World War I, The Great Depression And Its Aftermath

In 1865, slavery was abolished, by the Thirteenth amendment. This Amendment brought humongous changes and a large number of problems. (Lecture 1) After the destruction of slavery, it left nearly four million African American with no property, little training, and few rights; which made the definition of freedom for African Americans the central question on the nation’s agenda. The big question of the time period was, “what was freedom for African Americans?” (Give me liberty! An American 550)

Modernism began around the late 1800s or early 1900s, with artists and writers in Europe producing many extraordinary and influential works. This period spans many events, including both World Wars and the Great Depression. World War I appeared to be a major event that helped to start Modernism; this was because of the destruction and ruin that came from it and events that followed. This poem is consistent with the values of Modernism because of alienation, time, and self- consciousness; however, it continues to resonate with readers today because isolation, change, and insecurities are things that humans may face.

The fallout after the World War 1 and the Great Depression saw the emergence of a literary preoccupation with the idea of fragmentation, and a 'cubist application ' to literature as a means of representing the 20th Century 'modern ' reality. Authors, poets, artists etc saw; cubism, expressionism and fragmentation as the best vehicles to depict the incomplete, broken lives of their subjects. With both modern and post modern literature making a conscious break away from previous realism, 20thC literature employed and explored subjectivism, whereby the author turned from the typical external reality to the inner consciousness of a character or subject, to reflect a motif/ theme as a whole. Modernist literature did so by exploring fragmentation in terms of narrative, how a character was constructed, the formation of passages and chapters, and how events unfolded. This typically surmounted to the creation of a sense of a chaotic universe, metaphysically unfounded, laced with the subconscious fears of characters and notions of alienation.

In 1865, the United States government implemented what was known as Reconstruction. Its’ purpose was to remove slavery from the south, and give African-American’s the freedom in which they deserved. However, the freedom that they deserved was not the freedom that they received. With documents like The Black Codes restricting them from numerous privileges that white people had and the terroristic organization known as the Klu Klux Klan attacking and killing them, African-American’s were still being oppressed by their government as well as their fellow man. Slavery may have been abolished, but African-American’s were not yet given the freedom and rights that their white counterparts took for granted.

The Great Depression can be considered the true test of American resilience. Americans faced many adversities and struggled to make it through each day. The Great Depression did not begin on one single day, but was something that had been stirring for many months prior. The day of the stock market crash, October 29, 1929, everything came to head and from that day on America was thrust into a terrible economic depression which would take over 10 years to recover from (Gitlin 58). The economic depression did not occur overnight but was series of events which accumulated in the recession of the economy. Once America entered World War I, it was thrust into a time of prosperity, but as the end of war came closer so did an end to the good times (Gitlin 8). Soldiers were coming home expecting to collect the benefits of the war, which everybody else had received but instead were faced with the prospect of being unemployed and the start of the economy 's downfall. The problem was although the war was over, the mass productions still continued to flood the market. Producers continued to manufacture goods at wartime levels, leading to a surplus of products in circulation and thus forcing the prices to drop (George 14). The time after World War I became known as one of the most difficult times in American history. Many Americans were unemployed and struggled to provide for their families. But on September 1, 1939, Germany

As Robert Penn Warren once stated, “History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future” (Szasz). The comprehension of all historic events is crucial to society’s success. In order for The United States to reach favorable outcomes in the future, its citizens must be knowledgeable of its history to avoid catastrophe or to adopt a beneficial decision-making process. By understanding the background of this staggering nation, the American population can learn of the errors that have been made along with the characteristics of the route to success. Among the numerous significant events that have occurred in the history of The United

World War I, The Great Depression, and World War II brought instability to the United States. As World War II came to an end in 1945 people were looking for stability, which is what the 1950’s resulted in. The 1950’s was a decade of conformity in all aspects of life; politics, economy, and culture.

Over the long history of American, three moments specifically have excessively decided the course of the Republic 's advancement. Each separately refined the experience and characterized the authentic legacy of a century. Each grasped a couple of scenes with lastingly trans formative effects. From 1776 to 1789 the Revolutionary War and the adopted the Constitution brought national independence and established the basic political framework within which the nation would be governed ever after. From 1861 to 1877 the Civil War and Reconstruction affirmed the integrated the Union, ended slavery, and generated three constitutional amendments that at least laid the foundation for honoring the Declaration 's promise that all men equal. And somewhere around 1929 and 1945 the Great Depression and World War II totally re-imagined the part of government in American culture and slung the United States from a detached, fringe state into the world 's hegemonic superpower. To comprehend the rationale and the outcomes of those three minutes is to see much about the substance and the trajectory of all of American history.

