History 427
Tygiel
Fall, 2006

QUESTIONS FOR SECOND PAPER

Choose one of the following questions and write a 4-6 page (1000-1700 word) paper in answer to it. All papers must be word-processed, double-spaced, WITH A LARGE12 POINT FONT and written in the best possible English that you can muster. Papers should include pagination and a word count. Follow the guidelines provided in the handout, "Writing Papers." Your answers should be drawn from the readings, lectures, and online materials. MAKE SURE THAT YOU USE ALL OF THE READINGS (INCLUDING STORIES OF SCOTTSBORO, ONLY YESTERDAY, AND AMERICA’S GREAT WAR) PERTINENT TO THE QUESTION, NOT JUST THOSE MENTIONED IN THE QUESTION, MAKING SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO THE AUTHORS. 

1.  Frederick Lewis Allen describes the "Coolidge Prosperity" of the 1920s as "nearly seven years of  unparalleled plenty; seven years during which the businessman was the 'dictator of our destinies.'"  What were the elements that created prosperity during the 1920s?  What were the strengths and weaknesses of the economy during the decade? 

2.  During the 1920s the United States emerged as a "modern" society.  While many of the conditions that marked modernism had appeared in earlier decades, the changes converged and became more fully apparent in the years after World War I.  What were the key developments that transformed American culture and society?  In which ways did Americans embrace and reject modernism?  Was the 1920s a decade of disillusionment or optimism or both?

3.  The post World War I era witnessed the Great Migration, the rise and fall of the Ku Klux Klan, lynching, and race riots.  Discuss the state of black-white race relations in America from the end of World War I through the early 1930s.  What were the major changes and challenges confronting African Americans during these years?

PAPERS ARE DUE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19.