1. American 1917 Immigration Act - policies after WWI were meant to close the “open door” and in its place were literacy tests for immigrants.
Immigration limited to 357,000 in 1 year
By 1929, dropped to 150,000
Catholics, Jewish, Eastern Europeans discriminated the most from Europe
Asians were excluded completely until 1943
Prior to WWI immigration exceeded 1 million every year

2. By 1921, Senator Heflin of Alabama wanted no more immigration.
Republican candidate Warren Harding won the American election and became president. “America’s present need is…not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality”
Especially in the south there was a fear of any subversive behaviour:
No allegiance to the US
Taking American jobs
Danger to society
communists

3. By the mid 1920’s the political and social factors in the US start to change.
Political Factors
Isolationism: keeping foreign ideas and people out
Do not get involved in other nation’s business unless it effects the domestic front
Protectionism: import duties raised

4. Who belonged to the “triumphant” American Nation?
Social Factors
Extreme nationalism – the Ku Klux Klan had over 5 million members
Motto/goal: Native white, Protestant supremacy that was to preserve Americanism
What did this mean?
Beatings
Tar and featherings
lynching

7. Prohibition
People swayed from the path of righteousness and only a moral crusade could save them
Alcohol was the culprit
A movement to outlaw through a nation wide campaign by the Anti-saloon league
Social factor

8. The 18th Constitutional amendment was ratified by the United States in 1919
The Volstead Act defined liquor as any alcohol content over 0.5%

9. Results
3 times as many drinking establishments
Women were welcome to more bars
Al Capone alone made between 60 – 100 million

10. Other social factors that expressed some of the views of American’s during the Boom/Bust period in the US
I know how to keep these kids in line
Women’s Christian Temperance Union
Laws
People:
Kramer – prohibition commissioner
Gangs
If Al Capone was a school teacher

11. The economic factors that effected America… “The Business of America”
Coolidge – “the business of America is Business” President from
Mass production
Consumer durables
Model T Ford
Manufactured goods
1 new car every 10 seconds

12. Prosperity More people invested in the stock market
As a result confidence in the market kept growing – more people borrowed money and invested
Share prices continue to rise and many are getting rich

13. President Hoover 1928 to 32 turbulent times…
“We are nearer to the financial triumph over poverty than ever before”
President Hoover’s aim “a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage”
American progress unstoppable…or was it?

14. Beneath the Boom
Farmers – increase in mechanization meant greater yields and lower prices
African Americans – first to be laid off on farms – many migrated north for work
Immigrants – low paying jobs
Resource industries/manufacturing – low wages/intermittent work- mining and textiles hardest hit

15. The end of a dream… Signs of a slowing economy Fewer homes constructed
Car sales fell
Wages fell behind inflation
Farmer’s buying power decreases

16. October 29, 1929 The stock market crash on Wall Street
Investors panicked and started to sell shares (16 million)
Panic started to show in most major cities
Much more severe then today’s financial crisis

18. Investors sell at a loss
Vicious cycle
Investors sell at a loss
Start of a decline
Panic sets in
Banks go bankrupt
Reduce loans
Businesses downsize
Less workers
Less pay
Less $ in economy
Banks and foreign
lenders want
repayments
from brokers
Share prices continue
To drop
Brokers want
Repayments
From clients

19. The Great Depression – Causes and Consequences
Themes:
Trade
Production
Unemployment
Standard of living
World slump
This was more than just a recession.

20. The Gold Standard
Stability and security of paper currency was fixed in gold
yet after WWI it was unrealistic – especially in Britain
1 pound = $4.86 US
Britain heavily depended on trade/exports yet with the high currency value, they were the first economy to suffer
Eventually drop the Gold Standard

21. Eastern Europe had their own solution to a slumping economy.
Autarky – self sufficiency in food production, basic goods and national defence
Free trade seemed out of the question instead Eastern Europe had some of the highest custom duties

22. Fordney McCumber Act of 1922 and later the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill
American protectionism – custom duties on imported goods
Short sightedness on the US – because they lent out a lot of money to other countries to keep Europe’s economy moving - then the US also needed to import European products
This was not a solution – it was a mistake

23. What was happening on American farms by the 1920s?
Overproduction
Mechanization
Less labour needed
Overgrazing the fields
Europe starting to produce more again
More competition
Devalued crop pricing

24. The Dust Bowl The dust bowl was not caused by the depression…
It was a weather phenomenon 10-25% less rainfall that coincided with over tilling, overgrazing and poor farm practices
More than 4 inches of top soil was blown away

26. Dustbowl Music

27. Crisis and Collapse RECAP: The Factors that cause the Great Depression
Overproduction
Stock market
Protectionism
International debt after WWI

28. European solutions to the Depression
Germany – Chancellor Bruning to avoid inflation cut wages and restricted imports yet causes a chain reaction in other European countries
Britain – end free trade and turn to an Imperial Preference meaning only goods from the empire were exempt from duties

29. Consequences of the Great Depression
High unemployment in all job sectors (25%) 2 million in 1929 to 13 million in 1933
Banking failures
Domestic vs a central world bank
Political changes
Changes in the role of the government
Laissez faire to protectionism

30. Especially horror movies and…
Any type of escapism became popular in the 1930s
Top Actors were making more money in the 1930s then the best paid actors today

31. Musicals
From 1929 to 1934 Shirley temple was the highest paid actor in Hollywood

32. Yet this was the reality…

33. By 1932 many Americans were forced to leave home and live in shanty-towns called “Hoovervilles”

34. Because the US relies so heavily like Britain in foreign trade the recession hit them harder then any other industrial nation
The Hoover government set up the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) to provide relief to banks and insurance companies
Sound familiar???

35. It starts to make it easier to understand how and why these leaders came into power