In the first half of the twentienth century, no form of media was as successful in selling itself as the forum of America as the Saturday Evening Post. From the early twentienth century until World War II, the Saturday Evening Post came to be seen as the essence of "middle America," with readership and advertising revenue unmatched by any other magazine. The Saturday Evening Post, henceforth called the SEP, tried to present itself as reflecting traditional American values. While how much the magazine actually reflected what America actually was is debatable, it cannot be argued that the SEP did capture the essence of what America wanted to be. The reality of America back then cannot be fully gleaned from the pages of the SEP, but what American's held to be their country's values can be.
This project is an attempt to examine the success of the SEP, and
what can be learned about Americans in the time of that magazine's
success. As part of the Virtual Greenbelt exhibit, this project will
also fit the broad catergory of the SEP and American values into the
confines of Greenbelt, circa 1935-40.