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History > America 1920s > Flashcards

America 1920s Flashcards

1
Q

Economic Boom

A

A period of time in the 1920s when America saw an increase in production, sales and wages
(A period of prosperity)

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2
Q

Causes of the economic boom

A

Industrial Strength - Rich in natural resources (steel, coal and textiles) = factories = goods to sell (oil motor cars, telephones and electric lighting) + agriculture was efficient and most productive

WW1- sold weapons and foodstuffs to Britain + joined war late so weren’t stripped of resources; took over European trade aground the world : outstripped Germany of chemical products

Republican policies - Laissez Faire + little tax + tariffs to boost American economy

Market for consumer goods (instalments) - advertisements encouraged to buy products + mail order made buying goods easier + Hire Purchase

Stocks and shares - 1000s bought these

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3
Q

Cycle of prosperity

A
  1. More money available to spend on consumer goods
  2. Increased demands for consumer goods
  3. Increased production
  4. Increased employment
    Back to 1.
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4
Q

Republicans

A

Right wing political party who believe in competition and usually appeal to middle and upper classes
Republican Presidents : Warren Harding (1921 - 23)
Calvin Coolidge (1923 - 29)
Herbert Hoover (1929 - 33)

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5
Q

Republican policies

A

Isolationism - keep out of foreing affairs to avoid imports and therefore allow Americans to keep their money

Taxes - taxed as little as possible (esp the rich) = keep money to spend on goods and boost businesses

Laissez faire - left businesses to do their own thing = businessmen could come up with their own products to make money

Tariffs - Emergency Tariff + Fordney McCumber Tariff

Stocks and shares

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6
Q

The two tariffs of the 1920s

A

1) Emergency Tariff May 1921 - increased the tax duty on imports by an average of 40%

2) Fordney - McCumber Tariff 1922 - meant tariffs on imported goods were the highest that they’d ever been

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7
Q

5 entertainment industries

A

Sports
Music
Movies -
Cartoons and comics
Radio

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8
Q

People unable to join in with the flapper lifestyle

A

Black people
Immigrants
Impoverished
Women in the Bible Belt

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9
Q

People who did not benefit from the economic boom

A

African Americans
Immigrants
The lower class
Bible Belt (south)
Old industry workers

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10
Q

Immigrant

A

A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country

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11
Q

Why were immigrants treated poorly

A

Americans favoured WASPs
And they favoured isolationism
Feared communism

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12
Q

Quotas on immigration

A

1921 Immigration Quota Act : immigrants were allowed in proportion to the number of people of the same nationality who had been in America in 1910. The figure was set at 3%

1924 National Origins Act : This is reduced to 2% of the 1890 census. More groups from Northern Europe (whiter people) allowed to enter.

1929 - Only 150,000 immigrants allowed in. No Asians.

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13
Q

Prohibition

A

The prevention by law of the manufacture and sale of alcohol
- Jan 6th 1920 - Volstead Act (18th Amendment)

They wanted to stop crime and improve behaviour

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14
Q

Organised Crime

A

Criminal activities that are planned and controlled by powerful groups and carried out on a large scale.

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15
Q

Civil Rights

A

The rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality

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16
Q

Segregation

A

The action of setting someone or something apart from others

17
Q

White supremacy

A

The belief that the white race is inherently superior to other races

18
Q

Race Relations

A

Relations between members or communities of different races within 1 country

19
Q

Why was Segregation allowed ?

A

Plessy v Ferguson law passed in May 1896

20
Q

What were the Jim Crow laws ?

A

The nickname given to segregation laws.
Crow : skin colour & supposed ‘scavenger’ behaviour

21
Q

What happened to people who didn’t follow the Jim Crow laws?

