Literary Analysis Essay on Daily Life in the United States by David E. Kyvig

Introduction

The book generally talks about the dramatic changes in American life in the twenties and thirties. These changes include urbanization, advancements in technology, economic, cultural, and financial challenges. The author talks about the life of the people in an everyday routine. He mentions instances when automobiles and electricity at the homes became something common to the people, whereas some of them still adopted the watching of movies, which was not a culture for the people before. Through his description, the reader can be able to relate the work life of the present, the domestic life, fun activities and other occurrences of the past with the modern life.

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The author focuses on the circumstances of the American life in the 1920s, the advancement of technology to the extent of automobiles, the electricity and daily life condition as well as the negative occurrences of life such as criminal activities, war, and catastrophes such as the great depression. He also talks about the culture of the masses in that there is a standardization of daily life. He also notes that the government ought to be involved in creating the New Deal campaign, which plays a great role in one's life, and lastly notes the life of the American communities at the end of the 1930s.

The author of the book is David E. Kyvig, an American historian and a research professor at the University of Northern Illinois. He also taught at the Kalamazoo College, University of Tromso, and the University of Akron. He was a model collaborator and a chair of the National Council on Public History. He always accepted his responsibilities to mark his professionalism. The author presents one idea throughout his entire book. He only talks about the life of the people of America. He was a renowned public historian, who wrote many publications that presented a similar viewpoint. On the same note, he was also a constitutional historian who wrote various publications that focused on a single point of view. Even as he responded through his papers and books, he seemed straightforward. The title of the book 'Daily life in the United States, 1920-1940: how Americans lived through the "Roaring Twenties" and the Great Depression', clearly represents the contents of the book hence, a perfect match for the writings. By naming it Daily life and focusing on the twenties on the title, he made a great choice as the contents mainly consist of the life at twenties until the Great Depression. According to the contents of the author regarding the life at the 20s and 30s, he clearly explains every occurrence including positive changes and calamities such as financial crises and the Great Depression. The author does not eliminate a single thing as he also talks about the social life of Americans and how they relate to each other in their societies.

The book was published in the year 2004. Since the author was a historian writer, he only focuses on the occurrences of the years mentioned at the cover page. However, there still exist no biases between when the book was written and the contents as he covers most of the happenings, and leaves gaps for further writing by other interested historians.

The most interesting thing in the book is how he explains the Great Depression. He covers the great depression into detail, letting the reader understand what caused it, how it was worsened, and the way by which it was dealt with. The least interesting part of the book is where he explains technology in terms of cinemas, the prevalence of electricity, and automobiles. He does not leave a gap for improvement of his work. As one reads through these stories, they seem to have been perfect. However, at the time of publishing, there was more advanced technology that the one described in the book.

The author narrates the material in a simplistic way, making it readable even to the illiterate. The stories within the book are interesting in a way that they present the life of the past, and let the reader compare that life to the present one. As an editor, I could have eliminated the parts of technology advancements at that time as technology is always improving constantly. Writing about technology does not make the story enjoyable as the current people did not have a touch of the previous technology, and still, have better technology than the one presented in the book.

Conclusion

I would recommend this book to a friend considering the contents have deep material that educates and informs the reader on the adjustments that they could make to their life to let it not match to the previous life. The book presented a historical overview of the Great Depression that led me into being interested in the New Deal program created by the government as a way to deal with the calamity. I would even research how the New Deal program worked to let the Great Depression come to an end. Social history is worthy of studying since the community is always challenged by the social happenings of the people. It lets one understand the environmental history of a person into detail.

I would also definitely recommend that you use the book even for future students as the contents of the book are not only informative but educative to the learner. The contents of the book cover approximately every border of history hence, no need to have another book on a different subject. For instance, the economic dynamics are explained in the narrative of the Great Depression.