USA

• 1920s Economy


  A period of unprecedented economic growth and technological advancements in the United States.
• Henry Ford


  Founded the Ford Motor Company and pioneered the assembly-line manufacturing technique.
• Flappers


  Women who rejected traditional social norms, embracing shorter hemlines, bobbed haircuts, and greater independence.
• Prohibition


  A period of outlawing alcohol in the United States from 1920 to 1933.
• Radio


  A device that enabled mass communication and entertainment through wireless transmission.
• Thomas Edison


  A pioneering inventor and entrepreneur, credited with numerous inventions and innovations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Penicillin


  A natural antibiotic discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928, revolutionizing the treatment of bacterial infections.
• Herbert Hoover


  The 31st President of the United States, who implemented policies to address the Great Depression.
• Babe Ruth


  A pioneering baseball player, known for his record-breaking home runs and larger-than-life personality.
• The Harlem Renaissance


  A cultural and artistic movement in the 1920s, highlighting the achievements and contributions of African Americans in literature, music, and art.
• The Flapper


  A style icon of the 1920s, characterized by short hemlines, loose-fitting dresses, and a more relaxed attitude towards women's clothing.
• Treaty of Versailles


  A treaty that ended World War I, imposing harsh penalties on Germany and setting the stage for the rise of totalitarian regimes.
• Factors behind the 1920s Boom


  • First World War
  • Republican Policies
  • New Industries
• First World War


  • Lent money to Allies
  • Sold weapons to Britain & France as their industry were destroyed or overwhelmed
  • Sold huge amounts of food (good for farmers)
  • Took over Europe's trade around globe
  • Overtook Germany as leading producer of chemicals
  • Developed new industries such as plastics as a result of war
  • Didn't fight in war long enough to drain resources or damage economy
• Republican Policies


  • Support 'small government' - 'non-intervention'
  • Govt should interfere as little as possible in people's lives (Laissez-faire)
  • Govt should leave businesses to work themselves, and they would create wealth
  • Links to 'Rugged Individualism'; Americans were strong & robust people who could solve their own problems - didn't need the govt to
  • Low taxation: Wealthy should keep their money to re-invest in the economy
  • Protectionism: Believed in import tariffs to protect American industry (Ford-McCumber Tariff 1922 put import taxes on food, making American food cheaper)
  • Put faith in Trusts (huge super-corporations which dominated specific industries)
• New Industries

  • Huge resources of USA could now be used to develop new industries (steel, chemicals, glass, machinery)
  • Electricity was a huge new industry; USA had been powered by coal, but by 1929 almost all urban homes had electricity (makes business more modern & cheaper, & profits easier)
  • Electricity also led to growth of new industries; consumer goods such as radios, washing machines, vacuum cleaners
  • Electricity would also allow taller buildings & the first sky scrapers to be built in cities, boosting population growth & city size
  • Invention of new materials such as rayon leads to huge growth in industry; only 12,000 pairs of silk stockings sold in 1900, but now cheaper rayon replaced silk, 300 mill pairs rayon stockings sold in 1930
  • Better methods in mass production; eg moving production line developed by Ford Motor Company
• Mass Production


  1. Development of moving production line, first shown by Ford Motor Company in Detroit, revolutionises how factory goods are made

  2. Before, goods were built by skilled craftsmen and engineers who worked slowly to make every aspect of that thing

  3. Mass production changed everything; Now, a large conveyor belt through factory, with hundreds of workers standing in specifc places… Each worker would do one particular thing (eg, attach doors on left-hand side) as the car passed them on conveyor belt

  4. Each worker doing one thing, quickly and repetitively, makes whole production process faster. Because its faster, more cars are produced. Because more cars can be produced, they can be sold more cheaply. Because they're sold more cheaply, more people can afford them and there is more demand
• The Motor Car


  • Ford set up first moving production line in 1913: leads to huge growth in car manufacturing and buying
  • 15 million of the famous Ford 'Model T' model were built between 1908-25, most in the 1920s… Cost only $290 in 1925 - about 3 months wages for average worker… 1 in 5 people have a car by 1930
  • By 1927, a Model T was coming off production line every 10 sec!
  • Cars revolutionised US economy; huge demand for cars leads to massive growth for other industries; 75% of glass made in US was for cars, leather, rubber, oil & petrol, steel
  • Cars also revolutionised how Americans lived, and WHERE they lived. Growth of suburbs, construction of roads and highways all over country, people could now drive to cinema, sports events, restaurants, holidays
• Consumerism & Consumption


