World War I and the 1920s. I think that World War I has gotten lost in the shadow of the Second World War but I see them as parts 1 and 2 of essentially the same conflict. For the U.S., World War I was a relatively short and painless war. However, France, England, and Germany effectively lost a generation of men. It was a brutal, brutal conflict with a host of weapons used for the first time: chemical weapons, tanks, and airplanes among others. The Europeans, to a large degree, simply tired of fighting, put down their guns, argued over the peace agreement through the 1920s and 1930s, then starting shooting again in the 1940s.
The 1920s were essentially the 1960s before the 1960s. The baby boomers seem to think that they were doing something so wild and new! But we had hippies in the 1830s and 1840s — utopians — and we had new roles for women and African Americans in the 1920s.
Marcus Garvey is somewhat Malcolm X before Malcolm X. Marcus Garvey told African Americans in a speech that, “There shall be no solution to this race problem until you yourselves strike the blow for liberty.” http://www.marcusgarvey.com
Answer this in your post: What do you like and dislike about Garvey? If you were black in the 1920s, would you have followed him?
