What Are The Changes In American Society Between The 1900s And 1940s

Between the 1900s and 1940s, America experienced many significant events that has changed the lives of the people of the country. Many of these events include the Great Depression, the passage of the 19th amendment, the New Deal, and more. Before this time, Americans were constantly divided into separate groups in terms of race, culture, gender. However, these many of these events provoked Americans to come together and become more unified than ever. Many occurrences during this time period led to women’s increasing involvement in society, the increase in labor union membership and the working class and employing class cooperating with each other, and also a supportive struggling society which allowed Americans to become more unified than it

During the Great Depression, there was a dramatic decrease in labor union members as unemployment rates rose notably. Although it seemed like the labor movement was over, the movement would soon strengthen and expand in numbers and power with the start of the Roosevelt administration and legislations from the New Deal. Ever since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution era, there had always been conflict between the working class and employers as workers suffered poor wages, bad working conditions, and long hours. Labor unions, such as the Industrial Workers of the World believed “The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life”. With the formation of labor unions, the working class of Americans, who made up of most of the American population, united together to fight and strike against employers for their rights. This idea was further pursued during the New Deal when the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) was passed in 1935. This act allowed all employees the right to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and take collective action including strikes. Employers were denied the

The Great Depression was a period during the 1930s where there was a worldwide economic devastation that caused drops in employment rate, personal income, price, and profit. Although it was a devastating and tortuous time for Americans, it was essential as it brought Americans together in their suffering and united them to work together to be able to improve their conditions. The severity of the Great Depression are clearly illustrated through a collection of photos by Dorothea Lange. One photograph from the collection contains a picture of a nurse treating a sick child with his mother. This is an example of the kind of support that neighbors had for each other. Since everyone was poor and suffering during this time, neighbors often looked out for each other and tried to provide as much support for each other in things such as health, food, and shelter. This support was often seen in poor towns, such as Hoovervilles. These were shanty towns which were named after President Hoover as they blamed him for their suffering and homelessness since he did nothing effective to address the depression. When the election of 1932 came along, America united together to vote for Roosevelt instead of Hoover, since Roosevelt had a strong plan to address to depression. Roosevelt ended up winning all but 6 states totaling up to 472 electoral votes, which ended up receiving the most popular