Month: March 2011

03/12/11

We need jobs!

Unemployed men vying for jobs at the American Legion Employment Bureau in Los Angeles during the Great Depression.


Selling apples, Jacksonville, Texas. October, 1939. Photographer: Russell Lee. Many tried apple-selling to avoid the shame of panhandling. In New York City, there were as many as 6,000 apple sellers on the street.

One of most significant characteristics of the Great Depression is the lack of jobs. The stock market crash in 1929 triggered the mass depression that last for several years. Many people were out of a job.

Picture one depicts a crowd of people fighting to get their names registered.Picture 2 shows a lady with a cart selling apples.
Compared to the crowd, this lady seems to be more independent, tough and have more control of her life.
Although picture 1 shows a more striking image of how desperate people were during the hard-time.

03/12/11

Schedule for 3/14 and 3/16

I am cancelling class Monday, 3/14.  Class will be held 3/16, although it may be a guest professor.  You are still responsible for the assignments posted to the blog.  If there is a guest, he will be aware of your readings and assignment, so please complete them on time.  The assignment for 3/14 has already been posted.  By Monday evening at the latest I will post the assignment for 3/16.  I should definitely be back by our class on 3/21.  Please do not hesitate to contact me anytime by email with questions.

03/11/11

The Great Depression in America

People sleeping on the streets using newspapers as a blanket and as a mattress

The Great Depression began in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s and early 1940s. There was a sharp decline in profits, personal incomes and tax revenues. Businesses were failing rapidly and many people became unemployed and homeless. The two images shown above portray how the Great Depression greatly impacted their lifestyle. The first image have multiple pictures combined, it shows people of different backgrounds besieged with the same problem. The second image shows homeless people sleeping on the streets. This resulted from high unemployment rates, causing many people have no source of income to support themselves.

03/11/11

Great Depression

A Normal Stock market, Just what he wanted. Wish denied. This Cartoon is fro 1929.
Artist: William Kemp Starrett, appeared in Life Magazine.

The Stock Market crash in New York of 1929.

The Great Depression started in October 1929 with the stock market crash in New York.
The first image shows how people wanted the stock market to go back to normal. Like shown on the picture, they wanted it as a gift just like how Santa Claus would be able to give them that. The second picture is more of a realistic form of the stock market crash. All the people in front of the Stock Market wanting to take back their money. These two pictures show how the Stock Market Crash was the very cause of the Great Depression.

03/11/11

The Celebrities of 1920s

The Great Depression

The United States hit the so called  “great era” in the 1920s, Americans suddenly took an interest in the stock market. Many ordinary people believed the stock market was the place to seek for wealth. For almost eight years the stock value has been raising, stocks represented opportunities and dreams. Rich stock investor like Jesse Livermore and Charles Mitchell persuaded many  middle and lower classes to buy and sell stocks. Banker, broker and speculators were celebrities of the day, they represented the wealth of the economy. It was not until 1929 until the when the crash of stock market that led the nation into a tremendous downfall.

03/10/11

The Great Depression: Breadline and World’s Highest Standard of Living

Morris Huberland - Bread Line. late 1930s. Gelatin silver print: 6¾ x 7¼ in.
1937 photo by Margaret Bourke-White – Breadline during Louisville Flood.

The breadlines during the Great Depression are some of the most symbolic characteristics of the Great Depression. The breadlines were unusually long and crowded, despite of the fact that the agency were providing little bread to each individuals. Although most of people on the breadline were capable laborers, the lack of employment opportunities made them unable to make any production and forced them to wait on a crowded line for most of the day-time. It was quite tragic, since many capable workers were forced to accept the little ration provided by the government. Certain city folks found it unbearable and relocated themselves to rural areas to farm, in hope of using their labor to produce actual food.

The two images above are illustrations of the long, crowded breadlines during the Great Depression. The first picture depicts the breadline on a cold day, in which many people wear wearing heavy jackets and hiding their hands in the pockets. They have no other choice other than waiting there. They could not produce food in the city (or not fast enough, since growing vegetation in the backyard cannot guarantee a stable food source),  so they had no choice but to accept their only stable source of food. On the other hand, the second picture portrays the irony of America’s economics collapse. Just several years ago, the Americans were celebrating the lavish lifestyle and liberal behaviors of the Roaring Twenties; however, by the time of the depression, Americans no longer had the money and leisure to enjoy their freedom and the world’s highest standard of living. Nothing remained but the ad board, which ironically depicted their faded prosperity during the age of wide-scale poverty.

03/10/11

Meyer v. Nebraska

 

 After World War I, Americans were not in favor of all German related things. Language was a major principal focus of legislation at the state and local level. The performance of German music at symphony concerts and the meetings of German-American civic associations were things that Americans find objectionable. Some states and towns even banned the use of German language. On April 9, 1919, Nebraska enacted a statute called Siman Act, a restrictionrelating to the teaching of foreign languages in the state of Nebraska”.

