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**Theme:** 1920 and 1950s **Topic:** Economic and social similarities the two eras share, including their ultimate impacts on American society. **Free Response Question**: Analyze the extent to which the 1920s and 1950s were similar in the following areas: Impact of Technology Intolerant Attitudes Literary Developments Introductory Paragraph **Setting:** The Roaring Twenties and civil rights 50s saw a split society riddled with social and economic controversies. **Basis for Analysis**: The 20s might have been a jazzy era full of confidence and materialism while the 50s were spent fighting internal and external cold wars, however, these eras had similar intolerant attitudes, literary developments, and impacts of technology. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2d0080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">**Partitions**: Advances in technology created a cultural identity for society; both the <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">1920s and the <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">1950s experienced bouts of racism, sexism, and prejudiced; new literature sparked a cultural revival in young people that shocked the nation. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2d0080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">**Thesis:** The 1920s and 1950s experienced similar social and economic phenomena in a split nation. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">

<span style="background-color: #e1ff00; color: #ff4700; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px; text-align: left;">**Partition 1:** Impact of Technology Henry Ford’s assembly line produced over 30 million affordable automobiles by 1929, which promoted a transfer to suburban living.

In 1920, the commercial radio began broadcasting news, stories, and music: a famous channel, National Broadcasting Society (NBC) reached into 5 million homes and broadcasted comedy, drama, and sports.

The development of NASA began the space race, which launched products to create transportation to the moon (aka rockets) and fueled the arms race and Cold War.

A second major consumer revolution began in the 1950s with the mad increase in sales of cars, televisions, and household appliances, which promoted the view of an ideal middle-class, suburban family.

Commercial airlines began flying Americans all over the world and caused a cultural exchange between countries that tourists visited.

<span style="background-color: #808000; color: #e1ff00; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">**Partition 2: Intolerant Attitudes** A flux of nativist and anti-immigrant feelings Is demonstrated by the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 limiting the number of immigrants to 3% of the 1910 census count. Later, the Immigration Act of 192 further limited the number of immigrants to 2% of the 1890 census number.

African Americans fought for equality under the United Negro Improvement Association, which unfortunately collapsed after the conviction of mail fraud and deportion in 1927 of Marcus Garvey, the union’s founder. The NAACP continued pressing for equality and justice and lynchings on the South increased.

A reemergence of the KKK saw Jews, Catholics, communists, and blacks as its targets. The KKK revived terror tactics from the Reconstruction era and its constituents were many Southern and Midwestern government officials and policemen.

In 1921, Margaret Sanger founded the American Birth Control League and encouraged women to fight unwanted pregnancy, poverty, and abuse.

The “Red Scare”, which targeted communists, plagued the 1950s: the government passed the Smith Act and founded the House Un-American Activities Committee—both intended to fight communism in America. After the execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (convicted of communism), Joseph McCarthy lead the nation into an anticommunist frenzy, which is now dubbed as McCarthyism.

The Civil Rights saw modest improvement with the passing of the Civil Rights Bill of 1957, although the bill was poorly enforced.

Because of the “baby boom”, women were expected to stay home and care for their children. Those women who sought work outside the home were often scorned.

<span style="background-color: #0000ff; color: #00ff00; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">** Partition 3: ** Literary Developments The Harlem Renaissance among Harlem, New York’s young African American society offered a unity through literature and the arts with artists such as Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen.

The “Lost Generation” writers rejected American materialism at the time and wrote about sobering prospects such as war, poverty, and the destruction of the American life.

“Beatniks” such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg encouraged individuality and free usage of drugs.

Many teenagers found stories such as The Catcher in the Rye more their style and greedily devoured the story about the troubled life of Holden Caulfield.

<span style="background-color: #800080; color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 23px; text-align: left;">General Information: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Remember both eras consisted of great industrial expansion and social restriction and prejudice.