The title of my book: America between Wars allowed me to present the most powerful country of the world from a different perspective.
In the aftermath of World War I, the “Great War,” the nations of the world tended to retreat inside themselves, to lick their wounds and reorganize their economic and social structures. The United States, relatively untouched by the first world war, at least in comparison with the losses suffered by the European nations, also turned inward.
In America, the Roaring Twenties were a time of great excitement - bathtub gin, speakeasies, new dress styles, a revolution in manners and morals, the Harlem Renaissance, a golden age of sports, radios, movies, and a booming stock market. There were bad things too, the lawlessness generated by prohibition, the reactivation of the Ku Klux Klan, animosity between country and city, and a resurgence xenophobia that saw the United States slam its doors to most foreign immigration.
Toward the end of the decade came the great stock market crash which, although it was not the cause of the Depression, helped trigger a series of events that led to the worst economic slump in American history. Unemployment sky-jumped, production broke down, banks failed, farmers discovered that it cost more to produce food then they could sell it for, and suicides rose alarmingly.
Into such milieu came Franklin Delano Roosevelt, fifth cousin of progressive President Theodore Roosevelt, and a man who had suffered a serious personal tragedy when he contracted polio. He overcame his disease and was elected twice as governor of New York and came to Washington in 1933 ready to do battle with the forces of depression. Roosevelt’s New Deal was a huge experiment in government intervention in the economy, and although they did not end the Depression, Roosevelt’s policies gave hope to many and changed the relationship between the government and the people forever.
As the country struggled to pull itself out of the Depression, storm Clouds gathered, as missed militarists in Japan and fascist dictators in Germany and Mussolini once again set the world on a collision course with bloody war. Breaking out in 1937 in China in 1939 in Poland, the war eventually drag the United States and as the democracies struggled to maintain a free world. Victorious in the second world war, the United States emerged as the world’s superpower, its first atomic power, and a nation of unprecedented economic might.
Table of Contents
Chapter One The Roaring Twenties - Morally Abandoned
1.1. Economic Progress
1.2. The Culture of the Twenties
Chapter Two Prohibition and Ku Klux Klan – the Diseases of America
2.1. Politics behind the Prohibition
2.2 Mr. Al Capone
2.3 Ku Klux Klan and Anti-Catholicism
Chapter Three The Great Depression and the Presidents of Hard Times
3.1 The Great Depression
3.2 Herbert Clark Hoover (1874-1964)
3.3. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945)
3.4. The 1936 Elections
3.5. New Deal and Foreign Policy
3.6. The American Preparations for World War II
3.7. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and His Presidency in Retrospect
Objectives and Topics
This work examines the complex socio-economic and political landscape of the United States during the interwar period (1919–1941), exploring the transition from the prosperity of the "Roaring Twenties" to the severe hardships of the Great Depression and the subsequent move toward the Second World War.
- The socio-economic characteristics of the "Roaring Twenties," including the rise of consumerism and mass culture.
- The systemic failures and societal impacts of the Prohibition era and organized crime.
- The rise and eventual decline of the Ku Klux Klan and its influence on American politics.
- The economic policies of the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations in response to the Great Depression.
- The transition of the American economy toward war production and its global implications.
Excerpt from the Book
1.1. Economic Progress
What is significant about the economy of the twenties in America is the fact that this decade was called by its contemporaries, The New Era; it was nothing else but a borrowed prosperity and a new opportunity created in the aftermath of World War I. The war began in Europe in 1914, and the United States entered the fights in 1917. A significant reason for United States involvement in the war was the nation’s economic links to the Allied Powers, especially Great Britain. Wall Street financial institutions such as the House of Morgan had given loans to Great Britain for over 2.3 billion dollars.
Before 1917, American public opinion about the war was generally divided along ethnic lines. The Americans of Anglo-Saxon heritage were on the side of Britain and France. Americans of German heritage wished the United States to remain neutral. Many Americans with ties to Eastern Europe, such as Russian and Polish Jews, also supported Germany, which, up to that time, had been more tolerant of religious minorities than either tsarist Russia or the nations of Western Europe.
Summary of Chapters
Chapter One The Roaring Twenties - Morally Abandoned: This chapter analyzes the decade of the 1920s as a period defined by prosperity, optimism, and technological advance, contrasted with rising intolerance and moral shifts.
Chapter Two Prohibition and Ku Klux Klan – the Diseases of America: This section explores the unintended consequences of Prohibition, including the rise of organized crime, and examines the resurgence of xenophobia and religious fundamentalism through the Ku Klux Klan.
Chapter Three The Great Depression and the Presidents of Hard Times: This chapter details the onset of the Great Depression, the failure of Hoover’s economic strategies, and the subsequent implementation of Roosevelt’s "New Deal" policies to reshape the American economy.
Keywords
United States, 1920s, Roaring Twenties, Prohibition, Al Capone, Ku Klux Klan, Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt, New Deal, Herbert Hoover, Stock Market Crash, Mass Consumption, World War II, Modernization, American History.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this work?
This thesis examines the history and culture of the United States between the two World Wars (1919-1941), specifically analyzing the economic changes, social shifts, and political challenges of the era.
What are the central thematic fields covered?
The core themes include the economic boom and subsequent crash, the social consequences of Prohibition, the emergence of modern mass culture, and the evolution of federal interventionism under the Roosevelt administration.
What is the primary research goal?
The goal is to provide a comprehensive perspective on the drastically changing history of America during these two decades, exploring how internal events like Prohibition and the Depression shaped the nation.
What methodology is employed?
The work utilizes a qualitative analysis based on historical literature, library resources, and relevant digital archives to reconstruct the economic and social reality of the interwar United States.
What topics are discussed in the main body?
The text covers the "Roaring Twenties," the impact of the 1929 stock market crash, the "New Deal" programs, the growth of organized crime, and the transition of the U.S. toward a wartime economy.
Which keywords characterize this work?
The study is best characterized by terms such as the "Roaring Twenties," Prohibition, the Great Depression, the New Deal, and the transformation of the American presidency.
How did Prohibition influence the rise of organized crime?
The text argues that by criminalizing alcohol, the government created a lucrative, high-demand market that was subsequently captured by criminal organizations, leading to increased violence, corruption, and systemic lawlessness.
What impact did the automobile industry have on American society in the 1920s?
The automobile became a dominant feature of everyday life, fueling economic growth through assembly-line production and sparking social change by breaking down the distinction between urban and rural life through increased personal mobility.
- Quote paper
- Marta Zapała-Kraj (Author), 2018, America Between the Wars. The Various Faces of the Power, Entertainment and Depression, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/470999
