America Boom

Question 1

What was America’s economy boomed in the early 20th century?

Answer 1

The Republican presidents adopted a laissez-faire policy but not everyone benefited from the prosperity.

Question 2

Causes of the economic boom ?

Answer 2

Advertising
Mass production
Hire purchase

Question 3

Republican Party ?

Answer 3

The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States; the other is its historic rival, the Democratic Party.

Question 4

Democratic Party ?

Answer 4

The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with its rival, the Republican Party.

Question 5

Example mass production ?

Answer 5

The car industry is the best example of mass production during the 1920s.

Question 6

Three big car manufactures ?

Answer 6

The three big car manufacturers were Ford, Chrysler and General Motors. They were major employers (7.1 per cent of all factory workers) and accounted for 12.7 per cent of revenue.

Question 7

Mass production ?

Answer 7

The advances meant goods were produced in huge numbers and therefore more cheaply. For example, the price of cars dropped from $940 in 1920 to $290 in 1929.

Question 8

Henry Ford ?

Answer 8

Henry Ford pioneered mass production techniques in the car industry. His aim was to produce affordable cars for the public by using new technology.

He was highly successful and created thousands of jobs. Ford’s River Rouge plant in Detroit, Michigan was the largest factory in the world. The workers earned $5 per day, which was double the normal rate.

Question 9

How many people in America owned a car?

Answer 9

By 1929, Americans owned 23 million cars. The best known was the Ford Model T car.

Question 10

Role of women ?

Answer 10

The changing role of women was a result of the work they did during the war.

Question 11

Number of women working ?

Answer 11

The number of working women increased by 25 per cent.

Question 12

What year could women vote ?

Answer 12

In 1920, all women were given the right to vote.

Question 13

What are flappers?

Answer 13

Flappers’ smoked in public, danced the new dances, and were sexually liberated.

Question 14

Women clothing ?

Answer 14

Women wore clothing more convenient for activity and stopped wearing long skirts and corsets.

Question 15

Were divorce easy or hard to get?

Answer 15

Divorce was made easier and the number of divorces doubled - women were not content just to stay at home and put up with bad husbands.

Question 16

Were women still housewives?

Answer 16

But most women were still housewives and were not as free as their men.

Question 17

Prohibition ?

Answer 17

On 16 January 1918, the Eighteenth Amendment to the USA’s Constitution made it illegal to manufacture, transport and sell alcohol in the USA.

Question 18

What was the aim of prohibition ?

Answer 18

The aim of Prohibition, also known as “The Noble Experiment”, was to stop the trade in alcohol (intoxicating liquor).

Question 19

Open door?

Answer 19

The Open Door

The purpose of the Open Door policy was to make immigration as easy as possible. There was a mixture of people living in America during this period.

The early immigrants
Native Americans
Black Americans
Eastern and southern Europeans
Hispanics
Asian people

Question 20

Why did people want to come?

Answer 20

A combination of push and pull factors made people immigrate to the USA. The push factors made people want to leave their own countries, and the pull factors attracted them to the USA.

Question 21

Immigration ?

Answer 21

The USA today is a multicultural society - this is largely due to the fact that a large number of people migrated there, mostly from Europe, in the early 1900s.