1. Lecture 20: The Great Depression and the Second World War (1929 – 1945)
British and American Culture

2. The Great Depression
After the stock market crash of 1929, the U.S. economy entered a period of severe depression – The Great Depression
The U.S. President, Herbert Hoover was criticized for not doing enough to fight the depression
Election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) in 1932 – The “New Deal”
The Great Depression lasted until the late 1930s, and the economy didn’t fully recover until World War II

3. John Steinbeck ( )
The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden

4. The “Harlem Renaissance” and the Emergence of Jazz
Harlem, a traditionally African-American section of New York City (Manhattan), was fertile ground for new forms of music in the 1920s and 1930s – eventually became known as “jazz”
Also emerged in New Orleans and other centers of black culture

5. The U.S. in World War II
U.S. entered WWII in 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor
Economic production rose sharply and high unemployment ended
Two fronts: Eastern and Western
Manhattan Project  led to the development of atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, ending the war

7. The “Musical”
Derived from European opera, but with more “talking” and less singing, with more popular-style melodies
Rogers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe

8. Homework Watch the film Casablanca (1942):
Read U.S. History – part 5 (on class website)