The Second Industrial Revolution

1
The Second Industrial Revolution

• Why it matters
• After WWI, American economy experienced
  tremendous growth
• American workers produced more goods in less time
• This boom helped create the modern consumer
  culture we have today.

2
The Automobile Drives Prosperity

• Economic Growth
• Stocks rose
• Factories produced more
• People could afford to buy them
• Explosive growth sparked by the automobile
  industry
• Henry Ford
• Introduced a series of methods the revolutionized
  production, wages, working conditions, and daily
  life

3
The Automobile Industry

• Became the nations largest industry in the 1920s
• 1920-10 million cars in the nation
• By 1929-26 million on the road
• By the end of the decade-the market became
  saturated
• Marketing became as crucial as production
• Relied heavily on advertising and annual model
  changes
• Despite these efforts-sales slumped
• Revealed a basic weakness in the consumer goods
  economy

4
Consumer Revolution

• Flood of goods became available to the public
• Advertising
• Psychological research
• Focused on fears rather than needs
• Celebrated consumption
• Installment buying
• Bull Market
• Rising stock prices
• 1929-4 mill owned stocks
• Buying on margin

5
Radio-advances consumerism

• 1920-Westinghouse builds a 100 watt radio station
  in a little shack on top of its 9 story factory
  in Pittsburgh, PA. KDKA
• By Dec. 1921-there are five broadcasting stations
  on the air
• KDKA-broadcast Calvary Episcopal Church
• WJC (Newark) broadcast bedtime stories
• 9JR broadcast grain quotations to grain
  elevator operators
• By Sep. 1922- 537 stations broadcasting
• 100,000 radios are produced
• WEAF (NY) 1st to offer advertising
• By 1923-500,000 radios are produced
• Edwin Armstrong invents the first Portable
  Radio

6
Movies

• 1927-First talking picture-The Jazz Singer with
  Al Jolson
• 1927-1st Oscars were given
• By 1929 some 80 million Americans flocked to the
  theaters each week.
• Many wild and controversial
• films such as The Shiek caused
• an uproar among such
• viewers. By 1922 Will Hays became head of
  an censoring organization still used today.

7
Sports

• Sports gained popularity during the 1920s.
  Professional sports had emerged in the U.S.
  during the late 1800s. With the introduction of
  new technology in the 1920s, however,
  professional sports became a form of mass
  entertainment available to most Americans.
• BATTLE OF THE CENTURY (1921) July 2, 1921 Jack
  Dempsey fought challenger Georges Carpentier in
  New Jersey. Dempsey was declared winner in the
  4th round when he knocked out Carpentier.
• Johnny Weismuller swims 100m in 58.6 seconds
  (1922). He won 5 gold medals and 52 U.S. titles.
  (He was also famous for playing Tarzan)
• Babe Ruth breaks the home run record (1927) with
  60 home runs. This record would stand until 1961
  when Roger Maris scored his 61st home run.

8
Books/Magazines

• Designed for busy Americans with less time to
  read, magazines like Colliers, Saturday Evening
  post, and Readers Digest drew readers with their
  cartoons, short stories and many pages of
  advertising.
• 1928 Billboard Magazine published their first
  charts

• Following WWI talented young authors wrote about
  their feelings of disillusionment and alienation.
• A sense of rebellion against the Victorian age
  developed
• Writers began to write frankly about sexuality
• Three important groups that emerged from this
  time period were
• THE ROUND TABLE
• Harlem Renaissance
• THE LOST GENERATION

9
Economic Weaknesses

• Not a prosperous as it first appeared
• Old industries declined
• Railroad suffered internal woes and competition
  from the growing trucking industry
• The Coal industry was also troubled-being
  replaced by petroleum and national gas
• Cotton textiles declined-with the development of
  rayon and other synthetics

• Hardest hit of all was agriculture
• Farmers had expanded to meet the demands of the
  war
• By 1921, farm exports declined by more than 2
  billion
• Farmers per capita income was only 273 (681)

10
City Life in the Jazz Age

• Rural Americans faced hardships
• Immigrants settled in cities
• Farmers left their fields
• Great Migration was to the cities
• Skyscraper technology
• Empire State Bldg.-1931

11
Advertising-1920sFor each ad-answer the
following questions

• 1. How is this ad trying to persuade consumers
  to buy the product?
• 2. To which social class(es) does the ad appeal?
• 3. To which ethnic groups does the ad primarily
  appeal?
• 4. How, if at all, are blacks portrayed in the
  ad?
• 5. How, if at all, are women portrayed in the ad?
  
• 6. How could a wise consumer avoid letting the ad
  talk her into buying something she doesnt need?

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