In the 1930’s the ebb and flow of the American economy reached record lows. The American Economy, previously a system of independent business, and the American Citizens previously self-sufficient now desperately needed governmental assistance. In response to this cry for help, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal provided direct governmental involvement and aid in an attempt to stimulate the economy and help citizens provide for themselves. The policies of the New Deal and the politics of Franklin Roosevelt placed all American’s as equally deserving of the American creed of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and called for the banding together of Americans in help of Americans. As crisis unfolded within the borders of the United States, American Citizens struggled to simply survive. The common despair experienced by the citizens of the United States served as a uniting force, providing a sense of togetherness. In retrospect of this truly remarkable decade, Warren Susman examines the emergence of culture and a sense of commitment among American Citizens in the 1930’s. The immergence of culture, or a shared sense of ideas and beliefs, in the 1930’s can be explained by the increased sense of togetherness that Americans felt as a result of their common despair. However, it is arguable that without the advancement of technological developments, which visually and orally united American citizens via photography and radio, that this sense of shared togetherness would not have take hold, and American culture wouldn’t have taken developed as it did in the 1930’s.
In his Commonwealth Club Address during his 1932 presidential campaign, Franklin D. Roosevelt briefly recaps the growth of the American empire from a small nation of yeomen farmers to a nation of industrial giants. Against this backdrop of extreme growth, Roosevelt concedes that a constant discrepancy has existed regarding government involvement in the affairs of its citizens. Although this discrepancy has and always will be a product of the two-party American political system, Roosevelt argues that this unprecedented age of economic depression calls for unprecedented government involvement in business and social affairs. Previous to the Great Depression, American industry was growing as steadfastly as the nations borders. In turn, the government eagerly supported independent business, and monopolization, captivated by the joys and perks of industrialization. However, the joys of industrialization evolved into the woes of depression, monopolization crushing the hopes of small business owners. Equal opportunity, a concept fundamental to the contract between the American government and its citizens, became a distant dream as the frontier closed and small businesses failed. The policies of the New Deal were designed to provide support for citizens drowning in economic depression, however; Roosevelt firmly believed that the United States had become deeply fractured and the only way to emerge from the throws of depression is to unite together. Indeed, Roosevelt states, “The responsible heads of finance and industry instead of acting each for himself, must work together to achieve the common end. They must, where necessary, sacrifice this or that private advantage…should the group ever use its collective power contrary to the public welfare, the government must be swift to protect the public interest.” It is clear that Roosevelt believed that the only way to rise out of the depression was to insure that the government provides assistance through the programs of the new deal and for the people of the untied states to band together.
In his essay Culture as History The Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth Century, Warren L. Susman traces the development of culture in the United States. While culture is certainly not a concept born in the 1930’s, Susman documents changing connotations associated with the word. While previously culture was relegated to the world of art and intellect, the 1930’s brought culture’s transcendence of class boundaries as the word came to mean as Susman defines, “all the things that a group of people in a common geographical area do, the way they do things and the ways they think and feel about things, their material tools and their values and symbols” (153). The rise of American culture that Susman sees when examining the 1930’s, is the actualization of the togetherness that Theodore Roosevelt called for in Commonwealth Club Address. Theodore Roosevelt called for togetherness to combat depression and depression brought citizens together; however, the development of technology dramatically assisted in creating a shared sense of identity, allowing Americans to relate to each other. The advent of polling provided documented evidence of the ideas and beliefs that Americans shared. Even more critical in the recognition of a common thread of American attitudes was the development of photography. Photographic images and picture essays revolutionized the way in which news was conveyed to Americans and the way in which Americans viewed the world. Indeed, pictures were able to touch not only a wider scope of people, including the illiterate, but touch them more profoundly. Words alone cannot convey intensity as a picture can, one cannot see oneself in another’s shoes through words as one can through pictures. Photography’s ability to convey truth and emotion allowed American citizens to relate deeply with their counterparts eternalized on film. Furthermore, as Americans joined together in common despair they joined together in outrage, desperately combating economic depression. As Susman suggests, “The newly developed media and their special kinds of appeal helped reinforce a social order rapidly disintegrating under economic and social pressures that were too great to endure, and helped create an environment in which the sharing of common experience, be they of hunger, dustbowls, or war, made the uniform action for demand for action and reform more striking and urgent” (159). In a time of hopelessness, photography provided a medium in which Americans were able to relate to one another and develop an ever-expanding culture. Furthermore, photography allowed a citizenry united in bitterness as much as in despair to demand change as well as participate in it.
