The Politics of Prosperity Mass Consumer Culture in the 1920s

Embracing an argument-based model for teaching history, the Debating American History series encourages students to participate in a contested, evidence-based discourse about the human past. Each book poses a question that historians debate--How democratic is the U.S. Constitution? or Why did civil war erupt in the United States in 1861?-- and provides abundant primary sources so that students can make their own efforts at interpreting the evidence. They can then use that analysis to construct answers to the big question that frames the debate and argue in support of their position.

Politics of Prosperity poses this big question: Did mass consumer culture empower Americans in the 1920s?

Kimberley A. Reilly is an Associate Professor of Democracy & Justice Studies and History at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Her scholarship has been published in Law and History Review and the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

List of Figures and Maps
About the Author
Acknowledgements
Series Introduction

The Big Question

Timeline

Historian's Conversations
Position #1: The 1920s: The Age of Corporate Power
Position #2: 1920s Consumer Culture: A Site of Personal Empowerment
Position #3: Consumer Culture and Politically Empowered Americans

Debating the Question
1.1 Anne Shaw Faulkner, "Does Jazz Put the Sin in Syncopation?" Ladies Home Journal (August 1921)
1.2 John T. McCutcheon, "City and Country Population," Chicago Tribune (August 1921)
1.3 "The Psychology of Knees," The Flapper Magazine (June 1922)
1.4 "All Ford Plants to Shut Down September 16," Motor Age (August 31, 1922)
1.5 Felix the Cat, "Felix Revolts" (1923)
1.6 Publicity photo of film actress Anna May Wong, Motion Picture Magazine (April 1924)
1.7 William L. Chenery, "Ford Backs His Ideas After Ten-Year Test," New York Times (August 10, 1924)
1.8 President Calvin Coolidge, "Taken on the White House Grounds" film (1924)
1.9 Bernarr Macfadden, "The Road to Romance," Your Car (May 1925)
1.10 "A Chicken for Every Pot" advertisement (New York Times, 1928)
1.11 Consumers' League of New York City, Behind the Scenes in Candy Factories (1928)
1.12 Jack Woodford, "Radio--A Blessing or a Curse?" Forum (March 1929)
1.13 James G. Harbord, "Radio and Democracy," Forum (April 1929)
1.14 Stuart Chase on clothing in the 1920s, Prosperity: Fact or Myth (1929)
1.15 Christine Frederick, Selling Mrs. Consumer (1929)
1.16 Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd, Middletown: A Study in Contemporary Culture (1929)

Case Study 1: African Americans and Consumer Culture
2.1 J. Williams Clifford, "Appeal to the Negro Race," Washington Bee (February 28, 1920)
2.2 "Fight South Carolina Attempt at Film Discrimination," Broad Ax (February 2, 1922)
2.3 Helene Johnson, "Poem" (1927)
2.4 James Van Der Zee, Untitled Couples Portrait (1929)
2.5 Paul K. Edwards, The Southern Urban Negro as a Consumer (1932)

Case Study 2: Advertising and the Flapper
3.1 "You Need Not Be Embarrassed" Zip Depilatory Ad (1923)
3.2 "They Talk About You Behind Your Back" Listerine Ad (1923)
3.3 "Pride in Our Race" Golden Brown Skin Lightener Ad (1923)
3.4 "Freedom for the Woman Who Owns a Ford" Ad (1924)
3.5 "Could This Girl 'Vamp' Your Sweetie?" Hi-Ja Hair Straightener Ad (1928)
3.6 Lucky Strike Ad Featuring Amelia Earhart (1929)
Reference Materials

Additional Resources
Index