Daily Life In The United States 1920 1939

Of course people were not all alike even way back then, admits Kyvig (history, Northern Illinois U.), and there was too much distinction in location, occupation, economic circumstances, race, gender, and other factors than he can accommodate. Still, he wants to avoid the emphasis historians usually give to dramatic events, and focus instead on what daily life was like for a sampling of Americans in what we now know, but they did not, was a mere lull between world wars. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Annotation. During the 1920s and 1930s, changes in the American population, increasing urbanization, and innovations in technology exerted major influences on the daily lives of ordinary people. Explore how everyday living changed during these years when use of automobiles and home electrification first became commonplace, when radio emerged, and when cinema, with the addition of sound, became broadly popular. This enjoyable read brings the period clearly into focus. Annotation. Discover what everyday life was like for ordinary Americans during the decades of development and depression in the 1920s and 1930s. Annotation. During the 1920s and 1930s, changes in the American population, increasing urbanization, and innovations in technology exerted major influences on the daily lives of ordinary people. Explore how everyday living changed during these years when use of automobiles and home electrification first became commonplace, when radio emerged, and when cinema, with the addition of sound, became broadly popular. This enjoyable read brings the period clearly into focus.

Discover what everyday life was like for ordinary Americans during the decades of development and depression in the 1920s and 1930s.

The twenties and thirties witnessed dramatic changes in American life: increasing urbanization, technological innovation, cultural upheaval, and economic disaster. In this fascinating book, the prize-winning historian David E. Kyvig describes everyday life in these decades, when automobiles and home electricity became commonplace, when radio and the movies became broadly popular. The details of work life, domestic life, and leisure activities make engrossing reading and bring the era clearly into focus.

During the 1920s and 1930s, changes in the American population, increasing urbanization, and innovations in technology exerted major influences on the daily lives of ordinary people. Explore how everyday living changed during these years when use of automobiles and home electrification first became commonplace, when radio emerged, and when cinema, with the addition of sound, became broadly popular. Find out how worklife, domestic life, and leisure-time activities were affected by these factors as well as by the politics of the time. Details of matters such as the creation of the pickup truck, the development of radio programming, and the first mass use of cosmetics provide an enjoyable read that brings the period clearly into focus. Centering its attention on the broad masses of the population, this animated reference resource emphasizes the wide variety of experiences of people living through The Roaring Twenties and The Great Depression. Readers will be surprised to discover that some of the assumptions we have about the lives of average Americans during these eras are historically inaccurate. A final chapter provides a unique look at six American communities and gives a vivid sense of the diversity of American experience over the course of these tumultuous years.

Examine the everyday lives of ordinary Americans from the 1940s and 1950s and discover how very different the two decades were. World War II affected Americans and the way they behaved, not only in the 1940s, but also in the years that followed when the depression that preceded the war was replaced with an economic boom. Explore how women's roles and lives changed during these two very distinct decades, how politics and political decisions impacted all walks of life, and what the advent of growing technology, much of it developed during the war, meant to the general population. What was it like to be a woman suddenly earning her own money while men were off fighting? How did children and teenagers contribute to the war effort? How did housing change in postwar America? What pastimes were popular during these two decades and how did they reflect the times? These questions and others are explored in detail, encouraging students, teachers, and interested readers to recognize the tremendous shift in society between the war years and the atomic age that immediately followed. This text presents the 1940s as a time of social problems that existed alongside community commitment to the war, while the 1950s are presented as a time when exciting social change such as the beginning of the civil rights movement and the building of Levittowns occurred. After the war ordinary people began to question long-accepted ideas. The exploration of these everyday details provides a rich look at two very important decades in our country's history.

"The Uncertainty of Everyday Life, 1915-1945 is a vivid chronicle of American life between the two world wars that reveals a country expanding in every direction, energetic and optimistic in the 1920s before the shock of the Great Depression and the increasingly uncertain life of the grim 1930s." "By 1915 the United States had become an increasingly urban culture, and the fortunes of the farming population were declining in income and prestige. Racism in the South was on the rise, and many blacks moved North to escape the Ku Klux Klan and its dominance of Southern attitudes. Life became more comfortable for many Americans, but as World War II began only half the population enjoyed the modern conveniences we now take for granted--running water, indoor plumbing, central heating. Consumerism became an active force in national life and, spurred by the new science of advertising, Americans bought cars, radios, and appliances. However, jobs and wages were unpredictable, labor unrest was constant, savings vanished in the stock market, and uncertainty hovered over daily life for many Americans."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Describes how the uncommon events of the 1920s and 1930s changed the lives of the common people of America.

Since Yesterday is Frederick Lewis Allen's sequel to Only Yesterday. Only Yesterday is an informative and popular tell-all history book about American life in the 1920s. Since Yesterday turns this same witty and empathetic energy towards the Great Depression and 1930s America. Excerpt: "Ever since, in Only Yesterday, I tried to tell the story of life in the United States during the nineteen-twenties I have had it in the back of my mind that someday I might make a similar attempt for the nineteen-thirties. I began work on the project late in 1938 and had it three-quarters done by the latter part of the summer of 1939, though I did not yet know how the story would end."

Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s by Frederick Lewis Allen is a history textbook about the lively gloriousness of Roaring 20s America. Contents: "II. BACK TO NORMALCY III. THE BIG RED SCARE IV. AMERICA CONVALESCENT V. THE REVOLUTION IN MANNERS AND MORALS VI. HARDING AND THE SCANDALS VII. COOLIDGE PROSPERITY VIII. THE BALLYHOO YEARS IX. THE REVOLT OF THE HIGHBROWS X. ALCOHOL AND AL CAPONE XI. HOME, SWEET FLORIDA."

This invaluable resource covers all aspects of 1920s political, artistic, popular, and economic culture in America, supporting the AP U.S. history curriculum through topical and biographical entries, primary documents, sample documents-based essay questions, and period-specific learning objectives. The 1920s, despite President Harding's "return to normalcy," were a time of both great cultural and social advancement as well as various forms of oppression in the United States. Bookended in history by two world wars, this period saw the rise of tabloid journalism and mass media; the banning and reinstatement of alcohol; the advent of voting rights for women and Native Americans; movements such as the Red Scare, labor strikes, the Harlem Renaissance, and racial protests; and the global reorganization that occurred as the major powers fumbled their way through postwar foreign policy and the League of Nations. Almost no element of U.S. society was untouched. The New Era of the 1920s: Key Themes and Documents provides high school students taking the Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. history course and undergraduates taking a lower level American history survey course with an invaluable study guide and targeted test preparation material. Much more than just an AP test-taking study guide, this new title in ABC-CLIO's Unlocking American History series is a true reference source for the societal, political, and economic history of a specific period covered in the AP U.S. history course. Readers will also benefit from features designed for student exam preparation, such as a sample documents-based essay question and period-specific learning objectives that are in alignment with the 2014 AP U.S. History Curriculum Framework.