Menlo School Library: Great Gatsby &amp; the Roaring Twenties: Topic resources

Historical sources about American identity - Questions 4 & 5

Adams: The Epic of America
Pages 401-06. Check out the original “coining” of the phrase “the American Dream”!
Franklin: Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Here’s the prototypical “American” schedule and goal-setting, which filtered into common understandings of American identity and may have influenced young James Gatz.
Gast: American Progress
An 1872 painting.
Greeley: Letter to R.L Sanderson
From "Go West." Gast and Greeley are two primary sources that flesh out the mythic role the “West” and a “frontier mentality” play in American Identity.
Hoover: "Rugged Individualism" Campaign Speech
In this excerpt of Herbert Hoover’s 1928 presidential campaign speech, the candidate asserts his belief that American success is based on “rugged individualism” and “self-reliance,” an ideological position that continues to correspond to conservative or Republican thought.
Jefferson: Declaration of Independence
No explanation is necessary!
Klein: How the Gilded Age’s Top One Percent Thrived on Corruption
A secondary source about wealth inequality in America in the late 19th-c
Whitman: As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free (excerpted)
Iconic 19th-c American poet puts his gloss on the project of American democracy.
Winthrop: A Model of Christian Charity (excerpted)
A 17th-c preacher on the earliest ship that establishes the Massachusetts Bay Colony coins the phrase “City on a Hill,” a way of understanding America’s identity in the world that has become short-handed as the mythic conception of American Exceptionalism.

The Seelbach Hotel, Louisville Kentucky

Here's an interesting side story! The Seelbach Hotel was a hangout for F. Scott Fitzgerald and many others during the Roaring Twenties. Some scenes in the 2013 movie The Great Gatsby show interior views of this hotel, though some are said to be sets made to look like the hotel. Click the links below to learn a bit about Fitzgerald the the Seelbach.

Drunk at the Seelbach Hotel
A fanciful history of the hotel, Fitzgerald and his time.
The Seelbach: History
Click the Roaring 20s to learn about the hotel during that time period.
Seelbach and The Great Gatsby 2013
Watch a short video narrated by the award-winning hotel historian, with views of the Grand Ballroom and The Rathskeller.

Subscription databases

A lot of information on this time period is available in the following databases. Use your Menlo username and password to log in.

Daily Life Through History (ABC-Clio) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- Why search here?
  Find tertiary and primary information about the lives of people from prehistory through modern time.
- What’s included?
  Reference articles, biographies, and a variety of primary source documents.
History Reference Center (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
- Why search here?
  This history database is both a useful research starting point and a good place to find sources to fill research gaps.
- What’s included?
  This is a very large collection of tertiary, secondary and primary sources. Use the Advanced Search screen to narrow your search to a particular type of source.

Websites

Clash of Cultures in the 1910s and 1920s
Primary sources from Ohio State University.
Drop Me Off in Harlem
The Kennedy Center presents historical information and numerous sound and video clips from the Harlem Renaissance.
Great Gatsby's Gold Coast
BBC Travel article on the great houses of Long Island.
Roaring Twenties - History Channel
Overview articles covering many of the themes and major events of the 1920s.
Roaring Twenties: History in the Key of Jazz
Information about the jazz music and culture of the 1920's, from the PBS Jazz series.
Temperance and Prohibition
Lots of information from Ohio State University.
USA - 1920-1929
A collection of links from the WWW Virtual Library.