The lifestyles of young men and women in the 1920s were as shocking to their Victorian-era parents as the 1960s "hippie" generation was to Americans who came of age during World War Two, or as "Generation Next" is to parents who grew up in the 1970s. In their attempt to come to terms with their place in this new world, young people began acting out or trying to test their new boundaries with more and more outrageous forms of behavior. Wilder music, faster cars and shorter skirts were just a few symptoms of this strange postwar era called The Jazz Age.
The "birth" of jazz music occurred roughly in the period from 1890 to 1935, a time when disparate musical sources unified in a distinct form that marked the transformation of local black folk expression to the commercial product of the national music industry. The Jazz music of the Big Band Era was the peak of over thirty years of musical development. Jazz was so innovative and different that it could literally sweep the world, changing the musical styles of nearly every country. The musical and cultural revolution that brought about Jazz was a direct result of African-Americans pursuing careers in the arts following the United States civil war. As slaves African-Americans has learned few European cultural traditions. With more freedom to pursue careers in the arts and bringing African artistic traditions to their work, African-Americans changed music and dance, not only in the U.S., but all over the world.
Jazz music influenced all aspects of society. Jazz has been an influence in many artists' work, from painting to other forms of music. Jazz is an American music form that was developed from African-American work songs. The white man began to imitate them in the 1920's and the music form caught on and became very popular. Two artists that were influenced by jazz were Jean-Michel Basquiat and Stuart Davis .Jazz poetry, fashion, and industry was affected by the "basement" music that took the United States by storm. Jazz music also exacerbated the racial tensions in the post war period. The wild rhythms of the Jazz Age brought dozens of new steps to the dance floors of America, including the Charleston, Black Bottom, Cubanola Glide and Tango Argentino, plus a host of shimmies, toddles and trots.
During the 1910s young girls wore big bows on their hair that fell onto the head, and so they became known as "flappers". Flappers were bobbing their hair, rolling down their stockings, raising their hemlines and wearing makeup .The name would stick with this generation, as they grew up in the 1920s.The 1920s, hope sprung afresh from the battlefields of Europe, a new freedom. The United States had been engaged in a major European war and had been on the winning side. The farm boys returned home, itching to live in the city.
The Jazz Age was more than merely a musical revolution. During this decade a number of modern developments were invented, which included an expanded telephone service, network radio, electric inventions, and records set in aviation. These modern developments had a profound effect on American culture, creating a rise in leisure, specifically mass leisure. Automobiles, movies, and the radio overtook the lives of Americans, becoming necessities and part of everyday routines. This period also marks the beginning of films with soundtracks, an audio component, marking the rise of the musical and giving the American people another vehicle for leisure activity. The Jazz Age shaped the culture and attitude of America.
How did America's policy as containment as applied to the Middle East and Latin America succeed? Containment is the blocking of another nation's attack to spread its influence which was introduced by George F. Kennan. That was the foreign policy the United States practiced from 1950 to 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed .As the result of World War II, the Cold War started. The United States and the Soviet Union had some differences on their perspectives of the world. The U.S had tried to discontinue the communist for liberty. The United States believed Communism was evil and the enemy of democracy. The Containment Policy in America was successful as applied to Middle East and Latin America countries during the 1950 to 1991.This policy would follow two ways. One approach was military and the other one was economic. The Marshall plan or the Fate of Germany was some of the containment formed by united sates America.
The policy toward Middle East countries such as Iran and Iraq was known as "dual containment" which was the president's first term discriminating these countries, which meant cutting off from the world trading system and economic to deal with those threats. This act was strongly patronized the continuation of U.N sanctions against Iraq. It made exertion to influence Europe, Japan and Russia to reject Iraq access to international capital and continued America military commitments to Saudi Arabia and the smaller monarchies that form GCC which stand for the Gulf cooperation council. The United States sees Iran as a powerful country bent on controlling the strategically critical Persian Gulf. The flow of Gulf oil will be important to the economic well being of industrialized world for force on issues ranging from Arab Israeli religious extremism to terrorism. Every president after Richard Nixon knew that ensuring Persian Gulf security is important to U.S interest. That was the reason for forming the containment of Iran and Iraq.
The policy lacks strategic viability and carries a high financial and diplomatic cost. Saddam Hussein is still in power six years after his deaf at the hands of the international consensus. The dual containment policy is shot through with logical flaws and is based on faulty geopolitical premises.
