In this block post, I will compare and trust two articles made about 60 years apart. Looking at important factors like their main arguments, concerns, who they praise/blame for problems, and if they see the 20s as something to be proud of or disappointed in. The two articles that I will be analyzing are “Rethinking the 1920S: Historians and Changing Perspectives” (2007) by David J. Goldberg and “Shifting Perspectives on the 1920s” (1956) by Henry F. May. Despite these articles being drastically different from one another, it is interesting to look into the language they use and how they describe the 20s from completely different viewpoints. This Blog post will explain the author’s arguments and how they portray the 1920s decade with a 60-year gap in publishing their articles.
raid during prohibition, 1921. (Image courtesy of Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-123257.
Both articles are very broad on the topics they talk about; they do not focus on one event in the 1920s but talk about multiple throughout their writings. However, despite talking about the same decade, both articles had different viewpoints on certain historical events, and the future of America after this decade. An example of this is in the article published in 1956 by May, in which he argues for the reason that America’s prosperity during the 1920s was the result of postwar errors, particularly World War I, that brought manufacturing jobs and America’s help in rebuilding Europe after the war. However, in the article published in 2007 by Goldberg, he argues the reason why America prospered during the 1920s was due to entrepreneurs like Henry Ford, a lack of government involvement, corporate greed, and a high labor market, mostly due to immigration. May is right that America did prosper after both world wars in the 20s and the 50s. In addition, he doesn’t point out what exactly made the economy so strong or the problems that led to the stock market crash of 1929. However, Goldberg does point out the causes of a booming economy but also realizes the devastation it could have if not properly managed.
From the evidence that was just presented, we can safely say that these two articles disagree more than they agree on what the 1920s decade brought to America. Something else that needs to be noted when comparing these two articles is that the one by Goldberg mentions more than the broad topics the 1920s brought us. The article mentioned things like the KKK, unions developing, presidents’ flaws/achievements, racism, jazz errors, and women’s rights. Whereas we look at the May 1956 article. Most of those topics are either not mentioned or completely looked over in the article. However, May does mention key problems in the 1920s but fails to explain or elaborate on those issues. We can see by looking at both articles that both have different ideas on what is an important topic to talk about when looking into the 1920s decade. Both articles do mention key factors and events that happened during the 1920s but failed to bring up more defining issues (women’s suffrage, corporate greed, causes for certain events, and discrimination problems) that impacted not just the United States but the rest of the world.
“We must look not so much at its articulate political or philosophical
May, Henry F. “Shifting Perspectives on the 1920’s.” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 43, no. 3 (1956): 405–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/1893530.
beliefs and more at its inarticulate assumptions – assumptions in
such areas as morality, politics, class and race relations, popular
art and literature, and family life.”
How I see the change in historical events in the 1920s from then to now is that today we can take responsibility for our actions. Whereas I have seen back, then we either hide those tragic events or justify our bad behavior. Our society today is not afraid to point out the wrongdoings that previous generations did back then. In addition, we can see that papers that were published back then, only talked about one viewpoint of the 1920s, usually white middle-class men. Completely excluding anybody else’s viewpoint or problems during that time. Today, we are more open to seeing everybody’s side and understanding everybody’s problems, and nobody’s problems or issues are more important than others. Also, what helps me understand history is reading articles that were published in the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, et cetera, because it shows you how people thought of events and portrayed them during that particular time. Overall, the lesson that I would take away from this assignment is to never look at or read one article about a particular time but to read several articles on the same issue and see which ones connect with or agree with one another.
Bibliography
- Goldberg, David J. “Rethinking the 1920S: Historians and Changing Perspectives.” OAH Magazine of History 21, no. 3 (2007): 7–10. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25162122.
- May, Henry F. “Shifting Perspectives on the 1920’s.” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 43, no. 3 (1956): 405–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/1893530.
