Title: The Roaring Twenties in American Mathematics

Abstract:  World War I served as a break in business as usual within the American mathematical research community. In its aftermath, American mathematicians had the sense, in Oswald Veblen’s words, of entering into “a new era in the development of our science.”  To that end, “[e]very nerve,” according to Roland Richardson, “should be strained to get our research back on its feet.” These and others poured themselves into their work in the 1920s, but what did that mean?  What were their main research interests?  Where were those interests fostered?  What, in short, was the lay of the American mathematical research landscape in the 1920s?  This talk with explore the answers to these questions.