The greatest part that fully completed the Great depression was due to government spending of World War II. The financial allowance had extended, close by the gross national thing. The War organized the decrease in ordinary living that was brought on by the discouragement. Wartime era made an absence of purchaser stock as a consequence of the premium, which wage workers used to put into investment funds to help the economy.

The economic downturn is considered the great depression from 1929-1941 because of the uncontrolled exertion on unlimited goods produced. Other contributions were the risky and irresponsible speculations in the stock market. Banks had invested and lost, and they were buying on margin. There was also increasingly unequal distribution of wealth. Furthermore, the U.S had weak banking systems and banks eventually failed. Finally, there was a protectionism in tariff policy. Tariffs are taxed on goods that other countries paid to trade. This is also viewed as the great depression because it was not just only U.S crisis it was a global crisis. Farmers were hit hard, lost land and could not pay their mortgages. This was the longest depression ever in U.S history that had affect tens of millions of people including businesses, farmers, the wealthy and the middle class. It was estimated that 13-15 million Americans lost their jobs, unemployment hit 25%, and 5,000 banks closed. World War 2 was significantly costly, which also had an effect on the great depression. The manufacture of materials for war such as rifles, ships, tanks and other items cost the federal government millions of the dollars which worried Americans again. Lastly, governments were destabilized everywhere.

From 1929 to 1945, two catastrophes occurred: the Great Depression and World War II. American political leaders established a cause-effect relationship between economic collapse and total war, based on these two events, which defined their policy approach in the post-war period. In the 1930s, American leadership, and most importantly, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, came to view economic decline, political radicalization, and instability as forming a vicious cycle that led to utter chaos and war. Although FDR did not know the future consequences of the economic fallout, he did know that breaking the cycle was of systemic importance. FDR’s policy platform, known as the New Deal, disregarded the historical wariness for government intervention and boldly connected economic security to freedom. Essentially, he attempted to push the American system to its limit in order to save it. Even with conservative elements constantly attempting to restrain his initiatives, FDR expanded his focus in the latter years of the 1930s to include international affairs as war broke out in Europe, Africa, and Asia. FDR and other government elites openly talked about the responsibility America had to build a new world order.

During the 1920's America experienced an increase like no other. With the model T car, the assembly line, business skyrocketed. Thus, America's involvement in World War II did not begin with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Starting in October 1929, the Great Depression, the stock market crashed. It awed a country used to the excesses of the 1920's. These are the events that lead up to the crash.

The war brought devastation, deprivation and depression. The lifestyle of American people underwent significant changes. They must have economized on food, clothing, and elecrticity. To one of the leading wartime occupations belonged organizing scrap metal drives along with collecting paper as well as rubber.

Unbeknownst to the masses, information had been controlled by the oligarchy for the sake of “national security” or economic and social cooperation. Although this had been a theme throughout hundreds of dystopian novels, such overarching influence is lamentably applied in societies throughout the world. Historically, nation/states across the globe have manipulated information regarding controversial events to maintain the national identity, of which had facilitated cooperation by creating a common enemy. Throughout history, the majority have made minorities the scapegoats during times of crises and socioeconomic turmoil, validating the injustices performed against them. This strategy of garnering cooperation throughout the masses through prejudice allowed them to survive events such as the Great Depression, World Wars and insidious campaigns all while maintaining morale, but there has been overwhelming evidence that any type of nationalism, despite the intention, is detrimental. Unfortunately, in constituting love for one’s nation through hate, one would need to constantly find a demographic minority to do so. Such has been the case not only throughout the United States’ history but is also present in India’s history where true events have been convoluted and objectivity is nonexistent.

After the Great War (1914-1919) came the “Roaring Twenties” followed by the Great Depression (1929-1939). After World War I America experienced the greatest economic growth in its history. Its economic expansion was due to how undamaged it was after the war. It became the richest country in the world at that time. The people enjoyed life as it were back then until the US experienced the largest economic downturn in history when the Stock Market crashed on 29th October 1929. It began in the summer months of 1929 when the US economy began experiencing a small recession where consumers began spending less and unsold goods began piling up, thereby slowing down production. While this was happening stock prices continues to rise reaching levels that could not be justified by anticipated potential earnings. This occurred for a few months until October 24th 1929 when the stock market crashed and America faced the Great Depression a few days after on October 29th 1929 . So what were the contributing factors of the Great Depression? These include: