How far did the American society change between 1910s to 1930s?

During 1910 and 1930 American society changed a lot as it went through an economic boom. There were a lot of changes that happened during this period which affected different groups in society in different ways. For some people life improved and became more exciting whilst for others it was a period of hardship. Some of the great changes in America at this time happened to women. Before this women were treated as a second class citizen and had a restricted life. They couldnt vote and wore restricted clothes and their Social life was limited. Smoking or drinking in public was unladylike and divorce was quite rare, only 81 of every 1000 marriage ended in divorce. World War 1 changed this. Woman started to work and proved they could do the jobs men did although they worked in the unskilled and lowest paid jobs. In the 1920s a number of American women were known as flappers. They cut there hair short and wore shorter clothes. There was a huge change in attitudes also. The flappers began to drink and smoke in public and went to speakeasies alone. Working and middle class mothers though that Girls arent so modest nowadays; they dress differently. Its the girls clothing; we cant keep our boys decent when girls dress that way. Girls have more nerve nowadays look at their clothes! Girls are far more aggressive today. They call the boys up to try to make dates with the boys as they never would when I was a girl. This source tells how time had changed as the mother said as they never would when I was a girl. This shows change in society. However this source is biased as it comes from the older generation but is useful because it shows the change. Although this source is not fully true because in the rural areas women still dressed more traditionally and followed there tradition. Two flappers dancing on the roof of a Chicago hotel in 1926.

This change is questioned by some historians who say life didnt change so much for women, in fact they say life became harder. New inventions like vacuum cleaner and stoves meant more jobs at home, and twice as much cooking. Also children were not aloud to work anymore so women had to take care of them. Although women had won the right to vote it had less impact than hoped for. Women were allowed to work they had jobs such as librarian, teachers and nurses but men still had the high post jobs. The number of women doctors actually decreased in the 1920s. Two million more women were employed in 1930 then 1920 but it was only an increase of 1%. Although at the starting the change seemed big it did not change everyones lives greatly. Henry Ford

Whilst new inventions certainly changed the lives of women, others like the car Changed the life of many Americans. Henry ford produced cars which were cheap enough for ordinary people to buy. In 1909 he introduced his model T ford the tin lizzie which changed the lives of American people. Before it was hard to travel but now people were able to travel far. Not only did the car change lives but it also affected America economically, using 20% of Americas steel, 80% of Americas rubber 75% of Americas plate glass and 65% of Americas leather. The more cars made the more jobs. A writer in the 1920s described the economical impact of the car cars on the road used seven billion gallons of petrol a year and this made the oil producers of Texas rich. New roads had to be build and this meant jobs in the construction industry. And along the new roads sprung up thousands of garages, gas stations restaurants motels and hot dog stands all providing even more jobs. The writer has described the changes which took place after the car was invented and how it changed the landscape. Henry ford created the magic belt. Before the days of mass production most cars were made up in small workshops. In 1914 Ford opened his new factory using the assembly method of meat packing factories. An electric belt carried the car parts at the same speed pass the workers who stood at the same spot and did just one job. In the 1913 it took the workers 14 hours to make a car model but with the belt it took them only 93 minutes to do. Not only did cars changed the lives of Americans there were other new inventions like telephones, radios and vacuum cleaners. All were mass-produced making them cheaper so people could buy them. Catalogues made it possible for these goods to spread into rural areas. Change in rural areas was less welcome. They remained conservative and traditional and were shocked by the behaviour of the people in the cities. There life was considered to be safe with close personal ties hard working and morals. Alternatively cities were places of change and excitement; they read about new scientific discoveries and debated social issues. People in rural areas even differed in religion from those in urban areas. Rural preachers taught every word of bible literally believing that god created the universe in 7 days. People in urban areas believed in the evolution. Tennessee passed the nations first law that made it a crime to teach evolution. On the other hand people living in the urban areas were really changing there thinking and were becoming more and more open minded. For the first time in the 1920s more people lived in the urban areas then in rural areas. In 1920 New York had a population of 5 million and Chicago had a population of 3 million. There was a huge demographic change from the south of America to the north of America. One of the reasons for this change was racism against black people. They were treated very badly in the south, as the south passed a law called the Jim crows law this law meant that black people were not allowed to travel in the same bus as the white people, go to the same school as the white people and were also not allowed to work at the same place as the white people. So therefore thousand of black people moved from south to north where they had a better chance to get jobs and education. Some historians say the live for black people improved a lot as they got more jobs and better education in the north and also black singers came to Hollywood and were very famous, like Billie holiday who wrote a song on racism. However some historians say that life still did not improve for the black people as they still received a lot of racism from the people around them.

