The Enigma Woman: The Death Sentence of Nellie May Madison (Women in the West) by Kathleen A. Cairns (Roaring 20's-WWII, Gender & Sexuality)

The Enigma Woman: The Death Sentence of Nellie May Madison (Women in the West) 

by Kathleen A. Cairns

Roaring 20's-WWII
Gender & Sexuality

Thesis:

The roaring twenties changed the public perception of women. While women were allowed more independence and respect they could also be viewed as manipulators making power plays using men as their pawns.

Specific examples/evidence that supports the thesis:

Summary:

What does this tell us about Gender in the Roaring 20’s-WWII?

During this era women were trying to break out of their traditional roles. Finding more independence with jobs and breaking free from the conforms of women living with their parents and then their husbands, always chaperoned. 

In this time women gained more political power from the right to vote and had more public presence. The sphere of women expanded. Noir film, books, and radio shows told stories of women seducing men and manipulating them, often convincing them to murder someone. Women were no longer viewed as the codependent innocent party.
These attitudes contributed to the death sentencing of Nellie May Madison. This women strayed from the expected roles of women and was judged more harshly than may have been in previous time periods.

What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?
Noir and the shift of power towards women plus the social backlash. It would be fun to compare Noir films to films of the previous era to demonstrate how the characterization of women in society had shifted.

General Thoughts:

Excerpts from Book Reviews: 

"In this splendidly crafted narrative of Nellie's life, Cairns explores the West as geography and a place of reinvention, the rise of mass popular culture and its impact upon the individual, Los Angeles as myth and reality, criminal prosecution as a force in social control, the media's ability to elevate or destroy individuals, and intimate abuse as a legal defense to murder. "

"Nellie challenged societal norms by marrying several times, remaining childless, wandering the West, earning a professionally accomplished resume, and by being convicted of murder and sentenced to hang in California."

My Highlighted Passages: 

The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-1932 by William E. Leuchtenburg (Roaring 20's-WWII, Class & Economy, Politics)

The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-1932 

by William E. Leuchtenburg 

Roaring 20's-WWII
Class & Economy
Politics

Thesis:
The roaring 20's were a time of prosperity the likes of which had never before been known in the United States.The repercussions of this time are still felt today including consumerism, an expanse of Women's rights, the US as a predominant world power.

"The United States had to come to terms with a strong state, the dominance of the metropolis, secularization and the breakdown of religious sanctions, the loss of authority of the family, industrial concentration, international power politics, and mass culture. "

Specific examples/evidence that supports the thesis:

Summary:

What does this tell us about Class & Economy in the Roaring 20’s-WWII?
This era resulted in a substantial growth of wealth in the country as a whole. Every person increased their buying power and increased their modern conveniences. However, the largest wealth holders were at the top as corporations exploded and the everyday merchant disappeared. America became a creditor nation instead of a debtor nation as europe needed to be rebuild and had virtually no means of production . The results were a huge economic boom in America until the crash of 1929. This was then a "time when the American people took a vacation from sober traditional virtues."

What does this tell us about Politics in the Roaring 20’s-WWII?
With the World War I coming to an end and the US as a new world power emerged to play the part in settling the peace. Creating the league of nations and the 14 point agreement but after bringing it home could not get it passed by congress. America held strong isolationist sentiment.

What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?

This book is a comprehensive overview of the time period, the chapters are broken out by subtopics like economy, minorities, coorporations, etc. A very useful reference for lecture notes.

General Thoughts:

Excerpts from Book Reviews: 

"It is especially good on social and intellectual history, with charming chapters on such subjects as "A Botched Civilization," and "The Revolution in Morals." It pays its respects to the economic changes that played so important a part in determining the course of events-"The Second Industrial Revolution." And it does not neglect politics, whether national or international. The chapter on "Tired Radicals" hits off well the inadequacies of the progressives, and the one on "The Sidewalks of New York," the political results of urbanization.