 On May 25, 1920, Robert T. Meyer, when an instructor in Zion Parochial School in Hampton, Nebraska taught the subject of reading in the German language to 10-year-old Raymond Parpart, a fourth-grader. The school charged Meyer with violation the Siman Act. He was found guilty in the Nebraska Supreme Court, he then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. As protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. In a 7 to 2 decision, the Court held that it was indeed a violation of the Due Process Clause (an violation of people’s liberty). This was one of the very first cases in which the Court found that people had liberty rights not specifically listed in the Constitution.

03/10/11

Not Dissimilar To Our MIstakes…

I think this picture pretty much speaks for itself - an image we came a little bit too close to in the past couple of years...

I’m posting here a very famous picture from The Wall Street Journal of what looks like a stock broker or investor who lost it all the day after the crash of October 29, 1929. This picture, to me, represents a hard fall very similar to the one that many of us felt just a few short years ago with the failure and bailing out of companies like Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, AIG, and countless monstrous financial institutions. I’ve als0 posted a video that may be a little bit on the lengthly side, and much of it may sound rather elementary and pretty redundant to many of you; but I think that the person who made it simplifies very clearly the true causes of The Great Depression, puts into perspective just how close we actually came after the financial meltdown of 2008 to another one, and how we actually made MANY of the same mistakes this time around:

Video: What Caused The Great Depression

-C. Salama

03/10/11

Hooverville

Hooverwille a place filled with poor people who are forced to live in shacks because of the great depression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfylLnHjcu0

During the great depression things got really difficult for people. Million of people started to lose their jobs and everyone who suffered. Since many became jobless soup kitchens popped up everywhere in order to feed the people as much as they can. The people started to also build their own houses out of cardboard and wood called shacks, and later on became known as Hooverville. Everyone was affected by the Great Depression especially the children. The children had to stop going to school to help provide for their family.

03/10/11

Will we ever learn?

This photograph (taken in 1933) depicts a shantytown in Seattle known as Hooverville. Shantytowns sprang up all over America housing thousands of unemployed families.

This is a wonderful video produced by PBS in the Cosmopolis series. It summarizes the speculation and activities of stock brokers before Black Tuesday as well as the aftereffects. PBS used great archival materials, including photographs, audio, and video from 1929.

The photograph depicts the dire consequences of American (humans in general) greed. The smoke in the background symbolizes the hell that the persons in the foreground will face. Furthermore the black & white nature of the photograph adds a feeling of lost hope, capturing this moment in America’s history perfectly. Contrarily, the video describes a major cause of the great depression and has tons of outstanding material however it fails to portray the chaos and solemn reality of the Great Depression due to it’s focus on videos and pictures of the mass, thus not allowing the viewer to sympathize with an individual. However it does get the point across, I just wonder if the federal reserve and banking institutions ever heard of this mysterious event that occurred in 1929…

03/10/11

Limiting My Inventory

The Washington Naval Conference was held in Washington D.C. for four months discussing and making treaties following the World War I. One of the most important treaties made was the Five-Power Naval Limitation Treaty. This treaty limited the arms of five countries: United States, Great Britain, Japan, France and Italy. This treaty is to prevent mass production of arms following the World War I. The limitations reflected on the tonnage of ships and aircraft carriers each country can have. This treaty was made in hopes of preventing a second world war.

03/10/11

I Ain’t “Lying”, But I’m Still Roaring

[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/SclJ94h2oyQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

The roaring twenties became a time where Americans broke away from their old traditions. People starting becoming more involved in doing things that haven’t been done. Such things are people spending more and more of their money on leisure activities such as vacations, movies and sporting events. Radios owners exponentially increased and served as their daily entertainment resource. With that, the radio also became a great asset to spreading information. With this sudden upscale of the quality of living for Americans, the roaring twenties ended with the Great Depression in 1929.

03/9/11

Corruption in the Government

Business and government were interconnected. They were helping each other.  Government officials took bride from big business and in return, they give big business the promise of  government “hands off” policy. Such corruption made business once again unregulated, many progressive era ideology were fading away and lassie faire was back in action. Most corruption occurred under president Harding when his cabinets were accepting bribes to help business leaders. Such corruption continued when president Coolidge took office. from this image, we can see that the government can not do anything to the big business people and seems like they are the one in control of the congress instead of the government officials. Such corruption eventually will hurt the economy in the long run.

