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Building the Interwar POW Regime

Neville Wylie

in Barbed Wire Diplomacy: Britain, Germany, and the Politics of Prisoners of War 1939-1945

This chapter charts the evolution of the western European prisoner of war ‘regime’. It shows how Britain's experience of captivity during the Great War contributed to the development of a ... More

This chapter charts the evolution of the western European prisoner of war ‘regime’. It shows how Britain's experience of captivity during the Great War contributed to the development of a distinctively benign view on the issue of captivity, both within military and government circles and within society at large. It examines the part played by the United Kingdom government in drafting the 1929 Geneva Convention for POWs, and shows how closely the resultant POW regime reflected British interests and experience.Less

The 1930s: Capitalism on Trial

David Ellwood

in The Shock of America: Europe and the Challenge of the Century

The Wall St crisis of 1929 intensified but did not alter an emerging intellectual critique of the new forms of consumerist society emerging in America. Some of these views flirted with ... More

The Wall St crisis of 1929 intensified but did not alter an emerging intellectual critique of the new forms of consumerist society emerging in America. Some of these views flirted with totalitarianism but in reality the three major regimes developed their own distinctive relationship with the America-as-future question. Mussolini's Italy showed the most complex pattern, as the Duce was lionised by parts of the US élite. The Soviets thought they could borrow what they needed from US industry and Stalin refused to develop a specific analysis of American capitalism as such. Hitler had done so, but acted upon it only spasmodically, developing his own versions of Hollywood and Fordism. Meanwhile the radiant force of American corporations permeated Nazi Germany, while in the shadows a counter-culture listened to jazz and read book after book on the US.Less

Conquering Headlines: Violence, Sensations, and the Rise of the Nazis, 1928–30

Bernhard Fulda

in Press and Politics in the Weimar Republic

The 1920s saw the breakthrough of the tabloid press in Germany. By 1930, mass and tabloid newspapers held a marketshare of over 80% in Berlin. Despite their importance for the dissemination of news, ... More

The 1920s saw the breakthrough of the tabloid press in Germany. By 1930, mass and tabloid newspapers held a marketshare of over 80% in Berlin. Despite their importance for the dissemination of news, previous studies have completely ignored the mass press as a phenomenon. This chapter analyses the media image of the two radical parties, the KPD and the NSDAP, before the crucial Reichstag elections of September 1930. Particular emphasis is given to the depiction of violence, the construction of a media reality through press photography, and the use of cartoons to carry political messages in Berlin's mass newspapers. This book presents new evidence to explain the Nazi breakthrough in 1930 not with the alliance between Hugenberg and Hitler in 1929, but with the repeated splits within Hugenberg's Nationalist party, which happened in full view of the newspaper‐reading public.Less

Frater, Ave atque Vale

Kathleen Riley

in The Astaires: Fred & Adele

The inaptly titled (as it proved to be) Smiles of 1930 is the subject of this chapter. Despite its promise as a Ziegfeld production and its glamorous cast, which included Marilyn Miller, it failed ... More

The inaptly titled (as it proved to be) Smiles of 1930 is the subject of this chapter. Despite its promise as a Ziegfeld production and its glamorous cast, which included Marilyn Miller, it failed dismally. The show was blighted by production errors, financial problems in the wake of the 1929 financial Crash, a weak storyline produced by a less than sober writer, a co-star (Miller) with more beauty than talent, a composer (Vincent Youmans) who invariably arrived drunk for rehearsals, and frequent legal wrangling. After sixty-three performances, the show closed and the only members of the company who emerged from the disaster, with their professional reputations more or less intact, were the Astaires. It was during this period that Fred met his future screen partner, Ginger Rogers, when asked by producers Aarons and Freedley to review some dance routines for their current show, the Gershwins’ Girl Crazy. During the run of the unhappy Smiles Adele became engaged to Lord Charles Cavendish, who was then working in New York at J. P. Morgan.Less

The Constructive Cutter

Harlow Robinson

in Lewis Milestone: Life and Films

Among the topics discussed in this chapter are Milestone’s early experience as a film editor in Hollywood, his friendship with other Russian emigres, his independent disposition and propensity for ... More

