US Economy Boom in the1920s practice flashcards

Fundamental vocabulary and key concepts regarding the United States economic boom and social tensions of the 1920s based on the lecture notes.

WASPs

Short for White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, referring to Americans whose ancestors emigrated from North-Western Europe in the $1600s$.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

A secretive, racist organization that primarily targeted Black Americans, as well as Jewish and Catholic communities, and grew to approximately $5m$ members in the $1920s$.

1917 Immigration Law

A law requiring all immigrants to prove they could read English, pay an immigration fee of $8$, and banning all immigrants from Asia.

1921 Emergency Quota Act

A law that set the maximum number of immigrants entering the US at $357,000$ annually and limited immigrants from the eastern hemisphere to $3\%$ of those already in the US in $1910$.

1924 Reed–Johnson Act

A law that reduced the annual immigrant limit to $154,000$ and lowered the eastern hemisphere quota to $2\%$ of those in America in $1890$.

Jim Crow Laws

Discriminatory laws passed by White politicians in the South that segregated Black Americans in public facilities and used literacy tests to prevent them from voting.

The Birth of a Nation

A successful $1915$ Hollywood movie that glorified the KKK and led to an enormous revival of the organization's popularity.

Economic boom

A period of rapid economic growth and prosperity within a country, such as the one experienced by the US during the $1920s$.

Mass production

A method of making large quantities of products quickly, involving machinery and improved manufacturing processes to make goods more affordable.

Moving assembly line

A concept developed by Henry Ford in $1913$ for the Model T where a product moves on a conveyor belt while workers focus on a single production task.

Hire-purchase

A credit scheme that allows consumers to purchase goods through a small loan and pay for them in monthly instalments.

Laissez-faire

A French term meaning ‘allow to do,’ referring to the Republican government policy of not interfering with how businesses were run.

Fordney–McCumber Tariff

A $1922$ law that placed a tax on foreign goods entering the US to make them more expensive and encourage the purchase of American-made products.

Buying ‘on the margin’

The practice of using low-interest loans to borrow money to buy shares on the stock market.

Rayon

A synthetic fabric manufactured by companies like Dupont that became highly popular in the $1920s$, leading to a slump in traditional textiles.

Boll weevil

A parasite that devastated many American cotton crops during the $1920s$, causing further hardship for farmers.

Mechanisation

The introduction of machines like harvesters and tractors into agriculture, which led to mass unemployment for unskilled workers in rural areas.

Reservations

Areas of poor quality land where Indigenous Americans were forced to live, often lacking access to education or medical care.

Poverty line in 1929

The economic threshold below which $60\%$ of all American families still lived despite the general prosperity of the boom.