Motor cars:
In the 1920's cars had just become a commodity, with the Model T by Ford Motor Company, cars became more and more mainstream. Ford had the first assembly line of automobiles geared towards mass manufacturing. The impact of Ford meant that others had to produce their own cheap car to compete. The benefits went to the consumer. Hire-purchase made cars such as these very affordable. But there were major spin-offs from this one industry as 20% of all American steel went to the car industry; 80% of all rubber; 75% of all plate glass and 65% of all leather. 7 billion gallons of petrol were used each year and, of course, motels, garages, restaurants etc. all sprung up and all these outlets employed people and these people got paid.
The Prohibition Act
In 1918, had been introduced into America. This law banned the sale, transportation and manufacture of alcohol in place from 1920 to 1933. However, there was a ready market for alcohol throughout the 1920's and the gangsters provided it.
While Prohibition was successful in reducing the amount of liquor consumed, it stimulated the proliferation of rampant underground, organized and widespread . Many were astonished and disenchanted with the rise of spectacular gangland crimes (such as Chicago's ), when prohibition was supposed to reduce crime. Prohibition lost its advocates one by one, while the wet opposition talked of personal liberty, new tax revenues from legal beer and liquor, and the scourge of organized crime. Al Capone was one of the most well known criminals form the 1920’s appearing on the front of the celebrated "Time" magazine which earned him national celebrity status. Capone’s earnings at their peak stood at $60 million a year from alcohol sales alone with $45 million from other illegal ventures.
Post war disillusionment: “lost generation”
The "Lost Generation" is a term used to refer to the generation that came of age during . The term was popularized by who credits the phrase to , his mentor and patron.
But then Hemingway reveals that the phrase was actually originated by the garage owner who serviced Stein's car. When a young mechanic failed to repair the car in a way satisfactory to Stein, the garage owner shouted at the boy, "You are all a "génération perdue." Stein, in telling Hemingway the story, added, "That is what you are. That's what you all are ... all of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost generation." This generation included distinguished artists such as , , , , , , , , and .
The boom and bust
Boom: The 1920's saw new discoveries and inventions in nearly every field of endeavour that became the foundation of thriving businesses. Patent attorneys did a roaring trade and new business and production methods allowed manufacturers to make large which they ploughed back into new factories and wage rises. Department store and service station chains used massive buying power and operating efficiencies to lower prices while increasing service and choice, helping wages to go further.
Increased incomes, along with the introduction of credit with no credit card with fees until years later, funded a huge increase in spending.
People living in the cities and areas of benefited most from the increased prosperity although there were . Those living in rural areas did not benefit to the same extent, and this was made worse by . Shoppers were able to buy big ticket consumer items like cars, fridges, washing machines, pianos, vacuum cleaners, furniture, and radios on time . Previously, these expensive items were only affordable by the wealthy. Once one manufacturer or retailer offered the competition were forced to follow suit. About half of all instalment debt was for automobiles. When British manufacturers saw how instalment selling had boosted American business they introduced to Great Britain.
Bust: the United States was not only an industrial power, selling manufactured goods in markets it had claimed from Europe during the war; it also had its own vast natural resources. Therefore, little money had to leave the United States to buy the raw materials needed to manufacture its products. This created an unbalanced cash flow from the rest of the world to the United States. As a result, European nations, still recovering from the war, needed loans, which they got from American banks. This sent even more money to the United States in the form of repayments and interest.
The second problem had to do with Europe's recovery from World War I. European industries did revive to their old pre-war levels of production by 1925, but they failed to reclaim their old markets from the United States or create new markets to compensate for the losses. As a result, the intense economic competition between nations that had largely caused World War I continued after it. Therefore, nations still maintained high tariffs, which raised prices, cut world trade, and further weakened the world economy.
Finally there was an agricultural crisis in the United States. This was the result of dramatic expansion of farmland in order to meet the food demands of the European countries during the war. However, European agricultural production revived after the war, causing overproduction. Grain prices plummeted, and American farmers went into debt, many of them losing their farms when they were unable to maintain mortgage payments on their newly expanded farms.
Wall street crash:
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 was the most devastating in the . The crash signalled the beginning of the 10-year that affected all Western industrialized countries and did not end in the United States until the onset of American mobilization for at the end of 1941.
The American dream
The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the which proclaims that "" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".
The American dream belongs nationally to the united states and entitles a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward achieved through hard work.
by
millow (student)
