Books!

So this week I thought I’d do something a little bit different. If you know me then you know books are nearest and dearest to my heart so here I am going to list my favorite book from each decade of the 20th to the early 21st century. Please note that any books by J.K. Rowling and Cassandra Clare have not been included in this list because they are my life and if I put them in I wouldn’t have been able to talk about anything else.

1900s- The Call of the Wild by Jack London I read it somewhere in my elementary school days. It’s about a dog who lived a comfortable life until his owner had to sell him to pay a debt. Eventually, he finds his way onto a sled dog team.

1910s- The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux I can’t even explain it got so confusing. I probably should’ve waited till I was older then 11 to read this but I still loved it.

1920s- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald This is the most recent book on this list I’ve read. If you’ve seen my previous posts you know I just saw the movie. And like usual the book is better 🙂 but seriously I HIGHLY recommend both!

1930s- The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf One of my bedtime stories when I was little 🙂 it’s an adorable little book about a pacifistic bull.

1940s- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty Macdonald Lovely little old lady who helps who has a cure for every child’s bad habit.

1950s- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger AND I, Robot by Isaac Asimov   This decade I had a tie and there was no way I could pick. How do you choose between the evolution of robots and Holden Caulfeild’s change from adolescence to adulthood?

1960s- The Outsiders S.E. Hinton “Stay Gold Ponyboy”

1970s- Tuck Everlasting Natalie Babbitt A little bit weird but shows that immortality is not all it’s cracked up to be.

1980s- Pet Semetary Stephen King The same warning goes with every Stephen King book, don’t read alone in the dark. This book teaches everyone that once something is dead it shouls STAY dead.

1990s- The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks OK don’t laugh but this is my little go to when I need a ‘chick flick’. It only makes me cry a little!

2000s- Percy Jackson and the (insert any book from the series here) by Rick Riordan Demigods, Greek mythology and swordfighting what’s not to love?

2010s- The Fault in our Stars by John Green WARNING: Do not read this book if you enjoy your happiness. It rips you’re heart to pieces and the bad part is, you keep on reading because you like it.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND EVERYTHING ON THIS LIST

1910s

So the further in time I go back the less information there is so here we go.

The 1910s was predominately World War I. World War I started in 1914 by what some historians believe was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. It lasted for four years until Germany, after losing, signed the Treaty of Versailles. Because of the war the 1916 Olympics was cancelled. Also on April 15, 1912 the Titanic hit an iceberg and sunk on its first journey.

In this decade there wasn’t nearly as much technology as we have for entertainment. The most popular form of entertainment was the radio. The radio wasn’t just used for music though. The radio was used for music, sports announcements, news, children’s stories, speeches, documentaries, dramas and plays, school programming and religious services. The radio was how news was spread in this decade.

The fashion of this decade was more formal. Skirts were worn no higher than the ankle and men wore suits and jackets. Hats with wide brims were also part of the main fashion scene.

1970s

The “1970s were defined by conflict and frustration” was the first thing I read when I started to research this decade. Kinda morbid, right? Like probably all of you I pictured the 70’s as a free decade full of hippies and disco.

This decade was filled with all kinds of bad situations. There was the Energy Crisis, the Vietnam War and Watergate. The nation began to distrust the government and started to see the faults in political figures.

The 1970s is sometimes referred to as the ‘Me’ decade. People were doing more of what they wanted to do rather than what society told them was right. There was an increase in divorce rates as well as children born out of wedlock. Society’s vision of The Family was crumbling around them. Traditions were challenged and then changed.

The decade was also the time of many movements. In the 1970s the Civil Rights movement was still going strong and the Women’s Right Movement, The Environmental Movement and the Antiwar Movement began.

Now here’s the part of the post where I usually go into the music but while researching I found there was so much information. This was a big music decade. Nearly every type of music was big. But I will say that Star Wars was the top grossing film of the decade.

1920s Dancing

 

 

So this weekend I just got back from watching an amazing movie The Great Gatsby, and I’m in a 1920’s mood. Since I’ve almost gone through the 20th century decades This week I’m going to go back to one of my first posts and focus more on the dancing in the 1920s.

