USA 1919-1973

• 1920s


  ¾ of Americans go to the cinema every week
• 1920s


  Nation's wealth doubled
• 1920s


  "The business of America is business" - Coolidge
• By the end of 1920s


  Radios in 12000000 housholds
• 1920s


  25% increase in women working

  1920 - Women can vote

  
  

  HOWEVER:

  1930 - only 1/4 of women are working

  No female senators

  Many hate flappers - anti-flirt clubs
• 1927


  75% of all things in the home are bought on credit
• Fact used by prohibition campaigners


  3000 babies smothered in bed each year by drunk parents
• Prohibition : 1919 - 1933

  Enacted by the Volstead Act
• 1934


  9% of government income was alcohol tax
• 1920s


  African-American population doubled in the north of the country
• 1924


  4.5m KKK members
• Sacco & Vanzetti case - 1927

  Both executed on very weak evidence - institutionalised racism
• Immigration laws -1920s

  • Literary test - 1917 - a pass is required for entry into the country
  • The Emergency Quota Act - 1921 - 357000 immigrants total; only 3% of 1910 population of a group allowed in
  • The National Origins Act - 1924 - 150000 immigrants total; only 2% of 1890 population of a group allowed in
• The Great Depression 1929 - 1939
• The Great Depression


  9m savings accounts wiped

  16m unemployed
• FDR & the New Deal

  • 1932 - FDR elected president
  • In 1st month of presidency, received 500000 letters of thanks
• FDR's 1st 100 days

  • Brains trust - smartest people in the country seeking a great depression solution
  • Fireside chats - Honestly talking to the nation weekly via radio
• FDR & the New Deal

  6m people were still unemployed in 1941
• The Grapes of Wrath - 1930s film about the depression
• 1945 - USSR rape 2m women (USA not happy)
• Korean war 1950-53 - 1.2m deaths
• 1948 - 0.4% of households own a TV

  1958 - 83.2%
• Non-Violent Civil Rights Movement

  Brown vs Board of Education - 1954 -> Linda Brown travels miles to coloured school whilst living near white school

  NAACP argued that segregated schools were not equal

  Ends separate but equal legislation

  "with all deliberate speed" ruling for desegregation has no time limit

  10 years later - 75% of southern school districts have not desegregated
• Non-Violent Civil Rights Movement

  Rosa Parks - 1955

  17000+ boycotted the busses led by MLK with the NAACP involved

  12 months later, bus segregation ended
• Non-Violent Civil Rights Movement

  Little Rock Nine - 1957

  9 students enrolled at a white school

  1st day - didn't show up

  2nd day - blocked by National Guard

  23rd sept - smuggled into the school and were attacked (televised)

  24th sept - escorted into school by 1100 soldiers [Eisenhower]
• Non-Violent Civil Rights Movement

  Sit ins - 1960

  lunch counters then desegregated in 126 cities
• Non-Violent Civil Rights Movement

  Freedom Rides - 1961

  CORE organises it
• Non-Violent Civil Rights Movement

  March on Washington - 1963

  JFK starts writing Civil Rights Act 1964
• Non-Violent Civil Rights Movement

  March on Selma - 1965

  25000 march for votes for black people
• Death of MLK - 1968 - shot in Tennessee
• Non-Violent Civil Rights Movement Organisations

  • Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) - bus boycotts
  • Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
  • Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) - MLK's
  • Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
• 1927 - Ford making a car every 25 seconds

  Laissez-faire approach to politics

  Run by the rich for the rich
• 1920s - entertainment

  Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington first positive black role models - Jazz

  1927 - first 'talkie' produced
• 1920s - Racism

  "The birth of a Nation" 1915 glorifies KKK and popularity increases

  1919-25 over 300 African-Americans were lynched
• 1920s - The Red Scare


  Starts from The Russian Revolution 1917

  Anarchy and Bombing ensues

  1927 - Sacco & Vanzetti
• Great Depression - Bonus Army


  • WWI soldiers promised a bonus in 1945 but they wanted it early in 1929 so protested outside White House
  • Hoover doesn't want to meet them. Sends General MacArthur who, against Hoover's instructions, tear gassed the ex-soldiers and set fire to their tents
  • Hoover refused to admit he lost control of MacArthur
• FDR & the New Deal

  New Deal agencies:

  • Civilian Conservation Corps -> 3 million men total, 300000 was most at once
  • Emergency Banking Relief Act -> inspectors sent to every bank in the country. Only reopened if can be trusted
  • Agriculture Adjustment Agency -> modernisation of and limits on farming
  • Social Security Act - 1935 -> introduced a state pension [long term] (2nd New Deal 1935)
  • Tennessee Valley Authority -> public company providing cheap electricity (criticised as socialism)
  • National Industrial Recovery Act -> $3bn spent on public works [FAILIURE] unmanageably ambitiously large
• WWII

  • December 1941 - Japan bomb Pearl Harbour. Over 1000 soldiers killed. USA declare war the same day
  • 1944 - USA producing half of the world's weapons

  Affects on:

  • Black people - at least 10000 go to Europe. Shocked by lack of segregation in Britain. They were invited into white people's homes. Within the army - cross race blood transfusions were banned
  • Economy - Lend-lease scheme sent food, arms and medicine to Europe. Creates many jobs effectively ending the depression
• McCarthyism and the New Red Scare: 1945-62

  • Federal Employee Loyalty Program - investigated suspected communists. Stigma even if found innocent. Investigated 3m people
  • The House of Un-American Activities Committee - Paranoia - people reporting others
  • The Hiss case - high ranking member of US State Department is found to be a communist spy
  • 1949 - USSR have an atomic bomb -> Rosenburgs executed for passing secret information to the Soviet Union
  • The McCarren Act - All communist organisations must be registered. Communists cannot have passports and cannot work in defence
• 1950s Popular Culture

  Beginning of consumerism. Leisure time filled with shopping. TV replaces radio and cinema

  1948 - 0.4 % of households own a TV

  1958 - 83.2%

  Causes a national American Culture

  Rock and Roll - ever since this, there has been a divide between what teens and parents listen to. Biracial origins of rock and roll are disliked