Just as photographic images inspired American Citizens to demand change from their government, the American government utilized photography as a means of gaining public support for the New Deal. The Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the many programs of the New Deal, was created in an attempt to create jobs for unemployed Americans. One facet of the Civilian Conservation Corps was charged with the task of taking pictures and documenting the triumphs and struggles of American citizens. Wilfred Mead, one of the many CCC photographers, represented in his work the image of strong American workers physically toiling their economic woes away. In one example, a young man stands dramatically silhouetted in the sun, holding a sledgehammer with the utmost control. The shot is taken at an upward angle emphasizing the power of the young man. Every element in the composition of Mead’s photograph emphasizes the young man’s ability to achieve an income for himself. While the public would understand the meaning of these compositional elements they would also understand that this man was able to achieve this moderate degree of success due to the help of the New Deal programs. Mead’s photo emphasized the triumphs of New Deal policies; a now infamous photo “Migrant Mother” emphasized the desperate need of the American public for the moderate success and empowerment promised in Mead’s work. “Migrant Mother,” a highly emotional image portrays a mother and her two sons: dirty and homeless. The image of a mother trying to provide for her offspring is a subject that many Americans could relate to in the 1930’s. Indeed, this woman, like many other women desperately needed the New Deal policies. When examining these two photos together, as well as the many thousands of photos compiled throughout the decade, a story of despair to triumph can be easily read.
Images, such as those produced by the CCC, proved highly influential in attaining support for the New Deal as well as creating a feeling of togetherness amongst the American population. Images, thus, were the fulfillment of both of Theodore Roosevelt’s weapons in the battle against the Great Depression. Although the battle waged on and aftermath of the Great Depression was felt for many years, sorrows and anxieties still resonating within American society; the immergence of a common culture in 1930’s largely as a result of the great depression was unthinkably important. Indeed, although photography was the mechanism in which many realized a mutual understanding existed between Americans they did not know, the Great Depression, the subject of the photos, is what truly united citizens.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
paper two rough draft
Question 3)
As the 19th century merged into the 20th century, The United States began to experience a confluence of changing political and social conditions. As immigrants flocked to our land and our own citizens were sent abroad to fight in the name of imperialism, Americans began to experience an identity crisis. The changing conditions in America created a new light on the way in which Americans viewed themselves. No longer defined by westward expansion and a homogeneous population, the identity of the Unites States became ambiguous. Ambiguity created an avenue from change within disenfranchised segments of society, which desperately sought to escape oppression and inequality. Indeed, as normalcy was being redefined, redefining oneself and ones capabilities became a way of escaping oppression. Women in particular capitalized on the opportunities of redefinition, embracing independence beyond previous conception. However, some women, especially African American and Immigrant women, more ferociously clung to the fight for redefinition, the fight for independence.
It is without question that in times of war opportunities for feminine growth abound. As men occupy the barracks, vacancies in the work force allow women to legitimize themselves economically. The Spanish American War in the late 19th century allowed American women to breach the line of traditional domesticity. A new Woman thus emerged as both a wage-earning pillar in family life and independent creatures in themselves. Economic independence left a new taste for equality in the mouths of American women. Furthermore, as American men began to redefine themselves and their relationships to women in the wake of the closing frontier and through the lens of imperialism, social independence, as well as economic independence, became possible. Indeed, as Amy Kaplan suggests, the new imperialistic ways in which men sought to proclaim their manhood at the turn of the twentieth century required the watching eye of the “new woman.” While this new woman peacefully retained her femininity, domesticity, and ultimately her servitude to man, opportunities of travel and work became possible as the audience to masculine conquests of imperialism. Thus, conditions which were created by the closing frontier, conditions that were perpetuated through the length of the Spanish American War, allowed women to expand their roles and the importance of those roles. Although gender equality remained a distant possibility, the circumstances at the end of the 19th century set the stage for female growth and independence.
