Topic 1 - Boom and Crash

Question 1

Changes in industry

Answer 1

Mass production → Moving assembly lines
Henry Ford → 1,250,000 cars made each year
Price of Model T fell from $950 (1914) to $250 (1925)

Question 2

Changes in advertising

Answer 2

Advertisements targeted specific groups
‘Lucky Strike’ cigarettes targeted young women
Companies spent $3 billion each year

Question 3

Technological advances 1912-1929

Answer 3

Between 1912 and 1929, the number of electrical goods sold per year rose from 1.4 to 160 million

Question 4

The automobile

Answer 4

Number of cars → 7.5 to 27 million → led to increased road building

Question 5

Tax Reductions

Answer 5

1924, 1926 and 1928 tax cuts by the Government
Mellon gave a tax reduction of $3.5bn to large businesses
These favoured the wealthy

Question 6

Fewer industry regulations

Answer 6

Minimal government interference led to unfair practices
Labour rights unprotected → Children largely employed in Southern states with 56 hour weeks

Question 7

Advantageous foreign markets

Answer 7

Government encouraged foreign investment to enable technological advancements → United Fruit had a bigger budget in Costa Rica than its own government did

Question 8

High tariffs (1922)

Answer 8

1922 Fordney-McCumber Tariff → 38.5% tax on imported goods → made goods cheaper to buy in the US rather than abroad

Question 9

Changes for farmers

Answer 9

Agriculture during WW1 → high demand, prices rose by over 25% → Agriculture at the end of WW1 → falling demand, prices fell from $2.5 to $1 per bushel

Question 10

Reasons for declining agricultural demand

Answer 10

Prohibition → reduced demand for grain used in alcohol
Machinery → More could be produced with less land
High foreign tariffs → reduced demand for US produce

Question 11

Changes for black Americans

Answer 11

85% still lived in the poor South
Some moved up North to industrial cities like Chicago → faced discrimination in employment and housing
Population in Harlem up → 50,000 (1914) to 165,000 (1930)

Question 12

Unequal distribution of wealth

Answer 12

Per capita income in North was $921 and in the South $365
60% of families had incomes of less $2,000

Question 13

Overproduction

Answer 13

By 1920s more goods were produced than could be sold
Workers laid off → people couldn’t afford to buy goods
1920 → 80% of Americans lived close to subsistence

Question 14

Land speculation (Florida)

Answer 14

Florida became more accessible → land values soared and people invested in development
BUT demand & values fell → 1926 hurricane

Question 15

The Bull Market

Answer 15

Many bought shares on credit → if market collapsed left valueless but still have to pay off
Market unregulated → insider dealing (illegal selling)

Question 16

Weaknesses of the Banking System

Answer 16

1913 Federal Reserve System → Banks given power to monitor themselves → operated in own interests
30,000 small banks issued own currency, often collapsed

Question 17

Immigration laws

Answer 17

1921 Emergency Immigration Law → Limited immigration from European countries to 3% of nationals living in the US
1924 Johnson-Reed act → Banned immigration from Japan

Question 18

The Red Scare

Answer 18

Mitchell Palmer (Attorney General) warned of a communist revolution in the US
Threats of violent revolution were blamed on ‘new immigrants’ from southern and eastern Europe
In the ‘Palmer raids’, 6000 were arrested on suspicion

Question 19

The extent of communist support

Answer 19

Some commentators put communist membership as high as 600,000 while others put it at 100,000
Many confused industrial action with communism

Question 20

Beliefs and methods (KKK)

Answer 20

Advocated white supremacy
Rallies and marches
Committed acts of brutality, including murder

Question 21

Influence (KKK)

Answer 21

100,000 followers by 1921
50,000 marched on Washington in 1926

Question 22

Impact on black Americans (KKK)

Answer 22

Led to migration of Black Americans to the North
Extreme violence → sympathy for victims
Many joined separatist organisations (e.g. UNIA)

Question 23

Collapse of the KKK

Answer 23

By 1929, membership had fallen to 20,000
Leadership scandals → corruption and criminal charges
Many felt it had gone soft, with less focus on politics

Question 24

Changes in politics for women

Answer 24

19th Amendment → given right to vote in 1920
1928 → women held 145 seats on state legislators
Only 2 / 435 delegates in House of Representatives women

Question 25

Changes in employment for women

Answer 25

Film and fashion industry → though numbers were small
Plentiful opportunity in office work, clerks and typists
Rare to move to managerial positions → sacrifice family

Question 26

Women’s issues

Answer 26

American Birth Control League raised attention
Found government/conservative voices unsympathetic
1921 Sheppard Towner Act - federal aid for pregnant women

Question 27

Flappers

Answer 27

Media interest → liberated young women, shocked people
Attended public places unchaperoned, dancing, smoking
Confined to large towns/cities - temporary phase

Question 28

Support for prohibition

Answer 28

Women’s groups→ male drunkenness a problem
Big business → drunkenness in the workplace
Religious groups → alcohol is immoral

Question 29

Crime and gangsterism

Answer 29

Prohibition led to organised crime and gang wars
Al Capone → leading gangster in Chicago, made $70 million

Question 30

Successes of prohibition

Answer 30

Rural and small-town areas stayed ‘dry’
Fall in number of road deaths, better safety in workplace

Question 31

Failures of prohibition

Answer 31

Turned millions of people into criminals
Working class saw it as an attack on them

Question 32

The Jazz Age

Answer 32

Jazz became mainstream → heard on radio and records
Nightclubs attracted young people, especially ‘flappers’
Older people felt it was immoral due to Black culture

Question 33

The Harlem Renaissance

Answer 33

Harlem → Town in New York → explosion of culture
Nightclubs like the Cotton Club became very popular
Home of Black intellectuals → e.g. Fauset, a campaigner

Question 34

The New Negro

Answer 34

Linked with the Harlem Renaissance
Marcus Garvey → argued in favour of Black separatism and migration to the USA, opposed by the NAACP

Question 35

American literature

Answer 35

Became very popular → e.g. The Great Gatsby (Scott Fitzgerald) and The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway)

Question 36

Influence of radio

Answer 36

500 local stations in 1922 → led to rise of advertisement
50 million people listened to a boxing match in 1927
Spent on radio → $60 million (1923) vs $842 million (1929)

Question 37

Influence of cinema

Answer 37

‘Household names’ become a thing
1920s → Hollywood was the 4th largest investment in the US
10 million cinema goers each day, esp. with sound in 1927

Question 38

Moral corruption (cinema)

Answer 38

Growth in cinema → conservatives feared moral corruption
Sex scandals among stars led to a censorship

Question 39

Influence of sport

Answer 39

Mass spectator entertainment led to professionals becoming millionaires → Boxer Jack Dempsey made $10 million (career)
Baseball became widespread but remained segregated → led to creation of the Negro National Baseball League in 1920