Course outline
Module 1
Module 1: The Great Crash and Its Aftermath
The Great Crash and Its Aftermath
Knowledge check
Q1. In which year did the stock market crash that is widely seen as the start of the Great Depression?
- A. 1919
- B. 1929 ✓
- C. 1933
- D. 1939
Why: The Wall Street Crash occurred in October 1929, when stock prices collapsed dramatically, wiping out vast amounts of wealth and triggering a broader economic downturn.
Q2. What was the name of the day in October 1929 when panic selling began on the New York Stock Exchange?
- A. Black Monday
- B. Black Tuesday ✓
- C. Bloody Thursday
- D. Silent Friday
Why: Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, saw massive sell-offs, with about 16 million shares traded in a single day, making it one of the worst days in stock market history.
Q3. Which economic policy did the US government adopt in 1930 that is widely blamed for worsening international trade and deepening the Depression?
- A. The Dawes Plan
- B. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff ✓
- C. The Glass-Steagall Act
- D. The Sherman Antitrust Act
Why: The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act raised tariffs on thousands of imported goods, prompting retaliation from trading partners and shrinking global trade.
Q4. What term describes the period of high unemployment and bank failures that affected the United States during the early 1930s?
- A. The Gilded Age
- B. The Roaring Twenties
- C. The Great Depression ✓
- D. The Progressive Era
Why: The Great Depression refers to the severe worldwide economic downturn that began in 1929 and lasted through much of the 1930s, marked by mass unemployment and widespread poverty.
Q5. Approximately what percentage of the American labor force was unemployed at the height of the Great Depression around 1933?
- A. About 5 percent
- B. About 10 percent
- C. About 25 percent ✓
- D. About 50 percent
Why: Unemployment peaked at roughly 25 percent in 1933, meaning about one in four American workers was without a job at the depth of the crisis.
Module 2
Module 2: Life on the Dust Bowl Plains
Life on the Dust Bowl Plains
Knowledge check
Q1. Which region of the United States was most severely affected by the dust storms of the 1930s?
- A. The Northeast Atlantic coast
- B. The Great Plains, including parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico ✓
- C. The Pacific Northwest
- D. The Florida Everglades
Why: The Dust Bowl centered on the southern Great Plains, where decades of intensive wheat farming and plowing stripped native grasses, leaving topsoil vulnerable to wind erosion during drought.
Q2. What was the primary cause of the soil erosion that created the Dust Bowl?
- A. Excessive flooding of rivers
- B. Volcanic ash from distant eruptions
- C. Removal of native deep-rooted grasses through overplowing combined with drought ✓
- D. Industrial pollution from nearby factories
Why: Farmers plowed up the native prairie grasses, whose deep roots had held the soil in place. When severe drought struck, the exposed topsoil dried out and blew away in massive storms.
Q3. What was the name given to the large dust storms that swept across the Plains during this period?
- A. Chinooks
- B. Haboobs
- C. Black blizzards ✓
- D. Nor'easters
Why: People called the massive dust storms 'black blizzards' because dark clouds of soil could blot out the sun and bury homes, fields and fences in drifts of dirt.
Q4. Which federal agency was established in 1935 to address soil erosion and promote conservation practices?
- A. The Works Progress Administration
- B. The Securities and Exchange Commission
- C. The Soil Conservation Service ✓
- D. The Tennessee Valley Authority
Why: The Soil Conservation Service, created in 1935 under the Department of Agriculture, promoted practices such as contour plowing, crop rotation and windbreaks to prevent erosion.
Q5. Many families who lost their farms during the Dust Bowl migrated to which destination in search of work?
- A. Canada's Prairie provinces only
- B. Mexico's northern deserts
- C. Alaska's gold fields
- D. California and other western states ✓
Why: Many displaced families, often called 'Okies' regardless of their home state, traveled west on Route 66 and other roads to California seeking agricultural work, a migration famously depicted in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
Module 3
Module 3: Breadlines, Hoovervilles and Hardship
Breadlines, Hoovervilles and Hardship
Knowledge check
Q1. What was the common name for the shantytowns that sprang up across American cities during the Great Depression?
- A. Tenements
- B. Hoovervilles ✓
- C. Bungalow Courts
- D. Dustbowls
Why: Hoovervilles were named ironically after President Herbert Hoover, whom many blamed for the economic crisis. They were makeshift settlements of tents, cardboard, and scrap wood built by people who had lost their homes.
Q2. What were breadlines during the 1930s?
- A. Lines of workers waiting to be hired at factory gates
- B. Queues of people waiting to receive free or cheap food, often from charities or soup kitchens
- C. Government lines for applying to the Social Security program
- D. Groups of farmers waiting to sell grain at auction
Q3. Which of the following best describes the effect of the Great Depression on unemployment in the United States?
