Main Features of the Boom Flashcards
(20 cards)
WW1+
+35% factory production
steel, natural resources, shipbuilding, consumer goods e.g. cigarettes, agriculture world’s 30% wheat 55% cotton increased prices and wages for farmers
WW1 -
europe eventually recovered agriculture industries and prices remained high making goods lesscompetitive
soldiers returned to work so many women lost wartime jobs
race riots 1920s
farmers which borrowed to expand farms couldn’t repay as less exports now needed
Consumerism
Hire purchase 1919 Alfred Sloan - buy now pay later attitude. pay in instalments. 75% cars 50% electronics paid by hire purchase
Advertising - aided by increasing amounts of people with radios. $2 billion a year spent on ads. increased will to buy.
Competition among brands - more brands started to show up and people encouraged to choose and buy from different brands
All possible because secure jobs and more people with disposable income
Stock Market +
1927-29 1.5 million in stock market
500k shares 1925 1127k shares 1929
‘Buying on the margin’ (gambling)
confidence+ stock prices+
Leisure Industry
more money more time
1929: $1.8 billion more on leisure than 10 years ago
Cinema: $2 bil per year
40 mil in 1924 -> more than 2x 1929.
films in colour 1922
films with sound 1927
animated films 1928
celebrities+
Jazz and Dance: 1920s Jazz age. new dances
Sport: 300k watch baseball world series.
sports stars: Babe Ruth(baseball) Jack Dempsey(boxing)
Inventions
Conveyor Belt Ford 1920s
Model T every 10 seconds price of Ford -70%
8mil to 23mil cars 1920-29
production of cars helped other industries as well as components needed
60,000 radios1920 -> 10mil 1929
helps with ads, sports commentary, music
Role of Women 1920s
- 20% of workforce during wartime some in less traditional women’s jobs
- expected to leave jobs after marriage
- allow votes 1920 onwards
- expected to be in the home
- birth rates- divorce rates+
- helped with electrical household appliances so more time
Flappers
challenged traditional image of women
short hair, makeup , short skirts
smoked, danced, go out without chaperones
new role models for younger generation eg Clara Bow
+independence +focus on appearance +sex before marriage
Overproduction and Mechanisation
price of goods fell because supply>demand. 1/3 of workforce in agriculture to 1/5 because of pay cuts and mechanisation
new materials replaced old industry e.g. rayon replace cotton
mechanisation = greater production e.g. tractors
tariffs = protectionist policies on imports and exports making less competition for US goods
new technology eg new fertilisers
Europe no longer needed so much US help after 1922
Old vs New industries
Rayon > cotton
Bakelite
Oil,electricity > coal
Railway industry going down
Worker’s problems
wages-
jobs lost -25% coal miners
unstable employment: 72% unemployed at some point Muncie Indiana
Immigration Laws
Emergency Quota Act 1921 limits immigration from non west 3% pop. of number of nation’s people already living in US 357,000 max immigrants/year
National Origins Act 2% 164,000 max
1.2 million 1914 - 280k 1929
Red Scare
Causes:
1917 Russian Revolution
east and south europe has communism and anarchism
1919 unrest and strikes.
Mail Bombings of politicians - 1919
Consequences:
Palmer Raids 1919 after mail bombings General Intelligence Division (FBI) set up to spy on and arrest ‘radical’ groups
1000s of arrests in bad conditions 600 radicals deported
Sacco and Vanzetti
accused of armed robbery in Braintree, Massachusetts
guilty: bullet believed to be one from Sacco’s gun. Vanzetti had been convicted of armed robbery before. They lied. Eyewitnesses found that accused them.
Innocent: evidence tampered with and inconclusive evidence from experts. They had good reputation both from their boss and two policemen. Lied because they thought it was about red scare bombings. both had alibis
found guilty and electrocuted. trial unfair? Judge anti-anarchist. Because of they were immigrants and had a different political background.
Black Americans
20s America under Jim Crow Laws.
Segregation, Lynchings, Revival of KKK
Migration to the North and live in ghettos
Race riots
poor job opportunities, job security, education, facilities, no vote
Revival of KKK
1871 shut down but1915 Birth of a Nation revived
WASPs superior and restrict immigration
persecute blacks and protect white supremacy
Methods: Violence, Control of Education, Protest, Economic boycotts
membership declined 1925 after a leader was convicted of rape and murder which diminished membership
Monkey Trial
Fundamentalists and Evangelists opposed the theory of evolution
Anti-evolution league set up rejects evolution and makes state pass Butler act(people who are caught teaching evolution fined $500)
provoked modernist backlash and convinced John Scopes to teach it 1925
The lawyers of Scopes and the Anti-evolution league debated ideas but Scopes was still fined
didn’t actually do anything but was nationally on radio so attention
Prohibition +
1919 18th amendment prohibition
Dries: WCTU, Anti Saloon League
Alcohol led to unemployment, wasted wages, domestic violence, less efficiency in jobs, grain could be used to feed army in WW1.
Health++ 20%less liver disease
quite popular
enforced by prohibition agents
Prohibition -
Many involved in alcohol business lost jobs breweries, farmers, saloons
$11B Taxes on alcohol made govt money and could no longer do so
Increased smuggling, people drunk industrial/medicinal alcohol instead, speakeasies, moonshine
People willing to break the law to drink
prohibition enforcement dept not given enough money. bribed by people to not catch them eg gangs
Organised crime increased because ordinary people still wanted to drink joining gangs
Al Capone
Violent Gang Leader in Chicago
seized alcohol and tried killing other gang leaders
arrested because of tax evasion
