The most obvious reason why farming had such problems was the loss of the European market. Europe wasn’t able to able to afford American produce.
There was also overproduction, farmers had become so successful that they were producing more than they could sell. Because of this, as many farmers loss their jobs on the farms, three quarters of a million of them joined the ranks of the unemployed. The majority of farming families remained very poor through the 1920’s. this is why agriculture didn’t share in the prosperity.
But farmers were not the only group in the American society who didn’t share the boom. Workers in many other industries, such as coal, leather and textiles, did not benefit much either. If their wages did go up, they didn´t increase anything, like as much as company profits or dividends paids to share-holders.
In 1928 there was a strike in North Carolina, where the male and female workers were weekely paid less than a half of what they were supposed to be paied, when the $48 per week was considered to be de minimum for a decent life.
Whatps more, trhoughout this period unemployement remained a problem. The growth indsutry in the 1920´s did not create many new jobs. Industries were growing by electrifying or mechanising production. The same number of people were unemployed at the peak of the boom in 1929 as in 1920. These millions of unemployed Americans were not sharing the boom. The included many poor whites, but an even greater proportion of Black and Hispanic people and another member of the USA´s large inmigrant communities.
The 1920s years are often called the Roaring Twenties. The name suggest a time of riotous fun, loud music and wild enjoyment when everyone was having a good time. For those who joined “the party” it was time of liberation and rebellion against traditional values. For those who didn´t join the party it was a time of anxiety and worry. For them the cnahges taking plave were proof that America was goind down the drain and needed recuing. All this combined to make the 1920s a decade of contrasts.
At the same time as some young American were experiencing liberation, others were experiencing intolerance and racism. The vast majority of Americans were either immigrants or descendants of recent immigrants. Immigrants were flooding in, particularly Jews from eastern Europe and Russia, who were fleeing persecution, and people from Italy who were fleeing poverty. Many Italian’s did not intend to settle in the USA but hoped to make money to take back to their families.
In America’s big cities the more established immigrant groups (Irish- Americans, French Canadian- Americands and German- Americans) competed for the best jobs and the best available housing. These groups tended to look down on the more recent eastern European and Italian immigrants. These in turn had nothing but contempt for Blacks and Mexicans, who were firmly at the bottom of the scale. In the 1920’s these racist attitudes were given additional weight by an increased fear of Bolshevism or communism.
In the nineteenth century, in rural areas of America there was a very strong “temperance” movement. Members of temperance movements agreed not to drink alocohol and also campaigned to get other to give up alcohol. Most members of these movements were devout Christians who saw what damage alcohol did to familiy life.
The temperance movements were so strong in some of the rural areas taht they persuaded their state governments to prohibit the scale of alcohol within the state. Through the early twentieth century the campaign gathered place. It became a national campaign to prohibit alcohol troguhout the country. It acquired some powerful supporters, leading industrialists like Nelson Rockefeller backed the movement believing workers would be more reliable if they didn´t drink. It became law in 1919.
In some rural states prohibition workedm in a limited way. In supporters could not point out that there were fewer deaths from alcogolism and fever arrests for drunkenness. Hoewver, in the cities, it soon became celar that prohibition was not stopping Americans drinking. Instead of turning the USA into a “dry” country, prohibition simply turned many US citizens into law-breakers. Some people produced alcohol themselves, some other used to go to illegal bars called sepak easis. The authorities found they could not enforce the law effectively. Some policeman instead of helpd the prohibition were actually against it, which was a big problem, because the send some people to illegal bars so they could drink, and the didn´t arrest the people they were supposed to. There were numerous cases of poisoning, blindness and death causeb by illegally made alcohol. Is seemed to the critics of prohibition and even its supporters taht all prohibition had achieved was to make America more lawless, the police more corrupt, and to make the gangsters richs. In 1933 prohibition was abolished.
Women formed half of the population of America and their lives were as varied as those of men. It is teherefore difficult to generalise. However, before the First World War middle-class women in America, like those in Brtiain, were expected to led restricted lives. They had to wear very restrictive clothes and behave politely. They were expected not to wear make-up. Their relationships with men were strictly controlled. The had to had a chaperone with them when they went out with a boyfriend. The were expected not to take part in sport or to smoke in public. In most states they could not vote. Most of them were expected to be housewives. Very few paid jobs were open to women. Most working women were in lower-paid jobs such as cleaning, dressmaking or secretarial work.
In the 1920s many of these thing become to change, especially for urban women and middle-clas women. When the Usa joined the war, some women were taken into the war industries, giving them expirience of skilled factory work for the first time. In 1920 the got the vote in all states. Electrical goods were invented so housewive work would be easier. Women were more daring clothes. The could somke in public and drink with men, in public also. The went out with men wherever theey wanted without a chaperone. They kissed in public. The could take paid jobs. The start to buy things for their personal use, as they had their own money. Divorce was accepted. But they were also used to advertising, they start to appear in novels, magazines and newspapers because sex sold much better than anything else.
The Wall Street Crash happened in the 1920s. The Wall Street is only supposed to work properly if there are more buyers than sellers becasue people think that prices are carrying on upwards because they are confident. But when they are not confident and think that prices might stop rising then all of a suden there would be more sellers than buyers, and the whole structure would come down. That is actually what happened. The Wall Street Crash lead to a collappse of the US economy becasue the it was based on people buying shares, and since the Wall Street Crash nobody trusted Hoover becasue he couldnt find a solutioIn1932n to their prolbems, also most workers were liad off or were paid less and so the didnt bought any share, also most people instead of buying or investing their money they kept it. As nobody was buying shrares.
People in the agricultural areas were hardest hit by the Depression, because the 1920s had not been kind to them anyway. Huge numbers of farmers were unable to pay their mortgages. They tried to avoid sheriffs and to make deals with banks. But some of them couldn´t do this. In the town the story was not much better. The level of unemployement grew rapidly. About the 50% of each state was unemployed. These people had to spend their nights in the park. People were accepted in some places. And other were accepted in hospitals becuase the suffered malnutrition or starvation.
In 1932 Hoover was regarded as a “do nothing” president, also there was a saiyng that siad: “ In Hoover we trusted, now we are busted”. Obviously nobody wanted him as the President of the USA. He also did and said many things with which people didn´t agreed at all, like that the security of the poeple wasn´t his responsability, that the Nonus Marchers were criminals and communists and he orderd to attack them, to burn their possessions. Nobody was commfort with what Hoover was doing, and with what he had done, he was not popular at all. That´s why in 1932 Roosevelt won the elections.