This decade wasn’t called the “Roaring” twenties for nothing. Now if you’ve seen or read the book The Great Gatsby you know of his huge parties. They may have been exaggerated a bit for entertainment’s sake but there were still parties. Because the roaring economy and the backfire of the prohibition people were able to have almost anything they wanted.

Some popular dances of the 1920s were the Black Bottom, the Tango and most famously the Charleston. The dances in this decade were very energetic and free just like the decade itself.

The Charleston is a dance with a flexible base step so its easy to improvise and make the dance more your style. It can be danced solo or with a partner. The dance is meant to resemble the basic act of walking.

1930’s

To me the 1930’s seem like a difficult decade to live. People all around the world had to deal with The Great Depression and Hitler’s Germany. It was a tough life.

A year before this decade began Wall Street crashed throwing our nation into the Great Depression. All around the world people were affected by this and this could actually be one of the events that led to Hitler’s rise to power.

 As the depression hit Germany more people began listening to Hitler and the Nazis. Eventually Hitler became Chancellor and the Nazis had control.

Some people say the problem with the depression was do to a poor distribution of wealth in the United States. The rich were too rich and the poor were too populated. There was no balance and there was chaos.

But within all this chaos there was entertainment to keep people’s mind off things. We had a great epic of the decade Gone with the Wind, and also Walt Disney released Snow White, his first feature length cartoon in color.

There were also great start such as, child star, Shirley Temple and Fred Astaire, a star in many musicals. Charlie Chaplin and his silent movies was also a source of entertainment for Americans in the 1930’s.

Along with the changing world there was also changes in fashion in the 1930’s. Men’s fashion became less formal and women’s more feminine. With women hats and eye veils became more popular and emphasis was put more on the shoulders.

1950s!

When everyone thinks 1950s they think the picture above. Diners and poodle skirts. But that wasn’t it.  The decade was mostly dominated by clashes between capitalism and communism. In the United States everyone was scared of communism. This fear was called the Red Scare. There was also the start of the Korean War between communist North Korea and South Korea. Then there was the space race between the United States and communist Soviet Union. We were determined to put a man on the moon first and later we did. Joseph Stalin died and a few years later Fidel Castro came into power of Cuba.

For technology we had the formation of NASA due to the space race and the United States conducted its first Hydrogen Bomb test and the first nuclear power plant opened near Moscow.

The 1950s was also a time for the Civil Rights movement. due to Brown vs. Board of Education segregation was declared unconstitutional in public schools. A few years later the Little Rock 9 desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, 9 brave African American students had to be escorted everyday in and out of the school because people were so angry about the desegregation.

2000s!!!

         

 

 

 

So we were all alive for the 2000s, for all of you following me it was our first full decade alive. Researching this decade ended up being kinda depressing. There was a lot more information of course because of the internet becoming HUGE but most of the information was about bad things. We had in 2001 the 9/11 terrorist attack which led to the War of Terror, the H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak, the world becoming so concerned about nuclear attacks, gas prices went through the roof, and we saw the threat of possible Global Climate Change as its now called.

But not all things were bad. The United States of America elected our first African American President. Technology really took off. Now we do everything on line. Google became the world’s most popular website. Email and wifi also became huge as long as social media sites such as Facebook. Still there’s more, texting in the new thing. Who actually writes letters or calls people anymore? Well besides me :p Who needs records or CD’s either? Now we all have Ipods. And we don’t need to go outside and play anymore. We have all we need inside with our cool new videogame systems.

The highest grossing film of the decade was Avatar. There was also the death of Michael Jackson. One of my favorite shows Friends ended but a new version of the old favorite show Doctor Who aired.

Now we all know the style of this decade because its pretty much the same as it is now. Skinny jeans and Ugg boots seem to have taken over the planet. We had the brief trend of crocs but now most of us regret that. Most people wear thei hair down and straightened and geek is now considered cool.

