{"id":4408,"date":"2025-04-24T22:32:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T22:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/discovering1920s\/?p=4408"},"modified":"2025-04-24T22:50:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T22:50:06","slug":"historiography-of-the-1920s-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/discovering1920s\/blog\/2025\/04\/24\/historiography-of-the-1920s-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Historiography of the 1920s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As the context in which history is interpreted changes, historical interpretations change as well. For example, the way that historians view minority groups today is very different from how historians viewed minority groups in the 1920s. In the same vein, historians’ entire outlook on a decade can change with time. This historiographical change is apparent in two pieces of writing on the 1920s which I read:  \u201cShifting Perspectives on the 1920s,\u201d written by Henry May in 1956, and \u201cThe New Woman and the Politics of the 1920s\u201d  written by Lynn Dumenil in 2007. While both articles argue the transitional and fluid nature of the 1920s, they emphasize different parts of this decade\u2019s history, with May\u2019s article focusing on economic and social change, and Dumenil\u2019s article focusing on women and political change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparison<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In Henry May\u2019s article, he focuses more on different trends in historical writing over different decades. First, he outlines how historians felt in the 1930s:  that the twenties \u201cbecame a deplorable interlude of reaction.\u201d1<\/a><\/sup> Then, he explains how historians felt in the 1940s:  that \u201cin the twenties a deep chasm had opened between the views of life of most writers and their fellow citizens.\u201d2<\/a><\/sup> And finally, he provides his viewpoint, how historians feel in the 1950s:  that \u201cthe most important developments in the decade did not take place in the realms of politics, or economics, or literature, or science alone, but in all these areas and the relation, or lack of relation, among them.\u201d3<\/a><\/sup> Essentially, what these three quotes show is that May outlined three distinct views of the twenties, from one that saw them as reactionary, to one that saw them as having a large divide between the upper and lower class, to one that saw them as a period of separate movements that all encouraged change. May\u2019s main focus was on larger themes of the 1920s, specifically looking at cultural, political, and economic trends to understand the decade.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Famous photo of a “New Woman” Louise Brooks, an American actress and champion of flapper culture and independence.\n(Bain News Service. \u201cLouise Brooks.\u201d Library of Congress, undated. https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/pictures\/item\/2014712606\/.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On the other hand, Dumenil took an almost completely opposite approach. Instead of focusing on larger trends to understand the decade, Dumenil looked at more specific themes like women\u2019s roles and their part in politics in order to understand and assess the decade. By looking through a gender-based lens, Dumenil shows women\u2019s opportunity for influence in the public sphere while also showing the limitations women had in politics and work. Specifically, Dumenil\u2019s main purpose in her article was to focus on \u201cAfrican American and white women’s efforts to expand their political influence once enfranchised. Their activism illustrates women’s role in developing political pressure groups in the early twentieth century and demonstrates both the continuation of reform\u2014and its limits\u2014in the so-called \u201cjazz age.\u201d4<\/a><\/sup>  Dumenil\u2019s article focuses heavily on women and looks at minority involvement in making change in the 1920s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historiographical Changes Over Time<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
After a boom in the stock market during the 1920s, much of the “consumer culture” materials people bought needed to be quickly sold in 1929.\n\u201cYour Guide to the Great Depression.\u201d History Extra, April 8, 2025. https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/20th-century\/in-a-nutshell-the-great-depression\/. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Overall, both of these historians have very different views on the 1920s, which are influenced by the 50 years of difference between their writing. While May was writing post WWII and on the dawn of the Cold War, he likely was looking at history in terms of political and economical struggles which were all still affecting his decade. While he discusses the different historical interpretations of the 1920s, he never calls any of them a \u201cwrong\u201d interpretation, as he follows consensus beliefs of shared American values, which he highlights in his interpretation of the decade. The large focus of his writing is on business and political history during the 1920s, specifically on how the boom and bust of the stock market influenced social change throughout the decade. Just like this photo to the right shows, people had a large increase in purchases with their disposable income in the 1920s, and quickly needed to sell these items in the 1930s, which is why, May argues, historians in the 1930s had a more negative view of the 1920s as they were actively dealing with the repercussions of this decade. While May takes into account many different perspectives of the 1920s, he completely ignores the New Woman and the plethora of contributions made by minorities in the 1920s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifty years later, the context for Dumenil\u2019s writing is very different from the world that May was writing in. During the multicultural wave of the 21st century, Dumenil wrote during a time that was focused on social and cultural history, minority history, and revisionist history. Her work which focuses on a group that was not always the highlight of 1920s historiography (specifically in regards to African American women) shows how, with time, historiography has become more liberal in its understanding of minority involvement in general trends and changes in history over time. Just as her article looks at women\u2019s impact on the 1920s, Dumenil\u2019s textbook, which we use in class, further looks at the impacts of minority groups in the 1920s. In The Modern Temper<\/em>: American Culture and Society in the 1920s<\/em>, Lynn Dumenil assesses how African Americans, women, immigrants and lower or working class citizens all had distinct impacts on the cultural and social reforms of the 1920s. She discusses each different minority group, and explains how overall, the impacts of these different minority groups on the 1920s helped to \u201cbroaden the definition of what it meant to be American.”5<\/a><\/sup> Therefore, through Dumenil\u2019s writing in a time which emphasized the importance of multicultural history we can see how much historical interpretations of the same decade have changed over time. Looking at past historical interpretations of history has shown me that while the facts of history have not changed, the way that history is understood changes depending on the context in which people are writing about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

  1. Henry May. “Shifting Perspectives on the 1920s,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review<\/em> (Dec. 1956), p. 412. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. May, Shifting Perspectives<\/em>, 1956, 418 \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  3. May, Shifting Perspectives<\/em>, 1956, 426 \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  4. Lynn Dumenil. “The New Woman and the Politics of the 1920s.” OAH Magazine of History<\/em> (July 2007), p. 22. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  5. Lynn Dumenil. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s<\/em>. United States: Hill and Wang, 2024, 302. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Introduction As the context in which history is interpreted changes, historical interpretations change as well. For example, the way that historians view minority groups today is very different from how…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"[{\"id\":\"09abc38e-95b2-491a-b651-107f6fda4d8f\",\"content\":\"Henry May. \\\"Shifting Perspectives on the 1920s,\\\" Mississippi Valley Historical Review<\\\/em> (Dec. 1956), p. 412.\"},{\"id\":\"2742324f-6292-4dae-8349-49a9fd687e4c\",\"content\":\"May, Shifting Perspectives<\\\/em>, 1956, 418\"},{\"id\":\"46f4138d-347c-4f56-a740-95b6a2f3dde1\",\"content\":\"May, Shifting Perspectives<\\\/em>, 1956, 426\"},{\"id\":\"4d6711fc-e192-4016-afa2-f477bf6179b6\",\"content\":\"Lynn Dumenil. \\\"The New Woman and the Politics of the 1920s.\\\" OAH Magazine of History<\\\/em> (July 2007), p. 22.\"},{\"id\":\"00145a50-703d-4adb-9f99-5ace365b3729\",\"content\":\"Lynn Dumenil. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s<\\\/em>. United States: Hill and Wang, 2024, 302.\"}]"},"categories":[27,42,52,13,34],"tags":[63,146,56,88,61],"class_list":["post-4408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-essays","category-historiography","category-politics","category-women","tag-1920s","tag-business","tag-essays","tag-historiography","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/discovering1920s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/discovering1920s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/discovering1920s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/discovering1920s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/discovering1920s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/discovering1920s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/discovering1920s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/discovering1920s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/discovering1920s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}