Twentieth Century concerns close to today's - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

January 26, 2006

Albany-- A history professor says many of the challenges of this era are similar to what the country experienced in the 1920's. Darton Professor Dr. Ann Engram Smith says American history is characterized by cycles of reform and reaction.

Fears security threats and changes that occur quickly highlighted the roaring twenties that says Smith ironically compares to this opening decade of the twenty-first century so far.

"We somehow need to close our ranks and focus on security, because the world is a hostile place and we are concerned about another ism. In the twentieth century it was communism now it's terrorism "said History Professor Dr. Ann Engram Smith.

The twenties are often seen as the beginning of modern America, but the twenties also saw the Scopes trial and a resurgence of the Klu Klux Klan along with new restrictions on immigration and ongoing rural poverty.