Just as men and women were not seen as equal sexes, there existed variations in the degrees of equality of women of varying ethnicities. The American climate of the late 19th century, which was marked by the changing roles of men and women, also saw the immergence of an increased expectance of racial equality as immigrants flocked to the United States and African Americans approached 50 years of freedom. Women from these demographic groups faced unspeakable oppression, finding it incredibly difficult to represent themselves as the equals of Anglo-Saxon women let alone the equals of Anglo-Saxons. Furthermore, these groups of women also faced pressure not to abandon their unique heritage in an attempt to gain the opportunities allotted to the most fair-skinned and most masculine segment of the American population. This required a forceful effort on the part of immigrant and African American women to achieve equality. These women cannot rest on the satisfaction of increased social importance and independence as Anglo-Saxon women can. Indeed, a fight for economic independence must be coupled with the growth in social standing.
This case is clearly visible in Kathy Peiss’ “Making Faces: The Cosmetics Industry and the Cultural Construction of Gender, 1890-1930.” In her essay Peiss documents the growth of the cosmetics industry parallel to the growth of female independence. While cosmetics were generally seen as immoral and unrespectable, the antithesis of the traditional American woman, Peiss argues, “Women linked cosmetics use to an emergent notion of their own modernity” (372). By applying makeup despite traditional cultural expectations, American Women were challenging and redefining their roles. While some white women became entrepreneur within the cosmetics industry, most white women were content with the slight expansion of their role in society through the use of cosmetics and their new relationship with the men in their lives. However, women of color and women of foreign decent were forced to fight even harder to separate themselves from the hegemony of a society documented by white men. Not only did these women use cosmetics to present themselves as lighter skinned more feminine creatures, but in astounding numbers they involved their community in efforts to make money from the sale of these increasingly popular items.
Women affectively employed business as a mechanism of breaking the chains of female oppression in the late 19th century. However, in the novel “Bread Givers” by Anzina Yezierska, the heroine employs another weapon in the fight for equality: education. The novel recalls the story of Sara Smolinsky a Jewish immigrant of polish descent that battles her traditional feminine and familial roles by working her way through college. Sara represents the archetype of an empowered woman, surpassing the coquettish girls who legitimize themselves simply through men and makeup. Indeed, not only does Sara challenge social norms by becoming a teacher she denies the methods in which other women obtain their marginal independence, forcibly breaking the chains of inequality.
As the 19th century came to a close the stigmas of feminine independence were slowly being cast away as the social and political spectrum on the United States changed. Most women embraced this change, becoming more independent within the world and in their relationships to men. However, some women surpassed the typical, particularly women of African American and Immigrant statuses. These women were the most disenfranchised within society and thus needed to push the hardest to attain some degree of equality and success.
As the 19th century merged into the 20th century, The United States began to experience a confluence of changing political and social conditions. As immigrants flocked to our land and our own citizens were sent abroad to fight in the name of imperialism, Americans began to experience an identity crisis. The changing conditions in America created a new light on the way in which Americans viewed themselves. No longer defined by westward expansion and a homogeneous population, the identity of the Unites States became ambiguous. Ambiguity created an avenue from change within disenfranchised segments of society, which desperately sought to escape oppression and inequality. Indeed, as normalcy was being redefined, redefining oneself and ones capabilities became a way of escaping oppression. Women in particular capitalized on the opportunities of redefinition, embracing independence beyond previous conception. However, some women, especially African American and Immigrant women, more ferociously clung to the fight for redefinition, the fight for independence.
