A noncontroversial account of familiar events, laws, and people
between the wars. Parrish (History/UC at San Diego; Felix
Frankfurter and His Times, 1982) is especially strong on legal and
economic issues. Parrish shows how the prosperity of the 20's - its
basis in production, individualism, and laissez-faire economy -
gave way to the frauds, scams, corruption, and greed that destroyed
it and led to the Depression of the 30's - and to consumerism,
regulation, and a communal ethic. The four Presidents of the era -
Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, FDR - reflect and shape the narrative,
with FDR rescuing the economy even as his isolationist policy lost
the world. There are passages on the roles of women; of blacks; of
films; of various public figures such as Henry Ford, Babe Ruth,
Billy Sunday, Charlie Chaplin, Charles Lindbergh; of the cult of
personality created by advertising, film, newspapers, and radio.
Parrish presents issues, laws, judges and judgments, scoundrels and
leaders - and the various problems they created, reflected, or
overlooked - with evenhanded concern: Prohibition, anti-Semitism,
racism (the founding of the KKK), fundamentalism, feminism,
immigration, Communism, and the "lost generation," the displacement
of the intellectuals and artists in the cultural poverty of the
period - which he does not consider but which his narrative
reflects. Allusions to analogues and origins of current problems -
homelessness, unemployment, government regulation and corruption -
are illuminating. But Parrish offers merely an introduction, a
simplification and summary, rather than a full-fledged analysis.
(Kirkus Reviews)
America in Prosperity and Depression, 1920—1941
"Impressively detailed. . . . An authoritative and epic overview." — Publishers Weekly
In the convulsive years between 1920 and 941, Americans were first dazzled by unprecedented economic prosperity and then beset by the worst depression in their history. It was the era of Model T's, rising incomes, scientific management, electricity, talking movies, and advertising techniques that sold a seemingly endless stream of goods. But is was also a time of grave social conflict and human suffering.
The Crash forced Hoover, and then Roosevelt and the nation, to reexamine old solutions and address pressing questions of recovery and reform, economic growth and social justice. The world beyond America changed also in these years, making the country rethink its relation to events in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The illusion of superiority slowly died in the 1930s, sustaining a fatal blow in December 1941 at Pearl Harbor.
"A highly readable synthesis. . . . Parrish is particularly adept at explaining the rise of 'the consumer culture' and its relationship to state power and social/intellectual trends." —Library Journal
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