Among the topics discussed in this chapter are Milestone’s early experience as a film editor in Hollywood, his friendship with other Russian emigres, his independent disposition and propensity for lawsuits, and his relationships with future mogul Darryl Zanuck and wealthy producer Howard Hughes. The first feature Milestone directed, Seven Sinners, is analyzed, as well as his subsequent silent films The Caveman, The New Klondike, The Garden of Eden, The Racket and Two Arabian Knights, starring Mary Astor and Louis Wolheim, his first collaboration with Hughes. This “buddy comedy” earned him his first Oscar in 1929 for best comedy direction, and established Milestone as one of the most promising directors in Hollywood.Less

Sherman and the Nut

Terry Chester Shulman

in Film's First Family: The Untold Story of the Costellos

Dolores gives birth to her first child, Dolores Ethel Mae Barrymore, nicknamed Dede. Helene gives into actor/director Lowell Sherman’s daily proposals and marries him in a lavish ceremony held at the ... More

Dolores gives birth to her first child, Dolores Ethel Mae Barrymore, nicknamed Dede. Helene gives into actor/director Lowell Sherman’s daily proposals and marries him in a lavish ceremony held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Though they have reconciled, Helene chooses not to ask Maurice to give her away. John Barrymore does the honors instead. Married life again goes awry for Helene. The couple fight constantly, with Sherman’s omnipresent mother, Julia, adding insult to injury. The small movie parts Maurice had been getting evaporate with the Crash of 1929, forcing him to return to vaudeville to make ends meet. While performing in a sketch in Stockton, California, he befriends a young woman named Vivienne Sengler. She sues him a year later on a bogus charge that he had backed out of his promise to marry her. Eventually, she drops the case, but not before dragging the Costello name through the mud.Less

Reentry of Securities Firms and Banks

Matthew P. Fink

in The Rise of Mutual Funds: An Insider's View

Securities firms and banks were major participants in the investment company business in the 1920s, sponsoring about 70 percent of all managed investment companies. Following the 1929 crash, ... More

Securities firms and banks were major participants in the investment company business in the 1920s, sponsoring about 70 percent of all managed investment companies. Following the 1929 crash, securities firms and banks exited the business, with banks' exit ratified in 1933 by the Glass-Steagall Act, which prohibited a firm from engaging in both banking and securities activities. Securities firms began sponsoring mutual funds in the 1970s. Banks sought legislation that would repeal Glass-Steagall barriers, but were blocked in Congress by the securities and mutual fund industries. Eventually banks gained entry into the fund business through a series of judicial decisions. Most recently a number of securities firms have exited the fund business, while banks continue to manage a substantial portion of fund assets.Less

‘Oh, my God … can this be England?’ (Sax Rohmer, The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu, 1913)

Anne Witchard

in Lao She in London

The period of China's utmost vulnerability, from the Boxer uprising of 1900 until the rise of the Nationalist Party in the mid-1920s, coincided with the mass-marketing of Chinese stereotypes and the ... More

The period of China's utmost vulnerability, from the Boxer uprising of 1900 until the rise of the Nationalist Party in the mid-1920s, coincided with the mass-marketing of Chinese stereotypes and the ‘discovery’ of London's Chinatown. The ways in which London's Chinese community came to represent national threat found its consummate expression in Sax Rohmer's tales of Dr Fu Manchu. After the war, things Chinese, Futurists, and louche West End nightclubs alike, were the target of hack writers and the popular press. Typical is a Daily Express article, headlined: ‘Nights in the Dancing Dens-When the Chinaman Takes The Floor’, describing a nightclub ‘decorated in the incoherent Futurist lines usual in such places’. London's fashionable cognoscenti enjoyed a renewed vogue for chinoiserie style. Paul Poiret's career took off when celebrity actresses and dancers adopted his controversial design for a loose-fitting Chinese-style coat while a studio shot in Chinese pyjamas was ubiquitous for every film starlet. Er Ma responds to the British fear and fascination for Chineseness, fanned by reports of Boxer ‘atrocities’ at the outposts of Britain's Empire, and the thrilling notion of a Yellow Peril at its very heart.Less

