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Book No. – 52 (History)
Book Name – Modern World History (Norman Lowe)
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1. AMERICA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
1.1. Women and suffrage
1.2. The American economy in 1900
2. THE TRANSITION FROM AN AGRARIAN TO AN INDUSTRIAL ECONOMY
3. THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE ORIGINS OF THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT
4. THE TAFT ADMINISTRATION
5. THE ‘RED SCARE
6. THE ELECTION OF 1920 AND THE HARDING ADMINISTRATION
7. PROHIBITION
8. AL CAPONE AND ORGANIZED CRIME
9. RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM
10. THE COOLIDGE ERA AND THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1924
11. THE ECONOMY IN THE 1920S
11.1. Farmers and agriculture
11.2. Henry Ford and the automobile industry
11.3. Analysis: How widespread was the affluence of the 1920s?
11.4. Republican economic policy
11.5. Coolidge’s decision not to seek a second term and the emergence of Hoover
12. HOOVER’S DOMESTIC AGENDA
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LANGUAGE
USA boom and bust: 1900–29
Chapter – 22
Table of Contents
- The United States entered the new century not quite ready to assume a leadership role militarily, but its economic supremacy was increasingly evident.
- American supremacy in economic matters became inseparable from military and political influence.
- Many Americans felt reassured by the distance from Europe, hoping to isolate themselves from European affairs for as long as possible.
- The country’s destiny was to become the pre-eminent power in every sense as the American economy grew, so did its political and military influence.
- In 1917, the U.S. entered the Great War against Germany, playing a key role not only in ending the conflict but also in shaping a controversial peace.
- In the 1920s, issues like nativism, the rise of organized crime, religious fundamentalism, and economic disparities raised questions about American society’s health.
- Despite these challenges, the economic boom of the 1920s exemplified the decade, particularly the rapid rise of the automobile industry.
- The inter-connectedness of the world economy was becoming clearer, with America exerting cultural, economic, and political influence globally.
- In 1929, the Wall Street Crash symbolized the downturn that caused global economic shockwaves.
- The reality was that the American economy had serious flaws beyond the financiers of New York City.
- The global depression was a consequence of America’s over-reliance on American enterprise and growth.
AMERICA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- September 14th, 1901, Adirondacks weather was hostile; a horse-drawn carriage rushed from Mount Marcy to North Creek Station.
- The forty-two-year-old passenger was Theodore Roosevelt, urging urgency as his stricken chief (President McKinley) was critically wounded.
- Roosevelt, at the time, was vice president and would soon become the 26th president of the United States after McKinley’s death.
- Roosevelt’s reputation as one of the most energetic presidents remains intact, with an ambitious approach compared to McKinley’s caution.
- In 1900, the U.S. population was 76,212,168, with 87% white and 11.9% people of color.
- The U.S. had rapid population growth in the late 19th century; from 1880-1890, it increased by 25.5%, and by 1900, it increased by 20.7%.
- In 2000, the U.S. population was 281,421,906.
- Fertility was a major factor driving population growth in America, with cultural emphasis on raising a family.
- Immigration from Mexico and Eastern Europe drove the increase in population, with demand for cheap labor in agriculture and fruit-harvesting.
- Many new immigrants were Catholic, clashing with the Protestant values prevalent in the U.S.
- Prejudice against Catholics and nativism led to organized hostility, like the American Protective Association in the 1890s and the revived Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.
- The U.S. was a land of liberty but also a place of paradox, with deep-seated anti-Catholic sentiment.
Women and suffrage
- America’s economic modernity was not reflected in attitudes towards women and female suffrage.
- Two organizations led the demand for women’s right to vote:
- In 1869, Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony established the National Association for Woman Suffrage.
- Julia Ward Howe and Lucy Stone led the American Woman Suffrage Association.
- In 1890, the two organizations merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).
- By the turn of the century, only four states (Idaho, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming) granted women the same voting rights as men.
- The fact that the land of liberty denied the vote to most women was a glaring contradiction.
- Indigenous peoples fared worse than women, facing dispossession and violence.
- In 1850, about 250,000 American Indians farmed and hunted in the Western U.S..
- By 1890, due to wars, treaties, and destruction of the buffalo, they had lost almost all their lands.
- The population in the west grew from 179,000 in 1850 to 4.3 million by 1890, at the expense of indigenous people.
- Low esteem, poverty, and disease plagued American Indians throughout the 20th century.
- The empire that cherished the principle of liberty was simultaneously responsible for the genocide of Native Americans.
The American economy in 1900
- Rapid population growth led to societal change on an unprecedented scale by the turn of the century.
- In 1900, the last horse-car in the U.S. made its final run in Washington, DC.
- That year, Bloomingdale’s department store in New York City opened its first elevator.
- Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show opened at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
- The American League was formed as a rival to the National League in baseball.
- By the end of the 19th century, America, once predominantly rural, was rapidly evolving into an industrial and financial powerhouse.
- Agricultural output increased, but the percentage of the labor force employed in agriculture dropped from 53% in 1870 to 37.5% in 1900.
- Cities like New York, Boston, and Chicago became comparable to their European counterparts.
- The World’s Fair in Chicago (1893) celebrated American technological progress.
- Historian Whiteclay Chambers II stated the new American, powered by coal, chemical, and electrical energy, was “a sort of God” compared to former humans.
- Jill Lepore noted industrialism brought wealth to a few, prosperity to the nation, cheaper goods to the middle class, and misery to many.
- America’s economic performance in the late 19th century was outstanding.
- Fertile agricultural land enabled the U.S. to increase wheat output by 256% and corn by 222% from 1865 to 1898.
- Modern farming techniques and transport systems made food supplies abundant and affordable.
- Coal production rose by 800% from the end of the Civil War to 1898.
- Railway track increased by 567% in the same period.
- In 1869, workers marked the completion of the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory, Utah.
- From 1880-1890, railway mileage grew by an average of 7,000 miles per year.
- The speed of American technological development was largely due to the efforts of ordinary workers, including children in the late 19th century.
- The artisan and agricultural economy of 1865 was overtaken by the labor of workers in emerging industries.
- Cheap labor was crucial for rapid growth.
- American entrepreneurs like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan helped shape the American super-economy.
- Thomas Edison’s work ethic, with fifty-four-hour workdays, exemplified the inventive spirit driving the economy.
- The collective effort of ordinary workers and industrial barons led to staggering results.
- By 1914, the British Empire needed to borrow American money during its war with Germany.