Development of the USA, 1929–2000
What's covered
Key facts
Franklin D. Roosevelt became President in March 1933, having promised a "New Deal for the American people".
McCarthyism was Senator Joseph McCarthy's early-1950s anti-communist campaign of accusations, blacklists, and HUAC hearings that destroyed careers and stifled civil liberties.
Roosevelt's First New Deal (1933) included the Emergency Banking Act, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA).
WW2 defence spending finally ended the Depression; by 1945 the USA produced roughly half of global GDP and emerged as the world's leading industrial power.
Hoovervilles were shanty towns of unemployed and homeless families, named sarcastically after President Hoover to mock his perceived failure to provide relief.
Mass unemployment produced breadlines, Hoovervilles, Dust Bowl migrants, foreclosures, and falling wages, hitting industrial cities and Great Plains farmers hardest.
Opponents included the Supreme Court (which struck down NIRA and AAA), Republican businessmen, Huey Long (Share Our Wealth) and Father Coughlin, who attacked the New Deal from both right and populist left.
The New Deal restored confidence and created millions of relief jobs, but unemployment remained above 14% until the Second World War rearmament boom finally ended mass unemployment.
The Social Security Act of 1935 introduced federal unemployment insurance and old-age pensions, creating the first federal safety net in US history.
The New Deal's "Three Rs" were Relief (immediate help), Recovery (restore economic growth) and Reform (prevent future depressions).
Sample questions
A taste of the 10 questions in this topic — answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
What were the human consequences of the Great Depression in the USA?
- ✓25% unemployment, Hoovervilles, Dust Bowl migrants, and breadlines
- •The Depression caused widespread famine and starvation across the country
- •The Depression mainly affected wealthy investors — workers kept their jobs
- •Unemployment peaked at 10% — quickly resolved by Hoover's interventions
How did WW2 transform the American economy?
- •America's economy was largely unaffected because it only joined late in 1941
- ✓Defence spending ended the Depression; the USA emerged owning 50% of global GDP
- •WW2 devastated the American economy — the war debt took 30 years to pay off
- •WW2's main impact was agricultural expansion to feed Allied armies
What was a 'Hooverville' and what did it symbolise?
- •Government-built emergency housing named after Hoover to celebrate his relief
- •Protest camps outside government buildings where unemployed demanded action
- ✓Shanty towns named sarcastically after Hoover, symbolising government failure
- •Work camps where Hoover let unemployed men earn food by doing manual labour
What was 'McCarthyism' and what does it reveal about 1950s America?
- •A civil rights initiative by McCarthy to extend voting rights to African Americans
- •A programme of socialist reform that McCarthy pushed through Congress
- •A successful anti-communist campaign that caught dozens of Soviet spies in government
- ✓McCarthyism exposed how Cold War fear could destroy careers and civil liberties
In what year did Franklin D. Roosevelt become President of the USA?
- •1929
- •1931
- ✓1933
- •1936
What were the three aims of FDR's New Deal (the 'Three Rs')?
- ✓Relief (immediate help), Recovery (restore growth), Reform (prevent recurrence)
- •Repeal, Regulate, Rebuild — ending Prohibition, controlling banks, rebuilding
- •Rescue, Reconstruct, Reorganise — saving banks, rebuilding cities, reorganising
- •Rights, Resources, Relief — extending civil rights, nationalising, emergency aid
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