The USA 1919 - 1941

The USA during and after WW1

 America only joined the first world war when it had to - this was because they didn't want to
get involved in other's affairs.
 Before the war Germany had by far the best chemical industry, however when the first
world war hit, America took this chance to 'overtake' this industry and gain new
technologies and better understanding of the arms.
 After the war, money was quickly handed on, hand to hand and without fuss, people were
happy and wanted to live life fully.

Overall America came out of the war extremely well with wealth and the best
equipment/technology.

Causes of the boom

 One cause of the economic boom was - The USA after the first world war, basically they
ended up leaving the war extremely powerful not only with wealth but with arms as well.
Another feature could be the fact that Europe owed them a lot of money.
 A second cause of the economic boom was - The tariffs America put on imported goods
which guaranteed America profit as the goods imported were more expensive than the
American ones.
 A final cause of the economic boom was - The changing industry, many 'luxury' items came
out which allowed people to live a better life and people spent a lot more money on these
items such as 'cars' which was an extremely popular produced product, not only was this for
a main product but it led way to the smaller companies selling 'glass' and other raw
materials.

Declining Industries

Farmers
 One feature why farmers were trapped in the 'declining industry' would be overproduction
of their goods. Since Europe weren't needing/buying goods, farmers overproduced crops
which made them saturated as there was no longer a big market for them, and prices would
drop.
 Another feature why farmers were trapped would be the new technologies around such as
the 'combine harvesters' this is a big problem for farmers and a major cause in the industry
decline as these new 'powerful' machines would get the job done much more efficient
meaning more overproduced crops added to the saturated market, not only this but it
meant that less workers were needed.
 A final feature of why farmers were in the declining industry would be the competition for
other countries producing much higher quality produce more efficiently and cheaper.
Coal Industry

 One key feature of why the coal industry was stuck in a decline would be electricity power,
which at the time was the new 'thing' and it was spreading all around America. It was
spreading so fast because of its 'lighting fast fuel' perk, not only this but coal was less
efficient as electricity and caused tons more pollution.
 A final key feature would be 'gas' this meant the coal industries had 2 competitions to
compete with to sell their product.

Cotton industry

 One key feature would be new materials, things such as Nylon took over the entire industry
and it was much cheaper and easier to access.
 A final key feature would be the competition between countries - for example India was
making tons of cheap fabric twice as efficient as America, this was clear who you would
purchase from and this made America market in fabrics to fall and the industry basically
collapsed.

US society 1919 - 29 "The roaring twenties"

Consumerism

The boom in the 1920's was partly encouraged by the growth of consumerism, this meant the
growing demand for every day, often household goods but the majority of Americans.

Question #1 - Give 3 key factors of what the increased demand for consumer goods was due to.

 One key feature of the increase demand was due to the newly built houses that came with
electricity. This stimulated the demand for such electrical goods to make the living style
better, such as the 'washing' machine and vacuum 'cleaners'.
 Another key feature would be the 'hire purchase' scheme, which made it easier to get these
goods on credits, basically anyone could go out and buy the latest gadgets and not worry
about it until its due.
 A final key feature would be lifestyle things such as radios, the American popularity saws
these as a must for living as it provided them with entertainment, this also provided jobs for
people to make these products.

Entertainment

During the 1920's, films became a national obsession. Millions of Americans went every week to the
cinema as it was extremely cheap, and it was a fantastic source of entertainment.

The Jazz Age

In the 1920's they were also known as the 'Jazz Age' because the jazz music was the common music
around there. To increase food production, African American 'blues' singers were encouraged to sing
in order to make the functionality of the kitchen work rate boost up. This also provided more jobs
which meant more money.

Women

 1920 women were given the vote in USA

 They had greater freedom due to labour-saving devices and the car
 They played a huge part on the ban of alcohol
 The symbol of women at the time was the 'flapper'
 These 'flappers' would cut their hair short and wear their skirts shorter and they would
party.
 They would openly dance with men in public and that's where the Charleston dance was
born.
 They were actually now getting good paid jobs and the era of the women being less inferior
to men was becoming extinct.

Prohibition and gangsters

Gangsters back then were fierce and you wouldn't want to disobey them which is a link between the
corruption in the USA population, but the gangs would often fight and kill over trades.

Prohibition

18th Amendment - banned alcohol (production, selling and movement )

The Volstead Act - Defined alcohol as anything over 0.5% alcoholic percentage

Prohibition was essentially a failure, it just didn't stop the alcohol trade, it simply 'shifted; in
underground and make gangsters alert to make a profit. 'Bootleggers' made large amounts of money
smuggling alcohol into the USA or through illegal brewing, places called speakeasies which were
secret bars were easy to find if people wanted to buy a drink.

Successes of Prohibition -

Drunk men's ratings were lowered

Less cot deaths were recorded

More people turned up for work

Disasters of Prohibition -

Gangsters were created with so much wealth and power that they got away with anything.

Normal people became criminals just because they drunk.

Police forces were bribed and corrupted - they even told some were to get a drink.

Jobs were lost due to this industry being shut down.

