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The 1920 s were a decade of prosperity. After the end of World War I, most Americans had money to spend. America had learned to save much of what they earned due to wartime shortages. During the war, the national debt leaped by nearly 25 times and after there was a brief postwar depression, but this soon gave through to a solid economy which soon began to rise steadily. Government during the 1920 s was limited. Americans were ready for peace and prosperity.
Harding was the president for the first part of the 1920 s. He aimed to be one of the most-loved presidents that America had ever had, but soon his administration gave way to scandals and in 1923 he died of a heart attack. When Harding died, his vice-president Calvin Coolidge took over. He was a quiet man who clung to the values of his boyhood.
His morals won him many followers. In a decade remembered for the giddy enjoyment of wealth and the abandonment of the moral values of the past, Coolidge was a reassuring reminder of old ways. Coolidge remained president for the remainder of the decade. Throughout his stint as president, he became known as a hands-off president, in that he had little contact with Congress and liked to sit back and let the government take a secondary role. Now that people in the 1920 s were had more money, they were able to afford more luxuries. Radios, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, telephones, and cars were all of the new toys that people of the twenties were able to acquire.
The automobile industry had a key part in Americas prosperity. Its success also had a ripple effect on other industries of America such as the steel, rubber, and glass industries which made parts for the new cars. This new economic growth caused a need for more white-collar workers. More and more people were needed for management, which caused education to take a more important role in the work force. Enrollment in high schools and colleges doubled. Americans also had a new-found pleasure of buying things with credit.
This caused many people to get in over their heads. Personal debts were rising faster than personal incomes by two and a half times. During the 1920 s, people found many new sources of entertainment. The first radio station came to be, lavish movie theaters were built, and Americans took pride in going to sporting events in large stadiums. Jazz was the music of choice for a someone in the Twenties. Many new fads arose, such as the Mah Jong craze, and crossword puzzles.
Time, Readers Digest, and The New Yorker all came out in the Twenties. And with the addition of the 19 th amendment, women began to have a revolution of their own. No longer would a women wear a dress down to her ankles. It was also common for a women to have one of the new short stylish haircuts that looked so well under her new hat. Many of these changes upset Traditionalists. Flappers also came about in the Twenties.
Flappers were young women who wore short skirts, danced the fox trot, and liked to drink, smoke, dance and party. Prohibition was one of the major events of the 1920 s. In January of 1919, alcohol became illegal. No on one had any idea of how difficult it would be to enforce prohibition. By 1929, there were 32, 000 speakeasies in New York City alone. Bootlegging also became a big business.
Prohibition lasted until 1932 when America was in the midst of the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a period in US history when America found it self with great economic hardships. This period lasted from 1929 to 1941. There were five main causes of the Great Depression: the unequal distribution of wealth, high tariffs and debts, overproduction of agriculture, and industry, inconsistent monetary value, and though debatable, the Crash of 1929. The reason the crash is debatable as a cause of the Great Depression is because many economists believe that the crash was merely a result of the underlying problems in the American economy. However, many also claim that the great did have a large part in causing the Great Depression.
It was October of 1929 when the stock market crash took place. The crash had many underlying causes, some of them being: over speculation, margin buying, and shady business practices. The panic that followed the crash worsened it even further. Whatever the role the crash had in causing the Great Depression, there is no doubt that the American economy faced serious economic problems leading up to the year 1929. Another cause of the Great Depression was high tariffs and war debts. Congress set tariff rates high to discourage European companies from selling to American markets, which made it hard for Europe to pay off its war debts to the US.
International trad also slowed because Europeans had to raise their own tariff rates in retaliation. There was also an uneven distribution of wealth that took part in causing the Great Depression. There was too many people with too few wealth and too few with a lot. Fourteen and one half percent of the nations income was held by the top 1 % richest Americans. The rich held on to their wealth, which made it hard for money to circulate. They either invested it in stocks or saved it.
Not enough of the national income was going to the farmers and workers who would have bought consumer goods and kept the money circulating. In the 1920 s, there was a widespread overproduction of farming and industry. Many farmers found themselves in trouble in an otherwise prosperous decade. After World War I, the nations productive capacity increased, but the workers wages did not keep up with the pace of the goods. This put much of the nations workers at a loss. The final cause of the Great Depression was the inconsistent monetary policy.
Many banks were poorly managed and bank failures were common. Many bank failures were the result of the crash. Many times this was because banks had made loans to investors who could not repay them. Even healthy banks were forced to shut down because deposits all demanded their money at the same time. The New Deal was Roosevelt's program to end the Great Depression.
The New Deal was a 3 -part strategy and based on relief programs to end suffering, recovery programs to rebuild the economy, and reform programs to ensure that such a crisis would never occur again. The New Deal had immediate impact and many long-term effects. One effect of the New Deal was a stronger role of government in peoples lives. New Deal agencies came to the rescue of banking, industry, and agriculture. Even today, the government continues to play an important role in the lives of Americans. The lasting effects of financial and banking reform has been especially important assuring citizens of the long term stability of America.
The presidents power was also extended through Roosevelt and the New Deal. Roosevelt believed in an active presidency and did much to broaden the presidents power. Roosevelt also mad deficit spending a more common practice. Before him, past presidents concentrated on balancing the budget, although they did not always succeed. Roosevelt used deficit spending as a way of stimulating the economy.
By the time Roosevelt left office, the national debt was nearly $ 300 billion, although much of this reflects wartime spending. The New Deal also established many new social programs that benefited the US. It also established the welfare state. This is the view that the state is responsible for the economic security of its people.
The Social Security Act has continued to provide aid to the elderly, the disabled, and the unemployed. It has also been used as a model for extending aid to other groups such as students, the handicapped, and mothers with dependent children. The New Deal was also able to establish greater concern for workers. It allowed them to join unions and do such things as bargain with employers. The Fair Labor Standard also came out around this time.
Today we have built upon this to provide better workplaces for all Americans. Conservation also became a priority as a result of the New Deal. New Deal programs dealt with soil conservation, building dams to prevent flooding, and reclaiming the grasslands of the Great Plains. All this forced America to look to its future and think before acting. The New Deal also renewed Americas faith in democracy. It came at a time when America seemed very unsure of itself and needed to be reassured of the success of its democracy.
Roosevelt, through reviving the faith and strength of the American people, ensured that the US would be strong enough to defend democracy if the need arose. Bibliography:
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