Edexcel IGCSE History: The USA, 1918–41 (4HI1)

Historical Investigation A3, “The USA, 1918–41”, is one of five investigation options in Section A of Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History (4HI1) Paper 2. It covers the economic boom and “Roaring Twenties”, the social tensions of the 1920s, the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression, and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and the opposition it faced. The exam is source-based: you describe features, cross-reference two sources and evaluate an interpretation.

Related: Revision notes | Practice questions | Paper 2 overview

Syllabus coverage

The 4HI1 specification (Issue 5, February 2026) sets five key topics for A3:

1. The Roaring Twenties — the economic benefits of the First World War, reasons for the boom, Henry Ford and mass production, hire purchase, advertising, consumerism and the stock market; problems in farming and older industries; leisure (cinema, jazz, dancing, sport, radio, motoring); the changing position of women and the flappers.
2. Increased social tensions in the 1920s — immigration, the Palmer Raids and the Red Scare, Sacco and Vanzetti, attitudes to black Americans, the Ku Klux Klan, the “Monkey Trial”, Prohibition and the gangsters.
3. The USA in Depression, 1929–33 — causes and consequences of the Wall Street Crash, Hoover’s response, and the impact on banking, farming, industry and people: Hoovervilles, the Bonus Marchers, unemployment and homelessness.
4. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1933–41 — aims, the Hundred Days and Alphabet Agencies including the TVA, the Second New Deal (WPA, welfare), the Social Security Act, the Wagner Act and the Banking Act of 1935, rural electrification, and the New Deal’s achievements and shortcomings.
5. Opposition to the New Deal — the Supreme Court, Republicans, business and the Liberty League, Huey Long’s Share Our Wealth and Father Coughlin’s Social Justice campaign.

Why did the US economy boom in the 1920s?

The First World War left the USA the world’s leading creditor: it had supplied the Allies and taken over markets. Republican governments under Harding and Coolidge followed laissez-faire policies, cut taxes and raised tariffs to protect industry. Henry Ford’s moving assembly line made the Model T cheap enough for ordinary families, and the car industry stimulated steel, rubber, glass, oil and road building. Hire purchase let people buy now and pay later, advertising created demand for new electrical goods, and rising share prices drew ordinary investors into the stock market.

Not everyone shared the boom. Farmers faced over-production and falling prices after European demand fell; mechanisation increased output and debts. Older industries such as coal and textiles declined. Wealth was very unequally distributed.

Leisure changed: cinema (the first major “talkie”, The Jazz Singer, came in 1927), jazz and dances such as the Charleston, radio, spectator sport and motoring. Women gained the vote in 1920; more worked in offices and shops, and the flappers challenged older ideas of behaviour, though most women’s lives changed less than the image suggests.

Why were the 1920s a time of social tension?

Fear of foreigners and radicals produced quotas on immigration (1921 and 1924), which favoured northern Europeans. After bombings in 1919 the Red Scare led to the Palmer Raids (1919–20) on suspected radicals. Two Italian anarchists, Sacco and Vanzetti, were convicted of murder on weak evidence and executed in 1927. Black Americans faced segregation in the South and discrimination in Northern cities. The Ku Klux Klan revived, claiming millions of members by the mid-1920s, before scandal weakened it. The “Monkey Trial” (1925) in Tennessee, where teacher John Scopes was prosecuted for teaching evolution, showed the clash between rural fundamentalism and modern ideas. Prohibition (from 1920) banned alcohol but led to speakeasies, bootlegging and organised crime; gangsters such as Al Capone grew rich, and the law was repealed in 1933.

What caused the Wall Street Crash and the Depression?

Share prices had been pushed far above real values by speculation and buying “on the margin” with borrowed money. In October 1929 confidence collapsed (Black Thursday, 24 October; Black Tuesday, 29 October). Underlying causes were over-production, unequal wealth that limited demand, weak and unregulated banks, and falling exports as tariffs choked trade.

The consequences were devastating. Thousands of banks failed and savers lost everything; firms cut production and laid off workers; farm prices collapsed. By 1933 roughly a quarter of the workforce was unemployed. Homeless families lived in shanty towns called Hoovervilles. In 1932 the Bonus Marchers, unemployed ex-servicemen demanding early payment of a promised bonus, were driven out of Washington by troops.

Hoover believed in voluntarism — that business and charities, not government, should provide relief — and that recovery was “around the corner”. He did intervene more than any earlier president, for example through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932), but his response looked inadequate and he lost the 1932 election to Roosevelt.

What did the New Deal do?

Roosevelt aimed at relief, recovery and reform. In the Hundred Days (1933) he closed the banks and reopened sound ones (Emergency Banking Act), explained his policies in radio “fireside chats” and created Alphabet Agencies: the CCC (work for young men), the AAA (paying farmers to reduce output), the NRA (codes on wages and prices), the PWA (public works), and the TVA, which built dams to control floods and generate electricity in a poor region.

The Second New Deal (from 1935) went further: the Works Progress Administration employed millions, the Social Security Act created pensions and unemployment insurance, the Wagner Act protected workers’ right to join unions, the Banking Act of 1935 strengthened the Federal Reserve, and the Rural Electrification Administration brought power to farms.

Achievements: restored confidence in banks, gave work and relief to millions, built lasting infrastructure and established federal welfare. Shortcomings: unemployment remained high, recovery stalled in the 1937–38 recession, black Americans and women benefited less, and full recovery came only with rearmament for war.

Who opposed the New Deal?

The Supreme Court struck down the NRA (1935) and the AAA (1936); Roosevelt’s plan to add judges (1937) failed. Republicans and business interests, including the American Liberty League, saw the New Deal as socialism and costly interference. From the other side, Huey Long’s Share Our Wealth programme demanded the redistribution of large fortunes, and Father Coughlin attacked Roosevelt in radio broadcasts through his Social Justice campaign.

Frequently asked questions

Were the 1920s “roaring” for everyone? No — farmers, black Americans, workers in old industries and many immigrants missed out; this makes a good interpretation question.

Did the New Deal end the Depression? It brought relief and reform, but unemployment stayed high until wartime spending.

Why did Hoover lose in 1932? His belief in limited government looked inadequate, and the Bonus Army episode damaged him badly.

Official syllabus

Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History (4HI1) specification, Issue 5, February 2026, Paper 2, Historical Investigation A3 — qualifications.pearson.com.