The USA, 1919-1941

1. The USA, 1919-1941

2. What was the “boom”? 9 June 2014

3. 1 SOURCE Sales of consumer goods, 1915–30. Overall, the output of American industry doubled in the 1920s.

4. 2 SOURCE Skyscrapers being built in New York City. There was more building being done in the boom years of the 1920s than at any time in the history of the USA.

5. 3 SOURCE The car made it possible for more Americans to live in their own houses in the suburbs on the edge of towns. For example, Queens outside New York doubled in size in the 1920s. Grosse Point Park outside Detroit grew by 700 per cent.

6. 4 SOURCE Workers on the government’s road-building programme. The Federal Road Act of 1916 began a period of intense road building all over the country. Road building employed more people than any other industry in the USA for the next ten years. During the 1920s the total extent of roads in the USA doubled.

7. 5 SOURCE The new roads gave rise to a new truck industry. In 1919 there were 1 million trucks in the USA. By 1929 there were 3.5 million.

8. 6 SOURCE Silk stockings had once been a luxury item reserved for the rich. In 1900 only 12,000 pairs had been sold. In the 1920s rayon was invented which was a cheaper substitute for silk. In 1930, 300 million pairs of stockings were sold to a female population of around 100 million.

9. 8 SOURCE Workers erecting electricity pylons. In 1918 only a few homes had electricity. By 1929 almost all urban homes had it, although not many farms were on the electricity supply grid.

10. 7 SOURCE A passenger aircraft in 1927. There were virtually no civilian airlines in 1918. By 1930 the new aircraft companies flew 162,000 flights a year.

11. 9 SOURCE The front cover of a mail order catalogue from 1927.

12. Why was there an economic boom in the 1920s? 10 June 2014

13. Lesson Objectives By the end of the lesson, we will have learned: • 5 reasons America’s economy boomed in the 1920s • how each of these reasons contributed to an economic boom • potential risks in the economy caused by the boom

14. The USA’s main centres of population and main natural resources around 1920.

15. Industrial Strength The USA was a vast country, rich in natural resources, with a growing population. It didn’t need to import many raw materials, and it didn’t need to export all its goods. The home market was large and was growing. Ever since the 1860s and 1870s, American industry had been growing vigorously. By the time of the First World War, the USA led the world in most areas of industry. It had massive steel, coal and textile industries. It was the leading oil producer. It was foremost in developing new technology such as motor cars, telephones and electric lighting. Its newer industries such as chemicals were growing fast. Its new film industry already led the world. The managers of these industries were increasingly skilled and professional, and they were selling more and more of their products not just in the USA but in Europe, Latin America and the Far East. American agriculture had become the most efficient and productive in the world. In fact, farmers had become so successful that they were producing more than they could sell, which was a very serious problem. In 1914, however, most Americans would have confidently stated that American agriculture and industry were going from strength to strength.

16. The First World War The Americans tried hard to stay out of the fighting in the First World War. But throughout the war they lent money to the Allies, and sold arms and munitions to Britain and France. They sold massive amounts of foodstuffs as well. This one-way trade gave American industry a real boost. In addition, while the European powers slugged it out in France, the Americans were able to take over Europe’s trade around the world. American exports to the areas controlled by European colonial powers increased during the war. There were other benefits as well. Before the war Germany had had one of the world’s most successful chemicals industries. The war stopped it in its tracks. By the end of the war the USA had far outstripped Germany in the supply of chemical products. Explosives manufacture during the war also stimulated a range of by-products which became new American industries in their own right. Plastics and other new materials were produced. Historians have called the growth and change at this time the USA’s second industrial revolution. The war actually helped rather than hindered the ‘revolution’. When the USA joined the fighting it was not in the war long enough for the war to drain American resources in the way it drained Europe’s. There was a downturn in the USA when war industries readjusted to peacetime, but it was only a blip. By 1922 the American economy was growing fast once again.

17. Republican Policies A third factor behind the boom was the policies of the Republican Party. From 1920 to 1932 all the US presidents were Republican, and Republicans also dominated Congress. Here are some of their beliefs. 1 Laissez-faire Republicans believed that government should interfere as little as possible in the everyday lives of the people. This attitude is called ‘laissez-faire’. In their view, the job of the President was to leave the businessman alone – to do his job. That was where prosperity came from. 2 Tariffs The Republicans believed in import tariffs which made it expensive to import foreign goods. For example, in 1922 Harding introduce the Fordney–McCumber tariff which made imported food expensive in the USA. These tariffs protected businesses against foreign competition and allowed American companies to grow even more rapidly. The USA also began closing its borders to foreign immigrants.

