Peace In Their Time

Today the United States miniseries goes out with the bang of the 1929 stock market crash. It was a confluence of bad decisions, inaction, greed, and terrible timing all coming together to create the great economic crisis of our times. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Galbraith, James K. The Great Crash 1929 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company 2009
2. Hall, Thomas E. and J. David Ferguson The Great Depression: An International Disaster of Perverse Economic Policies University of Michigan Press 1998
3. Miller, Nathan New World Coming: The 1920s and the Making of Modern America Da Capo Press 2003
4. Robert E. Gallman The Cambridge Economic History of the United States Volume III: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 2000
5. Whyte, Kenneth Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times Vintage Books 2017

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

The 1920s became a legendary time in America as the consumer economy took center stage, and a dizzying array of goods heralded a new era in how people lived their lives. What was less legendary about the era was the dependence of consumers on credit, and the short-sightedness of the country's elites. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Miller, Nathan New World Coming: The 1920s and the Making of Modern America Da Capo Press 2003
2. Schlesinger Jr, Arthur M The Age of Roosevelt: The Crisis of the Old Order 1919-1933 First Mariner Books 1957
3. Kyvig, David E Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940 Ivan R. Dee 2002
4. Engerman, Stanley L. and Robert E. Gallman The Cambridge Economic History of the United States Volume III: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 2000
5. Shlaes, Amity Coolidge Harper Collins 2013
6. Whyte, Kenneth Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times Vintage Books 2017

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

Despite winning WWI and showing off its power to the rest of the world, the United States limped into 1920. Exhausted by a year of violence at home, a crippling recession, and runaway inflation, voter turned to the Republicans. And Republicans turned to a man that would symbolize the modest aspirations of the age, Warren G. Harding. Despite not lasting long, he'd set the tone for the rest of the decade. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Miller, Nathan New World Coming: The 1920s and the Making of Modern America Da Capo Press 2003
2. Schlesinger Jr, Arthur M The Age of Roosevelt: The Crisis of the Old Order 1919-1933 First Mariner Books 1957
3. Kyvig, David E Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940 Ivan R. Dee 2002
4. Engerman, Stanley L. and Robert E. Gallman The Cambridge Economic History of the United States Volume III: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 2000
5. Iriye, Akira The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations Volume III: The Globalizing of America, 1913-1945 Cambridge University Press 1993

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

The immediate aftermath of WWI would unleash one of the most harrowing years in America's history. The economic recession that immediately followed the end of the war helped spark violence and persecutions that rocked the country into 1920. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. McWhirter, Cameron Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America St. Martin's Press 2011
2. Krugler, David F. 1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back Cambridge University PRess 2015
3. Miller, Nathan New World Coming: The 1920s and the Making of Modern America Da Capo Press 2003
4. Schlesinger Jr, Arthur M The Age of Roosevelt: The Crisis of the Old Order 1919-1933 First Mariner Books 1957

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

By 1914 the United States was rich and confident, but also wise enough to stay out of WWI. The problem is though fights of that size have a tendency to drag nations into them, and America found itself involved after numerous German missteps. It would be a new situation for the country, as President Wilson assumed effective political leadership of the Entente, setting a vision for the post-war that his new allies had not expected.

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Miller, Nathan New World Coming: The 1920s and the Making of Modern America Da Capo Press 2003
2. Schlesinger Jr, Arthur M The Age of Roosevelt: The Crisis of the Old Order 1919-1933 First Mariner Books 1957
3. Engerman, Stanley L. and Robert E. Gallman The Cambridge Economic History of the United States Volume III: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 2000
4. Iriye, Akira The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations Volume III: The Globalizing of America, 1913-1945 Cambridge University Press 1993

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

It's overview time once again and today I introduce the United States. It's main contribution to the failures of peace in the interwar period stem from its refusal to get entangled in European affairs. Which was a reluctance that had to do with internal conditions within the nation, and will be the focus of the first part of this series. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. LaFeber, Walter The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations Volume II: The American Search for Opportunity, 1865-1913 Cambridge University Press 1993
2. Iriye, Akira The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations Volume III: The Globalizing of America, 1913-1945 Cambridge University Press 1993
3. Engerman, Stanley L. and Robert E. Gallman The Cambridge Economic History of the United States Volume II: The Long Nineteenth Century Cambridge University Press 2000
4. Engerman, Stanley L. and Robert E. Gallman The Cambridge Economic History of the United States Volume III: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 2000
5. Miller, Nathan New World Coming: The 1920s and the Making of Modern America Da Capo Press 2003
6. Schlesinger Jr, Arthur M The Age of Roosevelt: The Crisis of the Old Order 1919-1933 First Mariner Books 1957

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

The horrors of modern war shocked sensibilities enough that by the 1920s there were active efforts to outlaw war entirely. The idea's proponents would face obstacles from disinterested governments and even conflicts among each other. But by decade's end the world had come together in agreement with their principals. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Hathaway, Oona A. and Scott J. Shapiro The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World Simon and Schuster 2017

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

In contrast to the Genoa Conference failing because it tried to do too much, the Locarno Treaties had much more success due to keeping its ambitions manageable. And those ambitions were to guarantee peace in Western Europe, as opposed to the world. Still, diplomacy being what it was in the 20s, there was still plenty keeping the Great Powers from achieving something that could last. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Jacobson, Jon Locarno Diplomacy: Germany and the West, 1925-1929 Princeton University Press 1972

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

Bringing the focus back to European affairs, there was a lot of unfinished business left after the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. And that business seemed intractable, leading the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George to call a new conference to solve all the continent's woes. Its failure would signal the end of overblown meetings on the Paris model, as well as set the stage for the Ruhr crisis of the mid-20s. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Fink, Carole The Genoa Conference: European Diplomacy, 1921-1922 Syracuse University Press 1993

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

A big point of contention during the 1920s was disarmament. The world public didn't want a repeat of WWI, and maintaining huge militaries was seen as a wasteful expense in times of economic crisis. And for once, the Great Powers of the world did something about it, meeting in Washington, DC to hash out an agreement to scale back navy sizes. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Goldstein, Erik The Washington Conference, 1921-22: Naval Rivalry, East Asian Stability and the Road to Pearl Habor Frank Cass Publishers 1994

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com