 The 1920s was a period of rapid change and economic

prosperity in the USA. Life improved for the majority,

but not all, of Americans.
 The reasons for the rapid economic growth in the
1920s
 The USA had become a huge industrial nation even
before the 1920s.
 This was because it had large supplies of natural
resources such as timber, iron, coal, minerals, oil and
land.
 However, there were additional factors which led to
the economic boom in the 1920s.
 The main reasons for America's economic boom in the
1920s were technological progress which led to the
mass production of goods, the electrification of
America, new mass marketing techniques, the
availability of cheap credit and increased employment
which, in turn, created a huge amount of consumers.
 Spread of electricity across America
 The electricity industry developed slowly before the
war, but in the 1920s it really thrived and was crucial in
the economic boom.
 Electricity was also vital in the development of popular
entertainment during the 1920s. It powered the new
cinemas, speakeasies and sports stadia. It was also
needed for the millions of radios in use across
America.
 The consumption of electricity doubled in the decade.
By 1929, 70 per cent of homes had electricity.
 The availability of credit
 In the 1920s, many companies needed additional
money to extend their businesses.
 One of the biggest investment banks they used was led
by J P Morgan Jr.
 Credit firms emerged.
 They arranged for consumers to pay for goods in
instalments at low interest rates (i.e. hire purchase)
 This led to an increased demand for goods because the
majority of Americans could now buy expensive items
they previously could not afford.
 Mass production and its impact
 The car industry is the best example of mass
production during the 1920s.
 The three big car manufacturers
were Ford, Chrysler and General Motors. They were
major employers (7.1 per cent of all factory workers)
and accounted for 12.7 per cent of revenue.
 Henry Ford pioneered mass production techniques in
the car industry. His aim was to produce affordable
cars for the public by using new technology.
 By 1929, Americans owned 23 million cars. The best
known was the Ford Model T car.
 The car industry was important because:
 it pioneered new techniques of production which
other industries copied;
 Henry Ford’s standardisation of machine parts was
also imitated;
 it led to the expansion of cities and the development of
suburbs;
 it enabled people to travel to cinemas, which in turn
stimulated the movie industry;
 it resulted in a vast national network of roads. (During
the 1920s, about $1 billion a year was spent on
highways);
 The car industry was important because:
 it encouraged the construction industry - petrol
stations were built, as were hotels and restaurants;
 the car changed people’s lives. It gave them more
freedom and it made them feel confident in and proud
of America;
 big manufacturers, such as Henry Ford, were so rich
and famous they were able to influence government
policy;
 many of the rich businessmen
became philanthropists Henry Ford built a hospital
and a museum and gave millions to schools, colleges
and orphanages.
 However, there were a number of problems with mass
production:
 workers became bored with the monotonous work;
 factory owners were often anti-union and
encourged strong-armed tactics against their
members;
 the factories bred racism. Some owners had a whites-
only policy. For most of the 1920s Henry Ford’s
newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, spread anti-
Semitism;
 mechanisation led to unemployment as well as to
employment;
 some people blamed the car for increased crime and a
moral decline in the young.
 Women;
► Nineteenth Amendment and Voting
 Usually voted as husbands
 Politicians catered to female-friendly legislation and programs
► Employment
 Clerical, teachers, nurses, domestic servants
 Lower wages and no managerial positions
► Margaret Sanger
 American Birth Control League
 Established Planned Parenthood
► Flapper Girl
 Young women of the Jazz Age
 Short hair, short hemline, cosmetics, smoking cigarette in public
 Prohibition;
►Eighteenth Amendment and Volsteadt Act
 Supported by middle-class progressives and rural Protestants
especially in South and West
 Generally ignored in urban centers
►Bootleggers/Rumrunners
 Smuggling of alcohol
 Rise of organized crime
► Al Capone
►Speakeasies
 Underground saloons
 In this period, many Americans wanted to enjoy
themselves as much as they could by perhaps listening
to the new jazz music, or doing the new dances such
as the charleston and the black bottom.

 Crowds flocked to watch film stars like Charlie

Chaplin and baseball stars like Babe Ruth.

 The emphasis on having fun and spending money has

led to the 1920s being called the Roaring Twenties.
 However, for many Americans, the 1920s was a decade
of poverty.

 Generally, groups such as African-Americans, women

and farmers did not enjoy the prosperity of the
Roaring Twenties.

 More than 40 per cent of Americans lived just below

the poverty line.
 Life was particularly hard for African-Americans in
the Deep South states where the majority of black
people endured a combination of poverty and racism.

 Although some women were able to enjoy more

independence and wear the latest fashions, the reality
was that most women were poorly paid and were
employed in roles such as cleaners or waitresses.
 The 1920s were a time of liberation for some women
 The changing role of women was a result of the work
they did during the war.
 The number of working women increased by 25 per
cent.
 In 1920, all women were given the right to vote.
 'Flappers' smoked in public, danced the new dances,
and were sexually liberated.
 Women wore clothing more convenient for activity
and stopped wearing long skirts and corsets.
 Divorce was made easier and the number of divorces
doubled - women were not content just to stay at home
and put up with bad husbands.
 But most women were still housewives and were not
as free as their men.
 The Lost Generation
 The Lost Generation refers to the generation of
writers, artists, musicians, and intellectuals that came
of age during the First World War and the “Roaring
Twenties.”
 The unprecedented carnage and destruction of the war
stripped this generation of their illusions about
democracy, peace, and prosperity, and many expressed
doubt and cynicism in their artistic endeavors.
 The Lost Generation
 Some of the most famous Lost Generation writers were
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, Ernest
Hemingway, John Dos Passos, and John Steinbeck.
 Many of these writers lived as expatriates in Paris,
which played host to a flourishing artistic and cultural
scene.
 The themes of moral degeneracy, corruption, and
decadence were prominent in many of their works.
 F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a classic
of the genre.
 The Lost Generation
 Jazz and the “Roaring Twenties”
 Jazz music became wildly popular in the “Roaring
Twenties,” a decade that witnessed unprecedented
economic growth and prosperity in the United States.
 The achievement of material affluence became a goal
for many US citizens as well as an object of satire and
ridicule for the writers and intellectuals of the Lost
Generation.
 The Lost Generation
 After the Volstead Act (Prohibiton) in 1919, which
banned the manufacture and sale of alcoholic
beverages, many Americans sought refuge in
speakeasies and other entertainment venues that
hosted jazz bands.

 Harlem’s Cotton Club was one famous venue, where

both whites and blacks gathered to listen to jazz,
dance the Charleston, and illicitly guzzle booze.
 The Lost Generation
 Women attended jazz clubs in large numbers, and the
“flapper girl” became a staple of US pop culture.

 These women flouted orthodox gender norms,

bobbing their hair, smoking cigarettes, and engaging
in other behaviors traditionally associated with men.