Discussion needed by 1pm Sunday

After the end of World War I, overall economic growth exploded in the  US in the early 1920s, but then there was a severe economic breakdown  with the Great Depression of 1929-1939.

Choose and discuss (in a full paragraph or two) one of the following two topics related to the 1920s and1930s.

1. The textbook highlights the significant emergence of new cultural  trends due to improved technology (radio, movies, photography) and the  spread of books & magazines (writers) in the “roaring” 1920s as well  as in the 1930s, and also to new movements like the Harlem Renaissance,  consumerism, and new “norms” for women.    
   
   
   
   • Consider the new technology of radio and photography. With  specific examples from the 1920s, discuss how these new technologies  helped one of the movements and trends above.
   
   
   • Explain whether you think this helped to develop a more unified  national culture or more individuality, and identify a similar example  today with technology helping a trend or movement.
   
   
   • Identify the source(s) where you read about the trend of the 1920s.
   
   
   
   


2. The Great Depression (1929-1939) was one of the most devastating  economic downturns that America has ever experienced. Determine whether  you believe that the federal responses to the Great Depression by  President Franklin Roosevelt encouraged real economic growth and  confidence or whether the arguments by critics of the day were accurate  that it made the Depression last longer.    
   
   
   
   • Identify your position and support it with at least two specific examples of New Deal responses.
   
   
   • Provide a rationale for your response.
   
   
   • From this historical experience, identify any lessons for today  for handling or avoiding severe economic downturns in the U.S. economy.
   
   
   • Identify the source(s) where you read about the New Deal responses.