GCSE History: America 1920–45 – Boom, Bust and the New Deal

This material covers the first two parts of the GCSE History period study of the USA between the wars – for example AQA's 'America, 1920–1973: Opportunity and inequality' (the American people and the 'Boom'; 'Bust' – Americans' experiences of the Depression and New Deal). The post-war section of that option, and civil rights, are covered in a separate material in this category.

You revise why the American economy boomed in the 1920s: mass production and Henry Ford's assembly line, new consumer goods, hire purchase and advertising, and the Republican policies of laissez-faire, low taxes and high tariffs such as the Fordney–McCumber Act of 1922. You also look at who was left out – farmers, workers in older industries such as coal and textiles, and most Black Americans.

The social side of the decade is covered through the 'Roaring Twenties' – jazz, cinema and the changing lives of women – and through Prohibition from 1920 to 1933, bootlegging, speakeasies and gangsters such as Al Capone, and the reasons it was repealed. Intolerance is examined through the Red Scare, the case of Sacco and Vanzetti, immigration quotas in 1921 and 1924, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan and the Scopes 'Monkey Trial' of 1925.

You then study the causes of the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 – overproduction, speculation, buying shares on the margin and unequal wealth – and the Depression that followed: unemployment of about a quarter of the workforce by 1933, Hoovervilles, the Bonus Army and the Dust Bowl, and why Hoover lost the 1932 election. The New Deal is covered in detail: the Hundred Days, the Emergency Banking Act and fireside chats, the alphabet agencies such as the CCC, AAA, TVA and NRA, the Second New Deal with the WPA, Social Security Act and Wagner Act, opposition from the Supreme Court, business and critics such as Huey Long and Father Coughlin, and the role of the Second World War in ending mass unemployment.

The quiz tests causes, consequences, dates and key terms. The flashcards drill the vocabulary. The written work asks for descriptions, explanations and a judgement about the success of the New Deal, and one item uses a short public-domain extract from Roosevelt's first inaugural address. In the oral exam an examiner asks one question at a time and gives brief feedback at the end.

The material is revision practice written by Zestly and is not produced or reviewed by any exam board; check the details of your own specification with your teacher.

• Explain the causes of the economic boom of the 1920s and identify who did not share in it
• Describe social change and intolerance in the 1920s, including Prohibition and the Red Scare
• Explain the causes of the Wall Street Crash of 1929
• Describe the effects of the Depression on Americans and explain why Hoover lost the 1932 election
• Describe the main measures of the First and Second New Deals and the opposition to them
• Judge how far the New Deal and the Second World War ended the Depression

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the DfE GCSE history subject content (period study) and parts 1–2 of options such as AQA 'America, 1920–1973: Opportunity and inequality'. Extract quoted: Franklin D. Roosevelt, first inaugural address, 4 March 1933 (US government record, public domain).