Analyze the uneven distribution of the 1920s economic prosperity. Which Americans gained the most and which were largely left out? How did an expanding mass culture change the contours of everyday life in the decade following WWI? What role did new technologies of mass communication play in shaping these changes? What connections can you draw between the “culture of consumption” then and today? To what extent were the grim realities of the depression reflected in pop-culture? To what degree were they absent? Discuss the long and short range effects of the New Deal on American political and economic life. What were the key successes and failure? What legacies of New Deal-era policies and political struggles can you find in contemporary America?
