1921

Articles from 1921

As Europe Saw America in the War’s Aftermath (The Smart Set, 1921)

H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan, editors of The Smart Set, surmised that as the Europeans bury their many dead among the damp, depressing ruins of 1920s Europe, America is neither admired or liked very much:

…the English owe us money, the Germans smart under their defeat, the French lament that they are no longer able to rob and debauch our infantry.

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‘Youth, the Spirit of the Movies” (Illustrated World, 1921)

Screen director D.W. Griffith declared in this article that youthful, energetic performers and writers are needed in the young and vigorous film industry of the Twenties:

We need youth because the most successful screen stars are not harassed by the technique of the older stage and the requirements of the newer art are very largely different. So a new kind of actor has come to be—the screen actor—just as a new kind of writer is coming to be—the screen-writer. But that isn’t all!… An audience loves a sweet and kindly face on the screen as in life. The surest guide in the world to lead us out of our daily troubles is a little star who is sweet and gentle and kind, like youth with all its yearnings and simplicity.

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Men’s Undergarments: 1921 (Magazine Advertisement, 1921)

Attached is an illustrated magazine advertisement from a polite, middle class American periodical which depicts two trim bucks in the full flower of youth wearing their under-lovelies so that all the internet gawkers can get a sense of how wildly uncomfortable men’s underwear used to be.

Click here to read about the introduction of the T shirt to the world of fashion.

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Anticipating the American Century (The Spectator, 1921)

Attached is a review of The American Era by H.H. Powers. The reviewer disputes the author’s argument that the First World War made Britain a weaker nation:

Mr. Powers’ interpretation of the war and it’s squeals is that the Anglo-Saxon idea, having triumphed, will set the tone for the whole world. He also believes that the real depository and expositor of this idea in the future must be America. Britain, he thinks,in spite of her great geographical gains from the war– he considerately exaggerates these, has sung her swan song of leadership.


A similar article about American power can be read here.

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Starvation in the Worker’s Paradise (Current Opinion, 1921)

The first Soviet famine lasted from 1919 through 1923; some historians have placed the death toll as high as five million:

[Lenin] is held responsible for the policy which has brought about a consumption of so great a proportion of the seed wheat that the fields cannot be sown. For the first time since Bolsheviki gained power, says the Berlin Lokalanzeiger, Lenin is a cipher.


Click here to read about the blackmail and extortion tactics that American Communists used in Hollywood during the Great Depression…

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A Clever Way to Escort Prisoners… (American Legion Weekly, 1921)

This piece reminds me of what my son’s history teacher so wisely passed on to them one day in sixth grade: History can be found anywhere. How right she was, and in this case, a seldom remembered but perhaps widely practiced method of escorting German prisoners to the rear was rendered by a cartoonist in a 1921 magazine advertisement for a firm that manufactured men’s accessories [underwear]:

Remember that big attack? You couldn’t spare a whole squad to escort your prisoners back to the cages; you needed every man in front. You got around the difficulty by cutting off the Boches’ trousers. That made them helpless. They couldn’t run and they couldn’t fight. You parked the skipper’s dog robber on their flank with a warped rifle and ran’em back.


Click here to read an article about the American POW experience during the Korean War.

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Andre Derain (The New Republic, 1921)

Clive Bell (1869 – 1964) was an art critic who is remembered in our day as one of the most devoted champions of modern abstract art. In this 1921 review for THE NEW REPUBLIC, Bell explained why he held that the paintings of the André Derain (1880-1954) were so significant – writing that the Frenchman was best painter in all of France (reserving for Picasso the roll of the most influential painter in all of Europe).

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