A

They were
Beaten
Bombed
Lynched
Imprisoned

22
Q

Simple timeline of black history

A

Jan 1863 - Emancipation Proclamation: slaves are freed
Dec 1865 - Thirteenth amendment : slavery is abolished
1866 - KKK is formed
July 1868 - Fourteenth amendment : American citizenship granted to former slaves
May 1896 - Plessy v Ferguson : supreme court insist segregation is legal
May 1909 - 1st campaign for civil rights : NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of coloured People formed
1914 - 1919 - 500,000 black southerners move to the North during the great migration
1917 - 1918 - 200,000 Black Americans fight during WW1

23
Q

Negatives of Republican Policies

A

1) No foreign competition = industries and businesses didn’t improve services or products

2) Many other countries imposed high tariffs on American goods = damaged global economy

3) High prices and taxes meant life remained extremely difficult for the poor

24
Q

‘Roaring 20s’

A

Growing prosperity = more money to spend on goods

Avg. working week went from 47.4 hours to 44.2 hours

Avg. wages grew by 11%

25
Q

Entertainment - MOVIES

A
  • Founding of Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer : leading producer of films in the 1920s
  • Silent film stars (Buster Keaton, Charlie, Chaplin, Clara Bow) - later ‘talkies’ became popular
  • Movies showed - newsreels, political leaders = country stayed connected to happenings in the country.
  • Hollywood developed into a major film industry
26
Q

Entertainment - SPORT

A
  • High school and junior high school students could play sports they previously couldn’t
  • Golf introduced to middle class
  • Motor Sports : Henry Seagrave
  • Baseball lots of big money sports teams like : New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox
27
Q

Entertainment - MUSIC

A
  • Jazz was very popular : brought by black people from the countryside
  • Famous Black musicians :
    Louis Armstrong : Famous Album = West End Blues

Duke Ellington : composed 1000s of songs known worldwide, America’s greatest composer

Bessie Smith : ‘Blues Empress’, her first recording sold 2 million copies in the first year

28
Q

Entertainment - RADIO

A

National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC)
Columbia Broadcast System (CBS) : transmitted signals nationwide reaching nearly every area of the US

  • Allowed advertising to develop as well as things like the Billboard Music Charts
  • Allowed public to hear the same news stories and programmes
  • End of 1922 = 508 licensed radio stations in America
29
Q

Entertainment- BOOKS, MAGAZINES AND CARTOONS

A
  • Winnie the Pooh and Betty Boop = most well known in 20s
  • Book of the Month Club and the Literary Guild
  • Writers strayed from religion and previous Victorian image of decency = wrote frankly and freely
  • Famous writers = T.S Elliot, Robert Frost, F.Scott Fitzgerald and many post war young writers
30
Q

Modern Women in 1920s

A
  • Known as ‘flappers’
  • Went out alone with men and smoked and drank in public
  • Most were urban women
  • Took on jobs (10 million by 1929)
31
Q

Negative reactions to Flapper Girls

A
  • Poor women couldn’t afford it
  • Black women didn’t benefit
  • Bible Belt women didn’t adopt or like this new lifestyle
  • Elders didn’t like it
32
Q

What was done to prevent immigration?

A

Over 40 million people moved to the US between 1850 and 1914 and they introduced :
- Literacy tests = checked they could speak basic English
- Quotas
In order to prevent immigration

33
Q

How did PROHIBITION fuel Organised Crime?

A
  • Alcohol was smuggled into the country
  • Illegal bars called ‘speakeasies’ were set up
  • Valentines Day massacre
  • Al Capone became rich through bribery and violence
  • Bootleggers : smugglers for gangsters
  • Moonshine = poisonous as it was illegally manufactured
34
Q

Fails and Successes of Prohibition

A

Negatives:
- difficult to enforce
- alcohol related crimes increased
- officials took bribes (corruption)
- Repealed by Roosevelt in 1933

Positives
- alcohol consumption fell by about 30%

35
Q

KKK

A
  • WASPs
  • Strong in the south
  • Grew rapidly in response industrialisation, immigration and anti - Catholicism
  • We’re all over America
36
Q

Harlem Renaissance

A

White people began to accept more black cultural ideas like jazz and other black related things like architecture, poets, painters.

37
Q

Henry Ford and Ford T Model

A

Ford T Model was significant in introducing mass production and brought a rise in new technology
- Used a moving assembly line he was able to build the at 1/10th the time it took to build other vehicles by hand
- Workers were paid good wages despite reduced hours
- Production of Model A continued for 19 years (1908 - 1928) and 50 million had been made by 1928
- Appealed to customers as they were fun and adaptive to different environments

38
Q

Al Capone

A
  • Was an immigrant from Italy
  • Earned $100,000 a year from beer sales alone
  • Helped the poor earn money by themselves
  • Owned a soup kitchen to feed the homeless

History (14 decks)

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