Changes in American Values and Culture By: Kianna Holian
Values are the critical base on which any society rests The values of different ethnic groups and even different industries differ The market place became known as amoral instead of immoral The market place was now the economic system Economic arrangements should be based on morality
Property Ownership If the hope existed as owners, made it possible for economic order without significant government interference A free field and no favor, need or want of an American American values were associated with individualism Sought individual success and did not know the meaning of enough Late 19 th and 20 th century
Individualism Individualism versus mutuality the concept of independence Common interests alongside desire for independence Americans saw that it was the belief that each individual has the right to be respected American workers distinguished individualism from selfishness Workers believed in Self-reliance, justice, equality, cooperation, and human reciprocity Personal interests with own well-being and ambitions Marxism is hostile to individualism as a social theory, not to individuality as a social value.
Marketplace Amoral marketplace economics Moral economics Nothing should be done to interfere with natural and impartial workings Federalist Number 10 It has been easy for those who have won in the marketplace, those who have not won have seen that the justification for economic policy is from morals Individualism has had ethical and cooperative elements An individualistic American is found when cooperative is seen as advancing interests of individual workers
Roosevelt Speech on Prohibition At last, on the eleventh day of August, the President spoke to the people. To anyone who will read the Prohibition plank in the Republican platform and the remarks of the President on this question in his acceptance speech, the difficulty under which the President labors will become obvious and the reason for his use of meaningless words will become clear. It is the difficulty that always attends sacrificing principles for votes, and attempting to conceal that fact by the use of pussy-cat words. That statement can be no better substantiated than by the President's own statement that "I have always sympathized with the high purpose of the Eighteenth Amendment." Does that spell out a prohibitionist attempting to retain the support of the drys? But the President has at last learned what the facts have shown these many years that laws opposed by majority sentiments "create resentment which undermines enforcement and in the end produces degeneration and crime."
Cooperation v. Competition Workers have tended to move towards cooperative individualism while businessmen have move towards acquisitive individualism Middle class has been pulled either way depending on the specific historical situation
Evolving Values Period of liberalism- during the Progressive era, the New Deal and the 1960s cooperative values have ascended The Depression had immense social and economic forces
Sticking together was seen as the way to not become oppressed Difficult for individualistic people Through cooperation people did not become free they developed indepedence The dependence on the government lessened as collectivism started to expand Americans began to return to values of amoral individualism and the marketplace
National polls said that workers favored compassionate government policies An overall support from the government was wanted by Americans During the 1930s the values of moral economics was gaining support The middle class saw that their values were becoming like those of laborers
Communism Marxism New American capitalism Determinism Collectivism The American Dream was not lacking and about to be overtaken by other dreams Blending of the American traditions and Marxism
The 30s A new Red Scare The Red Network by Elizabeth Dilling Anti-Communist crusade laughable 1938 the House of Representatives created a special committee on Un-American Activities Investigate the activities of American fascists
Music, radio, books, magazines, comics and sports were all medias that were significant in the thirties Movies were the most prominent Served as an escapism Reinforced the succes and values of individualism Gansters Movies symbolized depression victims
The New Deal era (1933) represented both hope and escape from the hard times The Three Little Pigs Optimism was in the background Deeper social problems and values of the Depression were brought to front instead of the individualism Bad guys in movies started to become good guys as movies progressed Businessmen stayed greedy
Depression directors showed examples of the tradition, moral American values and the amoral marketplace Frank Capra and John Ford The movie theaters felt the hardships like everything else when the Depression hit Some of the most important innovations also came during this period The Theater Union formed in 1933
Works Cited McElvaine, Robert S. "9.Moral Economics: American Values and Culture in the Great Depression." The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941.New York, NY: Times, 1984. 196-223. Print. Watts, Tim. "American theater." American History. ABC- CLIO, 2015. Web. 24 Jan. 2015.