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AP US History
Chapter 24 Questions
2/10/2011
1) What were the causes and details of the industrial boom of the 1920s?
The cause of the industrial boom of the 1920s was industrial expansion. The expanding
industries stimulated the production rates. This meant that the demand of the people could be
met easily. The automobile increased the mobility of supplies to suburban and rural areas. This
led to an increased supply of consumers that were not as available to the industries beforehand.
People were not only buying the necessities anymore, but leisure items as well. Consumerism
in the US was drastically increasing causing a spike in the markets of industries. Together, the
industry of the 1920s boomed.
2) What were the reasons for the heightened xenophobia and racial unrest in the 1920s?
The reasons behind the heightened xenophobia (fear of foreigners) and racial unrest of
the 1920s were results of the increasing number of immigrants after WWI leading to the 2nd
KKK, and limited opportunities that remained for African Americans. The increasing number
of immigrants caused nativism to increase leading to the KKK. People were worried that the
American culture and traditional values would become at risk. The limited opportunities of
blacks led to racial unrest because African Americans were not being treated as equals of
whites. Skilled black craftsmen were excluded from working with their trades and
organizations; they were forced to settle for the jobs no one else in society really wanted such
as being a garbage collector. Basically, the white population was scared of competition and
thought that by holding back African Americans and foreigners, their social standing and
economic incomes would be better.
3) Describe the outcomes of the presidential elections of 1924 and 1928, and the political
legacies of Harding and Coolidge.
The outcome of the election of 1924 and 1928 was power going and remaining in the
hands of the Republican Party. It was the party’s comeback from their loss of support and
strength during the progressive era. The Party focused it goals on an attempt to change the
economy for the better. In the election of 1928, Herbert Hoover was elected with his promising
associations to stabilize the industries, but as he was taking the office, the Great Depression
began.
In 1920, President Harding took the office. As a previous senator from Ohio, Harding
really was not fit to be the president, he was a gambler and illegally consumed alcohol. Warren
Harding is famous for transferring control of Teapot Dome (naval oil reserve) from Navy
Department to the Interior Department and then secretly leased it out to two business men for a
personal profit to settle his depts. President Coolidge took the office in 1924. Coolidge worked
with Andrew Mellon and successfully reduced the nation’s WWI dept in 1/2. What the two of
them are most known for though is that neither of the two were accomplished in their lives,
they were both passive and worked towards helping business and industry operate at their best
to supply maximum productivity.
Notes on Class Discussion:
Passive: they weren’t aggressive, did not take charge= didn’t push for new laws or change;
they were fairly conservative… part of the reason that they could be so passive is that times
were so good nothing really had to be done
-Issues that they could have addressed were racial issues and corruption
-Outcome of the election of 1928: Republican, Herbert Hoover, beginning of the Great
Depression (when stock market crashed), was a commerce secretary before presidency (in
charge of a lot of economy); his policy of economics is that the federal government should be a
helper but not directly involved