It is without question that in times of war opportunities for feminine growth abound. As men occupy the barracks, vacancies in the work force allow women to legitimize themselves economically. The Spanish American War in the late 19th century allowed American women to breach the line of traditional domesticity. A new Woman thus emerged as both a wage-earning pillar in family life and independent creatures in themselves. Economic independence left a new taste for equality in the mouths of American women. Furthermore, as American men began to redefine themselves and their relationships to women in the wake of the closing frontier and through the lens of imperialism, social independence, as well as economic independence, became possible. Indeed, as Amy Kaplan suggests, the new imperialistic ways in which men sought to proclaim their manhood at the turn of the twentieth century required the watching eye of the “new woman.” While this new woman peacefully retained her femininity, domesticity, and ultimately her servitude to man, opportunities of travel and work became possible as the audience to masculine conquests of imperialism. Thus, conditions which were created by the closing frontier, conditions that were perpetuated through the length of the Spanish American War, allowed women to expand their roles and the importance of those roles. Although gender equality remained a distant possibility, the circumstances at the end of the 19th century set the stage for female growth and independence.
Just as men and women were not seen as equal sexes, there existed variations in the degrees of equality of women of varying ethnicities. The American climate of the late 19th century, which was marked by the changing roles of men and women, also saw the immergence of an increased expectance of racial equality as immigrants flocked to the United States and African Americans approached 50 years of freedom. Women from these demographic groups faced unspeakable oppression, finding it incredibly difficult to represent themselves as the equals of Anglo-Saxon women let alone the equals of Anglo-Saxons. Furthermore, these groups of women also faced pressure not to abandon their unique heritage in an attempt to gain the opportunities allotted to the most fair-skinned and most masculine segment of the American population. This required a forceful effort on the part of immigrant and African American women to achieve equality. These women cannot rest on the satisfaction of increased social importance and independence as Anglo-Saxon women can. Indeed, a fight for economic independence must be coupled with the growth in social standing.
This case is clearly visible in Kathy Peiss’ “Making Faces: The Cosmetics Industry and the Cultural Construction of Gender, 1890-1930.” In her essay Peiss documents the growth of the cosmetics industry parallel to the growth of female independence. While cosmetics were generally seen as immoral and unrespectable, the antithesis of the traditional American woman, Peiss argues, “Women linked cosmetics use to an emergent notion of their own modernity” (372). By applying makeup despite traditional cultural expectations, American Women were challenging and redefining their roles. While some white women became entrepreneur within the cosmetics industry, most white women were content with the slight expansion of their role in society through the use of cosmetics and their new relationship with the men in their lives. However, women of color and women of foreign decent were forced to fight even harder to separate themselves from the hegemony of a society documented by white men. Not only did these women use cosmetics to present themselves as lighter skinned more feminine creatures, but in astounding numbers they involved their community in efforts to make money from the sale of these increasingly popular items.
Women affectively employed business as a mechanism of breaking the chains of female oppression in the late 19th century. However, in the novel “Bread Givers” by Anzina Yezierska, the heroine employs another weapon in the fight for equality: education. The novel recalls the story of Sara Smolinsky a Jewish immigrant of polish descent that battles her traditional feminine and familial roles by working her way through college. Sara represents the archetype of an empowered woman, surpassing the coquettish girls who legitimize themselves simply through men and makeup. Indeed, not only does Sara challenge social norms by becoming a teacher she denies the methods in which other women obtain their marginal independence, forcibly breaking the chains of inequality.
As the 19th century came to a close the stigmas of feminine independence were slowly being cast away as the social and political spectrum on the United States changed. Most women embraced this change, becoming more independent within the world and in their relationships to men. However, some women surpassed the typical, particularly women of African American and Immigrant statuses. These women were the most disenfranchised within society and thus needed to push the hardest to attain some degree of equality and success.
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