1920s and 1930s

There were 5 totalitarian states discussed in the 1920s and 1930s. You should be able to identify the rulers with which country they ruled. Spain -- Francisco Franco (following the Spanish Civil War); Germany (Hitler); Italy (Mussolini); Soviet Union (Stalin); Japan (Hirohito is the ruler, but really the army is in charge).

The 1920s is marked by the Depression in Europe, particularly in Germany. Who saw this Depression coming (Keynes) and why did he see an economic depression as an inevitable event? What was the feeling of a majority of Germans towards the Weimar Republic? What enabled Hitler to come into power? A ruler like that does not immediately rise and maintain power, especially with the deeds he was undertaking in the open!


Remember your extremes! What are the differences between Fascism and Communism? This is not limited to geography. Mussolini and Stalin are both totalitarian rulers, but there are differences. How do fascism and communism treat religion? Social classes? Property?

The clip above is from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The party goers are dancing the Charleston. Note a collection of the ladies have their hair cut short and are wearing shorter dresses, around the knee area. Do these look familiar? Fitzgerald is probably the most prominent author of Jazz Age literature, and the second most famous writer of what is called "The Lost Generation." The most famous of these WWI-eligible authors was Ernest Hemingway.  Below is a remarkable clip of Hemingway's Nobel Prize Acceptance speech, which was recorded at a Cuban radio station in 1954. It does give an idea of the complicated man who would end his own life with his shotgun in Ketchum, Idaho in 1961.