history america

• Mass Production


  Making lots of the same product
• Assembly lines


  • Goods are moved along the line, with each worker doing the same job over and over
• The car industry was one of the first to use mass production
• Ford Model T


  First mass produced car, made every 10 seconds by 1920s, cost $295
• Half of all cars sold were Model T
• Ford employed half a million people
• Ford paid same wages to black people and white people
• Impact of mass production


  • Helped other industries grow (steel, rubber, glass, leather, oil)
  • Enabled construction of new roads
  • Enabled growth of suburbs
  • Reduced prices of consumer goods
  • Increased real wages for industrial workers by 26% in 1920s
• Laissez-faire


  Republican governments' policy of non-interference in industries
• Hire purchase


  Buying on credit, paying in instalments
• Buying on the margin

  Buying shares with a deposit, borrowing the rest
• 8 out of 10 radios were bought on credit
• Advertising


  Used to encourage people to buy new goods, including posters, radio adverts, and travelling salesmen
• Mail order increased demand for goods into the country areas
• Fordney-McCumber Tariff 1922


  Taxed foreign goods coming into America, encouraging Americans to buy American goods, but led to retaliation from other countries
• Roaring Twenties


  Period of adventure and prosperity in America
• New Adventures in the Roaring Twenties

  • Charles Lindbergh's non-stop flight from America to Paris
  • 400 skyscrapers built, including the Empire State Building
• Sports in the Roaring Twenties

  • Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Red Grange
• Jazz Music


  New style of music developed from early black music, played in speakeasies
• Famous Jazz Musicians


  • Duke Ellington
  • Louis Armstrong
• Flappers


  Young women with short, bobbed hair, wearing short dresses, smoking, driving, and acting 'immorally'
• The Anti Flirt Association tried to control the 'wild' young people
• Women's Voting


  Given the vote after WW1 as they had done men's jobs during the war
• Very few women entered into politics
• Women's Work


  • Most had menial jobs like cleaners, maids, waitresses
  • Paid much less than men
  • Increase in nurses and teachers, but few lawyers or doctors
  • Introduction of birth control meant fewer children
  • Still expected to do housework and look after family
• The divorce rate doubled, suggesting women had more choices
• 10m women had jobs by 1929, an increase of 24%
• Farmers


  • Half of Americans were involved in farming
  • Grew more crops due to better technology, causing prices to fall
  • 600,000 farmers lost their farms in 1924 due to debts
  • Lived in poor conditions with diseases common
• Black People


  • 1m lost their jobs in 1920s
  • Suffered from racism and segregation under Jim Crow laws
  • 70 lynchings in 1919
• Older Industries


  • Coal, cotton and textiles industries suffered as new power sources and technologies were used
• In the 1920s, 60% of people lived below the poverty line
• Prohibition


  Making, selling or transporting alcohol was illegal in the USA from 1920
• Reasons for Prohibition


  • Women's Christian Temperance Union and Anti Saloon League campaigned for it
  • Claimed alcohol caused poverty, crime, and workers missing work
• Illegal Alcohol during Prohibition


  • Moonshine
  • Speakeasies
• Prohibition ended in 1933 as it was too unpopular and unenforceable
• Gangsters


  • Used Prohibition to make money through bootlegging and other criminal activities
  • Rival gangs fought for control of territory and speakeasies
  • Bribed police and judges
• Al Capone


  Notorious Chicago gangster, had $60m annual income in 1927
• The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was carried out by Al Capone's gang
• Immigration


  • Restrictions introduced in 1920s to limit immigration, especially from Southern and Eastern Europe
• Al Capone's income was $60m