Historical Dictionary from the Great War to the Great Depression

This volume examines significant individuals and developments in American political, economic, social and cultural history between the years 1913 and 1933. It was a time of momentous change including involvement in World War I, the Red Scare, the Jazz Age, the Crash of 1929, and the onset of the Great Depression. It covers the presidencies of Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover and the shift from reformism to conservatism. Prohibition and gangsterism symbolized the apparent failure of politics. The period witnessed the rise of new industries such as the automobile, chemicals, and electrical goods, and the growth of a mass consumer society. It was accompanied by mass entertainment with the rise of Hollywood, radio, and sport. Meanwhile the urban population exceeded the rural. For some, but far from all, during the earlier phase there was the charm of "prosperity," but this was replaced by widespread hardship and suffering and a search for what had gone wrong.