AMSCO Historian Comparison 7.8

“Nor was this new material advance essentially gross and philistine [unsophisticated], as the popular historiography of the 1920s has it, ‘a drunken fiesta.’ . . . Intellectuals are a little too inclined to resent poorer people acquiring for the first time material possessions, and especially luxuries. . . . During the 1920s, in fact, America began suddenly to acquire a cultural density . . . which it had never before possessed.” Paul Johnson, historian, A History of the American People, 1997

“Never was a decade snuffed out so quickly as the 1920s. The stock market crash was taken as a judgment pronounced on the whole era, and, in the grim days of the depression, the 1920s were condemned as a time of irresponsibility and immaturity.” William E. Leuchtenburg, historian, The Perils of Prosperity, 1959

Briefly describe ONE major difference between Leuchtenburg’s and Johnson’s historical interpretations of the 1920s in the United States.

Briefly explain how ONE specific historical event or development that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts could be used to support Leuchtenburg’s interpretation.

Briefly explain how ONE specific historical event or development that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts could be used to support Johnson’s interpretation.