I have a very active tumblr blog, and while I was scrolling, I came across this. Apparently, children had dog tags during this time period so that if a nuclear attack came around, then they would know who’s child lived and died. The culture of fear directly affected children, even though these children had no way of knowing that they were being labeled in case they all perished. It really goes to show you got afraid people were and how that cold war fear was subliminally passed down to their children.

Vanessa Rodriguez

Section 1, group 3

My essay topic is about how the 1920s shaped and changed American culture. My essay will specifically focus on how this era in American history changed American literature, fashion, music and film.

American Art and Literature in the 1920s

Some of the chief literary figures of the 1920s included F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Cynical and disillusioned about the world in the post- World War I period, these writers contributed heavily to the developing culture of the 1920s. While most famous for his novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald also wrote This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned during this era. Hemingway contributed to the modern literary movement with other short stories and novels, such as A Farewell to Arms. The 1920s was also widely known for the Harlem Renaissance, a period of African-American literary and artistic cultural growth. Stemming from the mostly African-American populated neighborhood of Harlem, NY, the Harlem Renaissance was mainly fueled by the ideas that a growth of intellect and increase in the production of literature and art could challenge racial stereotypes and quell racial segregation. Some of the most significant novelists of the Harlem Renaissance included Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes.

The Jazz Age- Music and Film of the 1920s

The film industry and Hollywood skyrocketed in the 1920s. Filmkaing was revolutionized as the “talkies,” or sound-synchronized motion pictures, replaced silent films. The first feature-length talking film, The Jazz Singer, was released in 1927. Jazz and jazz-influenced dance music became widely popular during the 1920s, hence why the era became known as “The Jazz Age.” George Gershwin, Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti were iconic musicians of The Jazz Age, being the first to incorporate guitar and violin into jazz. Dance clubs became more popular, featuring live jazz music nightly. A variety of novelty dance moves also developed during this period, such as the Breakaway, the Charleston, and the Lindy Hop, which would eventually evolve into the Swing.

Fashion of the Roaring 20s- The flapper girl

The 1920s were a period of very significant change for women. With the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote in 1920, women began to feel empowered to take control of their own lives. This began a widespread sexual liberation movement for young women, known as the age of the flapper. A flapper was a new, innovative young woman who wore short skirts, bobbed her hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted her disdain for socially acceptable behavior. She rejected strict Victorian gender roles by wearing eloquent makeup, smoking and drinking, driving automobiles, and flouting sexual norms by dancing provocatively with men in underground alcohol clubs known as speakeasies.

As a product of the Cold War, individuals that were stateside in the U.S. faced an immense deal of fear, anxiety, worry, and threat that they were going to be attacked from communist Russia. The two primary concerns that people had however were the spread of Communist rule and Atomic warfare. As a result, the United States made it evidently apparent that they were willing to back up their opposing outlook on Communism with military strength and Economic/financial support as well. In addition to the vast mental strain and threat employed by Russia, the economy in the US flourished and there was a major spike in the mass production of cars along with an increase in the housing market. Popular Culture also changed greatly as television shows acted as a popular outlet for individuals to cope with the threat from Russia. In addition, there was also a drastic revival in terms of the popularity of religion during this time due majorly in part to the fear of being attacked and people’s lives being threatened. Racial Segregation also became more and more prominent as white Americans moved into Levittowns away from the crowded cities and as African Americans began to transition from the South into cities towards the West Coast. Puerto Rican and Hispanic citizens also began to inhabit Harlem as more and more people began to move out into the suburbs away from the cities. Finally, the U.S. also underwent a dramatic upwards increase in terms of population that was known as the “baby boom” that correlated with the massive expansion of people dispersing across the U.S. as well. 



Have you seen this man? Funny neither have his 400 angry students who were hoping to have a fun and exciting new approach to learning history. Maybe you have seen him enjoying a nice jog around Lake Murray or shopping at the local Goodwill. If you see him let him know he has a lot of discouraged and angered students waiting for him… #whereisblum

In class we spoke about the culture of fear during the time of the civil rights. The story of Emmett Till (Chapt 24 – Hist) briefly went over the story of the murder of a young african american boy. This story is somewhat reminiscent to the cultural scrutiny around the articles centered around young blacks being targeted by white cops. I see a huge difference between the two, however, these acts have had many blacks in American (and whites) a little upset and even calling these acts those of racism.

In University Towers Kitchen I found a USe credit union ATM. The company was established on the SDSU campus in 1969. The credit union has been the largest bank on the SDSU campus helping students and staff with their finances.

In University Towers Kitchen I found a USe credit union ATM. The company was established on the SDSU campus in 1969. The credit union has been the largest bank on the SDSU campus helping students and staff with their finances.

In the United States, the popularity of bottled water declined in the early 20th century, when water chlorination reduced public concerns about water-borne diseases. Today, bottled water is the second most popular commercial beverage in the United States, with about half the domestic consumption as soft drinks

Sure, not many of us care about being afraid of technology because nowadays we are so immersed in it. There are still few who view technology as a threat to human kind and believe that our end because of it will come quite soon. With the power of being able to access and infinite information in just a push of a button, people fear that this may create “information overload.” A strain that might happen in a brain when tasking too many things at once. Another fear that could possibly come true is the creation of artificial beings that can create even better artificial beings themselves. This sounds like a fear right out of a sci-fi movie, but interestingly enough, by the speed at which technology is evolving, this may become a possible future and may lead to the extinction of the human race.

In the last couple of lectures we were talking about the cold war, how the government tried to make atom bombs seem almost not that bad when people were worrying about the effects of them. I used to have a favorite game franchise that I always played which was the Fallout series. The game always took place after the world was bombed by atomic bombs and mutated creatures and radioactivity roamed the land. When explaining how to play the game, or looking through the main menus, there still maintains that dark irony of making light of something dangerous. When scrolling through different weapons of destruction there is a happy face man usually portraying the use of these weapons. This parallels to how America tried to make light of the atom bombs around the cold war.

I am writing my essay on the Vietnam War and how the media directly influenced the hippie movement and all of the anti-war songs that came out during this time. Thousands of young people became completely outraged when the US government sent thousands of young men to fight in Vietnam where almost 60,000 would die and after Hiroshima was bombed. The hippies were all about peace and love and protested the war just as several singers of the time created anti-war songs.