My Highlighted Passages: 
America’s entrance into World War I and the end of postwar prosperity,
idealism of Woodrow Wilson and our failure to follow his lead into the League of Nations have become symbols for the continuing weaknesses of American diplomacy and for our refusal to accept responsibilities as a world power.58

time when the American people took a vacation from sober traditional virtues.63

He finds movements in the period which reach back to the nineteenth century: the rise of the city, the change from handicraft to assembly lines, the ascent to the world stage. He sees the beginnings of institutions which would produce the New Deal and with it the changed attitude toward government that has stayed with us ever since.70

Machines had replaced the old artisans; there were few coopers, blacksmiths, or cobblers left.87

The livery stable had been torn down to make way for the filling station. Technology had revolutionized the farm. In 1918, there were 80,000 tractors; in 1929, 850,000. The Old West had disappeared; ranchers were even concerned for a time lest they lose their cowhands to movie westerns. The empire builders like James J. Hill were gone.88

In 1914, the Progressive movement was at its height. Americans believed that by adopting institutional changes—the direct primary, the short ballot, the recall—political life might be made over.97

There was no scourge that would not eventually yield to reason and goodness, they thought.99

c99

The war destroyed much of the traditional confidence in the ability of American society to assimilate all manner of men.162
At the very moment when the country was confronting attacks on traditional standards, the United States was plunged into the responsibilities of becoming the world’s greatest power.164

The country did not want to abandon its isolation,167

But prosperity held perils of its own. It served to justify investing enormous political and social power in a business class with little tradition of leadership. It placed economic primacy in the hands of a country unprepared to guide world trade. It made money the measure of man.175


women, thanks to the suffrage amendment, were able to participate in politics more freely than ever before.185

reformers were nurturing the ideas that were to see fruition in the New Deal.186
It was an age of shameful persecution of minorities186

the Supreme Court, at long last, began to incorporate the Bill of Rights in the Fourteenth Amendment.189

Through the decade, the United States moved quietly away from the rigid isolationism of 1920.194

Abandoning the notion of saving income or goods or capital over time, the country insisted on immediate gratification, a demand chat became institutionalized in the installment plan.2412

By 1929, 1 percent of the financial institutions in the country controlled over 46 percent of the nation’s banking resources. Chain stores expanded rapidly in the postwar years. Chain store units rose from 29,000 in 1918 to 160,000 in 1929;2629

Note: Consolidation of businesses, bought out by bigger firms.

Corporate profits and dividends far outpaced the rise in wages, and despite the high productivity of the period, there was a disturbing amount of unemployment. At any given moment in the “golden twenties,” from 7 to 12 percent were jobless.2651

The very men who were taken as the epitome of the old order were the ones who undermined it—the Victorian statesman Woodrow Wilson, who presided over the transition to a strong state and the breakdown of isolation;3661

The United States had to come to terms with a strong state, the dominance of the metropolis, secularization and the breakdown of religious sanctions, the loss of authority of the family, industrial concentration, international power politics, and mass culture. The country dodged some of these challenges, resorted to violence to eliminate others, and, for still others, found partial answers. The United States in the period from 1914 to 1932 fell far short of working out viable solutions to the difficulties created by the painful transition from nineteenth-century to modern America. But it is, at the very least, charitable to remember that the country has not solved these problems yet.

War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War, By John Dower (Roaring 20's-WWII, Ethnicity & Race, Military & Foreign Policy)

War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War 

By John Dower 

Roaring 20's-WWII
Ethnicity & Race
Military & Foreign Policy

Thesis:

 Racism between the West and Asia made the war in the Pacific particularly merciless and brutal. Widespread wartime atrocities and civilian casualties were justified by racist sentiment that promoted the idea that this is what was required to defeat such an uncivilized foe. This thought process went both ways, West towards Asia, and Asia towards the West.

 

Specific examples/evidence that supports the thesis:

Summary: 
The author first describes the methods of propaganda that were inspired by racism and how these impacted the soldiers and the battlefield. The war was much more brutal with civilian casualties and war atrocities committed on both sides. Americans believed that the Japanese needed to exterminated like vermin not reprogrammed like the Germans. They believed that the only good Japanese were dead Japanese. The irredeemable quality of Japanese in the minds of Americans was unique. This was why even American citizens were placed in internment camps if they were of Japanese origin.
The Japanese felt that they were a pure people not diluted like the intermixed brutes of America. They saw the way Westerners conquered Asian people and felt they had no right to rule them. Japan felt they were the best fit to rule the Asian world.
Once the author established the racist attitudes back and forth between the Japanese and the Americans and how it ultimately led to a viciously brutal war, the author describes how these ideas were subverted into ideologies that fostered a peaceful occupation and thereafter a relatively friendly relationship between the two nations. The US once again found their mission to bring up a lesser people and act as the big brother. The US sought to bring the benefits of capitalist individualism to Japan.