1960’s

     This week I’m going to start with some major historical events in the 1960’s. We had the first televised presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon and the later the election of John F. Kennedy then Lyndon B. Johnson and lastly, Richard Nixon, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were both assassinated, Woodstock, the first Super Bowl, the Space Race, the Berlin Wall is built and the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion.

In the 1960’s there were many popular TV shows that you can still watch today such as The Munsters, Sesame Street, and one of my favorites DR. WHO. The Beatles began their first tour of the United States. Some other popular music was The Doors, Johnny Cash, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones. The Sound of Music was a very popular movie, then and now, and Mary Poppins and Psycho were also pretty big.

There were also many famous writers such as Isaac Asimov, S. E. Hinton, Harper Lee, Sylvia Plath, J. D. Salinger, and Dr. Seuss.

Bellbottom jeans were again in fashion but in the 1960’s clothes were usually tie-dyed or paisley print. Also the miniskirt and the bikini came into fashion so obviously people started to show a lot more skin. For guys sideburns were considered cool and the beehive hairstyle was popular for girls.

1980’s

Before I begin I would just like to say for this decade I tried to get pictures of my mom to show you the fashion and culture that way but she told me no so I’ll just have to tell you.

This week I’m going to start with the fashion of the 80’s. Today we see the fashion as gaudy and just “too much.” There were the legwarmers, jelly shoes, bellbottom jeans, jean jackets, headbands, parachute pants all in a variety of colors and then of course the big hair. The only fashion that seemed to hold on to our generation was converse shoes. My mom was so happy when I bought my first pair. I swear she thinks they’re all going to come back.

Next is entertainment. We all know about Pac-man and Rubik’s cube. Some popular music was Madonna, Michael Jackson and Aerosmith and in my opinion the 1980’s had some of the best movies. One of the most popular and my favorite movie of all time is The Breakfast Club. Some others are Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Back to the Future, The Ferris Bueller’s Day off.

Also, MTV SHOWED ACTUALLY MUSIC VIDEOS! This decade was the beginning of the AIDS pandemic and smoking was starting to be rejected because people were starting to see how unhealthy it was for you. The role of women in the workplace increased, there was the catastrophic accident in Chernobyl and we began to be concerned about the environment.

1920’s

                   

 

 

This week I’m going to blog about the 1920’s or better known as the Roaring Twenties or the Jazz Age. For the first time in history there were more Americans living in cities then in farms. It was a time of great economical growth until The Great Depression in 1929. The 1920’s was also a time of the Prohibition which was a ban on all intoxicating liquors with more than 0.5% alcohol. Like I said before it was the Jazz Age so the popular music of the time was obviously jazz even though a lot of people objected to it because of its vulgarity or depravity. Charlie Chaplin’s silent movies were popular and so was Pablo Picasso the painter and the book The Great Gatsby.
The automobile was the most important consumer product and many Americans were buying home appliances.  One of the most important things to me and what I think had the most important impact on today’s life is in 1920 women were given the right to vote! Woohoo!!! To some when you think of the 20’s you think of a flapper. A flapper is a woman with bobbed hair and short skirts who drank, smoked and said things thought to be  “unladylike.”

Al Capone, Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Ernest Hemmingway,  Babe Ruth, Pablo Picasso and Charlie Chaplin are some people of the 1920’s that you’ve definitely heard of

Picture!

Sorry the picture didn’t show up in the last post for some reason so here you go.

Welcome to my blog!

Hello everyone!

     This post is going to be a kind of introduction of sorts. My blog is going to be a blog about different decades. Every week I am going to pick a different decade to analyze. I’ll post pictures, videos, links, etc. and with each post I am planning to include any big events that happened in the year, the fashion, the top music and anything else I find worth mentioning.

     I picked this as my blog topic because I love history and reading about different times and what was considered cool or interesting then and compare it to now. It’s like history class without the memorizing all of the different dates and vocabulary.

     At the moment I am still trying to figure everything out like links and tags so by tomorrow night this may be entirely different. Hopefully if everything works out alright by my post next week I’ll have everything figured out and have more interesting stuff included.