APUSH Influential Literature List: 3rd Q

Stephen Crane

1895

~ international best-selling fictional novel about the Civil War ~ features cruelty, honor, fear, and debilitating injuries~ paints a horrific picture of war ~ considered an American literary classic

Thorstein Veblen

1899

~ claims the budding consumer culture is built on the desire to compete for status rather than out of necessity~ influences theories of Mills and Galbraith ~ impacts progressivism, socialism, and sociology

Theodore Dreiser

1900

~ fictional account of a young girl who moves from the rural countryside to urban Chicago at the turn of the century~ description of city sights helps encourage urbanization

Booker T. Washington

1901

~ advocated economic and industrial improvement for Blacks while sacrificing political and social opportunity~ ideas fell out of favor with Blacks with the rise of W.E.B DuBois and the NAACP

Henry Demarest Lloyd

1902

~ muckraking journalism ~ critiques Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company for putting individual profit-making interests above the good of the whole~ calls Social Darwinist beliefs into question

Lincoln Steffens

1904

~ muckraking journalism ~ tried to expose corruption of the political machine in major cities~ helps encourage progressive legislation designed to increase democracy and root out corruption

Upton Sinclair

1906

~ muckraking effort to expose abusive practices of meat packing industry ~ instead leads to Meat Inspection Act (government protection from unhealthy animal products)

Sinclair Lewis

1922

~ satire of American middle-class and capitalism ~ critiques American culture as empty, vapid, materialistic and conformist~ demonstrates criticisms common in Lost Generation literature

F. Scott Fitzgerald

1925

~ demonstrating struggle between prosperity and unrestrained materialism of the 1920's~ said to be a shockingly accurate representation of '20's culture, music and consumerism

Ernest Hemingway

1926

~ considered the ultimate example of "Lost Generation" ~ expatriates traveling Europe looking for their "lost souls" in the aftermath of WWI~ represents 1920's struggles with anxiety and desire

William Faulkner

1929

~ widely considered one of America's greatest novels ~ often thought to be a representation of the unique absurdities of southern society in its transition to post Civil War society

John Maynard Keynes

1936

~ explains Keynes' theory that government deficit spending will help circulate money, create jobs and promote demand for products~ basis for Second New Deal~ eventually causes storm of protest from believers in laissez-faire government