Immigration increased in this period as people were coming to look for job opportunities. After World War 1 immigration from Europe was limited and there was hardly any immigration from Asia. Immigrants were treated badly and not respected. An Italian immigrant in the 1921 was quoted I was once traveling by tram home from work. It was my usual tram, packed with my fellow Italian immigrants. I saw a group of boys along the roadside and one threw a rock and smashed the window. I was showered with glass and my head started bleeding. It made me feel most unwelcome. This source shows me that life for immigrants in America was hard and they were treated unfairly. However this source could bias as its coming from an immigrant himself but it is still useful as it shows the attitude of the Americans towards the immigrants. As the racism in America increased so did membership of the Ku Klux Klan. People who hated Jews Catholics, immigrants and black people were attracted to the Klan William J.Simmons, who helped to make the Klan popular, was quoted America is a garbage can! When the hordes of aliens walk to the ballot box and their votes outnumbered yours, then that alien horde has got you by the neck the language in this source shows that this source is biased however its still useful as it shows you the attitude of the Klan towards immigrants. The purpose is to scare people so they go against the immigrants. The reputation of the Klan was damaged after a scandal which involved one of there leaders convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering a young secretary. As time went on and the American economy started to recover Klan eventually lost most of its support. Prohibition also bought a lot of changes with it. This law banned the sale and transport of alcohol. Opposition to alcohol was not a new idea; a lot of immigrants had strong religious feelings and disapproved of alcohol. By the 1910 the anti saloon league was a well organized group in the countryside which got the support of protestants to encourage people to vote for dry candidates. A supporter of prohibition described alcohol as alcohol is a poison, it lowers to an appalling degree the character of our citizens, thereby weakening public morals and democracy produces widespread crime poverty and insanity, inflicts disease and untimely death upon hundred and thousands of citizens and leads to there children being handicapped.. This source is not reliable because it the view of a prohibition supporter so it is biased but it shows me why some people were against drinking alcohol, they though it to be the cause of all diseases and crime. Some historians disagree with the idea of prohibition being a big change as they say alcohol was already banned in America before prohibition came in. However there were more supporters of prohibition rather then its opponents. John Kramer was the first prohibition commissioner and congress gave Kramer $2.2 million to help him succeed in him aim, this paid for 1500 prohibition agents. This was not enough as speakeasies started to appear in many parts of the country. By 1929 there were though to be at least 30,000 speakeasies in New York alone. It was very difficult to stop the smuggling of alcohol as America had 30,000 kilometers of coastline and land borders. Neither Canada nor Mexico was dry countries. A gangster named al Capone played a big part in the sale of alcohol Capone took control of the Chicago liquor business. Bootlegging came in when drinks were bough into America without detection. Bootlegging and speakeasies bought great changes to the American society. The government though prohibition would lower the numbers of crimes but it only managed to increase them. A historian who examined the cause of crime in the

1920s said drinking largely because it was forbidden became fashionable. Prohibition was the chief cause of a great increase in crimes of every kind, especially crimes in violence. This source shows me that prohibition didnt manage to put a complete stop on drinking but it also increased crime rates. This source is fairly reliable as its coming from a historian. Prohibition was trying to reduce the amount of alcohol in America but only managed to increase it and raise the crime rate. While so many Americans were enjoying the boom most farmers were not. The total farm income dropped. There were a number of reasons behind the farming problems. After the war ended Europe imported far less food from America the tariffs also made it difficult to import from America, which affected the farmers. Farmers also had to face competition from Canadian wheat producers in the period 1900 to 1920 the farmers were doing well, so therefore more and more land was being farmed. More machinery and improved fertilizers made US agriculture more efficient the results to this were that in 1920 the farmers were producing more wheat then needed. In the 1920s an average farmer was producing enough wheat to feed his family and fourteen other people. Due to this wheats prices fell. In the 1921s alone most farmers price fell by 50%. However some historians would argue that not all the farmers were affected by these problems. Rich Americans wanted fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the year. So therefore some of the farmers who grew fresh fruits and vegetable had there business going. However for most of the farmers 1920s was a time of hardship. This was a very serious issue because about half of all Americans lived in rural areas mostly working on farms or selling/buying goods from or to the farmers. Six million rural Americans were forced of there land forcing them to migrate to the cities. They were mostly unskilled workers and had very low paid jobs. In conclusion American society changed a lot between 1920 to 1930 and not always for the better. Whilst some benefited from the changes others suffered. People in the cities changed more than those in rural areas and North America changed more than the south. The 20s were an exciting time for many and society changed not only economically but socially and environmentally.