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Impact of the Second World War on American society and economy pdf
Economic effects on america during the great depression
Economic effects on america during the great depression
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Before the 19th century, farming was done by hand and by using small tools. The Market and Industrial Revolutions brought about lots of new inventions that benefitted agriculture. Very few people changed American agriculture more than Cyrus McCormick did in the 1800’s. His invention, the McCormick mechanical reaper, revolutionized farming by putting together many parts involved in harvesting crops into one machine. The mechanical reaper was a revolutionary farming tool that saved effort and time for farmers by allowing them to more efficiently harvest and cut
Farm technology made a lot of progress from 1890-1920. Before this time, all the farming was done by hand. There were many inventions from wire to tractors to help make farming easier. Three inventions that really changed farming were gas tractors, cream separator and horse drawn combine. Gas tractors were created so that you didn’t have to use your horses so much and so you could pull more.
The Great Depression of 1929 was a global economic catastrophe. In the United States, the crisis blanketed the country with widespread unemployment, almost seizing construction and industry, and a near 90% decline in stock prices was observed. The acquisition of raw materials and the price of commodities also suffered greatly. The exportation of coffee beans, other agricultural products, and metals was starkly impacted by an increase in tariffs, a strategy implemented my many nations to compensate for the economic downfall. Prior to the depression, Americans lived in time referred to as the New Era (1900 – 1929).
The people were in debt and and just dug themselves a deeper hole “,combined with production of more and more goods and rising personal debt,”(The Great Depressions) and had no way of making money to pay it all back without jobs. This all goes back to the roaring twenties when eh people bought and bought and dint think of the consequences. The biggest problem for the American was the stock market crash “the stock market crashed, triggering the Great Depression, the worst economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world. ”(The Great Depression) leading them into social mayhem. The people although causing this distress themselves sought out other things to blame while being completely helpless in their
Farmers were enticed by high prices persuaded farmers to grow a single “cash” crop. Profits were then used to buy food and manufactured goods. In the 1880s, bankruptcy fell into the nation and caused low prices and a deflated currency. As a result, there was not enough dollars to go around and caused debt. Farmers were forced to by expensive machinery to increased crop production, which were sold at low prices and caused even more debt..
How did the booming economy of the 1920’s affect the standard of living of the laboring man and create a new consumer economy? While the Gilded Age proved to be a challenging time for the laboring man by requiring whole families including small children to work long hours for little pay, the 1920’s was a prosperous time for Americans. Not only did wages increase, but a booming economy meant innovation that led to more products being available for consumers. Now that workers were being treated as shoppers, they acquired a purchasing power that heightened the booming American economy. This new found consumerism was steadily increased by new and wide sweeping advertising and the mass distribution of goods through chain stores.
When the stock market crashed people lost sixteen million shares worth of stock. When World War I ended in 1918, people started spending more money than they used to and buying things on credit. The 1920s were called “a prosperous boom time.” A new thing to Americans was credit, which we had never had before. A popular saying was “Buy now, pay later!”
Imagine the agonizing task of cutting innumerable acres of tall, strong grass with only a single, giant knife. Envision the back-breaking pain of bending over in the scorching sun for hours and hours to accomplish what is now a simple task. In the past, farm work was extensively different and much more intense than it is today. In the early 1800s, a farmer had to use a scythe to cut the fields. It was terribly tiresome work and took very lengthy amounts of time.
The 1920’s in America was a time of huge economic prosperity. Post-war optimism was at its peak and anyone who could afford it was enjoying the fruits of American capitalism. It was a time to get rich quick and thanks to things like the invention of the production line, the American culture of consumerism skyrocketed forward in one of the biggest economic booms the country has ever seen. For many Americans, looking forward there was nothing but more prosperity to come.
America in the 1920s In a decade where Americans prospered and they embraced new ways of thinking and behaving, is now considered one of the most significant eras in history. The 1920s are often referred to as “The Roaring Twenties” because of the vast cultural changes that the U.S. went through shortly after the end of World War I. The decade presented many new aspects to a regular American life with the automobile, movie, radio, and the many other industries that were thriving. These, along with many more industries, were guiding the nation to a new age, since possessions that the public would have only dreamed about at the time were being manufactured right before them.
Saying that all Americans prospered in the 1920’s is quite a general statement, as it is true that many American 's did benefit from the economic boom, and were able to have a higher standard of living, however this was only possible with an urban lifestyle, with large industries and businesses where people could afford to buy shares and stocks, and create a greater demand for consumer goods, leading to a rise in company share values, and the tax cuts brought more wealth in the company so some people, for example Henry Ford 's workers, found their wages increase. Despite this advancement many Americans did not benefit from the boom for examples farmers ended up going bankrupt, and jobs were replaced by more efficient machines, so the
After WWII, society took a drastic change for the better in America. America had just gone through the Great Depression, which was the deepest decline in America’s whole history and everyone was affected. Numerous people lost their jobs and were no longer able to afford basic necessities like a house, food, and water. Many could no longer support their families and had nothing. This was all in result of the market crashing, sending the economy into a downward spiral.
After the civil war, making a living as a farmer was made difficult because of droughts, grasshopper plagues, high interest rates, falling prices and even rising costs of living. Yearly, the prices of crops fell considerably. For example in 1874, corn prices were forty one cents per bushel but in 1897 the prices feel to thirty cents per bushel. Farmers realized lower and lower returns from cotton farming in 19th century. Interest rates were increasing by ten percent per year.
However, there were also negative changes in American society during the 1920’s, namely the increased crime and mortality rates caused by the Prohibition. The Prohibition (1920-1933) was a period in American history when the manufacturing, sale, purchase and distribution of “intoxicating liquors” with alcohol levels greater than 0.5% was constitutionally outlawed. As the these laws were impossible to enforce, consumption of alcohol continued but became a more covert affair as moonshine (unlawfully produced alcohol), bootlegging (the smuggling of alcohol) and speakeasies (illicit bars) emerged. As two hundred thousand speakeasies opened nationwide, disregard for the law was normalised and ordinary people became criminals. Gangsters such as Al
By 1928, Germany, Brazil, and the economies of Southeast Asia were depressed. By early 1929, the economies of Poland, Argentina, and Canada were contracting, and the U.S. economy followed in the middle of 1929. In almost every country of the world, the Great Depression caused drastic declines in output, severe unemployment, and acute deflation. Its social and cultural effects were no less astounding, especially in the United States, where the Great Depression represented the harshest adversity faced by Americans since the Civil War. The Great Depression is often called a “defining moment” in the twentieth-century history of the United States.
