1920s

• 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
• Assembly line tasks


  • Fitting the steering wheel on every car
• Assembly lines were like a conveyor belt, allowing more goods to be made quickly
• The car industry was one of the first to use mass production
• The first Model T was made

  1911
• The Model T cost $1200 in 1911
• By the 1920s, a Model T was made every 10 seconds
• In 1920, a Model T cost $295
• Half of all cars sold were Model T
• Model Ts were the same colour, size, and had the same engines
• Ford employed half a million people
• Ford paid the same wages to black people and white people
• Industries that grew due to the car industry

  • Steel
  • Rubber
  • Glass
  • Leather
  • Oil
• The construction industry was needed to build new roads for the cars
• Cars enabled people to live on the outskirts of town and commute to work, so suburbs grew
• Other consumer goods made with mass production

  • Radios
  • Telephones
  • Fridges
  • Vacuum cleaners
  • Washing machines
  • Ovens
• The more that were made, the cheaper they became
• Real wages for industrial workers grew by 26% during the 1920s
• America started new industries - artificial silk, Bakelite, electricity and cellophane
• Unemployment fell from 11.9% in 1921 to 3.2% in 1929
• Laissez-faire


  Policy of non-interference by the Republican governments
• The Republican governments lowered taxes on incomes so people could afford to buy the new goods
• Hire purchase


  Buying on credit, paying in instalments
• 8 out of 10 radios were bought on credit
• Shares


  A 'share' of a company, owning a small part of it
• A booming economy made people more confident, many invested in shares
• Buying on the margin

  Putting down a deposit on shares and borrowing the rest, selling when the price goes up to make a profit
• If the value of the shares fell, people lost money and still owed the debt
• Mass advertising was used for the first time during WW1
• Poster and radio adverts, and travelling salesmen encouraged people to buy the new goods available
• Mail order increased demand for goods into the country areas
• Cycle of prosperity


  1. Factories make lots of goods

  2. They need more workers

  3. These workers have good wages

  4. They can afford to buy the goods that factories are making

  5. More demand for goods leads to increased production and more profit

  6. People started moving to the cities for work
• The Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922 taxed foreign goods coming into America, making them very expensive, but this also made it difficult to export American goods
• The Roaring Twenties was a period of adventure and prosperity
• New adventures in the Roaring Twenties

  • Charles Lindbergh's non-stop flight from America to Paris in 1927
• New buildings in the Roaring Twenties

  • 400 skyscrapers in America by 1929
  • The Empire State Building finished in 1931, at 102 stories the tallest building in the world
• Sports in the Roaring Twenties

  • Sports events attracting hundreds of thousands of spectators
  • Sports stars paid huge wages
  • Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Red Grange
• Jazz music in the Roaring Twenties

  • Duke Ellington
  • Louis Armstrong
• Dancing in the Roaring Twenties

  • Dance marathons
  • The Charleston
  • The Tango
  • The Bunny Hug