LACK PANTS

1. Laissez-faire - government didn't interfere with busuiness, so it was allowed to grow without check.

2. Assembly line - Henry Ford's invention of the assembly line meant new goods, like Model-T Ford, were quick and easy to produce.

3. Credit - buy now, pay later.

4. Knowledge - The German chemical industry was crippled by the war and the US replaced Germany as world leaders in new chemical industries, such as plastics.

5. Position of USA in the world - The US came out of WW1 in a strong position. Largely unaffected by the enormous cost of the war, having sold arms and supplies to Western Europe. The USA was also very strong in natural resources, so didn't have to import from other countries.

6. Advertising - adverts encouraged people to purchase new American consumer goods.

7. New consumer goods - new, highly desireable goods began to be massed produced and purchased, such as telephones, radios, fridges and cars. E.g. in 1920 there were 60,000 radios in America and by 1929 there were 10 million.

8. Tariffs - put a high price on exporting or importing from abroad, which encourage people to buy American goods.

9. Share confidence - people began to invest their money on the stock market. Confidence was high and share prices rose and rose.

1. Farmers - overproduction of food; competition from Canada; less food exported to Europe. The result was 6million farmers forced on their land in the 1920s.

2. Coal workers - suffered from competition from new oil and elecetricity industries.

3. Women - paid less than men for equivalent jobs; given the vote but considered 'unelectable' as politicians.

4. Communists - persecuted after the Russian revolution of 1917; went against Republican Party policies.

5. African Americans - KKK became a powerful force in the 1920s, by 1924 it had 4.5m members; racial segregation in many southern states; life expectancy 10 years lower than white Americans.

A wave of strikes and protests in 1919 led to a 'Red Scare' in 1920.

The Republicans, in particular J. Edgar Hoover, made Communists scapegoats in the run up to the presidential election. They used the fear of a communist revolution to win support for the Republican party.

introduced in 1920 with the 'Vostead Act'.

1. Temperance movements - High profile Christian movements that campaign for the banning of alcohol, e.g. Women's Christian Temparance Union.

2. Social problems blamed on alcohol.

3. Anti-German sentiment - most of the big breweries were German. Germany had been the enemy in WW1.

1. Government employed prohibition agents. They would raid speakeasies and destroy their alcohol.

2. Information campaigns.

3. Widespread support form citizens, particularly in the mid-west.

(Maryland never introduced prohibition)

1. Corruption - law enforcement officers took bribes. Many didn't see drinking alcohol as a serious crime.

2. Gangsters - made about $2billion out of the sale of illegal alcohol. 130 gangland murders in Chicago in 1926-17 and not one arrest.

3. Speakeasies - illegal bars sprang up everywhere, often hidden in basements of more reputable shops.

1. St Valentine's Day massacre - Al Capone's gang murdered 7 of rival gangster Bugsy Moran's gang.

2. The Great Depression - prohibition cost money to enforce. Legalising alcohol would create jobs and raise tax revenue.

3. Rather than being turned into alcohol grain was going to waste.

1. Share confidence - people thought shares would continue to increase in value.

When there are more buyers than sellers then share prices will rise, however, when more sellers than buyers share prices fall.

2. Speculation - people borrowed money to buy shares, then sell them on when they've increased in value, paying back the loan and making a quick profit. When shares fell speculators not only list their shares but couldn't pay back their loans.

3. New consumer goods - by 1929 most people had a telephone, radio and fridge. So, the amount that were sold began to slow down.

4. Banks - as soon as banks began to struggle, people rushed to get their money out all at once. Banks work by investing lenders money in other schemes to make money for themselves, so they never have as much money as everyone has invested in them in one place at one time. This meant that banks could not afford to give lenders their money and began to go under.

By 1932:

1. 5000 banks failed.

2. 14 million unemployed.

3. Farmers, unable to pay mortgages, were evicted from land.

4. People were evicted from homes - went to live in 'Hoovervilles', a form of shanty town.

1. Great Depression - things couldn't have been much worse for the US. Most people wanted a change. Unemployment and homelessness was rife.

2. New Deal - FDR offered a 'New Deal' for the American people. He showed that he was willingly to be proactive to get America out of depression. Hoover had no plan for recovery.

3. FDR had overcome Polio - he appeared to be a strong, 'man of the people'.

4. 'I will' speeches - restored confidence in the American people.

A period of intense activity during the first hundred days of FDR's presidency.

He worked round the clock to produce an enormous range of sweeping reforms:

Emergency Banking Act;

Securities Exchange Commission.

1. getting Americans back to work;

2. protecting savings and property;

3. providing relief for the sick and elderly;

4. getting American industry back on its feet.

Radio broadcasts to the American people.

Restored confidence in the government.

An estimated 60 million Americans tuned in to hear them.

1. Huey Long - New Deal not doing enough for the American people.

2. Republicans - doing too much for the people: too complicated and too many codes and regulations; Alphabet Agencies were unfair competition for private companies; too similar to economic plans taking place in the USSR; the wealthy were rich because they had worked hard and used their abilities. Why should they feel the brunt of taxation?

3. The Supreme Court - dominated by Republicans; could overturn new laws if they were deemed unconsititutional. They backed down after FDR attempted to have 6 more Supreme Court judges created in 1936.

Yes:

1. Social impact: Restored faith in the Government; huge social improvements - housing, schooling, etc.

2. Economic impact: created millions of jobs; stabilised the banking system; provided US with new schools, power stations and roads.

3. Intolerance: 200,000 African Americans gained from Alphabet Agencies; Eleanor Roosevelt became an important campaigner on social issues; Indian Reorgainsation Act (1934) provided money to help Native Americans buy and imporve land.

No:

1. The New Deal didn't solve underlying economic problems: second depression in 1937, USA took longer to recover than Europe; 6 million unemployed in 1941. (Only WW2 brought an end to unemployment)

2. Intolerance: Many New Deal agencies discriminated against African Americans; most programmes aimed at male workers, not women; Native Americans remained a poor and excluded section of society.

3. FDR was accused of being too communist and undermining American values.

Alphabet Agency.

Aimed to solve the problem of the 'Dust Bowl' in the Tennessee river valley.

A series of dams transformed the region, providing electricity and jobs in an area badly hit by the Depression.