Gangsters

Gangs of criminals began to run bootlegging and other forms of crimes almost like it was a business,
these gangs would often fight over control of the trade.

Racism and Intolerance

As some Americans were experiencing liberation - others were facing intolerance and racism.

Intolerance, these were the four main types -

1. Alcohol intolerance

2. Racist Intolerance

 Jim Crow laws

 Segregation
 KKK

White people were nasty at the time and saw black people as inferior, this committed terrible
crimes. This was mainly down to the KKK that was originally formed to terrorise African American
slaves after they had been given freedom.

3. Political Intolerance

4. Religious Intolerance

The Depression

Causes of the depression

 Speculators - The ones that took out loans, made a profit, sold them and paid back the bank.
 Confidence - When the shares lowered everyone sold their shares. This led to the
depression, if there was more confidence among the people then people would of carries on
buying them.
 Republican Government - They didn't help anyone, or any banks with the debts, everyone
lost out on this one.
 Foreign tariffs - America couldn't share goods abroad because of the tariffs that were
created in retaliation to the Mc Cumber laws.

Effects of the depression

The worst effected people were:

 Farmers
 African Americans
 Young People
 And general males trying to earn a living
By 1933 -
  One third of the American workforce was unemployed.
 Once a person becomes unemployed it's almost impossible to get another secured
job.
 Many people lost their jobs, families, houses and other personal items.
 Made tons of people homeless.

Hoovers actions

 Hoover reduced taxes - this mainly just benefited the wealthy

 He tried to help the farmers with the Federal farming board, which purchase surplus crops in
an attempt to keep up prices
 The federal home loan bank act passed in July 1932 was designed to stimulate home
building and increase home ownership among American. Hoover set up twelve regional
banks with $125 million to help fund.

Hoover was mainly blamed for the crash

 He insisted that the crash was not too serious and that prosperity is just around the corner.
 He believed in rugged individualism and showed little sympathy for the poor
 He refused to provide federal aid for the unemployed.

Roosevelt and the new deal 1933 - 1941

Roosevelt (democrat) won the 1932 election, here's some reasons why -

 New deal - he promised that the government would help peoples everyday life.
 He was a powerful and well educated man, he was seen as a all round nice person compared
to Hoover.
 Roosevelt contracted Polio in the earlier years, he got a lot of peoples sympathy for this and
it showed that he's able to relate to the hardship of the population.
 His family was already known in the political circuit.

The Hundred Days

Due to the banking crisis, Roosevelt wanted to act quickly, from 9th March to 16th June, he
managed to get the US congress to pass a huge amount of legislation. This is due to him "100 days"
that means if a country is in a state or hardship or war, it can pass laws without it going through the
supreme court.

Second new deal

As well as passing new legislation in his first hundred days of office in later years Roosevelt updated
some laws and created further legislation where it was needed.

However, the Supreme Court HATED the new deal, saying it was un-American. This is also why he
had to update and change the new deal, but here it is, the second new deal:

 National Labour Relations Act (1935) replaced the NRA and protected workers right to join a
trade union and from victimisation.
  Soil conservation Act (1935) replaced AAA - allowed the government to subsidise farmers.
 Social security Act (1935) America's first system of social welfare - unemployment insurance
and old-age pensions, and gave help to the disabled and children in need.
 National House Act (1937) provided loans to buy houses - reduced excessive rents.
 Fair Labour Standards Act (1938) set hours and conditions of work, it fixed a minimum wage.

Opposition to the new deal

The new deal wasn't loved by all - there's 2 groups, those who think there's too much and those who
thing 'too little'

Too much

 The supreme court - the judges were old and republican and they ruled many new deal
legislations illegal, but Roosevelt got angry and attempted to add 6 more judges to the court
to sway them in his favour, the public was shocked seeing it as something a dictator would
do and he didn't succeed.
 Business men - they've worked years of control by themselves, and then they were told
what to do and how much they had to pay workers, the lost tons of money and profit!

Too little

 Huey Long - he was a radical activist who wanted to give everyone a washing machine and
give the elderly high pensions.
 Father Coughlin - in 1934 he announced a new political organization called the 'Nation's
Union of Social Justice' He wrote a platform calling for monetary reforms, the nationalization
of major industries and railroads, and protection of the rights of labour.

Was the new deal a success?

Weaknesses

 In 1937 unemployment rose drastically

 He never fully conquered unemployment until they joined WW2
 The USA's trade did not recover
 He failed to change the supreme court
 African Americans gained very little from the New Deal

Successes

 The depression did not lead to communism and Roosevelt managed to maintain the
confidence in democracy.
 Many millions of jobs were created and vital relief was supplied to the poor.
 Agriculture and industry benefitted from efficient infrastructure such as roads.

You've reached the end of the notes, I must say these aren't all from my research I just basically
summarised them to make them easier for me to understand, I originally got them from - Izzy at this
link -
http://getrevising.co.uk/resources/history_usa_1919_1941_entire_syllabus

Thanks so much, I've got the mock exam tomorrow and I think you've saved me, even though it's
kind of old resource to use its helped me so much!