USA 1919- 1941

1. How far did the US economy boom in the 1920s?

Focus Points

• On what factors was the economic boom based?

• Why did some industries prosper while others did not?

• Why did agriculture not share in the prosperity?

• Did all Americans benefit from the boom?

2. How far did US society change in the 1920s?

Focus Points

• What were the ‘Roaring Twenties’?

• How widespread was intolerance in US society?

• Why was Prohibition introduced, and then later repealed?

• How far did the roles of women change during the 1920s?

3. What were the causes and consequences of the Wall Street Crash?

Focus Points

• How far was speculation responsible for the Wall Street Crash?

• What impact did the Crash have on the economy?

• What were the social consequences of the Crash?

• Why did Roosevelt win the election of 1932?

4. How successful was the New Deal?

Focus Points

• What was the New Deal as introduced in 1933?

• How far did the character of the New Deal change after 1933?

• Why did the New Deal encounter opposition?

• Why did unemployment persist despite the New Deal?

• Did the fact that the New Deal did not solve unemployment mean that it was a failure?

Specified Content

• The expansion of the US economy during the 1920s:

• • mass production in the car and consumer durables industries

  • the fortunes of older industries

  • the development of credit and hire purchase

  • the decline of agriculture

    • • Weaknesses in the economy by the late 1920s

    • • Society in the 1920s:

  • the ‘Roaring Twenties’

  • film and other media

  • Prohibition and gangsters

  • race relations

  • discrimination against black Americans

  • the Ku Klux Klan

  • the changing roles of women.

    • • The Wall Street Crash and its financial, economic and social effects

    • • The reaction of President Hoover to the Crash

    • • The Presidential election of 1932; Hoover’s and Roosevelt’s programs

    • • Roosevelt’s inauguration and the ‘Hundred Days’

    • • The New Deal legislation, the ‘alphabetic agencies’ and their work, and the economic and social changes they caused

    • • Opposition to the New Deal:

  • the Republicans

  • the rich

  • business interests

  • the Supreme Court

  • radical critics like Huey Long.

    • • The strengths and weaknesses of the New Deal program in dealing with unemployment and the Depression.