US History Review Guide
Unit Seven: Boom and Bust
Define: Roaring 20’s
1. Period of time in the US that American businesses flourished, government
interference in business was minimal, and wages increased. Americans bought on
installment plans (credit), encouraging more spending and stimulating the
economy. However, not everyone experienced economic prosperity.
Which industries were NOT 2. Coal industry: Electric energy replaced use of coal for power in homes.
prosperous during the 1920s?
Farming industry: After WWI, there was an agricultural surplus due to increased
Why?
crop production (victory gardens), which decreased the value of crops, thus causing
farmers to sell their crops at lower prices and making less annual income.
3. A small percentage of women were categorized as flappers; an emancipated young
woman who embraced new fashions and urban attitude. Emancipated=free from
social norms such as being married, having children, and taking care of the home.
Most women maintained the traditional roles of wife and mother.
Explain the changes that
occurred with women during
the 1920s.
Explain the Harlem
Renaissance. How does that
show a shift in the feelings
about being African
American? Name at least two
significant Harlem
Renaissance figures.
What impact did the
automobile have on
American life?
What methods does Henry
Ford use to produce
automobiles to be more
affordable.
4. An African American literary movement starting in Harlem, NY that saw the
emergence of jazz music, art, and poetry.
Shifted Americans feelings towards African Americans by bringing recognition and
price to African American culture.
Significant figures=James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, and Duke Ellington.
5. Led to differentiation (difference) in living and working neighborhoods (suburbs
developed).
Emergence of paved roads, motels, gas stations, repair shops, shopping centers,
freedom for rural families, and independence for women and young people.
6. The assembly line and interchangeable parts allowed Ford to produce automobiles
quickly and efficiently by producing similar products with the same parts, thus causing
him to sell his product cheaply, allowing more people to be able to afford to buy an
automobile.
What attitudes did Americans 7. After WWI and the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, Americans were fearful of
have toward immigrants after Communism spreading to the United States.
WWI? Why? Be specific.
 Communism is an economic and political system based on a singlegovernmental party, equal distribution of resources, no private property and
rule by a dictatorship.
 The fear of Communism in the United States is known as the Red Scare.
 The Palmer Raids took place when Mitchell Palmer to a series of raids and the
government arrested 4,000 alleged communists and deported.
Immigration from southern and eastern Europe was limited and barred (prevented)
Asians from immigrating entirely. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 set up a quota
system (maximum number of immigrants) to control and restrict immigration to the
United States.
Which vigilante group
resurfaced during the 1920s?
Which groups were they
fighting against this time?
Explain the Scopes Trial.
Overall, what was it a
conflict about?
8. KKK resurfaced targeting not only African Americans but now also immigrants,
Catholics, bootleggers, and gamblers. Members of the KK believed themselves to be
moral regulators, ridding the world of immoral behavior through public beatings and
lynchings.
9. Trial was a dispute between fundamentalists (those that found all truth in the Bible)
and secular thinkers over the truths of science.
 John Scopes, a science teacher in Tennessee, broke the law when he taught
evolution to his students in 1925. Clarence Darrow defended Scopes and the
persecutor was William Jennings Bryan. Even though Bryan admitted that the
Bible can be interpreted in different ways, Scopes was found guilty.
Overall, it was a conflict between conservatives who advocate conformity to a
traditional moral code and liberals who advocate individual rights.
10. It was an organized effort by Christian women and fundamentalists to outlaw the
Explain the Temperance
production and selling of alcohol in the U.S. Reformers blamed alcohol on criminal and
Movement. What amendment domestic violence such as wife and child abuse, and accidents. Supporters were largely
was passed in response to
from the rural South and West. The Anti-Saloon League and Christian Women’s
this movement?
temperance movement played a large role in getting the passage of the 18th Amendment
which banned the production and selling of alcohol in the U.S. This became known as
the Prohibition Era. The 18th Amendment was repealed in 1933 by the passage of the
21st Amendment.
What were three major
CAUSES of the Great
Depression? Explain each.
11. Consumer spending was down – demand declined, rising prices, stagnant wages,
overbuying on credit, and overproduction of products.
Superficial Prosperity – people believed the financial good times and wealth, or
prosperity, would go on forever. Wages decreased while productivity increased, the
gap between the rich and poor widened.
Stock Market Crash – Black Tuesday 1929 – people were buying on speculation
(Buying & selling stock quickly) and margin (paying the margin cost and buying the
rest on credit), this sent the stock market values crashing, resulting in bank runs and
closures across the nation. The economy plummeted and unemployment skyrocketed.
