The Uneasy State: United States from 1915-45 - Hardcover

Karl, Barry D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226425193 ISBN 13: 9780226425191

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1985

Synopsis

In this major interpretive history of the reform era, Barry Karl presents an imaginative and thoughtful perspective on America's quest for political, economic, and cultural nationalism. Challenging accepted interpretations, he argues that the two world wars and the depression did not successfully unite the country so that a national managerial state could emerge as it did in other industrial nations. Karl draws on an impressive array of sources to support his position, offering insightful comments on popular culture-movies, novels, comic strips, and detective stories-and brilliant analyses of technological change and its impact. Karl shows how Americans approached the central dilemmas of modern life, such as the clash between planned efficiency and autonomous individualism, which they managed to patch over but never fully resolve. Above all, he finds that America's commitment to the autonomous individual is both an aspiration and a curse.

About this title

About the Author:

Barry D. Karl (1927-2010) was the Norman and Edna Freehling Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Chicago. He was also a professor in the College and in the Graduate School of Public Policy Studies. Karl received a BA from the University of Louisville in 1949, an MA from the University of Chicago in 1951, and a PhD from Harvard University in 1961. He served on the faculties of Harvard, Washington University in St. Louis and Brown University before joining the University of Chicago faculty in 1971. He was chair of the History Department at Chicago from 1976 to 1979.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0226425193
• ISBN 13: 9780226425191
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232