2a.1 - boom and crash, 1920-29

gnp growth

$73.3bn (1920) to $104.4bn (1929)

mass production

8m cars (1920) to 26m (1929)

technological advances

radio—kdka (pittsburgh, 1920) was first commercial radio station; by 1929, there were 619
federal highways act 1921 gave govt responsibility for building roads (350000 miles in 1920 to 662000 in 1929)

the automobile

car registrations increased from 8m (1920) to 28m (1929)
1920—ford produced one car every minute

hire purchase

real wages rose 13% (1923-29)

laissez-faire policy

coolidge: 'the business of america is business'

wall street crash

24 october 1929—12.8m shares changed hands
by end of nov, $30bn wiped off share values
gnp fell 29% (1929-33)

reasons for crash

overproduction
land speculation (florida)
bull market
weaknesses of us banking system

the kkk

1924—national membership of 4m
rapid decline—membership declined to 200k (1929)

national prohibition

widely ignored
hard to enforce
organised crime (bootlegging)
ended in 1931

cultural changes - jazz age

jazz age—
1920s: great migration of black americans (850000) brought jazz to the north
not universally popular (country music preferred in the south)

cultural changes - harlem renaissance

harlem renaissance—
'new negro movement'
growing number of black american theatres and nightclubs (such as the cotton club)

cultural changes - baseball

growing popularity of baseball—
1919 world series fix
benefitted from 1920s prosperity (workers had more money to spend thus demand rose)

cultural changes - radio and cinema

radio and cinema—
radio led to huge growth in advertising (kdka)
1929: every small town had a cinema showing hollywood films

cultural changes - american literature

changes in american literature—
fitzgerald (the great gatsby, 1925) and hemingway (the sun also rises, 1926) helped give american literature international prestige