What do you think this would get out of 9? I created (wrote on paper and then typed later) this within the timed environment following the APUSH test rules.</p>
Thank you all!</p>
I know you don’t have the Documents but you could still probably try and give an estimate. I used 5/9 of the available documents.</p>
The 1920s have been characterized as a decade of economic, social, and cultural change. Analyze the extent to which the First World War and consumerism affected United States society during this period.</p>
The Americans had just came out of the first World War and had entered a period known as the roaring 20’s. They were going though intense economic, social, and cultural changes that put them in a system of great consumerism and isolationism. The first World War and spur of consumerism affected and changed American society to a large extent by ensuing a period of uncontrolled economic growth and isolationism. This large event can be seen through cultural, social, and economic lenses and through concepts such as consumerism, nativism, and crude economic practices.</p>
American culture had been greatly changed in this time period. It had gone into a great period of consumerist-culture in which people bought things if they money or not. This culture had developed because of a lack of government regulation on the banks and thus the banks gave loans very easily and failed to check credit and thus consumerist-culture was allowed to flourish. It can be seen in Document C that consumer-debt rose just as consumer spending for recreation rose so it can be seen that Americans were willing to go into debt to purchase things that they didn’t even need. It can also be seen in Document D that people bought things they didn’t need such as the latest alarm clock. This change of culture wasn’t the only culture that changed in the 20’s. The Harlem Renaissance had started and Black-culture had also began to flourish. This led to the creation of homegrown American art and music and the new culture of do what-ever-you-want-whenever-you-want certainly played a part in allowing the Renaissance to prosper. In Document B, Hurst in 1919, explains that the men of color fought against the German oppression but how they didn’t fight for their own race. The Harlem Renaissance did in fact play a role in allowing Black prosperity and strengths. </p>
There was also a great cause coming from the social sphere that greatly aided consumerism in affecting US society. There was a huge push for nativism and the KKK certainly played a large part in this concept. They had wanted a perfect-supremist-white-race controlling American and violently expressed their views. The government had even passed laws to limit immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe while favoring Northern and Western Europeans. They wanted to be nativist because they were afraid of the Southern and Europeans immigrants were going to outnumber them and change their politics so thus this new law imposed quotas. Document A shows exactly this as it showed an immigrant being restricted and being labeled as undesirable. </p>
This social change of nativism coupled with American isolationism led to an economic problem of isolationism. To spur the purchase of only American goods, the government raised the tariff rated incredible high, most notably with the Hawley-Smoot tariff and international trade was destroyed, being a major cause of the Great Depression. The government had embraced isolationism in order to prevent another World War (obviously it failed). In Document E, Veblan explains that the government had horrible economic practices with an increased armament, unbalanced budget, and most notably duties to enhance home business. These tariffs are a primary cause of the depression.</p>
When all three aspects are put together, it can be seen that they directly affected American society by causing one another and therefore causing the Great Depression. First, Americans entered the culture of consumerism and increased their debt drastically. Next, Americans entered social change to pursue nativism. This nativism caused the economic policy of isolationism and this policy of isolationism coupled with the initial consumerism were direct causes to the Great Depression. So when all connected together, the first World War and the starting of consumerism greatly affected society by completely destroying it in 1929 with the depression.</p>