1. what areas did most people live in 1920?
Where was most the oil
Where was most the coal?
Where was most the iron and gas?
Where was all the cattle? What does this tell you these areas were like?
Where are the towns?

2. America: the Land of hope and Glory!
Find out why their economy was
booming
you need to do some investigation work now…
You need to find out the exact reasons behind America’s rise
to the most powerful and richest country in the world
create a power point presentation which they need to explain
how the following factors helped the Boom in the USA in the
1920s:
New Industries
Republican policies
WWI
Industrial strength
People’s state of mind

3. Industrial Strength
 The USA is a very large country which fortunately has lots of natural
resources (oil, Coal, Iron, Gas, Farmland)
 as well as a large population which was growing fast (123 million by
1923)
 Most of the population were on the east and west coast living in the
cities earning high wages in the factories
 Town people had most money and were the biggest buyers of
manufactured goods
 USA did not need to import or export as they had everything they
needed in USA
 By WWI USA was biggest producer of oil and new inventions like
cars, telephones, and electrical lighting - these were key to the boom
 Had biggest film industry in the world – huge stars like Charlie Chaplin
 USA began to sell goods outside of the USA (Europe, far east, Latin
America) which brought in more profits for businessmen

4. WWI
 The USA lent money to the Allies during the war
 They also sold them guns and bullets along with food
 This one-way trade made USA massive profits
 Britain and France could not trade with the countries they
used to because they were too busy fighting so USA took
over this trade instead
 Before the war Germany had the leading chemical industry
in the world but the war stopped this and USA took over –
they also developed explosives and sold them to the allies
 USA joined the war in 1917 so it didn’t drain their resources
like it did for others who were in the war for 4 years

5. Republican Policies
 Republican presidents from 1920-32 and gov dominated by
republican.
 Republicans believe:
 Laissez-Faire: government stays out of people’s lives as
much as possible – leave businesses to make profit
 Tariffs – they put high tariffs on foreign goods so it was
cheaper for Americans to buy American products – US
businesses make a lot of money
 Low taxes – they felt that if people had more money they
would spend it on US goods/invest on US businesses
 Trusts – huge companies that dominate industry eg
Rockefeller (oil) left to ‘run’ it as they know best

6.  The Constitution was written by the founders of USA
and says how the government should operate
 The federal system – states look after their own
internal affairs (eg Education) but Congress deals with
national/international affairs (eg War)
President
Elected every 4 years
Congress and the Supreme Court
watch over him to make sure he is
not abusing his power
Congress Supreme Court
Has the Senate and the Made up of judges who
House of Representatives make sure that the
government o not pass
unfair laws or laws that go
against the constitution

7. New Industries
 The 1920s saw the introduction of mass-produced goods
which could be made faster and in large quantities, making
them cheaper to buy
 This saw more people buying radios, hoovers, washing
machines, cars etc
 Advertising (radio and posters)became the new way to sell
products - this had extended from the war advertising to
get people to support the war – now used to sell cars,
cigarettes and clothing
 People who did not have money could borrow it or they
could hire goods – 8/10 of radios and 6/10 cars were
brought on credit

8. New Industries……the Motorcar
 In 1890s blacksmiths made cars by hand - this made them
expensive – by 1900 only 4,000 cars made
 Along came Henry Ford – in 1913 he created the worlds first
production line in Detroit
 Production line meant that a car shell goes past workers who
have one specific job to do on a car and they do this repeatedly
car after car.
 Most popular car was the Model T Ford (15 million produced
between 1908 and 1925) one car came off the production line
every 10 seconds
 The motor industry employed hundreds of thousands, but also
indirectly created millions of jobs such as those in leather, glass,
steel and rubber, road manufacture, oil production
http://www.ilovehistory.co.uk/?page_id=20

9. ‘without the new automobile
industry, the prosperity of the
1920s would scarcely have been
possible’
How far do you agree with this statement? (10
marks)

10. Answers discuss the impact them motor car industry had on the economic boom
in the USA in the 1920s (1-3 marks)
Answers discuss the impact them motor car industry had on the economic boom
in the USA in the 1920s along with another factor that helped cause the economic
boom (3-6 marks)
Answers discuss the impact them motor car industry had on the economic boom
in the USA in the 1920s along with a number of other factors that helped cause
the economic boom (6-8 marks)
Answers discuss the impact them motor car industry had on the economic boom
in the USA in the 1920s along with a number of other factors that helped cause
the economic boom and concludes as to which was the most significant factor
and why (8-10 marks)
Factors include:
People’s state of mind
New Industries
Republican policies
WWI
Industrial strength

11. Dear US Government.
I am writing to you today to plead with you for help! I am an extremely hard working
farmer and father of four living in Tennessee. Before the war I was one of the most
highly respected farmers within the state and as a result I had lots of business both at
home and abroad. I was selling more crops and vegetables than I could produce. I
had to are extra agricultural minister for the US government. you
You hire the help just to keep up with the demand!
However since the war the demand hasvery unhappyup and has left me with a
have received a letter from a completely dried farmer at how his
massive amount of stock that I have been unable to sell and nowwould like and
life has changed for the worse in the 1920s and it has gone bad
I the governmentsit. I even halved the price ofsituation. try and get rid of it,
have lost a fortune on help to improve the my goods to
I was practically giving it away but this still didn’t help the situation! I have had to get
rid of my workers as I cant afford to pay them and I am very close to going bankrupt
myself.and thethis talk about government thought that everyone
You I hear all rest of the people now living the American Dream and earning
fortunes in the cities but this is not what it you now have to investigate
was profiting from the 1920s so is like for us farmers.
Please can you helponfarmersfarmers and submit a report towar,
what is going us with get back to what life was like before the the
government.
otherwise our families and us farmers will never get out of our American Nightmare!
Please don’t let us down!
Mr John Sanders

12. Persuasive writing skills
 You need to create your most persuasive argument
possible using evidence available and your use of
language
 Think about what evidence you use, what evidence you
will leave out and how will you present the evidence to
make the strongest argument
 Statement:
 Living in the USA in the 1920’s was like living in
heaven/hell for Americans.