 

What does this tell us about Ethnicity and Race in the Roaring 20's-WWII?

The racism of the of Pacific Theater of WWII demonstrates how Americans refused to see any Asian people as equal. Before Pearl Harbor, they believed that there was no way that the Japanese had any real power when compared to the West. After Pearl Harbor they were viewed as all following a single mind (the emperor) and empowered with no fear of death and an all sacrificing sub-human quality. Within the United States, the treatment of Japanese or even just anyone with Asian decent was terrible and got worse with Pearl Harbor. This was much different than people of German heritage. The atrocities committed on both sides of the battlefield were justified by racism. Here the ideas of scientific racism are present, advocating a stronger race that should rule over lesser peoples.

What does this tell us about Military & Foreign Policy in the Roaring 20's-WWII?
The author convincingly argues that the US policy in war towards Japan was hugely influenced by racism. The use of two atomic weapons when the war was clearly already won was justified with racist sentiment that this different type of people had to be completely subdued to the point of unconditional surrender. They had to agree to sacrifice their way of life and potentially their emperor. 

What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?

Frank Capra documentary, Know Your Enemy - Japan

General Thoughts:

It was really interesting that in this situation the US turned the Chinese into good guys (although still lesser people). The Chinese could be molded into good people but the Japanese had no hope of that.

Excerpts from Book Reviews: 

"Dower is exploring the propaganda of the US-Japanese conflict to delineate the "patterns of a race war," the cultural mechanisms of "othering," and the portability of racial/racist stereotypes."

"Yellow, Red, and Black Men" examines the notions of racial difference occupying the American mind since Columbus. More specifically, Dower outlines the concept of race war and the "Yellow Peril," and how this peril had become encoded in American immigration law."

"Once the war started, of course, the dehumanization of the enemy in the Pacific led to many notable atrocities on both sides of the conflict, from the infamous Bataan death march to the collection of noses, ears, teeth, and skulls by Allied soldiers, from the execution of three Doolittle Raid flyers to the slaughtering of surrendering Japanese at Bougainville. As Dower notes, these wartime atrocities spawned a vicious circle that, once publicized, led to more and more atrocities."

"Dower's study is fascinating. He shows the  interaction of racist ideas. To the Japanese, 
Japan's homogeneity, common purpose, corporate unity, and will were evidence of Japan's purity of race; to the Americans they were proof of Japan's primitiveness and uncivilized status. Americans, on the other hand, glorified individualism, creative entrepreneurship, and maximum individual liberty, all proof to the Japanese of America's racial heterogeneity and inability to mobilize its people to pursue anything morally worthwhile."

"How could such a savage killing frenzy as marked the final year of the war in the Pacific have been followed so suddenly by what still appears to be a benign occupation and subsequently friendly relations? The code words and images were malleable, he answers, and could be turned almost inside out. The yellow ape could become a pet, insanity could be cured with tender care, and the child could be shown how to mature-all expressions of American generosity, but also of American superiority. The Japanese did no less. The emperor invoked the national polity when he asked his people to endure the unendurable in defeat. The imperial institution was preserved, and Japanese began anew the struggle to find their rightful place in the world hierarchy."

My Highlighted Passages

"the Japanese were more hated than the Germans before as well as after Pearl Harbor. On this, there was no dispute among contemporary observers. They were perceived as a race apart, even a species apart -- and an overpoweringly monolithic one at that. There was no Japanese counterpart to the 'good German' in the popular consciousness of the Western Allies." (8) 

"as the war years themselves changed over into into an era of peace between Japan and the Allied powers, the shrill racial rhetoric of the early 1940s revealed itself to be surprisingly adaptable. Idioms that formerly had denoted the unbridgeable gap between oneself and the enemy proved capable of serving the goals of accommodation as well." (13)

"At the simplest level, they dehumanized the Japanese and enlarged the chasm between 'us' and 'them' to the point where it was perceived to be virtually unbridgeable." 

