2. The new inventions, made in the end of the 19-th and the beginning of the 20-th centuries, had greatly changed the life of the United States. The life in the country became more comfortable and convenient and Americans got in the know of the latest use in the country and abroad with the telephone, the radio, electricity, automobiles, the telegraph, the gramophone, new appliances for the home, the conveyor line, clothes and footwear producing equipment, etc. Besides, labor productivity had increased to a considerable extent due to the new machines and modern technology introduced into the process of producing goods.
3. During the first two decades of the XX century the rise of economy had achieved a very high level. The railroads played a very important role in it. They were covering the whole country that stimulated the industrial rise of the country and intensive use of natural resources. Whatever the industrial revolution needed, the railroads could now deliver it to any place of the country.
People started to pioneer in different fields of business, such as oil refining, steel industry, electric power stations, etc. Efficient using of natural resources, fast exploring of new technologies, professionalism of people working in American industry soon made the United States the world’s economic leader.
4. As the USA was being industrialized and broadened its trade links, a group of men emerged who would dominate the economic future of the country. These were the industrial giants. They had a sense of vision to see opportunities for production and marketing where others had not. And they had the willingness to take risks. The industrial giants were able to use new inventions and corporate systems to make production costs lower and provide products and services to growing numbers of consumers. They were Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, etc.
5. World War I had greatly influenced the life of the USA. It became the reason of several serious problems in the society. They appeared well before the severe recession but in the course of time they finally led the country to the collapse-the Great Depression of 1929-1939.
First of all, half of the industrial workers lived in poverty and their dissatisfaction with their life was constantly growing.
The racial climate had become very intensive. Racial violence and hatred were growing. Racial discrimination became the reason of high level of unemployment among minorities. The anti-immigration laws made by the government in order to reduce the number of immigrants in country inspired the immigrants’ dissatisfaction and activated the Unions’. All this resulted in strikes and riots against the government politics.
The economy was unstable: the gross national product declined, some businesses went bankrupt, thousands of farmers lost their land and millions of American workers lost their jobs. As a result, there was a dramatic increase of labor unrest.
6. But during the 1920s it still seemed as if prosperity would go on forever. It was the decade of significant, even dramatic social, economic and political change.
The American economy began to grow again and it developed new forms of organization. The American government experimented with new approaches to public policy. The stock market performed remarkably well.
Salaries rose, and working hours decreased. Americans had the resources and the leisure time to pursue new forms of entertainment: going to movies and sporting events, visiting restaurants and bars, dancing to jazz music and doing the shopping, gambling, etc. Though alcohol was prohibited, it was smuggled across state borders. This period of time is called “the Roaring Twenties” or the “New Era”. It was the time in which American culture reshaped itself to reflect all the changes in the society. It was also an age in which America was becoming a modern nation.
7. The autumn of 1929 began with alarming declines in stock prices and the stock market crash that followed. It was the beginning of the Great Depression.
The causes of this severe crisis were:
- the US prosperity depended on a few basic industries, mostly construction and automobile but newer industries hadn’t yet developed enough;
- most families were too poor to buy the goods of the industrial economy;
- the credit structure of the economy was in trouble: farmers were deeply in debt but crop prices were too low to allow them pay off what they owed; when the market crashed, some of the nation’s biggest banks failed;
- late in the 1920s America’s position in international trade was bad-European demand for American goods began to decline as European economy was destabilized after World War I;
- after WWI all allied with the USA nations owed large sums of money to American banks but they were not able to pay their debts because of economic troubles in their countries.
8. The government began working to see how it could end the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had written a plan called the “New Deal”. The main aim was to create jobs through projects such as building highways, dams, bridges, planting parks, etc. The men who worked on these projects were paid by the government. But the government was just as poor as someone else. In a risky move, it began to spend more money than it had. Printing so much money was causing the inflation, going of the value of the dollar. This has troubled the American economy ever since. Though the government helped people temporarily during the Depression, some of the policies set up than have caused serious problems that are still with Americans today. Sometimes it seemed as though the Great Depression would never end, although by the late 1930s things were improving a little. Men found jobs again and earned money to buy food, clothes and other products. But only in America went to World War II, did the last traces of the Great Depression disappear.
Appendix
1. Glossary
1. Depression – депрессия
2. Inflation – инфляция
3. Stagnation – стагнация
4. Amendment – поправка
5. Unemployment – безработица
6. Employer – работодатель
7. Railroad – железная дорога
8. Trade Unions – организация рабочих , профсоюзы
9. Racial Unrests – бунты на почве национальной розни
10. Economy – экономия
11. Conditions – условия
12. To sustain – продолжать
13. Policy – политика
