During the 1930s, America was the subject of American art. The European expressionism that had influenced so many artists through the 1920s was unceremoniously abandoned in favor of domestic realism. Creative people in all the arts adopted the theme. Virgil Thomson's music and Martha Graham's dance joined the novels of John Dos Passos and the plays of Thornton Wilder in an across-the-board celebration of America, past and present.

Domestic realism, as an artistic style, could take two distinct forms. · On the one hand there was the "documentary style" that sought to illustrate the country's troubles as a first step toward solving them. On the other hand there was the "American Scene," a somewhat amorphous concept that stressed the strength and traditions of the country in a consciously nationalistic way.