03/9/11

Charlie Chaplin, Silent revolution and mass production in 1920s

Charlie Chaplin, a silent movies actor, had become an icon in 20s with the emergence of movie theaters as a form of mass entertainment. In 1929 weekly attendance of movie theaters had reached 80 million people according to E. Foner, which was double the amount in 1922. Popularity of movies along with proliferation of radio stations throughout the country fueled by the additional leisure time and income, people gained as a result of industrial progress, had brought about the celebrity culture in the form known to us today. Not accidentally, it was the 1927th when the tradition to install stars with “limbprints” of actors into the sidewalks by theaters in Hollywood took place. Among the very first ten stars were the star of Charlie Chaplin (source: http://www.filmsite.org/20sintro.html). The flourishing movie industry in 20s was a part of a larger trend of quickly developing mass production and mass consumption during the booming economic growth of the decade, a trend so large that it had completely changed the culture of the society.

Video tribute to Charlie Chaplin with lots of scenes from his movies and some techno)

03/9/11

Cultural Differences

In the 1920’s Fundamentalism was spreading around the U.S.  Protestants were becoming threatened by the Jewish and Catholic Immigration to the U.S.  many protestants became members of the Klu Klux Klan.  The KKK was once again formed in Atlanta in 1915.  By the mid 1920’s the KKK spread to the North and the West.  It was clear that Protestants were trying to eliminate any other religion and keep the U.S. as a Protestant majority.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CTG58jIlNA

03/9/11

Sacco & Vanzetti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3SuTTcj2u8

Nicola Sacco  and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were anarchists who were convicted of murdering two men during a 1920 armed robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. After a controversial trial and a series of appeals, the two Italian immigrants were executed on August 23, 1927.

There is a highly politicized dispute over their guilt or innocence, as well as whether or not the trials were fair. Very little evidence linked them to this crime. The dispute focuses on small details and contradictory evidence. As a result, historians have not reached a consensus.

03/9/11

I have the right to?

The prohibition of alcohol was a long and debatable topic. Everything was truly against the law, drinking, selling, importing, manufacturing and transportation. Prohibition was instituted by the 18th amendment which was ratified in 1919. Prohibition can also be defined as a legal term which analyzes the environment where the law was actually enforced! Eventually what prohibition did was worse than good, it created an atmosphere of illegal and criminal behavior. It created a route for “organized crime.” If an individual could not get it the right way, they found it another way. The life term of this amendment was not very long, its unpopularity forced it to be taken back into courts, and in 1933, it was up to the individual states to do as they pleased with alcohol.

03/9/11

The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a massive cultural movement among African Americans that took place in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Nearly one million African-Americans left the south following the end of WWI. They sought new opportunities up north and many found themselves heading to cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago and of course New York City. During the 20’s these cities black population more than doubled, and Harlem, NYC became known as “the capital of Black America”. Though many faced hard times during this era, a great artistic movement began. Cultural poetry, paintings, musical composers, intellectuals and novels began to emerge. Most notably was the production and development of outstanding Jazz musicians, such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. The Apollo theatre in Harlem became the pride of Harlem, and was the only place in the city that hired black performers. In these theatre seats both black and white patrons watched shows together, and it can be considered a place of equality. The Harlem Renaissance was a massive step forward in the movement for civil rights.

03/9/11

Billy Sunday Wants YOU!

According to Foner, while  many American were enjoying the new statements being made in society during the 1920’s, Billy Sunday was among the flamboyant apostles who was rebelling against this. The protestants felt threatened by the decline of value and increase in visibility of Catholicism and Judaism. The Fundamentalists ended up launching a campaign to rid Protestant denominations of modernism and to combat the new individual freedoms that seemed to contradict traditional morals. Billy Sunday was able to draw very large crowds between 1900 and 1930 through speeches denouncing topics from  Darwinism to alcohol. The video below shows a speech of Sunday preaching against alcohol and its effects on the community. This video is a great visual of one of the speeches that drew many people around him.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/rVZ-J3c8_AY" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

03/9/11

Roaring Twenties and the Flappers

The Roaring Twenties are recalled as the crazy age of social revolutions of sexes and behaviors. The social revolutionists from that era, especially the flappers (the young, sexually liberated women), were ultimately violating the religious and social taboos that were once strictly enforced. It was probably beyond the imagination of most Americans before the 1900s.

A video depicting our grannies, the women of Roaring Twenties, is located at the bottom of the post. The video, which has footage taken from the 1920s, illustrates the gregarious and luxurious life-styles of the brave women of the age of breaking former social taboos.

*It is worthwhile to note that Foner has described the reaction from Europe as positively amazed and envious. The actual wording is reproduced here: “Observers from Europe, where class divisions were starkly visible in work, politics, and social relations, marveled at the uniformity of American Life.”

I understand that Foner do not wish to go more depth for this topic, but I find his claim to be single-opinionated and without enough supporting evidences. Certainly, some Europeans probably had admired the liberal lifestyles of Americans; however, it’s hard to imagine that conservatives and religious Europeans would give recognition to the flappers. Foner’s claim probably had not given us a very accurate image, or is not well-supported enough to convince certain readers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3svvCj4yhYc