O Level History: Depth Study D, The United States 1919-41 — Revision Notes (Cambridge 2147)

These notes condense Depth Study D of Cambridge O Level History 2147, The United States 1919-41. They cover the four key questions – the boom, social change, the Wall Street Crash and the New Deal – in tables and lists for quick review before Paper 1 Section B (one question: 4 + 6 + 10 marks). For full explanations see the Depth Study D study guide; for practice see Depth Study D practice questions.

Syllabus coverage

CAMBRIDGE O LEVEL HISTORY (2147), 2024-2026 – DEPTH STUDY D

1. How far did the US economy boom in the 1920s?
2. How far did US society change in the 1920s?
3. What were the causes and consequences of the Wall Street Crash?
4. How successful was the New Deal?

Timeline

Date	Event
1919-20	Red Scare; Palmer Raids
Jan 1920	Prohibition begins (18th Amendment, Volstead Act)
Aug 1920	19th Amendment: women’s vote
1921	Emergency Quota Act; Harding President
1922	Fordney-McCumber Tariff
1923	Coolidge President
1924	Immigration Act tightens quotas
1925	Scopes Trial
1927	Sacco and Vanzetti executed; The Jazz Singer
1929	Hoover President; St Valentine’s Day Massacre; Crash (24 and 29 Oct)
1932	Bonus Army; Roosevelt elected
Mar 1933	Inauguration; Hundred Days
Dec 1933	Prohibition repealed (21st Amendment)
1935	Second New Deal; NRA ruled unconstitutional; Huey Long killed
1937	Court-packing plan fails; recession of 1937-38 begins

Key terms

Term	Meaning
Laissez-faire	Government leaving business alone
Protective tariff	Tax on imports to protect US industry
Mass production	Making large numbers of identical goods on assembly lines
Hire purchase	Paying for goods in instalments
Buying on the margin	Buying shares with a small deposit and borrowed money
Speculation	Buying shares to sell quickly for profit
Isolationism	Staying out of foreign affairs
Hooverville	Shanty town of the homeless
Alphabet agencies	New Deal bodies known by initials
Rugged individualism	Hoover’s belief in self-reliance rather than government help

Key question 1: winners and losers of the boom

Winners	Losers
Car makers and suppliers (steel, rubber, glass, oil)	Farmers: over-production, low prices, debt
Electrical and consumer-goods firms	Coal, textiles, railways
Shareholders and the urban middle class	Black Americans, especially Southern sharecroppers
Advertising, construction, cinema	Native Americans and many new immigrants

Late-1920s weaknesses: over-production, unequal incomes, rising debt, weak banks, falling exports.

Key question 2: society – change vs continuity

• Change: jazz, cinema, radio, cars; flappers; women voting and working in offices.
• Continuity/intolerance: Red Scare; quotas; Sacco and Vanzetti; Scopes Trial; Ku Klux Klan; segregation.
• Prohibition: in (1920) – temperance groups, churches, anti-German feeling, belief alcohol caused crime; out (1933) – unenforceable, gangsters, corruption, lost taxes, Depression.

Key question 3: the Crash

Short-term trigger: speculation and margin buying; panic selling on Black Thursday (24 October) and Black Tuesday (29 October 1929).

Long-term causes: over-production; unequal wealth; weak banks; farm crisis; tariffs reducing trade.

Consequences: bank failures; about 13 million unemployed by 1933; Hoovervilles; Dust Bowl farmers; Hoover blamed.

1932 election:

Hoover	Roosevelt
Recovery “just around the corner”	“A new deal for the American people”
Limited federal action; RFC	Active government; relief for the unemployed
Bonus Army cleared by troops	Energetic record as Governor of New York

Key question 4: the New Deal

First New Deal (1933)	Second New Deal (1935)
Emergency Banking Act	WPA – public works jobs
CCC – young men’s work camps	Social Security Act – pensions, unemployment insurance
AAA – farm prices	Wagner Act – union rights
TVA – dams, electricity
NRA – industry codes; PWA – big public projects

Opponents: Republicans; the rich; business (Liberty League); the Supreme Court (NRA, AAA struck down); Huey Long (“Share Our Wealth”).

Success: banks saved; relief and jobs; Social Security; TVA; faith in democracy. Failure: unemployment stayed high; 1937-38 recession; limited help for Black Americans.

Worked example: a (c) judgement sentence

“The New Deal was a success.” How far do you agree? [10]

Strong conclusion: “The New Deal succeeded in relief and reform – saving the banks and creating Social Security – but it did not achieve full recovery, since unemployment remained high until war production began; it was therefore a partial success.”

Key people

Person	Role
Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge	Republican Presidents of the 1920s; laissez-faire, low taxes, tariffs
Herbert Hoover	President 1929–33; blamed for the Depression (“Hoovervilles”)
Henry Ford	Moving assembly line; the Model T
Sacco and Vanzetti	Italian immigrant anarchists executed in 1927 after a controversial trial
Al Capone	Chicago gangster who profited from Prohibition
Franklin D. Roosevelt	President from 1933; the New Deal
Huey Long	Louisiana senator whose “Share Our Wealth” plan attacked the New Deal as too cautious

Exam traps

• “All Americans were rich in the 1920s.”
• Speculation as the only cause of the Crash.
• Putting the WPA or Social Security in 1933.
• Forgetting that the Supreme Court is a named source of opposition.
• Describing alphabet agencies without saying what each achieved.

Frequently asked questions

Why did agriculture decline? Prices fell after wartime demand ended, while machinery increased output – too much food, too little demand.

What was the Bonus Army? First World War veterans who camped in Washington in 1932 to demand early payment of a promised bonus; Hoover had the army remove them.

Who was Huey Long? A Louisiana senator who said the New Deal did not go far enough and proposed redistributing the wealth of the rich; he was assassinated in 1935.

Self-test

1. What did the Volstead Act do? Defined and enforced Prohibition from 1920.
2. Which two days saw the worst falls in October 1929? 24 and 29 October.
3. What did the TVA do? Built dams for electricity and flood control in the Tennessee Valley.
4. Which court case struck down the NRA? The Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1935.
5. Which Act created pensions? The Social Security Act, 1935.

Official syllabus

Cambridge O Level History (2147) syllabus for examination in 2024, 2025 and 2026 – cambridgeinternational.org (Depth study D).