On Thursday, March 3rd, I went to the library and read the May 30th 1937 edition and the May 30th 1927 edition of Time Magazine. When I first looked at the magazine, I was fascinated by the design and structure. In high school, I was on the school newspaper and learned about different styles of writing and design. What I found in the Time Magazine was very different than any style that I was taught. Instead of a central thematic design on a page, there were merely blocks of text with a picture or two. It was vey organized and structured. On pages with advertisements, the design was chaotic with no real structure. Advertisements were placed seemingly everywhere. The advertisements were drastically different in appearance then than they are now. Even the products being advertised were incredibly different. Although the advertisements then and now are displayed differently, the message is often the same. The advertisements that stood out to me the most were the ones about exercising. Like current advertisements, the exercising ads were urging people to take care of their bodies and walk, instead of driving cars everywhere.
Beyond the design and advertisements, I thought the articles were very interesting, most notably the one about Russia. In 1937, the Russians caught German spies working on trains and railroads and wreaking havoc on transportation. The most shocking part of the article was its discussion on catching and punishing the German spies. Although many spies were caught, the article made it sound like people were accusing others of being spies, often times with little evidence. For those that were caught, the punishment was public execution. One official even said that the spies should, “Pay with gallons of blood for every drop of worker’s blood they shed.” I thought this article was particularly interesting because I could feel the tension between Germany and Russia, which would eventually lead to World War II. I also enjoyed the piece because I did not know that German spies were caught in Russia and sentenced to public execution.
In the 1927 edition of Time Magazine, an article I found interesting was about Charles Lindberg, the first person to fly from New York to Paris. The article was the longest piece I have ever seen in a magazine, spanning almost 5 whole pages. It discussed every aspect of his flight, including information about who was paying for the flight and what the plane was like. The overall tone of the piece was filled with adoration. The article deemed him an American hero and praised him throughout the piece for his historic achievement. It is funny to read articles like this now because flying from New York to Paris is such a common thing.
Many common things were discussed and praised for its novelty, including a minimum wage law and new inventions for cars. I enjoyed reading about these things because I could see how much America has grown and developed since that time period. One article that showed how much America has grown discussed a dangerous driver who was speeding. The whole article intrigued me because I wanted to know how fast the driver was going. At the very end of the piece, I finally found out – the driver was going 45 miles per hour. Now people go 45 miles per hour all the time. This article, like many parts of the magazine, provided insights into the time period in which modernism era was taking place. By reading different articles and viewing advertisements, I learned about American society and how much we have grown in over 70 years.
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