Themes in American History

(Picture from the Franklin D. Roosevelt  library, courtesy of the National Archieves and Records Administration.)

Just as prosperity was visible during 1920s in the city through construction and rapid growth of industrialization, the economic crisis in twentieth century brought the great depression  in the U.S.; causing through the Stock market crash of 1929 until 1939, and unemployment that resulted poverty throughout the nation. The working class people and upper class people were widely affected and failed them in terms of raising their life standard and led them into the depression. It was the period of both unemployment and poverty, and increased government involvement in the economy.The most serious problem was an unemployment that heavily fell on unskilled, the young, and color people. In Chudacoff’s book, he states that between 1929 and 1933, both Mayors of Detroit and New York City preferred spending available money and borrow for relief even by reducing other municipal services of the city. This decreased the expenditure on parks and recreation departments in 795 cities and towns by 50 percent. Likewise Chicago was one of the hardest hit cities in American by the Great Depression because of the city dependence on manufacturing and crisis that existed the stock market crash. An unemployment in Chicago was near 50 percent after the four years of crash which led thousands of people to move and gather for social protest.

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n the center of the Great Depression many families tried desperately to pull themselves together and rise above the hardship that was taking place in the city during the 1930’s. This period brought a lot of shame, embarrassment, and abandonment to many families as many people were forced to stand on bread lines and dumpster dive for food. The crisis affected everyone and there were no jobs to be had at this time. Big banks went out of business, the gap between the rich and the poor was shrinking, and resources were being depleted.

On the other side of the country, a different type of depression was taking place during the 1930’s. In many areas of Texas and surrounding states, a huge dust storm had covered a vast portion  of the residential areas. Crops belonging to farmers were ruined by mountains of dust covering them rendering them useless. Many families were affected by the storm and were forced to leave their homes to avoid starvation and malnutrition.

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During the 1920’s, urbanization took place on a wider front than even before. While, New York was famous as the most commercial and creative city in the world, Florida was enjoying rapid economic growth, and Miami was becoming known as a tropical paradise, stirring the interests of investors from across America. It was the time of wild real estate speculation known as Real Estate Boom of the 1920’s. During this time, the stock market was moving forward at an extremely fast pace and many investors were becoming quite wealthy. As the boom gained speed, residential and commercial lots were sold and resold several times during a day, and prices spiraled. Celebrities and tourists flocked to the area, land sales increased astronomically and as a result land prices went up. Miami prospered during the 1920’s with the increase of population and infrastructure, but weakened after the real estate crash and the Great Depression.

Sources: Chudacoff 177; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_land_boom_of_the_1920s ; http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/crises/forgotten.html

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As result of the great depression, many factories in New York were forced to closed, and half of New York’s manufacturing plants were canceled.  New York City was one of cities in the united state which was hit in seriously.  People began to lose their jobs and their houses; they lived in streets as wanderers who had nothing to do.  In order to exist, they started to steal and rob from others. Criminal Rate had increased quickly. Some of them waited for the aids from government to help them overcome the hardest time.

At the same time, Agriculture in the Midwest also suffered. Most of the Great Plains, from Texas to North Dakota, had been turned into a “Dust Bowl.” This name referred to the stripped landscape that was a result of windstorms that blew away millions of tons of topsoil. The reason the windstorms made such an impact can be contributed to the over-planting and stripping of lands to plant wheat after World War I. Many farms were abandoned and many families relocated in California.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&hl=en&hl=zh-CN&v=S4aPi0ZgN0E

This clip is made by a Youtube user, vietnamgal and been uploaded in 7-26-2008.

The Great Depression was triggered by the stock market crash in 1929. This tragic event soon took effects on every American city, and led to heavy unemployment. New York City was been hit the hardest. By 1932, about 25 percent of the population was jobless, and most of them were concentrated in cities like New York and Philadelphia. New York City had one million unemployed, and Philadelphia had 298,000 people unemployed. In 1933, the unemployment of New York City reached 30 percent. The same year, the congress created FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which distributed $500 to help the country, and 42 percent of the fund went to the five heavily urbanized cities including New York and Philadelphia.

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Every decade fashion changes with a new form of clothing style rising. During the 1920s the biggest fashion trend was flappers. Flappers were a new breed of young western style of women who wore short skirts, listen to jazz, and had disdain behaviors than their predecessor

This change contributed modernity is it gave a spirit of women to become more liberal and breakaway from traditions. Women were allowed to flaunt their wealth and enjoy the luxury they never had. Modernity is all about progression and society changing or breaking away from old custom was a progression. It allowed society to try new things and culturally evolve. Even though flapper’s behaviors were seen as outlandish, female historians see it as step to female empowerment. It allowed females to express their individuality and independence. They helped give birth to many fashions that are still in use today. Flappers decide to do away with corsets and use lingerie and panties. Also the dresses they wore were developed from Coco Chanel which brought fashion into the spotlight. .  But eventually the flapper’s era will end with the birth of the Great Depression. Their fashion did not but evolved over time.

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According to www.thenagain.info, ” The leading theory regarding the cause of The Great Depression holds that it resulted from the stock market crash in 1929.  Prior to the crash, around the beginning of 1928, the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates due to financial speculation and inflated stock prices. Industrial production turned down in the spring of 1929, and overall growth turned negative in the summer. This prosperous decade had proven the old adage that all good things must come to an end, when a recession began in the summer of 1929.  In the two months before the crash, industrial production fell to an annual rate of 20%, and continued to drop well into the fall months.  “By mid-November, the market had declined by a half.” ”

I believe that, the prosperous decade, mostly due to the stock market success, represents an aspect of modernity achieved during the 1920s. On the other hand, Great Depression caused a lot of financial, political and cultural changes. This video show us, how people were optimistic in every aspect of their life, during the decade before the crash of the stock market and how evrything changes after.

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