The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression in the USA
The Roaring Twenties
The USA in the 1920s: Charleston, flappers, gangsters, Charlie Chaplin, and prosperity. Also known as “The Wild Times,” a period with few worries after winning the war.
Social change, cultural dynamism, changing attitudes, modernity, a break from traditions, and a revolution in social life characterized the era.
Changes in the Status of Women
The 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote.
Movies
Made in Los Angeles, California, the film-making capital of the world.
Jazz
Originating in New Orleans, jazz, with important figures like Louis Armstrong and King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, influenced popular culture, flappers, fashion, literature, and the arts in general.
Painters
William H. Johnson: Focused on the agrarian South, religion, and dignity.
Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden (known for collages) also gained prominence.
Gangsters and Prohibition
“Scarface” Al Capone and the bootleggers ruled Chicago during the Prohibition era. The 18th Amendment prohibited the making or selling of alcoholic drinks in the USA, aiming to make the country happier and healthier.
Illegal drinking places known as “Speakeasies” obtained drinks from bootleggers.
The Instalment Plan
The “live now, pay later” mentality, facilitated by credit, became popular. Figures like Henry Ford were very important.
President Calvin Coolidge
President Calvin Coolidge (Republican Party) believed that if businessmen grow, so will the rest of the country, benefiting everyone.
The South faced poverty through sharecropping, while the West experienced overproduction.
President Herbert Hoover
In 1928, President Herbert Hoover promised “Growing prosperity to the USA, a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage,” a promise that proved inaccurate.
Crash and Depression
The period of prosperity ended with the Crash and Depression.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929
In 1929, many people borrowed large amounts of money from banks to buy and sell shares, playing the market “on the margin.”
By the fall of 1929, profits were falling, and by the end of the year, many faced debt and ruin. This collapse became known as The Wall Street Crash.
The Great Depression
By 1931, nearly 8 million Americans were out of work, leading to events like the Bonus Army protests.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal
Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, believed the federal government should take the lead in the fight against the Depression.
Roosevelt’s New Deal
New laws created government organizations called “Agencies” (to help the nation recover from the Depression), known as “Alphabetic Agencies.”
- Agricultural Adjustment Administration: Aimed to reduce overproduction.
- Civilian Conservation Corps: Provided work for many thousands of men.
- Federal Emergency Relief Administration: Gave individual states government money to help their unemployed and homeless.
- Tennessee Valley Authority: Built a network of dams to make electricity and stop floods in a poor southeastern region of the US.
- National Recovery Administration: Worked to ensure that businesses paid fair wages and charged fair prices.
- Works Progress Administration: Set people to work on jobs useful for the community, such as building roads, schools, and hospitals. Artists painted murals in public buildings, and writers produced guidebooks to states and cities.
- Wagner Act: Gave every worker the right to join a union and set up the National Labor Board to protect this right.
- Social Security Act: Provided government pensions to people unable to provide for themselves (old people, widows, and the blind) and established the first system of unemployment insurance.
In 1936, Roosevelt was re-elected with the largest majority of votes in the country’s history.
By 1939, with the Second World War beginning, the US became the main supplier of weapons to the countries fighting Hitler, becoming known as “The arsenal of democracy.”