Student Activity Packet

Activity 7: Scholarly Monograph

Stuart Cosgrove, "The Zoot-Suit and Style Warfare," History Workshop Journal 18 (Autumn 1984): 77-91.

What To Do

Answer the following questions:

  1. What is a zoot-suit? Describe it. Who "invented" it? Who wore it? What did female zoot-suiters wear?

  2. What does the author mean when he calls the zoot-suit an "emblem of ethnicity?" For who? Why? What other meanings did the zoot-suit have for those who wore it? Can you think of other clothing that has such meanings today?

  3. Who were the Pachucos? Where did they come from? Why does the author call them disinherited?

  4. Describe the "Pachuco subculture." How did World War II foster its growth? Describe the domestic front in the years during which the Zoot Suit Riots took place.

  5. Who participated in the Zoot-Suit Riots of 1943? Why did the groups fight each other? Why did the suit offend some people? How did the War Production Board and World War II itself figure into the riots?

  6. From what you've learned in this unit about domestic shortages during World War II, explain the reaction of mainstream Americans (non zoot-suiters) to the zoot-suit.

  7. How did a suit of clothes come to instigate riots? How could mere clothing motivate people to fight each other?

  8. What were the zoot-suiters trying to communicate through their actions? Were their actions political? Why or why not?

  9. How were the riots over nylon stockings alike or different from the Zoot-Suit Riots? Compare the black market in nylon stockings to the wearing of a zoot-suit.

    To Stuart Cosgrove, "The Zoot-Suit and Style Warfare," >