ROARING 20s/ INTERWAR YEARS [1918-1929]
- In this time period we have America turning away from the ideals of progressivism.
LABOR HOSTILITY:
- The period begins with an “economic whimper”
WHY:
- Transition back to peacetime after World War I was a tough adjustment.
- The labor unions have had time to strengthen during the war.
- AS A RESULT: In 1919, the Labor unions fight to preserve their power through a series of strikes
AN EXAMPLE OF THIS: a strike of the entire American steel industry. The aftermath of the strike caused damages to hundreds of thousands of workers and consumers, in addition to the radical rhetoric said by some workers' leaders appeared to elevate the outlook of full-fledged class warfare
RECESSION:
- Hostility of the 1919 strike upsurge ascertained profoundly upsetting to most Americans
- Employers held firm against workers' demands
- Strikes collapsed when workers returned to work under heavy threat of violence
- The labor turmoil and difficulties in trying to return to peace manufacture triggered a tiny but severe recession in 1920-1921.
RECOVERY:
- Nevertheless, the situation shortly changed, due to Herbert Hoover's triumph in persuading major industrial leaders to willingly improve wages and production so as to jerk the economy out of its slump
- many factory owners realized that paying their workers a decent wage would make them less likely to listen to speeches made by union “agitators”
RED SCARE AND ANTI-RADICAL VIOLENCE:
- The outcome of the strikes: a potent response by government and business in opposition to radicals in labor and politics
ECONOMICS OF THE ROARING TWENTIES
- Republicans have regained the presidency and ushered in a new era of pro-business policies
- It will be in this era in which Americans will see a boom and bust in the U.S. and world economies
THE BOOM IN ECONOMY:
Why? What were the causes?
- The burst in new mass-production industries powered by the extent of technologies like electricity
- Production was now being done more efficiently
- This eventually dropped the costs of production and the cost to the consumer
- Many other consumer products were correspondingly whipped out by American factory at record rate
- Many of the products also were produced by assembly line techniques
- The assembly line provided sufficient openings for money-making investment where the stock market initiate its eminent rise
- Because less than one percent of the Americans possessed any stock: Profits in the stock market directly benefited only the wealthy
- The Roaring Twenties offered a definitive situation where rich get richer (very).
- For the consumer, products that were impossible to even dream about ten years earlier could now be purchased with the installment plan
MASS PRODUCTION, MASS CONSUMPTION, MASS CULTURE:
- Demand for the horde of new products was propelled by advertising
- THE EFFECT: this established new methods of alluring consumers to want new products through new media like the radio.
- Through sponsorships: advertising industry propagated in flawless unity with the developing industries of mass culture
- Demand for the horde of new products was propelled by advertising
RURAL AMERICA: LEFT BEHIND BY MODERNITY:
- The prosperity of the 1920s was not universal.
- In 1920, almost half the nation's population still resided in rural areas: dependent upon agriculture for survival
- This time period was harsh for America's farmers
- World War I upset the agricultural production of much of Europe
- The effect of this event had fashioned massive demand and soaring prices for farm products throughout the world
- Because the farmland haven’t been altered into trench-lined battle zones, farmers had increased production accordingly and reaped great profits
- Conversely, the war's conclusion permitted the reopening of normal European production
- From 1920 to 1921, farm prices fell at a catastrophic rate
- Throughout the decade, farm foreclosures and rural bank failures increased at an alarming rate
- Agricultural incomes remained flat
- Rural Americans' wealth dwindling far behind their urban counterparts
- Rural electrification increased at a snail's pace
END OF THE BOOM: THE GREAT CRASH AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION:
- Late in 1929: the stock market crash unexpectedly triggered billions of dollars in assets to evaporate
- While the Great Crash itself directly concerned only the small minority of wealthy Americans who held stock at the time, resulting reductions in industrial production affected a nationwide economic slump unmatched in its depth and length
- The descent from the Roaring Twenties into the Great Depression was steep.
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