The twentieth-century world, Year 10: the boom and the Roaring Twenties (America 1920–1973 option)

A moving assembly line

提示The cars came to the workers.

为什么Before the line, one car took about 12.5 hours of labour to assemble; afterwards it took 93 minutes. That speed let Ford cut his prices and sell the Model T to ordinary families.

laissez-faire

提示Governments left businesses free to do as they chose.

为什么Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, all Republicans, held the presidency from 1921 to 1933. Coolidge cut income taxes sharply and favoured a light hand in regulating business.

Hire purchase

提示Buy now, pay later.

为什么It let families take home cars and radios before they had saved the full price, which helped to keep sales, and so production and jobs, rising.

Buying on the margin

提示A small deposit, and the broker lent the rest.

为什么Typically buyers put down about 10 per cent and borrowed the rest, using the shares as security for the loan. When prices fell, many could not repay, and that made the crash worse.

They grew more than could be sold, so prices fell

提示Think supply and demand.

为什么Foreign tariffs also made it harder to sell American farm produce abroad.

The 19th Amendment

提示It followed decades of campaigning by suffragists.

为什么It said the right to vote could not be denied on account of sex. In practice, many Black women in the Southern states were still kept from voting.

The Jazz Singer

提示It was made by Warner Bros. in the late 1920s.

为什么Most of it was still silent, with a music score; only some scenes had speech and song. Its success helped to push Hollywood towards sound films, or 'talkies'.

Flapper

提示She might bob her hair and dance the Charleston.

为什么Many older Americans disapproved of flappers, accusing them of flouting the old rules of behaviour.

Their jobs were mostly lower-skilled and lower-paid

提示Think of typists and shop assistants, not managers.

为什么Educated women mostly found openings in 'women's professions' such as teaching and nursing. In factories, women often started on a lower hourly rate than men.

Thousands of illegal clubs needed live bands to attract customers

提示Think about what drinkers wanted besides the drink.

为什么These clubs also brought men and women together, unlike the old men-only saloons.