  • Mass production requires mass consumption
  • People had more money now due to economic boom; could spend this money buying more goods, like cars, radios, holidays, cinema tickets etc
  • Mass advertising was suddenly seen everywhere; ads on radios, billboards beside highways, at the cinema, street posters, magazines and newspapers
  • Advertisement companies use propaganda expertise developed during WW1
  • Travelling salesmen go around country, knocking on every door selling items for people to buy
  • Huge growth in chain stores & mail-order companies (meaning people from rural areas can also consume now. Catalogues from Sears, Roebuck)
  • Credit becomes easily available; 'buy now, pay later'. 8/10 radios bought on credit. Don't even need money!
  • NEW STATE OF MIND… BUY BUY BUY, CONSUME CONSUME, CONSUME
• Radio


  • 40% American households had a radio by 1930
  • In 1921 there was only one licensed radio station in USA, by 1922 there were over 500
  • Radio station NBC making $150 million per year by 1929
  • In 1920, 60,000 radios were sold. In 1929, 10 million
• Radio


  • New industries such as electronics make radios widely available
  • Mass production etc makes radios cheap
  • Growing prosperity of 1920s Boom means Americans can buy one
  • 8/10 radios bought using credit - many Americans could afford it
  • Advertising becomes much more common
• Radio


  • Growth of professional sport (millions listening to Jack Dempsey...)
  • Exposes Americans to different views & cultures from across the country
  • Contributes hugely to popularity of jazz & emergence of new jazz culture in cities; Charleston, Flappers etc
• Jazz


  • An obsession with many young people living in cities
  • Resulted from migration from rural south to urban north and west... African Americans brought jazz with them
  • New national celebrities such as Louis Armstrong & Joe 'King' Oliver
  • New dances such as the Charleston
  • 1920s became known as the 'Jazz Age'
• Jazz


  • Because of the radio!
  • Because of huge migration from rural south to northern and western towns & cities; New York, Chicago, Los Angeles
  • African Americans escaping poverty and discrimination in southern states
• Jazz


  • Leads to revolution in American entertainment
  • Jazz stars become nationwide celebrities
  • Jazz becomes the first truly 'popular' music in USA
  • Hugely influential in 1920s culture; the Jazz Age
  • Encourages Americans to go to bars and clubs, to dance, drink etc... Even bigger cultural differences emerge between town and countryside...
• Sport

  • Growth of professional sport became a huge source of entertainment
  • Baseball teams like New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox became famous across the country as people listened to matches on radio
  • Players like Babe Ruth become national celebrities; he was paid $80,000 per year by 1930
  • Boxers such as Jack Dempsey also becomes famous; 50 million people listened to his fight against Gene Tunney in 1927
• Cinema


  • Growth of Hollywood as the centre of the country's (and the world's) movie industry. Good weather all year round perfect for film-making
  • 'Talkies' made for the first time in the 1920s, from 1927 onwards
  • Stars such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Clara Bow
  • Hollywood pinups; Rudolph Valentino 'The Sheik' 1921, shirtless... Theda Bara in 'The Unchastened Woman' in 1925
  • 100 million tickets sold every week by 1929, only cost 10 cents
• Americans


  • They could listen to live sport on the radio
  • They could drive to sports events in their car
  • They had the money to enjoy these sporting events/buy radios to listen etc due to the economic boom
• Entertainment industry


  • New electricity & electronics industries central in offering this new form of entertainment
  • Improving tech; talkies by 1927
  • So cheap; 100 million tickets sold every week by 1929 as they cost only cost 10 cents
  • Americans could DRIVE to the cinema even if they don't live near one
• Entertainment industry


  • Huge factor in growth of entertainment industry
  • Huge factor in growth of new 1920s modern American culture
  • Again, highlights divisions between cities & countryside. In countryside, life continues like it always did, but in cities you're hopping into your car to drive down to baseball game, or to the local jazz club
• Entertainment


  • Hugely influential in changing American morals & modernising USA
  • Sex had been a taboo subject before WW1, but now Hollywood discovered the power of selling 'sex' Stars like Theda Bara showed a new type of woman; a sexually liberated and modern woman who men admired and women longed to be like
  • Male stars like Rudolph Valentino also presented as new sex symbols
  • By modern standards, these films were very tame, but they were revolutionary at the time. Completely changed Americans' views about sex and morality... Men and women portrayed as having affairs, sex before marriage.... Excited many Americans, but also shocked & appalled many traditional & conservative Americans
• Most Native Americans lost their homelands
• Reservations


  Special places in the mid-west (states such as Oklahoma) where Native Americans were forced to live
• These reservations were very impoverished places, unable to lead traditional nomadic life
• Merriam Report


  Recommendations for improving the treatment of Native Americans
• Merriam Report recommendations finally implemented during Roosevelt's New Deal


  1930s
• Native Americans had not been recognised as citizens before, and couldn't vote etc
• Native Americans granted citizenship for the first time


  1924
• About 17,000 Native Americans fought for USA in WW1
• In fighting in WW1


  Gained a new-found respect from white Americans that hadn't existed before