The USA: A Nation of Contrasts 1910–1929

Immigration and Nativism

Between 1910 and 1929, the USA was a society of sharp contradictions. Millions of immigrants arrived — from Southern and Eastern Europe, from Mexico, and from within the USA itself as Black Americans moved north in the Great Migration. Yet American society became increasingly hostile to "outsiders."

The Immigration Acts: The Emergency Quota Act (1921) and National Origins Act (1924) imposed strict quotas favouring North-Western European immigrants and severely restricting those from Southern Europe, Asia and elsewhere. Nativism — the belief that "real" Americans were white Protestants of Anglo-Saxon descent — was widespread.

The "Red Scare" (1919–1920): Fear of communism after the Russian Revolution led to the Palmer Raids, in which thousands of immigrants and radicals were arrested without evidence. Many were deported. The case of Sacco and Vanzetti (Italian immigrants and anarchists, executed 1927) became a symbol of prejudice in the justice system.

The Ku Klux Klan

Revived in 1915, the KKK grew to 5 million members by the mid-1920s. It targeted not just Black Americans but also Catholics, Jews, immigrants and trade unionists. The Klan had political power in several states (Indiana, Colorado, Oregon). Violence, lynching and terror were used to enforce white Protestant supremacy. By the late 1920s, internal scandals weakened it, but racism in law and society continued.

Prohibition (1919–1933)

The 18th Amendment (1919) banned the manufacture, sale and transport of alcohol. It was supported by Protestant moral reformers and rural communities. But it was largely unenforceable in cities:

• Speakeasies: illegal bars (around 30,000 in New York alone).
• Bootleggers: criminals who manufactured and distributed alcohol.
• Organised crime: Gangsters like Al Capone in Chicago built empires worth millions, bribing police and politicians. The St Valentine's Day Massacre (1929) showed the level of gang warfare.
• By 1933: Prohibition repealed by the 21st Amendment — it had created more problems than it solved.

The Roaring Twenties

For many (especially white, urban, middle-class Americans), the 1920s were a decade of prosperity:

• Consumer boom: Mass production (Ford's Model T — first affordable car; radio, refrigerators, washing machines) created a consumer society.
• Credit and hire purchase: People bought goods they couldn't afford immediately.
• Entertainment: Hollywood, jazz, radio broadcasts. Flappers challenged traditional gender roles.
• Speculation: Share prices on the stock market boomed as people invested on credit (buying "on the margin").

The Contrasts — Those Left Behind

Not everyone shared in the boom:

• Black Americans: faced segregation (Jim Crow laws in the South), lynching, poverty, discrimination in the North despite the Great Migration.
• Farmers: Agricultural prices fell throughout the 1920s. Many farm families struggled with debt and falling incomes.
• Traditional industries: Coal, textiles and shipbuilding were in decline.
• Immigrants: Low-wage workers, often in dangerous industries.

The Wall Street Crash (October 1929)

Overspeculation on the stock market — fuelled by credit — caused share prices to collapse in October 1929 ("Black Thursday" and "Black Tuesday"). Banks that had invested deposits in shares collapsed; businesses failed; unemployment soared. The prosperity of the 1920s had rested on unstable foundations.

WJEC Exam Technique

For this topic, source analysis (AO3) often features images of the KKK, prohibition raids, or consumer advertisements. Evaluate content, provenance and purpose. Essays (AO2) require you to explain why there were contrasts — link economic growth to who benefited and who was excluded.