Introduction

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Irwin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Foreign Competition ◽  
Trade Restrictions ◽  
Great Problem ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Pork Barrel ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
The World

This introductory chapter discusses the background of the Smoot–Hawley tariff, which President Herbert Hoover signed into law on June 17, 1930. The Smoot–Hawley tariff ranks among the most infamous pieces of congressional legislation of the twentieth century. Although imports were not surging into the country or causing any great problem for the economy, Congress raised tariffs on imported goods with the intention of protecting farmers and manufacturers from what little foreign competition they faced. In doing so, they did not follow any economic logic or consider the interests of consumers and exporters who would be harmed by the tariffs. Instead, they engaged in the most blatant form of pork-barrel politics, catering to the demands of special interests that wanted to limit imports. Not surprisingly, several foreign countries retaliated by imposing duties on U.S. exports. These trade restrictions spread just as the world economy was beginning to sink into a depression. The contribution of the Smoot–Hawley tariff to the collapse of trade and the Great Depression of the 1930s has been debated ever since.

Selling Historic Natchez to Depression-Era Pilgrims

2019 ◽  
pp. 153-210
Author(s):  
Susan T. Falck
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Racial Ideology ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Cultural Image ◽  
The World ◽  
Depression Era

This chapter recounts the early years of the Natchez Pilgrimage, a heritage tourism enterprise created by the Natchez Garden Club at the height of the Great Depression. The Pilgrimage dramatized a mix of decades-old southern racial ideology and white historical memory that was repackaged for 1930s consumption. Pilgrimage founder Katherine Miller and other leading clubwomen defined their community’s cultural image, while also redefining the meaning of traditional southern womanhood. The Pilgrimage is also the story of how one southern community’s selective expression of historical memory captivated white tourists eager to immerse themselves in the world of the Old South so vividly portrayed by popular writers and entertainers of the 1930s. The widespread appeal of the Pilgrimage home tours and pageant suggests the power of popular culture to shape a tenacious historical memory that remained in force for much of the twentieth century and lingers even today.

Learning about Growth and Democracy

2020 ◽  
Vol 114 (4) ◽  
pp. 1195-1212
Author(s):  
SCOTT F. ABRAMSON ◽  
SERGIO MONTERO
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The World ◽  
Past Experiences

We develop and estimate a model of learning that accounts for the observed correlation between economic development and democracy and for the clustering of democratization events. In our model, countries’ own and neighbors’ past experiences shape elites’ beliefs about the effects of democracy on economic growth and their likelihood of retaining power. These beliefs influence the choice to transition into or out of democracy. We show that learning is crucial to explaining observed transitions since the mid-twentieth century. Moreover, our model predicts reversals to authoritarianism if the world experienced a growth shock the size of the Great Depression.

Economics in Perspective

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith ◽  
Richard Parker
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

This book presents a compelling and accessible history of economic ideas, from Aristotle through the twentieth century. Examining theories of the past that have a continuing modern resonance, the book shows that economics is not a timeless, objective science, but is continually evolving as it is shaped by specific times and places. From Adam Smith's theories during the Industrial Revolution to those of John Maynard Keynes after the Great Depression, the book demonstrates that if economic ideas are to remain relevant, they must continually adapt to the world they inhabit. A lively examination of economic thought in historical context, the book shows how the field has evolved across the centuries.

scholarly journals From Material to Non-Material Needs? The Evolution of Mate Preferences through the Twentieth Century in France

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
Quentin Lippmann
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Demographic Changes ◽  
French Society ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Economic Boom ◽  
Economic Criteria

This paper studies the evolution of mate preferences throughout the twentieth century in France. I digitized all the matrimonial ads published in France’s best-selling monthly magazine from 1928 to 1994. Using dictionary-based methods, I show that mate preferences were mostly stable during the Great Depression, WWII, and the ensuing economic boom. These preferences started transforming in the late 1960s when economic criteria were progressively replaced by personality criteria. The timing coincides with profound family and demographic changes in French society. These findings suggest that, in the search for a long-term partner, non-material needs have replaced material ones.

The Political ‘Left’ in the Interwar Period, 1924–1939

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Radcliff
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
Community Life ◽  
Bolshevik Revolution ◽  
Mass Society ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Political Left

In the turbulent interwar period, the political ‘Left’ was one of the most visible protagonists, with historians continuing to disagree about the role it played in shaping the outcome of the political struggles. Embedded in strong ‘moral narratives’ about the ‘rise of fascism’, the ‘crisis of democracy’, and the nature of the Bolshevik Revolution, the political Left has been vilified or lionized. For the period from the mid-1920s until 1939, both supporters and detractors agree that the Left was on the defensive, internally divided and weakened by the Great Depression and subject to repression by the state, whether democratic, authoritarian, or Stalinist. This chapter argues that the failure narrative should not subsume the vibrant experimentation and rich and contradictory diversity of the Left experience. A portrait emerges of the interwar Left that wrestled with inevitably imperfect and varied solutions to the ‘problem of community life’ in twentieth-century mass society.

Introduction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lila Caimari
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Neighborhood Associations ◽  
Grassroots Politics ◽  
The World ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
The Many

This introductory chapter begins with the author's account of the origins of the present volume, which can be traced back to her interest in a late nineteenth-century set of concepts, images, and metaphors that grew up around the figure of the modern criminal. It then discusses the population growth in Buenos Aires, which jumped from about 1.5 to 2.5 million in the two decades between the world wars and the corresponding urban expansion. This sets the stage for a description of the book's purpose, namely to explore the many dimensions of porteño life in the early decades of the twentieth century: its vital network of neighborhood associations, its literacy campaigns, its grassroots politics, its many reformist projects, and so forth.

The Sunshine State Emerges on the World Stage

2019 ◽  
pp. 189-197
Author(s):  
David J. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Entire Population ◽  
World's Fair ◽  
Tourist Industry ◽  
Tourist Attractions ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
New York World's Fair ◽  
The World ◽  
Park Service

Near the end of the Great Depression, Florida ends the decade with a triumphant tenure at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, dozens of thriving tourist attractions, and a newly built Florida Park Service. By 1940, Florida enjoyed a thriving tourist industry that attracted more than double the entire population of the Sunshine State.

scholarly journals Adolescents’ Impact on Family Economy in Sweden: During the First Decades of the Twentieth Century

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23
Author(s):  
Dan Bäcklund ◽  
Kristina Lilja
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Youth Unemployment ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Family Economy ◽  
Impact On Family ◽  
Household Budget Surveys

Adolescents’ income contributions to working-class families decreased between the 1910s and the 1930s in Sweden. This was significant for adolescents’ right to self-determination. By using household budget surveys, this article shows that at the time of the Great Depression, working adolescents paid less at home than had been common at the beginning of the twentieth century. Youth unemployment is one explanation, although it was also a consequence of children keeping more of their earnings for themselves. This development led to rising costs for having children and is interpreted as an aspect of the trade-off between quantity and quality of children.

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