Knowt
USA case study
Units:
Unit 1: How far did the USA’s economy boom in the 1920s? ✅
Unit 2: How far did US society change in the 1920s? ✅
Unit 3: How far was the USA in the 1920s an intolerant society? ✅
Unit 4: What were the causes and consequences of the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression?
Unit 5: How successful was the New Deal?
Unit 1: How far did the USA’s economy boom in the 1920s?
Economic boom: The dynamic growth of the US economy in the 1920s
Reasons for this economic boom:
F- First world war
R- Resources
E- Electricity
E- Economic policies
M- Mass production
A- Automobile industry
C- Consumerism
S- State of mind
F- First World War:
Trade:
Europe needed goods to rebuild and feed its people
The USA supplied European allies with food, raw materials and arms
While European nations fought, the US took their overseas markets
The US overtook Germany as the world leader in chemicals and fertilizers
US banks lent huge sums of money to fighting European nations,
repaid with interest as their economies recovered in the 1920s
Technology changes:
1920s USA led the world in mechanization, plastics & aircraft design
Automobiles became a huge industry
Technological advancements in finance, such as telegraphs for real-time stock information, encouraged investment
New technology led to mass production
R- Resources
The USA was rich in natural resources and raw materials
By 1920 it was the world’s leading producer of coal, steel, and oil
American agriculture was the most productive in the world
E- Electricity
Electricity consumption more than doubled in the 1920s
By 1929 most urban homes had electricity
Electricity powered new mass-production methods in factories
Production of electrical appliances (radios, telephones) boomed
E- Economic policies
Laissez Faire policies:
The belief that government should interfere in business as little as possible
Giving business ‘a free hand’ boosts employment, wages, profits
Encouraged by American culture of ‘rugged individualism’: belief people achieved success through independence and hard work
Taxation:
Low-income tax aimed to encourage spending on US goods and investment in US business
After the 1926 Revenue Act, 0.75% of pop. paid 94% of USA’s tax ❓❓
Tariffs:
Protectionist policy of making imported goods more expensive to encourage consumers to buy domestic (US) products
1922 Fordney-McCumber Tariff protected US-produced food
M- Mass production
Developed by Henry Ford after 1913, it revolutionized production
Ford showed the speed and low costs that could be achieved by manufacturing standard models on an assembly line
In 1913, the Ford factory in Detroit produced a Model T car every 3 minutes; by 1920s, it made one every 10 seconds
By 1925, a Model T cost $290 – 3 months wages for a worker
Soon A. lines were used to mass-produce other items, making a huge variety of consumer goods affordable to ordinary people
A- Automobile industry
Henry Ford was leading figure in the USA’s automobile boom
Designed the Model T as an affordable, reliable, basic car for mass-ownership: available in ‘any colour as long as it’s black’
By mid 1920s, one of every two cars sold in USA was a Model T
By 1920s, the automobile industry was the USA’s largest, employing hundreds of thousands
Auto-related industries boomed: 80% of the USA’s rubber and 75% of the USA’s glass production went to the car industry
1 car to every 5 people (vs 1:43 in Britain, 1:7000 in USSR!)
Distances shrank as people could travel further than before
Rural communities became less isolated
People spent more leisure time traveling across the USA
Suburbs grew outside the cities as people could drive to work
C- Consumerism
Marketing started becoming big
Previous decades valued thrift and saving money: 1920s made spending money a virtue and a part of American identity
‘Buy now pay later’ credit schemes removed stigma from debt • By 1927, 75% of all household goods were bought on credit
Advertisers developed sophisticated techniques to persuade consumers to buy products
Radio and poster ads used celebrity endorsements, slogans and sex appeal to sell freedom, glamour and romance
Mail-order catalogues brought consumer goods to rural USA
Between 1920 and 1930, sales of cars increased from 9m to 26m; sales of radios from 60,000 to 10m
S- State of mind
A new attitude of confidence led Americans to believe that the USA’s prosperity and wealth would continue to grow
Business people had the confidence to invest in new industries and products; consumers had confidence to buy, often on credit
• More and more Americans bought shares on the stock market, believing that share values would continue to rise
By 1929, 20m Americans were shareowners
Who did not benefit from the economic boom?
C- Coal industry
A- Agriculture
T- Textile industry
R- Railroad workers
I- Immigrants
B- Black Americans
C- Coal industry
Overproduction of coal led to falling prices and profits from coal mines
Demand for coal fell due to new power sources: oil, electricity
Many mines were closed down and wages were cut; large miners’ strikes (600,000 went on strike for four months in 1922) failed to improve working conditions
A- Agriculture:
Farmers struggled against competition from highly efficient wheat producers in Canada
Improved machinery like combine harvesters made US farming too efficient: too much was produced, leaving a surplus that could not be sold
Prices plummeted as farmers tried to sell their surpluses
Europe imported less food from USA after WW1, partly as it produced enough, partly in response to US tariffs (e.g. Fordney-McCumber)
Hundreds of thousands of farmers went bankrupt (600,000 in 1924 alone)
Unable to keep up mortgage repayments, many farmers were forced off the land: either evicted or selling their farms to move to cities
T- Textile industry
Suffered competition from new artificial competitors, e.g. rayon, a man-made fiber cheaper to produce than wool, cotton of silk
Changes in fashion, e.g. shorter skirts and dresses, reduced demand for textiles
Mill owners kept wages low by hiring women and children in poor conditions
R- Railroad workers
Declined due to huge growth in car ownership and the national road network
I- Immigrants
Faced discrimination and low wages, as immigration provided a steady supply of cheap labour from Europe and Asia
Many worked in boom laboring construction industry, but wages rose only 4% in the 1920s
Unemployment remained high among immigrant communities
Government legislation put quotas on immigration (see sheet 2) to limit new arrivals
B- Black Americans
85% of Black Americans lived in the southern states; most worked as farm labourers or sharecroppers (had to pay a share of their crops to the landowner)
The downturn in US agriculture: 750,000 black Americans lost their jobs in the 1920s
Southern blacks suffered discrimination, segregation, and the fear of lynching
Many migrated to northern cities (NY, Chicago, Detroit) in search of opportunity, but were still treated as second-class citizens and took low-paid, menial jobs
Many employers had black employment quotas or ‘whites-only’ policies
Most blacks in the north lived in overcrowded ‘ghettos’ like New York’s Harlem
Unit 2: How far did US society change in the 1920s?
