Unseen American

1908

Ford's Model T released and automobiles become increasingly popular.

1880s, rise of immigration.

Italy's troubled economy, crop failures, and political climate begin the start of mass immigration with nearly 4 million Italian immigrants arriving in the US

1882 - Chinese Exclusion Act.

Most Chinese were prohibited from emigrating to the US. Those living in the US were specifically barred from obtaining citizenship.

1891

Ida B. Wells launched her nation-wide anti-lynching campaign after the murder of three black businessmen in Memphis, Tennessee.

1904 - The Louisiana Purchase Exposition

People from Africa, South America, and Asia were brought to St. Louis for anthropological displays.

1913

Members of the National Woman's Party participate in hunger strikes, picket the White House, and engage in other forms of civil disobedience to publicise the suffrage cause.

1918

America passed the 18th Amendment which completely banned the sale of alcohol.

1920

Women gained the right to vote.

Crime?

By the 1920's, crime and gangsters had taken on a romanticized allure. In new York alone, more than 1,000 gangsters had been killed during the 1920s.

Cars?

The 1920s saw huge increases in the production and use of automobiles. Almost 1 in 4 people now had a car.

1924 - Immigration Act.

Defined all Asian immigrants as "aliens ineligible to citizenship" and dramatically limited migration from Eastern and Southern Europe.

Impact of the Great Depression

Unemployment skyrocketed to more than 25%, with almost 1/3 of American workers unemployed in 1933.

Tenant farmers after the great depression?

Sharecroppers in 1932, were making an average of 50% and needed to barter to stay alive.

How many people fled the Great plains after the dust storms in 1937?

Nearly 500,000 migrants sought a better life in California.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Legalized segregation in publicly owned facilities on the basis of "separate but equal."

Jim Crow Laws (1877-1965)

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites

Religion

a societal shift from Christian virtue of 19th century Manifest Destiny to a materialistic pursuit of capitalist consumption

My Antonia (Willa Cather, 1918)

Czech immigrant family arrive in the Midwest frontier to pursue the American Dream

The 42nd Parallel (John Dos Passos 1930 / Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 1939)

present rural and urban landscapes as a reflection of the suffering of the working class and their lack of opportunity

Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck 1937)

features the mistreatment of women by socially weak men / Steinbeck depicts women as troublemakers who bring ruin on men and drive them mad

anthropomorphic (imagery)

having human characteristics

pathetic fallacy

nature mirrors human emotions

Tricolon

Sentence consisting of three clauses (emotive; makes sentence memorable; impactful;)

superlative adjective

Used to compare more than two objects or people

Onomatopoeia

the use of words that imitate sounds

Alliteration

Repetition of consonant sounds