not quite as violent as they were during the previous century, the KKK influenced society with their influence on government legislation instead, even dominating the popular vote on key issues in certain states (often southern). The KKK were also incredibly conservative anti-reformers who hated the idea of change in the nation and wanted to keep it as it was, protesting against periods such as the Reconstruction.

    Also interesting is the fact that members of the Klan were largely devout Christians, believing that their work was good servitude in the eyes of their God. However, with the Klan being almost entirely Protestant, they were bitterly opposed to Catholics and believed in the superstition that if said Catholics were put into government power, they would put the Pope before their own country and would act in an unpatriotic fashion. As a result, KKK members would often vote against inclusionary legislation for Catholics and did not like the idea of Catholic schools being established within the nation. Moreover, as mostly religious people, KKK members were against the idea of evolution after the theory's development by Charles Darwin and were all for strict rules to prevent its teaching in schools. Overall, the KKK were not only what many deem as blatant racists, but were overall incredibly hardcore conservatives. They were simply people who were opposed to change and wanted to keep things as they were and saw immigration, Judaism, equality of blacks, and things that they saw as "not originally American" as dangerous to the nation. As deep isolationists, KKK members perhaps did not intend to be heartless bigots as many view them ass, but were rather just people who had an unquenchable anxiety about the new.


Sources:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/flood-klan/

http://www.history.com/topics/ku-klux-klan

http://www.readex.com/readex-report/religion-and-rise-second-ku-klux-klan-1915-1922

1933: Creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority

Before 1933, the Tennessee Valley had been subject to floods, erosion, and economic weakness, and it grew yet weaker due to emigration.

The valley largely lies inside Tennessee, but it reaches over into other states as well.

But that year, President Roosevelt signed off on the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a governmental organization basically created to solve the various natural issues the valley encountered, especially through the construction of dams. These dams were necessary for three reasons:

1. They had the capability to create electric power on a relatively very cheap scale
2. They could control flooding, therefore protecting residents in and around the valley
3. Navigation could be improved with the control of the dams

They also concerned themselves with reforesting and the actual provision of energy to homes and businesses.

The Tennessee Valley Authority's unique approach can be seen in the way that they chose not only to regulate the affairs of the people, build dams and plant trees, but also to educate farmers. Seeing that the soil of the valley had been destroyed by erosion, they decided that the most effective way to solve the problem was to educate farmers on how to schedule crop plantings and harvests more effectively.

The TVA is unique today in that it is the largest public power company in the U.S., but it was unique at the time for a different reason -- it's the first time that any agency was created to approach the needs of an entire region in such a holistic manner.

Up until then, in part due to the way that states and the national government were organized, an authority designed to handle the unique issues of a region like that shown above -- which is based purely on practical geography -- would not have sprung up, but Roosevelt's New Deal (this act alone passed in his first 100 days) would change traditional ideas about what government agencies could and should be.

The TVA's role has changed to fit the times. Today, for example, they maintan the Sequoyah Nuclear Power Plant in Tennessee as one of many power-related operations surrounding the river.

Sources:
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=65
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1653.html

The New Deal: Recovery

While the New Deal held many different policies and agencies, such as FERA, the NRA, the PWA, and so on, it's main premise was recovery. Both relief and reform were attempted, but neither to great success.

Roosevelt did try relief. He established FERA, which allocated $500 million for welfare programs. Yet FERA failed massively, as it was hastily established, weak in power, and worked through inefficient means, limited by the federal government's historically decentralized power. Moreover, many of the poor and local administrators of welfare both saw the poor as morally deficient. Local administrators used "means tests" to investigate the poor's private life, and the poor themselves felt ashamed to take any welfare. After FERA, Roosevelt created the Civil Works Administrations, and while it worked better -- through employment rather than charity -- Roosevelt shut this program down within five months, as he didn't want to create overdependence on the government.

Thus, recovery became the main focus of the New Deal. While Roosevelt initially established a gold-buying scheme and micromanaged the farm sector through the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) the National Recovery Administration soon became the primary engine of recovery. The NRA was modeled on the War industries Board from WWI, and it was one of the first agencies to have significant power in the US economy. Hugh Johnson, the director, envisioned NRA as a "giant organ" to "play the economy." The NRA gave $3.3 billion to and worked closely with the Public Works Administration. Mainly, the NRA tried to stop overproduction and set production quotas on the cotton textile industry to limit supply. In return, the NRA had manufacturers agree to social reforms such as minimum wage standards, a forty-hour week, abolishing child labor and agreeing to collective bargaining.

While relief and reform were attempted, the NRA's efforts in recovery proved the major implementation of Roosevelt's New Deal, and it made great strides in helping the economy get back on its feet through regulation and oversight on the economy.