The Booming Twenties

Despite the hardships and losses of World War I, the years that followed it – the 1920s became one of the calmest and most prosperous decades in American life and an era of good changes in many spheres. The period started in 1920, when women all over the country took part in the presidential elections for the first time and the Republican candidate Warren G. Harding got the overwhelming victory promising the nation "to return to normalcy". During the presidency of Harding and his successors Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover the most favorable conditions for the US industry were created, many important reforms occurred at state and local levels of government, and significant advances were made in science and technology. "The man who builds a factory builds a temple," Coolidge pronounced. "The man who works there worships there."

These three presidents increased tariffs to protect US manufacturing from foreign competition and cut taxes for the wealthy. So during the 1920s, American consumerism reached full bloom. Encouraged by advertising and new forms of credit Americans readily bought automobiles, radios, houses, and stocks. The era of electric appliances began – now Americans could buy different electric equipment – phonographs, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, sewing machines and many other things that made life easier and better.

Radio became very popular, as the radio stations were set up all over the country broadcasting music, comedies, and mystery shows. Cinema was another way of spending leisure time. By the end of the 1920s, silent movies were replaced by sound films or "talkies" as they were called.

The era was also noted for Prohibition – a law that came into effect on June 16, 1920, prohibiting any use of alcohol in the USA. Prohibition had a devastating effect – it encouraged law-abiding citizens to use illegal "speakeasies", where alcohol was sold illegally and gave spread to bootlegging business and big gangsters' groups controlling the business. The violence also grew – Chicago's Capone mob took in $60 million a year and killed 300 people while doing it. Prohibition proved to be a real failure and was finally ended in the days of the Great Depression when President Roosevelt tried to raise money for federal government from alcoholic taxes and tariffs.

The new time often referred to as the Jazz Age, the Era of Excess or the Roaring '20's changed the character of life in the USA; many people were shocked by the changes in the morals, manners and fashion of American youth. A small but influential movement of writers and intellectuals "the Lost Generation" (among them were the writers F.Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway) expressed their discontent with the materialism and spiritual emptiness of life in the United States.

The Great Depression

In October 1929, the era of optimism and gaiety ended – the stock market crash wiped out 40 % of the paper values of common stock. The stocks that were at a record high level did not find buyers, stock prices dropped more and more, so millions of dollars were lost on October 29, later called Black Tuesday. The Depression deepened, and gradually millions of Americans were deprived of their life savings. Businesses were closed, factories shut down and banks failed. By 1932, one out of every four Americans was unemployed.

The Depression was caused by the disparity between the growing country's production and the ability of people to buy goods. The great number of innovations during and after the war increased productivity of industry and fanning, so people could not buy everything that was produced, factories were closed down and millions of workers lost their jobs. Jobless people had to line for free bread or soup or tramp about the country looking for a new job.

President Hoover, who had been elected only eight months before the stock market crashed, tried to fight the Depression, but the efforts of his administration proved ineffective. At the beginning of his term the number of the jobless was 4 million, in 6 months it jumped to 6 million, and by the end of his presidency nearly 13 million workers were unemployed and millions were underemployed, working only part-time.

By the time of the next presidential campaign in 1932, Hoover's methods of fighting the Depression showed no positive results, and the elections were won by a Democratic candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt, who surrounded himself with a "brain trust" of lawyers and university professors to prepare a national political platform.

This program known as the New Deal came into action after Roosevelt's inauguration. It's essential points were the restoration of purchasing power to farmers, blue-collar workers and the middle classes, immediate cut of production, immediate and direct relief to the unemployed.

The main aim of the New Deal program was to restore people's confidence in the banking system, and trust to government. To fight unemployment a Civilian Conservation Corps was created – it employed young people in various conservation projects – planting trees, creating sanctuaries and conserving natural deposits. This program was aimed at work relief rather than welfare.

In agriculture an economic relief was provided to farmers – short- and medium-term loans gave an opportunity to preserve and refinance their farms. A new system of government subsidies made economic stability for farmers possible.

In industry the national planning was introduced as opposed to an individualistic, intensely competitive, laissez-faire economy. New labor unions appeared, so labor's power increased not only in industry, but also in politics.

The New Deal's cornerstone became the Social Security Act of 1935, which created the system of insurance for the aged, unemployed and disabled based on employer and employee contribution. Today Social Security Program is one of the largest domestic programs administered by the US government.

Task 1. Answer the following questions.

1. How was the Alaska territory acquired by the USA? How was this purchase taken by Americans?

2. What territories were ceded to the USA after Spanish-American War?

3. What were the causes of World War I?

4. Why did American neutrality collide?

5. How did Americans contribute to the victory in the war?

6. How did World War I change the life of Americans?

7. Why are the 1920s called one of the calmest and most prosperous period in the history of the USA?

8. What caused the Great Depression?

9. How did the New Deal program fight the Great Depression?

10. Why did the Social Security Act become the New Deal's corner stone?

Task 2. Historical consequences. Match two statements from columns A and B into a compound sentence with a conjunction "so".

A	B
1) The USA was afraid that the course of World War I could change a Western civilization in case of German victory	a) the country experienced numerous riots and strikes
2) The war economic boom changed working conditions in the USA	b) the factories were closed down
3) Economic policy in post-war years aimed at increasing prosperity and over-production	c) the national planning was introduced in industry
4) People could not buy everything that was produced	d) the country produced much more than its people could buy
5) Individualistic, intensely competitive, laissez-faire economy proved to be subjected to crisis	e) Congress voted for entering the war

Task 3. Vocabulary development. State the meaning of the following words and fill in the gaps.