The interwar period between 1919 and 1939 was one of the most interesting and understudied periods for the American working-class in shaping America as we know it today. Lizabeth Cohen’s Making a New Deal draws our attention to workers in the city of Chicago during this period, and their interactions with the modern bastions of the American life, capitalism and democracy. This paper will aim to summarise Cohen’s story of the working-class within the communities of Chicago during this period.
The working-class experience of American capitalism and democracy was a new one for many in 1919, particularly as the immigrant population made up the vast majority of the workforce. After the First World War, homeland nationalism began to fracture the …show more content…
Yet despite hardship, the progressive mass culture movement during the early part of the decade encouraged the working-class to become big spenders. Shorter work days and a rising pay rate allowed workers to experience more leisure time, whilst American capitalism attempted to integrate them into the middle-class culture. According to Cohen however, this did not change influence the working-class’s existing values and relationships, and in some cases it strengthened cultural bonds. For example, Mexican and Italian Americans embraced the mass produced phonograph. Its capability to play their native records was, according to them, important in helping keep their cultural heritage alive whilst in the United States. Motion pictures also proved a hit with in the 1920s, with half of the class’ average leisure spending allocated towards shows. The loyalty of the Chicago working-class towards their ethnic groups remained steadfast despite the growing distractions of capitalism taking a new form through culture, shopping and …show more content…
Roosevelt’s new deal, but their relationship with democracy was less clear. It took the Great Depression to kick workers into action, and they turned out in record numbers, a two-third increase from 1924 to 1936. Roosevelt was seen as the saviour of the American working-class; a giant leap from the proud ethnic communities of the early 1920s who refused to accept assistance. His new deal transformed the unrealised promises of welfare capitalism into the welfare state, and following the Republican blowback during the 1936 vote, workers had begun to assume their own political allegiances and many for the first time. Workers on the whole had become more politically savvy following the Great Depression, and led them to form workers unions during the 1930s. It could certainly be inferred that the carry-over from the working-class’ involvement with American politics led to this change in organisational structure, and the formation of the Committee for Industrial Organisation (CIO). Unions proved that the working-class had come a long way from the ethnic conflicts of earlier times. Aside from the legitimacy which the CIO was eventually granted, the union gave workers a new common ground with a culture of unity, and by 1939, the CIO had achieved a united industrial union with a rich, diverse makeup and better working conditions for
The working-class experience of American capitalism and democracy was a new one for many in 1919, particularly as the immigrant population made up the vast majority of the workforce. After the First World War, homeland nationalism began to fracture the …show more content…
Yet despite hardship, the progressive mass culture movement during the early part of the decade encouraged the working-class to become big spenders. Shorter work days and a rising pay rate allowed workers to experience more leisure time, whilst American capitalism attempted to integrate them into the middle-class culture. According to Cohen however, this did not change influence the working-class’s existing values and relationships, and in some cases it strengthened cultural bonds. For example, Mexican and Italian Americans embraced the mass produced phonograph. Its capability to play their native records was, according to them, important in helping keep their cultural heritage alive whilst in the United States. Motion pictures also proved a hit with in the 1920s, with half of the class’ average leisure spending allocated towards shows. The loyalty of the Chicago working-class towards their ethnic groups remained steadfast despite the growing distractions of capitalism taking a new form through culture, shopping and …show more content…
Roosevelt’s new deal, but their relationship with democracy was less clear. It took the Great Depression to kick workers into action, and they turned out in record numbers, a two-third increase from 1924 to 1936. Roosevelt was seen as the saviour of the American working-class; a giant leap from the proud ethnic communities of the early 1920s who refused to accept assistance. His new deal transformed the unrealised promises of welfare capitalism into the welfare state, and following the Republican blowback during the 1936 vote, workers had begun to assume their own political allegiances and many for the first time. Workers on the whole had become more politically savvy following the Great Depression, and led them to form workers unions during the 1930s. It could certainly be inferred that the carry-over from the working-class’ involvement with American politics led to this change in organisational structure, and the formation of the Committee for Industrial Organisation (CIO). Unions proved that the working-class had come a long way from the ethnic conflicts of earlier times. Aside from the legitimacy which the CIO was eventually granted, the union gave workers a new common ground with a culture of unity, and by 1939, the CIO had achieved a united industrial union with a rich, diverse makeup and better working conditions for