List and explain at least five 12. Bank runs – customers panic and crowds storm the banks to withdraw their funds
EFFECTS of the Great
as the economy begins to plummet. This causes the banks to lose capital and forces
Depression. Be sure to include bank closures. Soup kitchens served the many unemployed and homeless with free or
bank runs, soup kitchens and low cost food in urban areas during the Great Depression, along with bread lines.
Hooverville’s.
Hoovervilles were shanty towns created by the homeless during the Great Depression
and the presidency of Herbert Hoover, for whom many blamed. Dust Bowl – a
combination of a severe drought and generations of harmful farming techniques left the
topsoil of the Midwest vulnerable to wind storms. It damaged and suffocated the
landscape and people, was picked up and carried hundreds of miles to the East Coast
and proved to be one of the largest agricultural disasters in U.S. history. Resulted in the
great migration to the Pacific Coast to escape during the Great Depression. Women and
children were forced to work. Labor laws were reversed; children were removed
from schools, which also closed.
What was President Hoover’s 13. Passed the Hawley-Smoot Tariff to protect American industries from foreign
response to the Great
competition. Govt. abandoned its policy of progressivism and instituted a policy of
Depression?
laissez faire govt. Overturned child labor and minimum wage laws for women and
children. Slashed the income taxes for the wealthy, asked them voluntarily maintain
wages and working hours for workers.
14. 15,000 WW1 vets marched on Washington in 1932 in support of the proposed
Patman Bill. The bill would have authorized Congress to pay vets their promised bonus
Explain the Bonus Army.
immediately, instead of postponing it until 1945 as Congress had legislated. Hoover
called them “communists and criminals” and the Senate struck down the bill. 2,000 vets
stayed behind to continue the protest in Washington. Hoover called in the military to
remove them and clashes and riots broke out. The vets’ encampments were burned and
they were tear gassed. Police and civilians were injured and Hoovers’ reputation was
damaged beyond repair.
15. Dust Bowl – a combination of a severe drought and generations of harmful farming
techniques had removed the natural grasses that held down the topsoil and left the
topsoil of the Great Plains in the Midwest exposed and vulnerable to wind storms. It
damaged and suffocated the landscape and people, was picked up and carried hundreds
Explain the Dust Bowl
of miles to the East Coast and proved to be one of the largest agricultural disasters in
U.S. history. Resulted in the great migration to the Pacific Coast to escape during the
Great Depression. Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado were the
hardest hit regions during the Dust Bowl.
16. Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA): Raised crop prices by lowering production.
Explain the following New
Actually hurt sharecroppers and tenant farmers by taking some farm land out of
Deal Programs:
production. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA): Built dams to generate electricity
AAA
which created jobs for thousands of people. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): Put
CCC
young men to work ages 18 to 25 building roads, parks, planting trees (200 million trees
TVA
PWA
in Dust Bowl areas). By 1942 three million men worked for the CCC. Public Works
WPA
Administration (PWA): built bridges, hospitals, schools and air fields. Works Progress
Provide names & what they Administration (WPA): Provided work to thousands of writers, artists and actors and
did.
set the precedent for federal support of the arts.
17. A series of economic and political relief efforts and reforms created by Franklin D.
Roosevelt to address the nation’s problems during the Great Depression. The reforms
focused on the three R’s – relief, recovery and reform. Conservatives thought it to be
too close to socialism and feared the collapse of capitalism (free market economy).
While it did alleviate some of the nation’s ills, it did not undo the Great Depression.
Explain IN DETAIL the New
This was accomplished with government spending during WWII. The New Deal earned
Deal.
the people’s trust in banks again, reformed the way the banks were run and protected
people’s investments with the creation of the FDIC (insurance for deposits). It provided
immediate relief to the people by providing a payment to each person for essentials such
as food, housing, etc. Long term recovery and reform efforts were instituted throughout
FDR’s administration with the New Deal.
18. FDR declared a bank holiday. He persuaded Congress to pass the Emergency
Relief Act, which authorized the Treasury Department to inspect the nation’s banks.
FDR passed the Glass-Steagall Act which established the Federal Deposit Insurance
What did FDR do to fix the
Corporation. The FDIC insured account holders up to $5,000 and set strict standards for
banks?
banks to follow. Regulations were also placed on the stock market to prevent the
conditions that led to the crash (Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Federal
Securities Act: Required stock info to be accurate and truthful.