America 1920-1973 Pack two Flashcards
What is a source?
A place, person or thing from which information can be taken.
What is primary evidence?
Primary evidence is evidence such as books, items, photographs etc.,which actually come from the time, we are studying.
What is secondary evidence?
Secondary evidence is evidence such as books, films, and copies of items which help us learn about the past but are not actually from that time.
Give two reasons posters are issued:
- To give information.
2. To persuade you to do something e.g. buy something or vote for somebody.
What is interpretation?
A person or a groups’ opinion of something or someone.
What is reliability?
Whether or not something is trustworthy.
What is CNOP?
Content
Nature
Origin
Purpose
When was the USA formed?
1787
How often is the President of the USA elected?
Every 4 years
What are the names of the two political parties in America?
Democrats and Republicans
What does Congress do?
Makes laws
Decides on taxation
Declares war or agrees peace
How many judges are there in the American Supreme Court?
9
What kind of political system would we describe the US as?
A democracy
What is an economic boom?
An economic boom is a rapid growth in a countries economy that leads to greater prosperity (wealth)
What were the 7 main reasons America had a boom in the 1920s?
- Tariffs
- WW1
- Natural resources
- Mass production
- Republican government policy
- Hire purchase and credit
- Shares
What was the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act of 1922?
This meant that companies bringing in and selling foreign made goods in the US had to pay high taxes.
This protected American industry. Eventually European countries retaliated and put up their own tariffs.
How did America benefit from WWI?
American Industry benefited from selling war goods to Britain and France (food, munitions). Money poured into the US.
Many countries borrowed money from America.
America took over the European overseas markets.
What natural resources did America have in the 1920s?
- Oil – Texas
- Coal – Kentucky
- Iron – Chicago
What is Mass Production?
Mass production is when a company produces large amounts of a product on an assembly line, making lots of products cheaply using low skilled workers.
What is an Assembly Line?
Each worker has his own task to do over and over again as the conveyor belt delivered the next product e.g. car in the production line.
What is Standardisation?
Standardisation means that all the goods produced are the same in the factory.
What were the benefits of Mass Production?
- Goods could be made much more quickly.
- Workers did not need to be as highly skilled so could be paid less.
- Goods were cheaper for the consumer to buy.
- It helped other industries to boom.
- A whole new advertising industry grew to sell the goods.
What was the policy of Laissez-Faire used by the Republicans?
They didn’t interfere in business or put any controls on financial institutions
What is Hire Purchase?
People paid a deposit and then paid off the rest in instalments.
What is a share?
A share is someone’s percentage of a business.
Name 4 methods of advertising used in the 1920s:
- TV
- Radio
- Cinema
- Billboards
- Magazines / newspapers
- Leaflets
- Blimps
What is a consumer?
A person who buys a product or uses a service.
What were the main forms of entertainment in the 1920s?
- Radio
- Cinema
- Sport
- Music
Which types of music became popular in the 1920s?
Jazz
Which sports were popular in the 1920s?
Baseball, American Football, Golf, Horse-riding and tennis.
Who did not benefit from the American boom?
- Farmers
- Industrial Workers
- Black people
- Immigrants
- 60% of the population remained below the poverty line
What percentage of the American population did African Americans make up in the 1920s?
40%
What does the term WASP mean?
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
How did tariffs affect farmers?
Made it hard to sell their goods abroad.
Who were the Ku Klux Klan
A racist white power organisation.
Why did workers in the coal industry suffer in the 1920s?
New forms of energy were more readily available and used e.g. oil, gas and electricity.
What was life like for women before the 1920s?
- Few rights
- Strict social rules
- Traditional roles – wife and mother
- No political power
- Education not a priority for them
How did WWI affect women?
Their roles changed
Their ideas of themselves changed
What year did women gain the vote in America?
1920
What is the definition of a ‘Flapper’?
A rebellious young woman who embraced the urban attitudes and fashions of the 1920s.
How could you recognise a ‘Flapper’?
- Short hair
- Short skirts / revealing clothing
- Smokes / drinks
- Rebellious attitude
- Make-up
- Party-goer
What was the Eighteenth Amendment?
Stated that, ‘the manufacture, sale or transport of intoxicating liquors within … the United States … is hereby prohibited’.
What was the Volstead Act?
This defined ‘intoxicating liquor’ as any liquid containing more than half a percent of alcohol.
Which groups wanted Prohibition in America in the 1920s?
- Women’s Temperance Groups
- Religious groups
- Employers
- Patriots
- Anti-Saloon League
What were speakeasies?
Illegal drinking dens.
What was ‘bootleg’ alcohol?
Illegally made and distributed alcohol.
Often stronger, could be dangerous and was unregulated for its content.
What is ‘moonshine’?
Illegal alcohol made in home- made stills.
How many speakeasies were there in New York alone?
32,000
How much did Al Capone make a year from his speakeasies?
About $60 million.
Why did Prohibition lead to corruption?
Police were bribed. Prohibition agents were poorly paid and there were not enough of them.
What is segregation?
Enforced separation of groups of people
What were the four main rights denied to black Americans in the 1920s?
- The right to vote
- The right to lead a dignified life
- Equal rights
- The opportunity to better themselves
Why was it difficult to stop the KKK?
- It was a secret organisation.
- Its members were anonymous.
- The Police ignored the serious crimes, they could not protect the victims and sometimes they took part in the crimes.
- The courts were friends of the Klan
- The politicians found it difficult to change attitudes and were scared of losing votes.
How many members did the KKK have by the mid 1920s?
Over 5 million
Who did the KKK discriminate against?
- Black people
- Roman Catholics
- Jews
- Mexicans
What is ‘lynching’?
Hanging a person without trial.
What were Jim Crow Laws?
A group of laws passed to discriminate against black Americans.
Why did immigrants travel to the USA in the first part of the 20th Century?
- Push and Pull factors
- America was seen as a classless society compared to the European class based societies.
- The American Dream
- America needed people and workers.
- Unemployment at home.
- Better wages in America.
- Freedom of religious practice.
- Escape from persecution e.g. Jews.
Why did America begin to go against immigration in the 1920s?
Fear for jobs and wages
Nationalism / Patriotism
Fear of new political ideas like Communism
How did the 1917 Immigration Law affect immigration?
This meant that all foreigners had to take literacy tests before they entered the country, preventing immigration from poorer countries.1917 Immigration law
What was the 1921 Immigration Quota Act?
Limited the maximum immigrants to 357, 000 and the number of people from one country could be no more than 3% of the number from that country already in the US.
What happened to the Immigration Quota Act in 1929?
The number of immigrants allowed was reduced to 150, 000 and no immigration from Asia.
What happened in 1929?
The Wall Street Crash