18. Republican Policies (cont’d) 3 Low taxation The Republicans kept taxation as low as possible. This brought some benefits to ordinary working people, but it brought even more to the very wealthy. The Republican thinking was that if people kept their own money, they would spend it on American goods and wealthy people would reinvest their money in industries. 4 Trusts The Republicans also allowed the development of trusts. These were huge super-corporations, which dominated industry. Woodrow Wilson and the Democrats had fought against trusts because they believed it was unhealthy for men such as Carnegie (steel) and Rockefeller (oil) to have almost complete control of one vital sector of industry. The Republicans allowed the trusts to do what they wanted, believing that the ‘captains of industry’ knew better than politicians did regarding what was good for the USA.

19. Republican Policies (cont’d) 3 Low taxation The Republicans kept taxation as low as possible. This brought some benefits to ordinary working people, but it brought even more to the very wealthy. The Republican thinking was that if people kept their own money, they would spend it on American goods and wealthy people would reinvest their money in industries. 4 Trusts The Republicans also allowed the development of trusts. These were huge super-corporations, which dominated industry. Woodrow Wilson and the Democrats had fought against trusts because they believed it was unhealthy for men such as Carnegie (steel) and Rockefeller (oil) to have almost complete control of one vital sector of industry. The Republicans allowed the trusts to do what they wanted, believing that the ‘captains of industry’ knew better than politicians did regarding what was good for the USA.

20. New Industries, New Methods Through the 1920s new industries and new methods of production were developed in the USA. The country was able to exploit its vast resources of raw materials to produce steel, chemicals, glass and machinery. These products became the foundation of an enormous boom in consumer goods. Telephones, radios, vacuum cleaners and washing machines were mass-produced on a vast scale, making them cheaper so more people could buy them. New electrical companies such as Hoover became household names. They used the latest, most efficient techniques proposed by the ‘Industrial Efficiency Movement’. At the same time, the big industries used sophisticated sales and marketing techniques to get people to buy their goods. Mass nationwide advertising had been used for the first time in the USA during the war to get Americans to support the war effort. Many of the advertisers who had learned their skills in wartime propaganda now set up agencies to sell cars, cigarettes, clothing and other consumer items. Poster advertisements, radio advertisements and travelling salesmen encouraged Americans to spend. Even if they did not have the money, people could borrow it easily. Or they could take advantage of the new ‘Buy now, pay later’ hire purchase schemes. Eight out of ten radios and six out of ten cars were bought on credit.

21. New Industries, New Methods (cont’d) The most important of these new booming industries was the motor-car industry. The motor car had only been developed in the 1890s. The first cars were built by blacksmiths and other skilled craftsmen. They took a long time to make and were very expensive. In 1900 only 4000 cars were made. Car production was revolutionised by Henry Ford. In 1913 he set up the first moving production line in the world, in a giant shed in Detroit. Each worker on the line had one or two small jobs to do as the skeleton of the car moved past him. At the beginning of the line, a skeleton car went in; at the end of the line was a new car. The most famous of these was the Model T. More than 15 million were produced between 1908 and 1925. In 1927 they came off the production line at a rate of one every ten seconds. In 1929, 4.8 million cars were made.

22. New Industries, New Methods (cont’d) By the end of the 1920s the motor industry was the USA’s biggest industry. As well as employing hundreds of thousands of workers directly, it also kept workers in other industries in employment. Glass, leather, steel and rubber were all required to build the new vehicles. Automobiles used up 75 per cent of US glass production in the 1920s! Petrol was needed to run them. And a massive army of labourers was busily building roads throughout the country for these cars to drive on. In fact, road construction was the biggest single employer in the 1920s. Owning a car was not just a rich person’s privilege, as it was in Europe. There was one car to five people in the USA compared with one to 43 in Britain, and one to 7000 in Russia. The car made it possible for people to buy a house in the suburbs, which further boosted house building. It also stimulated the growth of hundreds of other smaller businesses, ranging from hot dog stands and advertising bill boards to petrol stations and holiday resorts.