"transitions and juxtapositions in the Western image of the Japanese were abrupt and jarring: from subhuman to superhuman, lesser men to supermen. There was a common point throughout, in that the Japanese were rarely perceived as being human beings of a generally comparable and equal sort." (99)

"the metaphor of the child was used in a manner that highlighted the overlapping nature of immaturity, primitivism, violence, and emotional instability as key concepts for understanding the Japanese." (143)

"Where racism in the West was markedly characterized by denigration of others," writes Dower, "the Japanese were preoccupied far more exclusively with elevating themselves. While the Japanese were not inadept at belittling other races and saddling them with contemptuous stereotypes, they spent more time wrestling with the question of what it really meant to be 'Japanese,' how the 'Yamato race' was unique among the races and cultures of the world, and why this uniqueness made them superior."(204-205)

"the Japanese presented themselves as being 'purer' than others -- a concept that carried both ancient religious connotations and complex contemporary ramifications," (231-232)

"the Anglo-Americans were described as demons (oni), devils (kichiku), fiends (akki and akuma), and monsters (kaibutsu.)" (244)

"Despite such differences(in what tactics of racist rhetoric were used), however, the end results of racial thinking on both sides were virtually identical -- being hierarchy, arrogance, viciousness, atrocity, and death." (180) 

"To the victors, the simian became a pet, the child a pupil, the madman a patient."

Land of Desire by William Leach (Progressive Era-WWI, Class and Economy)

Land of Desire 

by William Leach 

Progressive Era-WWI
Class and Economy

Thesis:

Industrialization, and the concentration of wealth and production led to a transformation of American culture into a consumer culture like had never been seen anywhere in the world.
This book covers the rise of consumerism from 1890-1930.
American society was ultimately changed from that point on. The American way of life, valued as goods and wealth became mainstream and has never faded.

Specific examples/evidence that supports the thesis:

The development of department stores was a dramatic change to the economy because now the sale of goods was concentrated with those wealthy enough to create one of these massive stores that sells some of everything. The merchants of the old world could no longer compete.
The world's fair drove a desire for a massive range of goods from around the world.
Advertising, and window displays were developed and perfected at the end of the 19th century to produce a drive towards consumerism.

Fashion was a necessity to maintain consumerism. Focused mainly on women, advertisers tried to convince them that wearing something from last season would prove that you did not have the livelihood to afford to buy new clothes like the rest of the presentable women.
The relative easy access to and cheap nature of credit arose during this period and encouraged people to buy things they hoped to afford later. Saving went out the window, traded in for buy now pay later mentality. This was also encouraged by the relative degradation of the value of money. Money not spent, lost buying power as time went on.

Summary:

As consumerism became mainstream, it was supported and promoted by other fixtures of American life. The government assisted with the Department of Commerce, educational institutions like Harvard taught advertising as integral to business, cities promoted business by sponsoring pageants, the US Postal Service and Children's Bureau partnered with department stores.

What does this tell us about Class and Economy in the Progressive Era-WWI?
During the Progressive Era there was a large concentration of wealth with the elite and corporations. Consumerism fostered this kind of dispersal of wealth. Artisans and merchants could not contend with the large scale department stores. The cult of desire encouraged people to spend their money on fashionable items every season. Money came and went quickly. 

What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?

During this era, advertising really began as an industry with color adds, and clever selling techniques. Before this, people usually just had text ads that advised when and where a product could be purchased.
Additionally store windows were added to show off goods each store sold. before this, windows were not often used in store construction.
At this time, department stores would basically do anything for their patrons. Shipping anywhere was free and they would hunt down items for customers. The stores sent out catalogs that contained everything one could think of to buy.
This is when the commercialized Santa came out to help promote family values by way of consuming.

General Thoughts:

It's interesting that during the Progressive era, consumerism took hold. Thinking of the progressives as wanting to equalize economic welfare through government intervention seems contrary to consumer culture, but perhaps it is the strong desire for wealth promoted by consumer culture that made people so unsatisfied by the economic inequalities of the period.

Excerpts from Book Reviews: 

My Highlights:

"Acquisition and consumption as the means of achieving happiness; the cult of the new; the democratization of desire; and money value as the predominant measure of all value in society." (3)

"American corporate business, in league with key institutions, began the transformation of American society into a society preoccupied with consumption, with comfort and bodily well-being, with luxury, spending, and acquisition, with more goods this year than last, more next year than this." (xiii.)

"diminished American public life, denying the American people access to insight into other ways of organizing and conceiving life, insight that might have endowed their consent to the dominant culture...with real democracy." (xv.)

"This book examines how this older culture was challenged and was gradually superseded by the newer culture. It deals with the new national corporations and the investment banks as they moved almost overnight into the everyday lives of Americans. It focuses on mail order houses, on chain stores and dry goods houses, on hotels and restaurants, and especially on department stores, and it does so in part because most historians have for too long looked down on them."

