THE MODERNS

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL MILESTONES World War I ( ) US entered the conflict in 1917 Nearly 50 million lives were lost Women’s Sufferage (1920) The Great depression ( Up to a third of all working age men were unemployed Thousands of unemployed Americans lived in Hoovervilles It wasn’t until FDR (franklin Roosevelt) that the economy changed

THE AMERICAN DREAM With America’s institution in 1776, an idea began to grow about the nation’s ideals and freedoms that eventually became known as the American dream, which can be defined in three parts: America as a new eden A belief in progress Triumph of the individual

A CRACK IN THE WORLD After World War I, many Americans began questions the long held traditional values of their ancestors. The three values of the American dream came strongly into question. Marxism was given rise as a challenge to Capitalism. Marxism is a predecessor to communism and socialism. The process of psychoanalysis was created by Freud, a famous and groundbreaking psychiatrist

In 1919, the prohibition (or criminalization of alcohol) was put into effect in an effort to preserve traditional values Instead of saving tradition, the 1920’s became characterized by the speak easy, the short-skirted flapper, bootleggers, the cocktail, jazz music, and gangsters. Many Americans decided to live abroad during this time

HEMINGWAY’S HERO This period of disillusionment spurned writer Earnest Hemingway to create a new kind of hero: a tough man of action who showed “grace under pressure”. A defining characteristic of this hero, though, is the thorough cynicism and deep understanding that life is meaningless.

HARLEM RENAISSANCE In the early 1920’s, a group of black poets began to write specifically about the contributions of African American culture to America. Their poetry based its rhythms of spirituals and jazz, its lyrics on the blues, and its diction on the street talk of the ghettos. This movement allowed for black artistic contributions to finally begin to be recognized