La société des années 1920 aux États-Unis - TClement

La société des années 1920 aux États-Unis, de la mise en œuvre du National Prohibition Act au krach boursier de 1929

This course examines Roaring Twenties America from a historical perspective. It aims to deepen students’ understanding of the political, economic, social, and cultural transformations that reshaped the United States in the decade following the First World War. Particular attention will be paid to the tensions between prosperity and inequality, modernity and tradition, reform and reaction, which ultimately culminated in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

The course is organized around several major themes, including:

I. Return to Normalcy: Republican Politics and the Business Creed
I.1. Transformations of US Government before and during WWI
I.2. Political life in the “Roaring Twenties”: the "Business Creed”

II. National Retrenchment and the Politics of Reaction
II.1. The Red Scare, 1919–1921
II.2. Racism and Nativism
II.3. Fundamentalism

III. The New Economy
III.1. Fordism, Corporate Capitalism, and the US Worker
III.2. Mass Consumption and Consumer Culture
III.3. Early Cracks in the New Economy

IV. Culture and Society in the Jazz Age
IV.1. Urban America
IV.2. The New Woman
IV.3. The Harlem Renaissance
IV.4. Mass Entertainment and Mass Media

V. Prohibition and the Limits of Reform

Conclusion: From “Boom” to “Bust”: The Contradictions of the New Era

In addition to developing students’ knowledge of the period, the course seeks to strengthen their command of the critical and methodological tools required for the analysis and commentary of textual and visual sources. Through the close reading of primary documents—including political speeches, newspaper articles, photographs, advertisements, posters, cartoons, and other visual materials—students will learn to contextualize historical evidence, identify and evaluate arguments, and construct clear, well-supported analyses in both oral and written form.