1920's Research Paper

Did you know that during the 1920’s the nation’s wealth more than doubled, and for the first time there were more people living in the city than on farms? During the 1920’s, also known as the Roaring Twenties, it was a time of prosperity and changed the daily life of so many people. There were lots of technological advancements like automobiles, radios, and televisions. The rise of spare time and disposable income led to the increasing popularity of social and leisure activities such as dancing, going to the movies, and my favorite pastime sports. The economic boom of the 1920’s, with its excessive consumer spending, increase in stock market popularity, and overconfidence and speculation, ultimately led to the devastating economic crash of

With all these new advancements such as the automobile, the radio, and the amazing television, it started to influence a consumer kind of culture. Americans embraced the idea of spending on goods and services as a symbol of prosperity and wealth. A huge technological advancement that was very beneficial was the assembly line. Henry Ford was one of the first to adopt this new invention, and it helped him greatly. “His innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to one hour and 33 minutes.” (History) Now with the help of the assembly line Henry Ford could assemble nearly 8 cars in the amount of time to assemble one without the assembly line. With the assembly line becoming popular, it heavily increased the amount of goods that was created and available to buy. This new invention encourages people to buy more goods and spend more

“Around $14 billion of stock value was lost, wiping out thousands of investors.” (“Wall Street Crash of 1929”) It is estimated that around 16 million shares were traded in a single day creating around 14 billion lost. Triggered by overconfidence and speculative investments, the stock market began to rapidly fall. With more and more people selling back their stocks and trying to get out of the stock market, it eventually led to the lowest point in history. “This began a chain of events that led to the Great Depression,” (Crooks) Black Tuesday may not have been the only cause of the Great Depression but it was the event that caused many more things to happen. Following the stock market crash, people began to panic and lose confidence in banks. Over the course of four waves, people went down to the bank and demanded their money back. This is catastrophic for banks because they don’t have cash to give back to everyone. This panic resulted in numerous bank failures across the country, as many banks were incapable of returning depositor funds. “Some 650 banks failed in 1929; the number would rise to more than 1,300 the following year.” (History.com Editors, “Bank Run”) This shows just how catastrophic these bank runs were for banks. The bank crisis worsened the Great Depression by causing widespread panic and loss of confidence in the