Urbanization
• By the 1920s, for the first time more Americans lived in towns/cities than in rural areas
Overseas immigrants & rural Americans flooded to cities like New York and Chicago in search of opportunities and adventure
Cities became melting pots of cultures as immigrants from Europe and other regions settled in urban areas.
Cities had more job opportunities so a lot of people started moving
Women
Politics
Gains:
In 1924, 4 Nellie Taloe Ross of Wyoming became first woman to be elected governor of a state
In the year 1920, women got the right to vote in the 19th amendment
Limitations:
Unfortunately, men still dominated politics
Employment
Gains:
By 1929 there were 10m women in work – 24% more than in 1920
More women took ‘white-collar’ jobs (librarians, teachers, clerks,
secretaries, telephone operators, shop assistants)
Because of this, women started gaining independence
Limitations:
Most women remained in unskilled jobs and paid less than men
Supreme Court blocked attempts to set female minimum wage
Only 4% of university professors were women; medical schools allocated only 5% of places to women
Social changes:
Gains:
Many women became more socially independent
Access to cars gave women mobility and freedom of travel
More women smoked, drank and danced in clubs/speakeasies
Time-saving consumer goods such as vacuum cleaners and washing machines freed up time for careers or leisure time
Women’s fashion became more daring and female beauty became a multi-million-dollar industry
The growing use of birth control led to lower birth rates; having fewer children allowed women more time for careers or social lives
Financially independent women were less likely to stay in unhappy marriages: divorce rates doubled from 1914 to 1929
Flappers:
Young, liberated, urban women who challenged traditional attitudes and embraced new freedoms
APPEARANCE: short hair, make-up, short dresses, bright clothes
ACTIVITIES: danced, drank, and smoked in speakeasies and jazz clubs; drove cars and motorcycles
Limitations:
These social changes were only enjoyed by urban, affluent women who had financial independence, car access, etc.
Most women in rural areas, and many in cities, lived traditional lives with traditional values of religion and family
Flappers were a minority and an extreme example of the 1920s changes; being a flapper was a phase and many ‘settled down’
Conservative Americans, particularly in rural areas, found changes to women’s lifestyles shocking
Religious Americans saw women’s sexual liberation as sinful and founded Anti-Flirt Leagues to protest the changes
Flappers demonized as promiscuous, shallow money-grabbers
Automobiles
Gains:
Cars gave Americans more freedom to travel for work & leisure: sports events, shopping trips, beach holidays, picnics
• Young Americans could escape from their parents’ ‘moral gaze’
Women with cars gained more freedom and independence
Limitations:
Conservative Americans feared that automobiles were causing a decline in moral standards and making crime easier
Entertainment
Jazz
Gains:
African-American music that became popular in the 1920s
Popularity spread to young white – as well as black – Americans
This led to the popularity of dances such as the Charleston
Was played in speakeasies and clubs such as NY’s Cotton Club
The explosion of jazz gave the 1920s the name: ‘the Jazz Age’
Jazz stars included Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington • The audience was 100,000 and the box office take was $2.5 million
One of few areas where black Americans achieved fame/success
Limitations:
Conservative Americans thought jazz was too loose and sexual, causing decline in moral standards
Racism played a role, as most stars were black
Movies
Gains:
Cinema became a nationwide craze, going to the movies was a central part of American life.
LA suburb of Hollywood became the centre of the US film industry
Films were silent until the first ‘talkie’ (‘The Jazz Singer’) in 1927
By end of 1920s 20,000 cinemas; 100 million tickets sold per week
The 1920s created a new form of celebrity: the film star
Tabloid journalism developed to feed hunger for film star news
Mary Pickford: Silent movie legend; ‘America’s sweetheart’
Clara Bow: Flirtatious flapper known as ‘the It-girl’
Charlie Chaplin: Comedy star loved for his ‘tramp’ character
Rudolph Valentino: First male star to be sold on sex appeal
Limitations:
• Films changed public views on morality by selling sex, romance and
female independence. Hollywood scandals were common.
Conservative Americans feared threat to traditional values
1930 Hays Code regulated morality in films: no screen nudity,
lengthy kisses, or positive portrayal of adultery
Sport:
The 1920s were a ’golden age’ of sport: baseball, boxing, football, golf and tennis became nationwide crazes
Participation in sports increased as cities constructed swimming
pools, sports pitches, and stadia
COST: more disposable income & affordable tickets (econ. boom)
STARS: attraction of sports stars who became national celebrities
1 Jazz
RADIO: broadcasted sporting events to millions of listeners
Sports stars were idolized for their courage, heroism and strength
Stars like Babe Ruth (baseball), Jack Depmsey (boxing) rose from humble origins to become sporting heroes
Radio
Radio revolutionized entertainment by bringing music, sporting
events and celebrity news to a mass-audience
The first radio station KDKA was set up in 1920. By 1930 there
were more than 600 stations in the USA