23. A State of Mind One thing that runs through all the factors you have looked at so far is an attitude or a state of mind. Most Americans believed that they had a right to ‘prosperity’. For many it was a main aim in life to have a nice house, a good job and plenty to eat, and for their home to be filled with the latest consumer goods. Consuming more and more was seen as part of being American. In earlier decades, thrift (being careful with money and saving ‘for a rainy day’) had been seen as a good quality. In the 1920s this was replaced by a belief that spending money was a better quality.

24. Applying your knowledge “Without the new automobile industry, the prosperity of the 1920s would not have been possible.” How far do you agree with this statement?

25. Module 3 Tests Enter your marks in your tracker, along with the feedback for improvement I’ve given you for each question. We’ve had 3 tests so far. Are you making progress?Why/why not? If you’ve achieved below your target grade, you must re-do 1-3 questions and re-submit on Friday to improve your grade.

26. Why was there an economic boom in America in the 1920s? 10 June 2014

27. Applying your knowledge “Without the new automobile industry, the prosperity of the 1920s would not have been possible.” How far do you agree with this statement?

28. “Without the new automobile industry, the prosperity of the 1920s would not have been possible.” How far do you agree with this statement? Paragraph 1: Agree with the statement Sentence 1:Without the new automobile industry, the prosperity of the 1920s would not have been possible. Sentences 2 (Point 1): One reason for this is that… (give a reason the automobile industry helped the USA’s economy in the 1920s). Sentences 3-4 (Evidence 1): For example, Source X shows that…(give specific source detail that supports your point). Sentences 5-7 (Explanation 1): This shows that the new automobile industry had an important role in creating the prosperity of the 1920s because… (explain how this led to prosperity in the 1920s). Sentences 8-10 (Evaluation 1): At the time… (this is where you evaluate the source you have used in historical context. Write about the significance of the source during the time we’re studying, not what it would mean today).

29. “Without the new automobile industry, the prosperity of the 1920s would not have been possible.” How far do you agree with this statement? Paragraph 1: Agree with the statement Sentence 1:Without the new automobile industry, the prosperity of the 1920s would not have been possible. Sentences 2 (Point 1): One reason for this is that… (give a reason the automobile industry helped the USA’s economy in the 1920s). Sentences 3-4 (Evidence 1): For example, Source X shows that…(give specific source detail that supports your point). Sentences 5-7 (Explanation 1): This shows that the new automobile industry had an important role in creating the prosperity of the 1920s because… (explain how this led to prosperity in the 1920s). Sentences 8-10 (Evaluation 1): At the time… (this is where you evaluate the source you have used in historical context. Write about the significance of the source during the time we’re studying, not what it would mean today). Paragraph 2: Disagree with the statement Sentence 1: On the other hand, some would argue that even without the new automobile industry, the prosperity of the 1920s would have still been possible. One reason for this is that the Republican government put policies in place that made America boom. (You can use any other reason here). Sentences 2 (Point 1): One reason for this is that… (give reason that supports your point). Sentences 3-4 (Evidence 1): For example, Source X shows that…(give specific source detail that supports your point). (repeat same structure as in paragraph 1)

30. Evaluating Coursework 17 March 2014

31. Lesson Objectives By the end of the lesson, we will have learned: • how our CAs will be assessed (graded) • how to use the mark-scheme to peer and self-assess our own coursework

32. Mark Scheme Bands 1-5 (5=highest) Graded /50 Aiming for higher than target grade

33. Peer Editing • Underline spelling errors and put an “sp” in margin or nearby • Circle capitalisation issues (circle letter only) • Put a vertical line in the margin beside sentences that are unclear and write “unclear” in the margin

34. Peer Marking • What are the main points the mark scheme is looking for? When you find good examples of these in the essay, label them in the margin and put a L1-L5 beside it. Must have: • Contextual knowledge (dates, facts, key words) • Explanations of relationships between causes/factors • Sources as evidence • Evaluation of sources • Clear line of argument throughout

35. Peer Feedback WWW: What’s the best part about their essay? EBI: What’s the biggest thing they’re missing or need to make better? (Hint: do they have any Band 1s, 2s or 3s?) Give them at least one WWW and 2 EBI