USA Depth Study

• What was the boom?

  In the 1920s, more money was spent on things people believed would change their lives, including cars, telephones, radios and refrigerators. There were more job opportunities and paid workers due to this.

  This was called the "Boom" : a period of very quick economic growth in the USA.
• Who did NOT benefit from the boom?

  • Farmers
  • African-Americans
  • New immigrants
  • Old industries
• Why didn't old industries benefit from the boom?

  Old industries, such as textiles, coal mining and leather struggled due to new technologies and new industries, like oil and electricity.
• Why was there an economic boom in the 1920s?

  • WW1
  • The consumer society
  • Republican Government Policies
  • Growing Industries and Mass Production
  • New ways to buy and sell
• Total farm income in the USA dropped from $22 billion in 1919 to $13 billion in 1928
• 6 million Americans moved from the countryside into the cities
• Three-quarters of a million black American farm-workers became unemployed in the 1920s
• Unemployment did not reduce in America in the 1920s - it stayed steady at 5%.
• Republican Government Policies :

  • Presidents in 1920s were from the republican party.
  • Policies included rugged individualism, laissez faire, low taxes and tariffs
  • Presidents : Woodrow Wilson, Warren G harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover
• The Red Scare : in the 1920s, there was an increase in xenophobia and racial persecution in the USA
• In 1920, the 18th amendment was passed making the manufacture and sale of alcohol illegal, but many people in this time of 'prohibition' continued to drink and gangsters made enormous amounts of money from supplying illegal liquor.
• The national mood in America turned against drinking alcohol when the country entered the war in 1917.
• The anti-saloon league argued that drinking alcohol was damaging American society.
• A ban on alcohol would boost supplies of important grains such as barley, according to the prohibitionists.
• The consumption of alcohol went against God’s will, according to some religious groups.
• Many agreed that it was wrong for some Americans to enjoy alcohol while the country’s young men were at war.
• Prohibition created an enormous public demand for illegal alcohol.
• Gang leaders such as Al Capone and Bugs Moran battled for control of Chicago’s illegal drinking dens known as speakeasies.
• Capone claimed that he was only a businessman, but between 1927 and 1930 more than 500 gangland murders took place.
• The most infamous incident during prohibition was the St Valentine's day Massacre in 1929 when Capone’s men killed seven members of his rival Moran’s gang while Capone lay innocently on a beach in Florida.
• The Wickersham commission in 1929 reported that prohibition was not working.
• In February 1933, congress passed the 21st amendment which repealed prohibition, prohibition had failed.
• There weren’t enough prohibition agents to enforce the law - only 1,500 in 1920.
• The site of america’s boundaries made it hard for these agents to control smuggling by bootleggers.
• The low salary paid to the agents made it easy to bribe them.
• Many americans never gave their support to prohibition and were willing to drink in speakeasies.
• Gangsters such as Al Capone made money from organised crime.
• Protection rackets, organised crime and gangland murders were more common during prohibition than when alcohol could be bought legally.
• The Palmer Raids (Consequences) :

  • 600 people (who were mostly NOT communist supporters) were arrested and held in prison without a trial
  • 556 of them were also deported on flimsy evidence under the 1918 alien act
  • People used the raids as an excuse to attack any group they disliked or distrusted
  • Trade unions were weakened by Palmer's rumours and raids because they were branded un-american
• The Palmer Raids :

  Mitchell Palmer claimed that there were 150,000 communists living in the country. He started rumours that they had infiltrated Congress. He said that they were working on behalf of the US government to spread Communism.

  He used the Red Scare as an excuse to organise attacks against left-wing organisations.