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1920’S AMERICAThe Boom

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THE BOOMWhy was there a ‘Boom?’

Key Features of the Boom

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WHY WAS THERE A ‘BOOM?’ Long Term:

… The US had lots of raw materials like coal, iron and oil

… US industry was already successful

… There was a large internal market to sell to because of the large population

Short Term:

… WW1 allowed the US industry to expand

The US supplied many goods to Europe

The US took over important industries like chemicals

The US trade took over world markets

The US investors had money from European loans to spend on US industry

… The Fordney-McCumber tariff protected US industry

Factors During the 1920’s:

… There was new selling techniques

… There was no restriction on business as Republicans were in charge

… ‘Taylorism’ was used. This is the use of mass production and assembly lines to make products cheaper. This was best used by Henry Ford on the Model-T car

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KEY FEATURES OF THE BOOM

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AMERICAN IDEAS AND FEARSProhibition

Left-wing Ideas

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PROHIBITION

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INTOLERANCE OF LEFT-WING IDEAS

Trade Union membership fell in the 1920’s

Ford banned his employees from joining trade unions

In some states it was illegal to teach Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

Socialist were harassed

Sacco and Vanzetti were Italian Anarchists accused of robbery

… They were executed in 1927 based on little evidence because of a bias judge

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WHO DIDN’T BENEFIT?Black Americans

Farmers

Others

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BLACK AMERICANS

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FARMERS

Farmers didn’t do well in the 1920’s

There was competition from Canada

Farmers did well during WW1 but European countries were growing their own food now that the war was over

Nearly all farmers were overproducing which made the price of food remain low

Foreigners couldn’t buy US food because high tariffs meant that they didn’t have any dollars to spend on food

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OTHERS

Wage Earners

… Profits rose by 80% but wages only rose by 8%

Unemployed

… There was never less than 2million unemployed

… But many had been skilled workers replaced by mechanisation

New Immigrants

… They got the worst jobs; casual work, low pay

Workers in Old Industries

… Wages were low and faced world competition like coal and textiles