Another Middle East country was Israel which had the closure policy meaning an ineffective strategy of containment and repression from its introduction in 1991.The Amra Hass states "that closure, first applied as a military-bureaucratic preemptive security measure, crystallized with Oslo into a conscious political goal: demographic separation without meaningful political separation. Despite the absence of an organized Palestinian resistance to closure, the reasons for which are explored here, a spirit of resilience and defiance has enabled the population to bear up under closure's intensification during the present uprising, when virtually all movement is banned and the territories are under siege." Moreover, many policy makers view a regional economic order influenced by a conservative, capital-friendly Israeli government as the best long term prospect for US interests. Also many U.S. tourists have bailed out on Egypt since 1997in two bloody attacks, which terrorists killed some foreign visitors which none of them were Americans. Since that time, the government has tightened security substantially, but Egypt still stands out as a dangerous place.
In the Latin America during the Cold war era, the number of communist increased, which caused the America to pass its containment policy to terminate soviet communism from spreading. "Support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." as stated by Truman. American containment was backed up by earlier efforts to unify the Western democratic powers against circulate of Red. The United Nations was the first materialization of this in 1945. The main reason of America's for its containment policy was not only for democracy and liberty, but it was mostly because of economical and political interests in the region.
Once again the Cold War broke out, in communist Cuba. The Soviet Union had made a deal with Fidel Castro to place nuclear weapons on the island of Cuba. Soviet Union got the chance to hit American targets without an air offensive by using these missiles. JFK through the CIA ordered the execution of the operation. On Apr. 17, 1961, an armed force of about 1,500 Cuban exiles landed in the Bay of Pigs. The plan backfired as the exiles were ambushed and gunned down mercilessly; American air support never arrived. Containment was dashed over again. The strained relations between the US and the Soviet Union which led to the Cold War and nuclear proliferation were caused of the policy of containment, which was known as the arms race. During 1962, when the Soviets decided to deploy missiles in Cuba, the arms race and nuclear proliferation came very near the shores of the US. The US steadfastly rejected the idea of nukes in Cuba and formed a naval blockade around Cuba. The Soviets had second thoughts and decided it wasn't in their best interests. In 1959, Castro controls Cuba and the US begins to worry about the communist affects in Latin America.
The key features of the Communist influence in Guatemalan government and over its policies was the principle of indirect control. As a matter of fact Communists did hold key place in certain strategic agencies which administered vital governmental programs and shaped public opinion. From 1944 until 1950 Communism lived within the labor movement and in small study groups. The control of the labor movement the Communists have become a major political force. By the end of 1953, the Communists held commanding positions in the labor movement, the coalition of political forces upon which the government rested, and also in the government itself.
The relationships between the US and Nicaragua go back to the Gold Rush and Cornelius Vanderbilt's move to expedite the travel between the two coasts of the US. Vanderbilt bought the rights to shuttle fortune-seekers across Nicaragua to avoid their having to cross the width of the United States or travel around Cape Horn.
The U.S. invasion of Grenada and the fall of its Marxist government can be viewed as part of a greater regional conflict. This conflict involved the U.S. and its Central American and Caribbean allies on one side and Fidel Castro's Cuba, the Sandinista government of Nicaragua and Marxist guerrilla armies on the other. President Reagan and his administration were somewhat worried that the Marxist government of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was allowing Cuba to gain influence in Grenada. The fact that Grenada constructed a military-grade airport with Cuban military engineers really was a red flag for President Reagan to take charge. Apparently, there were a lot of soviet weapons being stored at the newly constructed airport.
The break up and dissolution of the Soviet Union, which led to the end of the Cold War, was a result that the Soviet system had many flaws in which made the whole system unworkable without an extreme level of violence and coercion against its own citizens. We could see the success of America's policy as containment because it seemed to have worked since there isn't much communism around in the world any more. However, some like Cuba have successfully resisted US efforts, though at a tremendous cost to their economy and citizens.
For Latin American we can see an attempt at containment with Cuba through the United State's efforts with the Embargo Act. However, the United States has recently lessened its interest in containment on communism as it is not seen as a world threat anymore. The Middle East has distracted most of the western world today from any threat of Communism Containment policy in the Middle East does not exist. The United States has no interest in the affairs of the economic policies of their governments only their dealings with trade specifically in oil and the insurgency problems they face. Sadam's regime in Iraq has been an old enemy of the US for decades, and was the first target of the US to eliminate insurgency in the Middle East. Iran is a major concern for its radical leaders and near nuclear technology. Egypt is a concern for the nation security of Israel, debatably the US's biggest Ally. The problems in the Middle East are not containment issues of communism, but of cultural, ethnic, relgious, and some trade issues.
During the Truman and Eisenhower administration a policy of containment served to save the free world from communism. But at times these two administrations put world peace on the line to prove its superiority as a nation. The American popular attitude toward foreign affairs at the present time is governed by a set of controversial impulses .
