US Prosperity in the 1920s iGCSE Revision Notes

Premium

Click the button below to download this worksheet for use in the classroom or at home.

Lesson Snapshot

The Booming Economy:

Between 1922 and 1929 the annual Gross National Product of the USA increased by 40%.
The average income per head increased by 27%.
Consumer boom – growth of personal possessions (c.f. Woolworths, hire purchase,commercial travellers).
Innovation in production methods, especially in the motor industry (by 1925 Ford were producing a car every 10 seconds); this pushed down prices and made goods more accessible for ordinary people (the ‘Tin Lizzie’ cost $850 in 1910, only $295 in 1920).
Synthetics – the invention of bakelite (the first plastic), cellophane and nylon – and chemicals.
Upsurge in car ownership – esp. the Ford Model T; 15 million had been produced by 1927, and the number of Americans owning cars rose from 8 to 23 million.
Consumer durables/electrical goods – fridges, washing machines, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, record players.
Communications revolution – number of telephone doubled/ number of radios increased from 60,000 to 10 million.
Entertainment industry – Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin, the ‘talkies’ and cinemas, jazz clubs and speakeasies.
Stock market – Wall Street boomed (a ‘bull’ market) with many people buying shares to make a profit. Many new businesses were ‘floated’ on the stock market.
Skyscrapers, highways and urban development.