What is America one encounters and studies in a postmodern age? Is it a discourse? A bounded collective identity or a set of manifold, changing, and contingent identities? A fiction? An idea? A history? A place? If place has its say, are we talking about a nation, or several nations within a nation? And who are ‘Americans’? What do they share in common, what is their ‘American-ness’?

Thursday, January 24, 2008

After looking at the following link, and doing your narrowed-down search, use the comments' space to tell use what new things you have learnt.

http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade20.html

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posted by belag at Thursday, January 24, 2008

9 Comments:

Blogger Dragan-Stip said...

After looking over the history files, I have further extended my knowledge of the notorious gangster, Al Capone, and his illegal activities that lent Chicago its reputation as a lawless city.

8:21 AM

 
Blogger CyrilusLyncestinus said...

Most of all I was interested in Gershwin and his "Rhapsody in Blue" and its conception in less than a month.[I downloaded the trumpet version of it by the way, but from a different source]. Sad that he died so young. I also found out more about Woodrow Wilson, who by the way was one of the prime lobists for the creation of a Macedonian state before WW1 and some time after until the end of his mandate in 1920...

11:45 AM

 
Blogger belag said...

and his second wife is the offspring of Pocahontas and John Smith, something that she never hid, even though that made her an Indian at a time when it was not a desired ethnicity.

5:24 PM

 
Blogger gavril_31 said...

I learnt about the knickers and the widening trousers that men wore and the slang people used. Most interesting for me was the music that was popular during these years. I found out about The Cotton Club which was the most famous club to go out. All people were allowed to enter (no matter their race) and the most famous singers and musicians performed in it. The popular music was jazz and "devil music" and many of the songs had nonsense titles like "Yes, We Have No Bananas".

9:47 PM

 
Blogger ivo said...

I would definitely like to live during the period of 1920-1929!!First thing i would do is buy a Ford for 290$!!!Then i would go the Cotton Club listening to "I'm Just Wild About Harry". I would play baseball and have a dinner at Sardi's...on the edn i would prefer to die on Wednesday October 23, 1929, since October 24 is "The Black Thursday"!!!


P.S. I was very interested in people life, the charmony of Jazz Music, using slang, going to clubs and driving Ford for 290$

11:13 PM

 
Blogger Smith said...

The majority of my search was about gangsters of the 1920's. I learned how deeply inrooted they were in the American economic system. It really amazes me how much power and influence the mob bosses had at that time. Another thing that I found is that even today, over 80 years later, we still use many of the slang words around during that time period.

5:01 PM

 
Blogger Stefi said...

The slang was the funniest part that I read in this link, it was very interesting; I didn’t know we still use slang from the 20’s. The film and theater development were also interesting: Broadway at its peak, the first Oscars, the first talking picture(Don Juan),movies became big business and all of that in the 20's!

6:47 PM

 
Blogger Unknown said...

After reading the historical files, I concluded that the 1920s are the time of the second renaissance in human history. I learnt that this was a time of new styles in every field of life and living, like for example the new styles in the architecture(skyscrapers),literature(harlem renaissance), fashion, music(jazz), art(the moving picture)... I really liked the fact that finally there was a modern club "the cotton club" that was both for whites and blacks. A funny moment is definitely the slang from this time.
I think that the 1920s are really important period of history because many of the events that happened in this time are crucial for the living today( the first transatlantic flight is just one of the examples).

7:29 PM

 
Blogger joshtc19 said...

In researching the 1920, I found out that during this era, baseball played a unifying role in American society. People of all ranks of society enjoyed the game of baseball and it brought these different people together. Also, baseball had signification effects on American culture. For example the building of huge ballparks or the addition of the sport section in city newspaper. I find the best way to describe the role of baseball on American society since the 1920’s till present day is by using a quote from the movie “Field of Dreams”: Terence Mann: Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come. (Sorry it took me so long to do the assignment)

3:48 PM

 

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