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Media, Politics, and Sociology in the Interwar Period

By rachealborgman

  • Democracy in America

    Alexis de Tocqueville traveled America and examined the particular political and social repercussions of the democratic system. Very influential to following theorists.
  • The Communist Manifesto

    The Communist Manifesto

    Marx published the Manifesto in 1848, but the ideas didn't really catch until after the Bolsheviks in 1917.

  • J. S. Mill publishes On Liberty.

  • The Metaphysical Club formed

    Included Charles Pierce, William James, Chauncey Wright, and Oliver Wendell Holmes.
  • Durkheim, On Suicide

    Durkheim, On Suicide

    French sociologist, provided the basis of quantitative sociology by showing statistics to prove the cultural-determinedness of suicide prevalency. WW1 destroyed him.

  • W. H. R. Rivers publishes Kinship and Social Organization

    An anthropological study of social organization that later influences the Lynds' work in Middletown.
  • Woodrow Wilson elected to first term

    Woodrow Wilson elected to first term

  • Graham Wallas publishes The Great Society

  • Beginning of WW1

    Heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne is assissinated. Serbia, Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary choose sides. Official start of the war is August 1st when Germany declares war on Russia. Germany declares war on France, Belgium, Luxumbourg, Britain and Canada.

  • Saussure, Course in General Linguistics

    Published posthumously. Structuralism influenced fields beyond linguistics, incl. sociology.
  • Woodrow Wilson is re-elected

    Woodrow Wilson is re-elected

    Ran with campaign slogan of "He kept us out of the war".

  • America severs diplomatic ties with Germany.

  • Wilson asks House of Reps to declare war on Germany.

  • Committee on Public Information formed

    Included Lippmann, Bernays, and George Creel, among others. Large component was the "Four Minute Men," volunteer speech-givers.

  • League of Nations founded.

  • Weimar Republic

    Weimar Republic

    Parliamentary republic formed in the German Revolution in opposition to the imperialist system previously in place.

  • Committee on Public Information abolished

  • Sinclair Lewis publishes Main Street

    A book about Gopher Prairie, a small American town, and the struggle to effect change and find a place within the social structures. Extremely popular at the time of its publishing.
  • Lippmann, Public Opinion

    Lippmann, Public Opinion

  • Max Weber, Economy and Society

    Describes beauracracy and organization. Idealist who studied social action and rationalization, and developed the idea of the "iron cage," where over-rationalization causes us to wear our care of external goods like a steel-hard shell rather than as "a light cloak."

  • First Public Relations university course

    Taught by E. Bernays at the University of New York.

  • Institute for Social Research

    Founded at Frankfurt-am-Main.

  • 19th Amendment Passed: women get the right to vote

  • Dewey, The Public and Its Problems

    Dewey, The Public and Its Problems

  • First Middletown study published by the Lynds

  • FDR elected to first of four terms

    FDR elected to first of four terms

  • Third Reich

    Third Reich

    The Weimar Republic came to a close as Hitler rose in power.

  • Ruth Benedict

    Student of Franz Boas along with Margaret Mead, advanced a theory of moral relativism through anthropological studies. Abstracted cultures to their "essences" or "personalities."

  • Frankfurt School theorists move to Columbia University

  • League of Nations collapses

  • The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

    Walter Benjamin.

  • Second Middletown study published by the Lynds

  • Germany invades Poland

  • Pearl Harbor bombed; US enters WW2