Roaring Twenties: Urbanization & Electrification

Examines what daily life was like for ordinary people in the U. S. in the 1920s and the 1930s, discussing the impact of automobiles, electricity, radio, cinema, conflict and crime, the standardization of culture, the Great Depression, and the New Deal on the lives of American citizens.

Explores the development of the United States from 1865 to 1890, focusing on the period of Reconstruction following the Civil War, and the movements of reform, immigration, industrialization, and urbanization.

Photographs and text document the experiences of five individuals who came to live in the Lower East Side of New York City as children or young adults from Belarus, Italy, Lithuania, and Romania at the turn of the twentieth century.

Chronicles the decades-long migration of African-Americans who fled the South for northern and western cities between 1915 and 1970, discussing how they altered the cities of America and the African-American community.

Examines the societal implications of light across the centuries, from crude lamps and candles through the use of whale oil and gas street lights, the establishment of electrical grids, the banning of incandescent bulbs, and the use of LEDs in various applications.

Presents twenty-one primary and secondary documents on significant events in world history between 1920 and 1940, including the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Mussolini's March on Rome, the stock market crash, and others.