The Roaring Twenties

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Charlotte Kingsley-Brooks

History Course Work

“The Roaring Twenties”

By 1919 America had survived the impact of the 1st world war and now wanted to revive her self. The United States was a rapidly changing country; Americans were living in the richest country in the world and the largest democracy. It soon became a vast land of opportunity.

Americans believed that everyone had the right to be prosperous and successful; during the 1920’s a great economic boom engulfed America. The boom became self-generating, with the help of new technology, natural recourses, mass production; mass marketing and a new found confidence.

The mass production of cars began to stimulate the growth of many more industries that produced parts for the cars, such as; glass, metals, and tyres etc, this helped these industries to roar as their materials were now heavily in demand for the use of cars.

The production of cars had a huge impact on America throughout the 20’s. Owning a car brought many new opportunities and created productive and exciting lifestyles for the people of America. Giving a new independence and an immense sense of freedom to rural America. Enabling more people to travel to places they had never been, and to live where they chose but still enabled them to travel to work, benefiting bother labourers and their employers.

Henry Ford, born in Michigan, 1863 developed an idea, which would make him the most powerful industrialist in America. His invention of the Model-T turned America into an automobile civilization. Modern mass-production became the most important factor in making America the economic powerhouse of the 20th century.

Ford aimed to produce a car that was inexpensive, reliable and accessible to all people rather than just the higher classes. His idea was to use one design and reproduce it- The Model-T. The car would stay the same but the way of making it would change, he employed hundreds of workers who were soon able to produce the cars in half the time that was needed. By saving time Ford saved money and was able to reduce the price of his cars, making them more accessible.  He and his team looked at other industries and found four other factors which would further their goal; interchangeable parts, continuous flow division of labour and reduced waste efforts.

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The use of cars began to benefit large numbers of people in America, as they were also available to the lower classes, which enabled a greater number of people to enjoy the effects of freedom and mass production, being a success.

Through out, the twenties there was a substantial growth in production, jobs, profits, wages and the standard of living. These elements worked in a cycle of cause and effect and supply and demand. The growth in production created more jobs, and because more people had more money they could buy the newly produced goods. More goods ...

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