1920 America

Question 1

What is an economic boom?

Answer 1

When a country enters a period when the vast majority of businesses are doing well, sales are high, wages are increasing and unemployment is low.

Question 2

What was America’s policy of isolation?

Answer 2

This is when during WW1 America stayed out of war with foreign countries.

Question 3

How did the policy of isolation help contribute to the economic boom?

Answer 3

Staying out of the war meant they didn’t have to pay for equipment, food etc.

Question 4

How did WW1 benefit America?

Answer 4

• They were loaning other countries ( meaning they would get more back through interest).
• They became the world’s largest manufacturer as they supplied other countries with guns, chemicals, dyes and medicine.

Question 5

What is consumer society?

Answer 5

It is where people frequently buy new goods, often these are things that they do not necessarily need.

Question 6

How did the consumer society help cause an economic boom?

Answer 6

A demand for more goods meant there was a need for more products meaning more profit and more workers.

Question 7

What is an assembly line?

Answer 7

Goods made in stages/ bit by bit by different people.

Question 8

What is mass production?

Answer 8

When there is a demand for more goods.

Question 9

What did the government do to help the economy boom?

Answer 9

Isolation policy

Fordney McCumber Tariff act 1922 - tax on foreign goods

Question 10

What is the cycle of prosperity?

Answer 10

Mass production of cheaper products and hire purchase plans to help people afford to buy more goods.

Question 11

How did purchase plans cause an economic boom?

Answer 11

People bought more things they couldn’t realistically afford but just paid it back over time and on top of that pay interest.

Question 12

What was a hire purchase plan?

Answer 12

When people could pay in small installments.

Question 13

How did advertisements help cause an economic boom?

Answer 13

It drove the need to buy new goods and made people want to keep up with others, therefore buying more things.

Question 14

Which group of people benefited from the economic boom?

Answer 14

Factory owners and business owners.

Question 15

Which people did not benefit from the economic boom?

Answer 15

Native Americans- their land was taken from them and were forced to places where plantation was bad.
African Americans- There was still a lot of racism and there weren’t a lot of job opportunities.
Immigrants- 1924 an act that only allowed 150,000 immigrants a year.

Question 16

How did ordinary people help contribute to an economic boom?

Answer 16

They put a lot of trust in the market and bought loads of things they did not need.

Question 17

What was the black renaissance?

Answer 17

A time of cultural revival for AA music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theatre and politics in Harlem, Manhattan.

Question 18

How significant was the popularity of Jazz music in the 1920s?

Answer 18

Very significant as it showcased black talent and let black people make money from it.

Question 19

What new opportunities did women have in the 1920s?

Answer 19

They were allowed to work 25% more women were working. 10.5 million in 1920.
They were allowed to smoke (even though it was looked down upon)
They could have un-chaperoned visits with men

Question 20

What evidence was there that women did not really benefit in the 1920s?

Answer 20

Even though women could work they were paid a lot less than men meaning they couldn’t live on their own and still had to depend on men. This also only applied to white middle-class working women.

Question 21

How much did cinema change in 1920?

Answer 21

There were 35 million to 100 million people in cinemas a week.

Question 22

What were some crazes in 1920 America?

Answer 22

Pole sitting
Jazz
cinemas

Question 23

What was the prohibition?

Answer 23

The prohibition was a ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933.

Question 24

Who introduced the prohibition and why?

Answer 24

It was introduced by Hoover who was the president at the time. It was done to lower the crime and immorality rate.

Question 25

Why was the prohibition so hard to enforce?

Answer 25

1. There was a lot of coast to cover and watch over. 18,600 miles to be exact. There was at first 1,500 officers then 3000 but was still too little.
2. Some officers were corrupt and accepted bribe.
3. It caused even more crime than before since purchasing alcohol was a crime.
4. 10 times more people died from alcohol poisoning.

Question 26

What did the prohibition reveal about organised crime?

Answer 26

That it was out of hand. It also revealed how powerful these gang leaders were.

Question 27

How do we know Al Capone was dangerous?

Answer 27

1. He killed 227 rival gang members in 4 years.
2. He made 2 million a week from illegal gambling dens and speakeasies each week.
3. He was able to bribe people of very high authority

Question 28

How did Al Capone escape most of his crimes?

Answer 28

Through bribing people and intimidating them.

Question 29

how were immigrants treated in the 1920s?

Answer 29

Very badly as they were accused of stealing jobs.

Question 30

Who were the KKK and what did they do?

Answer 30

The Klu Klux Klan are a group of people that hated black people for taking their jobs for lower prices and were violent. They killed, raped, kidnapped, lynched and did much more to black people and other minorities.

Question 31

How many people were in the KKK at the start of 1920?

Answer 31

5 million

Question 32

How many people were in the KKK at the end of 1925 and why?

Answer 32

500,000 because of a high-profile scandal of a KKK leader was arrested because of the rape and murder of a young black girl.

Question 33

What is a communist?

Answer 33

Someone who believes in extreme equality, They think nobody should own anything and everybody should be paid the same.

Question 34

Why was America afraid of communism?

Answer 34

It was becoming popular in Russia and led to terrorist attacks.

Question 35

What did a couple of communists do in 1920?

Answer 35

They bombed wall street and killed 10 people,

Question 36

What were palmer raids?

Answer 36

Where 6000 suspected communist were arrested,

Question 37

What was the Sacco and Vanzetti case?

Answer 37

Where Italians were accused of murder because they were carrying guns even though it was legal and were accused of being communist and executed. They also could not speak english

Question 38

What did America do to deal with the effect of the red scare?

Answer 38

red-baiting exposing people who were suspected communists.

The government set up HUAC to investigate communists