1. The Boom

• The Republican Party

  • Preserve traditions
  • Stay out of people's lives (laissez-faire)
  • Didn't support high taxes
  • More support in the industrial, richer North
• The Democratic Party

  • Prepared to change things -and accept change
  • Willing to intervene in everyday life if necessary
  • Helped the most vulnerable, ie poor and elderly
  • More support in poorer Southern States
• The first Americans

  • Lived in tribes across America for thousands of years
  • White settlers took much of their land, forced them into reservations
  • 1900 - Only about 250,000, down from 5 million
• New Immigrants

  • Mainly from East and Southern Europe - some from Ireland, China, Japan, and South America
  • Poor and illiterate, went to large industrial towns for work
  • WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) saw as a threat
• Early Immigrants

  • White English speakers had become the most powerful group and had the best jobs, money, and political power
  • About 10% of Americans owned 90% of wealth, mostly descendants of white immigrants with high status and influence
  • WASPs - White Anglo-Saxon Protestants
• African American

  • Taken to work as slaves between 1600-1800
  • By 1920, 10 million African Americans, most in Southern States
  • Limited freedom, no right to vote
  • Denied access to good jobs, housing, and proper education
  • Early 1920's, poorest people in America
• The First World War

  • Stayed out of the war at first
  • Loaned money to British and its allies to buy food, weapons, and equipment -> created many jobs.
  • Many nations were exhausted by the end of the war, US investors exploited their exhaustion and made fortunes
  • America was the only major country without huge wartime debts
• Consumer society

  • Electricity in homes grew, from 15% in 1916 to 70% in 1927
  • People could buy electric-powered gadgets like vacuum cleaners, radios, telephones
  • Huge demand for these good created jobs in factories
• Growin industry and mass production

  • Motor industry boosted economy
  • Cars used steel, glass, leather, and rubber which create jobs in those industries
  • American businesses used mass production methods in motor industry
  • As companies got quicker at production, costs decreased
• Role of Republican Government

  • Fordney-McCumber Tariff put taxes on foreign goods more expensive -> Americans bought more American goods, creating more jobs
  • Cut taxes paid by rich -> made more businesses making more jobs
  • Taxes were low in general, people had more money to spend
  • Laissez-faire meant business were left alone, creating wealth
• New ways to buy and sell

  • Hire purchase plans meant buyers could pay for goods in small instalments
  • 6 out of 10 cars were bought this way
  • Catalogues made buying easier, delivered to your door
• ASHAME

  • Afford
  • Spend
  • Hire (purchases)
  • Advertising
  • Mass (production)
  • Employed
• Sales of goods

  • Cars:
  • 1919: 9 million
  • 1929: 26 million
  • Radios:
  • 1919: 60,000
  • 1929: 10 million
  • Telephones:
  • 1919: 10 million
  • 1929: 20 million
• Ford Motor Company

  • First factory was in 1903 in Detroit
  • 1913, Ford introduced new method of production - the assembly line, cars could be produced quicker and cheaper
  • As production got quicker, price decreased
  • 1911: $800, 1928: $295
  • 15 million people bought the Model T between 1911 and 1929
• Impact of the boom in motor industry

  • For every worker in a car factory, there was 10 more making the parts
  • Create jobs like: building roads, petrol stations, diners, highways
  • Positive Social changes:
  • owners felt a sense of freedom, could buy homes further away from places of work
  • Negative Social changes:
  • Traffic jams, accidents, and pollution
• Inequality of Wealth 1920s

  • Richest 5% earned 33% of all the money
  • 15,000 millionaires in 1927
  • 6 million families had less than $1000 a year, couldn't buy necessities
  • Large industrial firms were able to keep profit high by underpaying unskilled workers
• Poverty for farmers

  • Some countries taxed American goods making them more expensive and harder to sell overseas
  • High-tech farming methods produced more food, prices fell and farmers became poorer
  • Some farmers borrowed money from the banks to buy latest machinery, forced to sell their farms to pay back the banks
  • 600,000 farmers lost their farms in 1924, workers also lost jobs
• Problems in traditional industry

  • Overtaken by new rival industries
  • Coal miners suffered due to the closing of mines, other forms of gas were more commonly used
  • Cotton and wool factory workers suffered, less demand for their products due to man-made fibres like rayon
• African-American workers

  • Many worked as sharecroppers who rented small areas of farmland from a landowner
  • They were desperately poor so suffered much harder
  • Many moved to cities only to find low paying jobs
• American Indians

  • Large amounts of their land had been taken by mining companies
  • Forced to move to reservations with poor soil, unable to grow crops
  • Lived in extreme poverty, poorly educated and had a lower life expectancy
• Wealth 1920s

  • Immigration had made the USA multicultural
  • 1920's Economic boom due to several reasons
  • Development of the motor industry and the growth of the stock market were the best examples
  • 1920s didn't benefit everyone, millions remained poor, especially those in rural areas and working in traditional industries.