Roaring 20s Intro

The USA 1919 - 1941

The Big Picture

Read, don’t write

In the 1920s the USA was the richest and most powerful country in the world. Its industry was booming. Then in 1929 disaster struck. The Wall Street Crash plunged the United States into a deep economic depression – and the rest of the world followed it.

In the first section you will study American society in the 1920s. You will investigate:

Whether the economic boom in the 1920s was as widespread as it is sometimes made out to be.

How and why American society was changing in the 1920s.

In the second section you will explore:

The causes and consequences of the Wall Street Crash.

In the third section you will examine:

How successfully Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ dealt with the problems facing the USA in the 1930.

What was the USA like in the 1920s?

Isolationist USA

U-boats brought the USA into WWI, though Wilson claimed the need to ‘make the world safe for democracy’

US debated direction of foreign policy

Traditionalists wanted to return to past practice of not signing political alliances w/ European powers (economic expansion was alive and well, a separate issue)

Wilson and others believed US needed to engage with European countries through signing Treaty of Versailles & League of Nations charter to better secure peace (a means of US hegemonic control?)

The Argument

Isolationism:

300,000+ US soldiers casualties in WWI

US troops sent into Russia’s civil war

Businessmen and pacifists feared US would be main contributor of troops to League of Nation’s world police force

(G) Americans hated treaty

Moralists hated supporting (E) & (F) colonial system, especially after Wilson’s claim to be fighting for democracy

Engagement:

US’s power made engagement necessary,

Vacuum created by US political isolation would encourage more revolutions (Bolshevik Rev. in Russia just the beginning)

The Choice

1919: Wilson toured US to convince citizens to convince Congress to join League & sign treaty

Wilson had many political enemies

Americans unconvinced by Wilson

Election of 1920 gave Wilson his answer

1920 Election

(R) Warren Harding, staunch political isolationist, elected as president

Wanted US returned to ‘normalcy’ (political isolation from Europe, & focus on economic expansion)

US already economically most powerful country

Harding’s presidency saw beginning of 10 years of ‘boom’ times (rapid growth)

What was the ‘Boom’?

Let the good times roll! Sales of Consumer Goods 1915 - 1930 Overall, the output of American industry doubled in the 1920s Cars Radios Telephones Refrigerators 9 million 60,000 10 million For every one … 1919 1929 1929 1920 1915 1930 1929 1921 26 million 10 million 20 million There were 167

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. Gross Point Park outside Detroit grew by 700%

There was more building being done in the boom years of the 1920s than at any time in the history of the USA

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.

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.

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 around 100 million

There were virtually no civilian airlines in 1918. By 1930 the new aircraft companies flew 162,000 flights a year

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.

Sears Roebuck catalogues made purchasing nearly any item at all easier by ordering products through the mail. Even remote farm homesteads could order a victrola (‘talking machine’)

What was the boom?