"It was the country’s first world’s fair and probably the most influential of all the fairs because it unlocked the floodgates to what became a steady flow of goods and fantasies about goods."

A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan by Michael Kazin (Progressive Era, Politics, Religion)

A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan 

by Michael Kazin 

Progressive Era
Politics
Religion

Thesis:

While the legacy of William Jennings Bryan is mixed, the author argues for his impact as a moral crusader and brilliant turn of the century orator who rewrote the rules of politics.
Bryan was never elected into office, in fact he seldom held an office except a stint as Secretary of State. He was a beloved politician but failed to negotiate the field well enough to gain election.
An ardent Christian, he fought against big business, seeing himself as Jeffersonian by principle, honoring the average man.

Specific examples/evidence that supports the thesis:

Summary:
Bryan focused his education and career around becoming an incredible orater, this brought him into law. He enjoyed the court room 

What does this tell us about Religion in the Progressive Era-WWI?
In 1925 the Scopes trial, Bryan prosecuted a substitute teacher for teaching evolution in class. The trial was widely discussed as religion in education was a contentious issue. Bryan was actually called to the stand by the defense and had to defend his belief that the bible was factual despite the scientific questions it brings up. In the late nineteenth century, the second great awakening spurring a huge movement toward religiosity from most American people, in the Scopes trial you can observe this being phased out as people began to see industrial and capitalist growth bringing about increased quality of life for the average person.
The author also felt that after Bryan passed on, the fundamentalist Christian right took a huge hit, they lost their spokesperson and their leader in politics. They wouldn't find another for a long time.

What does this tell us about Politics in the Progressive Era-WWI?

Bryan spoke to the people. People loved him. He made a living giving speeches and sometimes multiple in one day. He had a huge amount of fans and one might expect this to translate into support for candidacy, so why then did Bryan fail to get elected to president of the US 3 times? Bryan was passionate and refused to back down on his moral convictions, this often meant he couldn't get funding or support from any big business. In his first run for President, companies said that if he were elected they would be forced to lay off a significant part of their labor force because of Bryan's support of lifting tariffs. It also seems that his religious fervor was not always well accepted by the voters.
Bryan's passionately conducted, self-written, brilliant speeches changed how politics was done. He was the inspiration behind

What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?

General Thoughts:

Bryan's argument against teaching Darwin in school was more around the social implications of the theory that were prominent at the time. As promoter of peaceful resolution to problems and a man who wanted his country to avoid war, he saw the way Darwinism was being used to justify violence in the world and did not want that perpetuated and given more merit by being taught to children. He also, obviously, disapproved of how Darwinism discounted the bible's story of creation but that was only part of his argument.

Excerpts from Book Reviews: 

My Highlighted Passages: 

But in the mid-1890s, most Americans assumed that wealth consisted largely of products that were tangible and visible—crops, livestock, iron, coal, textiles, real estate. When calamity struck, they naturally fell to arguing whether the fault lay in a surplus or shortage of the shiny commodities, or specie, on which their dollars were based. Because creditors, industrialists, and the Bank of England favored gold, ordinary Americans who resented their power, and often found it mystifying, rallied to the promise of free silver. They were groping for a flexible currency, tailored for a fast-growing economy, but they trafficked in the argot of conspiracy.

But his immediate task was to flesh out the assault on corporate wealth, to turn the Democrats’ new power into a boon for the majority of American voters who either earned wages or owned a farm or other small business.

What ensued was the greatest rush of reform legislation in U.S. history until the New Deal, one inspired by Bryan’s speeches and the party platforms he’d been drafting since 1896.

he recoiled at any research in biology or geology that denied the supernatural. The acceptance of such work, he believed, opened the door to every manner of immoral behavior, from defiance of the Volstead Act to a lust for war. 34 Surprisingly, he could cite two influential disciples of Darwin to back up his fears. Early in the Great War, Vernon Kellogg, a Stanford professor who wrote widely about evolution, spent several weeks with German scientists who had become officers on the kaiser’s general staff.

democracy. Taxpayers should prevent the public schools they financed from teaching “atheism, agnosticism, Darwinism, or any other hypothesis that links man in blood relationship with the brutes.” Nonbelievers were free, of course, to say whatever they liked in their own private schools, just as Christians did in their sectarian institutions. But the public schools, free and open to any child, should refrain from promoting either a single faith or none at all. Wasn’t that the American way?