There's no place like home...

Yesterday, in my History of American Culture since 1945 class, I learned that films could be an interesting source of the study of society. The U.S. was envisioned by our forefathers to be a land of farms and small towns, so as America grew, and large urban areas began to develop by the 2oth century, Americans became uneasy and grew nostalgic for the life of small town America. The "city" became to be indentified as a place of danger, of crime and corruption and bad education. You can see this mentality in films like Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).

In Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) is a young senator who leaves his small town to go to Washington D.C. only to discover a corrupt political system that is controlled by the people who own newspapers and radio stations. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy (Judy Garland) journeys from Kansas to a fantasy city "Oz" only to realize that you don't need a wizard and that "there is no place like home." Both of these films seem to reflect the common mindset at the time that small town America is the ideal America.