Resistance and Revival, 1910–1929

David Pratten

in The Man-Leopard Murders: History and Society in Colonial Nigeria

This chapter examines the ways in which Ibibio and Annang made sense of colonialism and Christianity. It traces their cultural engagements with European rule and religion during the period that led ... More

This chapter examines the ways in which Ibibio and Annang made sense of colonialism and Christianity. It traces their cultural engagements with European rule and religion during the period that led up to the most significant watershed of the colonial period, the Women's War of 1929. It concerns the ways in which uneven relations of power, between men and women, educated and illiterate, titled and non-titled, were negotiated within shifting terrains of social, religious and political contest.Less

Plotting against Eurocentrism: The 1929 Surrealist Map of the World

David R. Roediger

in Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past

This chapter introduces the 1929 surrealist map of the world as an early attempt to identify Eurocentrism as a problem and to project a “nonwhite” alternative. Geographers often refer to attempts to ... More

This chapter introduces the 1929 surrealist map of the world as an early attempt to identify Eurocentrism as a problem and to project a “nonwhite” alternative. Geographers often refer to attempts to provide alternatives to imperialist projecting not as mappings but as “countermappings.” The surrealists' collective mapping project encouraged and even cultivated idiosyncrasy and inconsistency. The “Surrealist Map of the World” bears strong affinities to the brilliant “Destruction of a Map,” a 1978 collage by Haifa Zangana. Zangana's work boldly indicates that the labored and manly forces none too successfullly attacking the map are so musclebound by the trappings of a classical, Christian, and nationalist logic as to undermine their own effects. The 1929 surrealist remapping of the world demanded the active imagination of new worlds.Less

Koreans Becoming a Soviet People, 1923–1930

Jon K. Chang

in Burnt by the Sun: The Koreans of the Russian Far East

From 1923 to 1930, we witnessed the first half of korenizatsiia, that is, Soviet indigenization for the national minorities. Already there were major attempts to dismantle this program. Vladimir ... More

From 1923 to 1930, we witnessed the first half of korenizatsiia, that is, Soviet indigenization for the national minorities. Already there were major attempts to dismantle this program. Vladimir Arsenev called for the total deportation of the Koreans in 1928. Comrade Geitsman called them “aliens” to Soviet socialism, even those Koreans who were Soviet citizens. However, this did not deter the Koreans. Khan Myon She, a local Soviet Korean leader called out local Communist Party leaders for “ethnic chauvinism.” He was soon replaced by Afanasii Kim. Young educated Korean activists in the organization INKORPORE battled for equal land and rights for Korean farmers and settlers. Several regiments of local Red Army including one regiment led by Pen Khva Kim fought for the Red Army during the brief Sino-Soviet War (1929).Less

Ziegfeld Laughs … and Cries

Cynthia Brideson and Sara Brideson

in Ziegfeld and His Follies: A Biography of Broadway's Greatest Producer

As this chapter begins, Ziegfeld produces an unlikely hit—an operetta of The Three Musketeers. Discussed are playwright William Anthony McGuire’s unprofessional, drunken behavior; backstage feuds; ... More

As this chapter begins, Ziegfeld produces an unlikely hit—an operetta of The Three Musketeers. Discussed are playwright William Anthony McGuire’s unprofessional, drunken behavior; backstage feuds; and Patricia’s propensity to fall in love with the leading men in her father’s productions. Ziegfeld’s production of Whoopee with Eddie Cantor is a phenomenal success and the producer’s fourth successive hit in the course of one year. Next he coproduces a film with Jesse Lasky, Glorifying the American Girl, although he still does not consider Hollywood a worthy rival. Ziegfeld reopens the Frolic, despite the fact that Prohibition is still in full swing. He then goes on to produce Show Girl and Noel Coward’s Bitter Sweet. The latter show gets a lukewarm reception, mainly because it opens the same week that the stock market crashes. Ziegfeld loses everything but continues to produce shows. His next one, Simple Simon, flops, and he seriously reconsiders his views on Hollywood. The chapter concludes with Ziegfeld planning to explore career possibilities on the West Coast. Thanks to talking films, musicals are booming in popularity.Less

