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Mark R. Wilson, Kenneth J. Bindas. Modernity and the Great Depression: The Transformation of American Society, 1930–1941., The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 1, February 2018, Pages 250–251, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/123.1.250
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According to Kenneth J. Bindas’s Modernity and the Great Depression: The Transformation of American Society, 1930–1941, the United States underwent a major cultural transformation in the 1930s, as Americans embraced “modernity.” What does this mean? During the Great Depression, Bindas claims, Americans became much more accepting of the idea that they could create a better future by turning to “order, planning, and reason” (1). This attitude not only became widespread in the 1930s, this book suggests, but also peaked during that decade.
In support of this bold framing argument, Bindas provides five topical chapters. The first and weakest of these offers a brief account of how modernity was discussed in the 1930s by Christian ministers and theologians, as well as by secular intellectuals. The second chapter turns to the New Deal, by describing the operations of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the National Youth Administration. In the third chapter, Bindas, like many cultural historians before him, examines the representations of science and technology at world’s fairs and expositions. That chapter covers six different events, the two largest of which were the Century of Progress fair, held in Chicago in 1933–1934, and the New York World’s Fair (1939–1940). Chapter 4 discusses interior decorating and home furnishings, with a special emphasis on the contributions of women working as professional decorators. The final topical chapter, on the music of the era (which the author has discussed in two earlier books), provides a wide-ranging survey of the subject, with sections on cowboy singers and Federal Music Project orchestras, as well as swing.
