How Did So Many Americans Live Differently

During the years between 1920 and 1960, America saw change in many aspects of life. The United States was a part of two major wars and a crash of the banking system that crippled the economy greater than ever seen in this country’s history. Also the country had new insecurities to tackle such as immigration and poor treatment of workers. These events led to the change of America lives socially, economically, and politically. The people of America changed their ideas of what the country’s place in the world should be. The issues challenging America led the country to change from isolation to war, depression to prosperity, and social change. The threats to American way of life, foreign and domestic, were the changing forces to the

Prior to the 20th century, America was in an era of intense manufacturing and economic growth as capitalism soared. Cities and industry grew rapidly as the idea of urbanization became more popular. However, labor unions were on the rise due to unfavorable working conditions, some even being hazardous, while a widening wealth gap grew. Discrimination and segregation remained strong during this period and an overall American culture was seemingly out the window as disagreements were constant. However this began to shift in the first half of the 20th century, American identity and culture was constantly adapting due to the influence of major events like the Roaring Twenties which led to growth in consumerism and entertainment, the Great Depression which led to a struggling community looking for ways to survive, and the events of World War 2 that built a strong community, once again altering culture for many.

Americans established a new social identity of trying to allow more men the ability to climb the social ladder and being given more opportunities, but still experienced problems of the

American history is the 1920 era. This time period was full of prosperous citizens. The economy,

The American family life differ now from the Europeans because each member women, men and children had important responsibilities significant to survival. Also, the American society was more egalitarian than in Europe at exception from indentures servants and slavery. The ethnicity was very diverse in the English colonies due of the many refugees that settled there. As a result, it caused a diversity of religions too, unlike the Europeans that banished Catholics, Quakers, as many other religions. Nevertheless, it still shared similar features with the Old World by the practice of slavery in Africa and the English colonies. As also, in the early America they tried to keep the rules and features of the aristocracy as in Europe.

During the late 19th and early 20th, there were many problems caused by the rapid urbanization and industrialization. In response, a group of individuals came together and their goal was to reform the United States. During this era people were dealing with problems such as poverty, the breakdown of democratic government, and the exploitation of labor. In addition, very limited group of people owned the majority of wealth of this country. This individuals were trying to reduce the long working hours, and as Zinn says: bring a remedy to changes that the industrialization was causing.(Zinn 354)

With this comes many advantages and disadvantages towards the high and low class. Workers began to be treated unfairly during these changes giving many high powered businessmen an idea to do the same thing. With all the new immigrants coming into America with nothing they had no other choice but to accept their unfair rights and work. Immigrants and children becoming the vast majority of the population means almost everyone was working, stated by the Liz Library how, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls and men will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy,” showing many were working and being treated unfairly by doing

     Since its inception, America as a nation has developed and progressed according to trends of change that collectively define an era. Like all other eras, the time period of 1875-1925 experienced growth, changes, movements, and new ideals. It is the way that these changes came about that defines this era. Americans started to push for changes in many arenas of life that were previously unchallenged. New experiences and opportunities were also presented to America that caused tributaries in the former American ideal. These pressures for change could not be ignored and thus America continued its maturity in a new and unique manner. The changes in the American sphere of life and the development of greater

The 1860s to 1920s was known as the gilded age in the United States of America. Immigrants moved to the U.S. to have a better life but when they arrived, they an unexpected situation. In the gilded age, Robber barons or business owners made a tremendous amount of money. Most of them accomplished this by using monopolies and trusts which led them to gain power and money. While money was flowing in the United States, the lower class population lived in tenements, where diseases would spread fast and comfort was not available. Workers had to work more than twelve hours a day and they could lose parts of their bodies in the machines and therefore get fired. Children worked as much as their parents did. They were in a position of

Specifically, the working conditions and the pay received for working limited the social, economic, and political mobility, trapping the average at the bottom(Brinkley, 2012). The methods of this oppression have changed over the years, due to government intervention, but the end goal has barely changed a bit. In the future, I believe that without a full economic transformation in the United States, the situation of the worst off will not change. The government policies that were developed over this span of time were numerous, but certain ones transformed labor and work into what it is today. Starting in 1890 the Sherman antitrust act was developed to eliminate the domination of monopolies for the American markets of many of the newly developed industrial products. Policies of this nature came to a surmount in 1930s whilst the country was in the midst of the Great Depression. During this time, employment was influenced by the same events as today’s stock prices, speculation along with information about the specific industry or business. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal contained “Laws regulating sales of stock, recognized the right of workers to form unions, set rules for wages and hours, provided cash benefits to the unemployed and retirement income for the elderly, established farm subsidies, insured bank deposits, and created a massive regional development authority in the Tennessee Valley.” (United States Economy) making the volatile market of America more stable. In other words, the lowest bursts of the economy and the highest booms would be replaced in favor of steady growth over the years. This pushed companies to reign back all out attempts to explode the economy, eventually leading to a bust of similar or greater proportions. This also improved workers conditions as

In the mid 19th century the majority of american work was still done on the farm. By the turn of the 20th century however the United States economy revolved into the industrial state with mainly everything and every type of labor revolving around the the factory. Most Americans living in this time period did anything they could to make money for their family, caring little about work hour, safety, or wages. Most people worked 10 hour shifts six days a week for wages barely enough for their family to survive off of. Even children as young as eight years old would work full time hours that kept them from being able to go to school. Men and women in this time period would work until their bodies could no longer take anymore, only then to be released

The discovery of North America was the start of the American Dream. Citizens of England were fed up with King George III and how he ruled the country so they left to America where they could start a new life. This relates to the American Dream today when we see how people are leaving their home countries to come to America to make a new life for themselves that was not offered where they were. On August 18 of 1920, women got the right to vote in America. They were the 7th country in the world to allow this so the American Dream grew more to include this. In the 1950’s, America started to become more materialistic. “Car ownership, television ownership,...and the intent to send one’s kids to college,” This grew to most of the population in the 1970s having a credit card and . Overtime, the

People could actually talk to their employers and actually believed that good was coming out of doing this. The effort to show dedication could improve their status and bump them up to the next level in their workforce. The rich was helping the poor, and even in some ways the poor could contribute to the rich. This was way different than the life many had known back in their country and things seemed to be working excellent. After some time, Americans decided to expand westward in hopes of exploring and cultivating new land for crops and homes. The American dream led many on a race for land and expanding their homesteads. They were fine with the idea of living the rugged life on the frontier and with their dedication to hard work they would set their roots and begin new lives on the expansive land that “untouched” America had to offer. But with this idea of the American dream, it led people to more competitive and individualistic. People would fight others for more land to have to themselves and we’re not necessarily down for the idea of sharing anymore if it were to cut into their profit margins. This was the way things worked for many years but like most things, as time went by, the idea of the American Dream would continue to

Life of Americans during the early national period changed though multiple transformations from politically, economically and socially and from those actions the country advanced and became more orderly though multiple events that took place between (1775-1840).

The 1920s witnessed the betrayal of these ideals underlying the American Dream. The Jazz age generation ignored Franklin’s concern for moral betterment and public service, while embracing his emphasis on material advancement. This period also witnessed the degradation of Jefferson’s ideal of equality in its renewal of racism and anti-immigration laws. With the American Economy, capitalism created a sharp division of society into lower class and a leisure class, controlling the economy and practicing conspicuous consumption.