More on Life in the Land of Israel

Lee Shai Weissbach

in A Jewish Life on Three Continents: The Memoir of Menachem Mendel Frieden

In this chapter the author continues the account of his activities with the Loan Bank in Palestine. Frieden seems to have considered his work to be at the core of his existence, and so the story of ... More

In this chapter the author continues the account of his activities with the Loan Bank in Palestine. Frieden seems to have considered his work to be at the core of his existence, and so the story of his life remains structured around a de- scription of his work. Here there is much detail about the operations of the Loan Bank and about its relationship with other financial institutions in Palestine, making Frieden’s memoir a very valuable source of information about the economic history of the Yishuv from an insider’s perspective. This section also provides unique glimpses into subjects such as Warsaw Jewish life in the interwar period; the inner workings of the Yishuv; and the violence that frequently accompanied the development of the Jewish community in Palestine between the two World Wars.Less

Artist at a Crossroads

Barbara Lounsberry

in Virginia Woolf's Modernist Path: Her Middle Diaries and the Diaries She Read

Woolf’s 1928 diary offers the reflections of an artist at a juncture: “some uneasy sense, of change,” she writes in her first entry. Orlando’s completion and surprise success dominates this diary. ... More

Woolf’s 1928 diary offers the reflections of an artist at a juncture: “some uneasy sense, of change,” she writes in her first entry. Orlando’s completion and surprise success dominates this diary. However, the problem is what to write next. The artistic crossroads Woolf faces in November involves nonfiction and fiction, the external and the internal, and the will to explore. Woolf both probes and resolves the tension in two November diary entries. One answer is to refine her turn-and-turn-about tack. She will allow works of “talent” to relieve her works of “genius.” More importantly, she will try “to saturate every atom” to reach a deeper mix. Her loose-leaf diary experiment ends with the first 1929 diary, the final diary in her second, lean modernist stage. If Orlando unfurled across the 1928 diary, the first 1929 diary resounds with A Room of One’s Own. However, Woolf also readies herself for her coming battle with The Waves. She will need her courage as she begins “a time of adventure and attack, rather lonely and painful.” But her diary continues to help her; in fact, she moves at the end to give it even firmer life in a bound diary book.Less

Stepping off the Stage

Anna R. Hayes

in Without Precedent: The Life of Susie Marshall Sharp

This chapter discusses Judge Sharp's move into an apartment—almost fourteen years after she took rooms at the Hotel Sir Walter when she came to Raleigh as a new member of the supreme court. The ... More

This chapter discusses Judge Sharp's move into an apartment—almost fourteen years after she took rooms at the Hotel Sir Walter when she came to Raleigh as a new member of the supreme court. The apartment was in a townhouse on a busy boulevard, a short drive to the Justice Building and not far from the Cameron Village shopping center with its stores and cafeteria. Justice Sharp had resisted the move as long as she could, but the hotel had deteriorated along with the downtown, and she and State Treasurer Edwin Gill were almost the last of the old residents. Gill had lived in the hotel for forty-six years, ever since he came to Raleigh as a member of the 1929 General Assembly, and could not be persuaded to leave. For Judge Sharp, however, it was time. Still, she was reluctant to give up what had been a convenient and happy arrangement.Less

The Daily Press and Our Collective Conscience

in Front Page Economics

This book summarizes the rhetoric used in the Chicago Tribune's news on the American economy in 1929 and 1987. 1929 and 1987 were the years of the great stock market crash. The book turns to the ... More

This book summarizes the rhetoric used in the Chicago Tribune's news on the American economy in 1929 and 1987. 1929 and 1987 were the years of the great stock market crash. The book turns to the scandals and legislation that followed each crash, the collective memory of each crash, and how the rhetoric of popular economics is embedded in the collective memory. The main task is to lay down a method that can exhibit the rhetoric that accompanied the great crashes and contributed to the response to and remembrance of each. It tries to illustrate how reporters made coherent and memorable news of the American economy in two times of crisis. Finally, an overview of the chapters included in this book is given.Less