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Introduction

To what extent did all Americans benefit from the economic improvements which took place between 1919 and 1930? In America in the 1920's, there was a massive economic boom. Some of the reasons for this boom were electricity, the assembly line, new inventions and motor cars. However, some industries went into decline. Some of these were the coal and steel industries, the textiles industry and farming. The economic boom was mainly in the big cities of the north rather than the farmlands in the south. This also meant that more white than black people benefited from the boom. In this essay, I am going to go into detail about the reasons for the boom, who benefited, how benefited and why they did, who didn't benefit, how not and why not, did more people benefit than not? The assembly line was introduced around 1910 by a young man called Henry Ford when he realized that instead of building cars while they were still, requiring much skill and time, it was quicker, easier and cheaper to apply the parts to the cars while they were moving. As a direct result of the invention of the assembly line, the speed at which cars could be manufactured increased massively and the price of a car dropped dramatically. In 1910 there were 468,000 cars on the road. This increased to 26,750,000 by 1930. In 1909 a ford model-t cost 950 dollars, by 1928 this had dropped to just 290 dollars due to Henry Fords brilliants ideas. ...read more.

Middle

New synthetic materials like rayon were replacing cotton which was mass produced on American farms. High tariffs discouraged other countries from buying farm produce from America. In 1918 and 1920 there were big strikes against low pay and poor working conditions in the coal and steel industries. These strikes were crushed by government forces. An inquiries findings largely supported the miners but the government did nothing about it. The textiles industry was also depressed. In Asia, new factories were making goods a lot more cheaply than in America. Textiles workers risked everything if they went on strike because companies usually owned their homes. In almost all big strikes in the 1920's, the government backed the companies. Force was used at strikes in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. In the car industry and other assembly line manufacturing businesses, wages were low and conditions were poor, jobs were boring and tedious. This caused stress and could result in people being aggressive towards others. There was little or no trade union support for most workers in the 1920's. The united textile workers union went on strike in Elizabeth town and the strike was crushed by police and state troopers. As a result of trade unions having no effect, the number of trade union members fell from 5.1 million in 1920 to 3.6 million in 1929. The booms main impact was in the northern states of America. In 1929 the average wage in the north-east was 881 dollars per year but in the south-east it was just 365 dollars a year. ...read more.

Conclusion

In 1915 the klan was reformed again and by 1925 it was thought that the klan had 5.1 million members, mostly in the southern states of America where racial prejudice was most common. The KKK began to control state organizations like the police force and local governments. The klan went into decline when its main leader was jailed to life but this did not mean that r****m no longer existed. Lynch mobs took justice into their own hands mostly against black Americans and it was difficult to convict people of lynching people it was large mobs which committed this outrageous crime. Lynching was family event and adults would let they're children witness it. A black reporter called Michael Mitchell remembers seeing a women bring her 7 year old girl to see the lynching. In the 1920's protestants in America split into two groups, one who supported the Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and others who believed that god created the world in six days and everything on the world. Eventually, six states passed a law that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was not to be taught in schools. In the state of Tennessee two men put this law to the test and in one of the most famous trials ever, a man taught the Charles Darwin theory to his class, the trial was all over the newspapers and the radio and they taught the Charles Darwin theory and the theory that god created everything in 6 days to the whole American nation, the man prosecuted was fined 100 dollars. ?? ?? ?? ?? Jason Briggs 11-5 Candidate number: 2028 Centre number: 37307 Date: 8-May-07 ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE USA 1919-1941 section.