Limits to prosperity in 1920's America

Question 1

Where was the wealth of the 1920s concentrated?

Answer 1

Industrial North and Far West

Question 2

What % of families lived on less than $2,000 a year?

Answer 2

60%

Question 3

What were the causes of drop in demand for agricultural goods?

Answer 3

Prohibition there was less need for grains to make alcohol,

end of WW1 brought a drop in need for goods

Increase use of synthetic fibres instead of cotton

Question 4

What were the consequences of drop in demand?

Answer 4

Overproduction: Farmers continued to produce the same amount, which led to huge wastage and drop in prices - so farmers made huge income losses

Question 5

How did wheat prices fall?

Answer 5

From $2.5 to $1 per bushel

Question 6

How did farms get more efficient and why did this cause problems?

Answer 6

Mechanisation: More crops could be produced on fewer acres, 13 million acres were taken out of production during the 1920s meaning many people lost jobs as there was less need for sharecroppers and other farmers.

Less need for animals like horses, so less need for animal food to be grown.

Question 7

What % of farmers operated at a loss?

Answer 7

66%

Question 8

What was the Agricultural Credits Act 1923? What did it aim to do?

Answer 8

Small scale farmers were going bankrupt.
The Act funded 12 Credit banks to fund cooperatives - with the idea that small farms would join together.
However, this was a loan - which small scale farmers could not pay back - so big farms benefitted instead.

Question 9

What rate of farms were foreclosed by 1926?

Answer 9

17.4 farms per 1,000

Question 10

What were agricultural businesses?

Answer 10

Mass production/ harvesting of one big crop to make a profit.
Big farms or enterprises would be well financed and produce cereals and fruit on large scale.

Question 11

How many women were in high paid skilled careers in the 1920s?

Answer 11

150 dentists
Less than 100 accountants
Less than 2% of judges or lawyers

Question 12

What were the limits to female political participation?

Answer 12

1920 women got the vote, but generally voted in line with their husbands
145 women in state legislatures
Only 2 women out of 435 in House of Representatives

Question 13

What sort of jobs did the majority of women have?

Answer 13

Low-paid menial jobs, 700,000 domestic servants

Question 14

What happened to women’s education?

Answer 14

Those receiving college education fell by 5%

Question 15

What was the reality of women’s liberation during the 1920s?

Answer 15

Although flappers were seen as fun loving and liberal women, they enforced the stereotype that women could not be taken seriously in career or politics.

Many women were expected to give up work when they got married and look after their home and family.

Question 16

What % of the US population were black and where did the majority live?

Answer 16

10% of total population, 85% lived in the rural deprived South

Question 17

What was northern migration?

Answer 17

Many black Americans moved to northern industrial cities for better opportunities

Question 18

What was the reality of northern migration?

Answer 18

Ghettoisation, many black Americans ended up living in poor and overcrowded conditions, such as Harlem in New York whose population grew to 165,000 by 1930

Question 19

What was the role of sharecroppers?

Answer 19

Farmers allow tenant farmers to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop.

Many black American families after the Civil War (1860s) did not have enough wealth to own their own farms, so many became sharecroppers working on the farms of white farmers.

Many were living close to subsistence during the 1920s.