- A. Unemployment remained below 5 percent throughout the decade
- B. Unemployment peaked at roughly one-quarter of the workforce around 1933
- C. Unemployment affected only factory workers in the Midwest
- D. Unemployment fell steadily after the stock market crash of 1929
Q4. What was the primary purpose of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), established in 1935?
- A. To provide direct cash payments to every unemployed citizen
- B. To fund public works projects that employed millions of jobless Americans
- C. To regulate banks and insure individual deposits
- D. To subsidize farmers who agreed to reduce crop production
Q5. Why did many families become homeless or move into Hoovervilles during the Depression?
- A. They chose to live communally as a political protest
- B. They could no longer afford rent or mortgage payments after losing jobs and income
- C. Government policy forced all city residents to relocate to rural areas
- D. Hoovervilles were built as summer vacation camps for wealthy families
Module 4
Module 4: The New Deal and Relief Programs
The New Deal and Relief Programs
Knowledge check
Q1. Which New Deal agency was created to provide jobs for unemployed young men on conservation projects such as planting trees and building trails?
- A. Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- B. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) ✓
- C. Public Works Administration (PWA)
- D. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
Why: The Civilian Conservation Corps, established in 1933, employed young men aged 18 to 25 in environmental work like reforestation, soil erosion control, and park construction. The WPA focused on broader public works and employed a wider range of workers, while the PWA handled large infrastructure projects.
Q2. What was the main purpose of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933?
- A. To build dams along the Mississippi River
- B. To guarantee bank deposits up to a set amount
- C. To raise farm prices by reducing agricultural surpluses ✓
- D. To provide free housing to tenant farmers
Why: The Agricultural Adjustment Act aimed to raise farm incomes by paying farmers to reduce crop production and limit surpluses, which pushed prices upward. Bank deposit insurance came from the Banking Act of 1933, and dam building was largely handled by other agencies.
Q3. Which New Deal program was designed to provide jobs for millions of unemployed Americans through large-scale public works projects like roads, bridges, schools, and murals?
- A. Social Security Administration
- B. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
- C. Works Progress Administration ✓
- D. Home Owners' Loan Corporation
Why: The Works Progress Administration, created in 1935, employed millions of people on projects ranging from construction to arts programs, including the Federal Art Project and Federal Writers' Project. The FDIC protected bank deposits, the HOLC refinanced home mortgages, and Social Security was a pension and insurance system.
Q4. What was the primary role of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), established in 1933?
- A. To regulate stock market trading
- B. To insure bank deposits and restore public confidence in banks ✓
- C. To distribute direct cash payments to the poor
- D. To manage federal highway construction
Why: Created after the wave of bank failures in the early 1930s, the FDIC insured bank deposits so that depositors would not lose their savings if a bank collapsed, helping to stop bank runs. Stock market regulation came mainly through the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Q5. Which New Deal program provided federal relief directly to unemployed people in the early years of the Depression, before the WPA was created?
- A. Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) ✓
- B. National Recovery Administration (NRA)
- C. Rural Electrification Administration (REA)
- D. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
Why: The Federal Emergency Relief Administration, founded in 1933 under Harry Hopkins, gave grants to states to provide direct relief such as food and cash to the needy. The NRA focused on industrial codes, the REA on bringing electricity to rural areas, and the NLRB on labor relations.
Module 5
Module 5: Migration, Work and the Road West
Migration, Work and the Road West
Knowledge check
Q1. Which federal agency, created in 1935, employed artists, writers, and photographers during the Great Depression to document American life?
- A. Civilian Conservation Corps
- B. Farm Security Administration ✓
- C. Works Progress Administration
- D. Tennessee Valley Authority
Why: The Farm Security Administration (FSA) hired photographers such as Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans to document rural poverty and migrant life, producing an iconic photographic record of the Dust Bowl era. The Works Progress Administration also employed artists and writers, but the FSA is the agency most associated with documenting migration.
Q2. What was the name of the highway that carried many Dust Bowl migrants from the Midwest toward California?
- A. Lincoln Highway
- B. Route 66 ✓
- C. Santa Fe Trail
- D. Pacific Coast Highway
Why: U.S. Route 66 ran from Chicago to Los Angeles through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and became the main route for Dust Bowl migrants heading west. It is widely remembered as the 'Mother Road' of this migration, celebrated in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
Q3. Which John Steinbeck novel, published in 1939, follows the Joad family as they migrate from Oklahoma to California?
- A. Of Mice and Men
- B. East of Eden
- C. The Grapes of Wrath ✓
- D. Cannery Row
Why: The Grapes of Wrath (1939) tells the story of the Joad family, displaced from their Oklahoma farm by drought and debt, who travel to California seeking work. The novel vividly portrayed the hardships of migrant farm workers and became one of the defining literary works of the Depression era.
Q4. Why did many Dust Bowl migrants move to California during the 1930s?
- A. To work in the gold mines of the Sierra Nevada
- B. To find agricultural work after drought and soil erosion destroyed their farms ✓
- C. To join the military during the buildup before World War II
- D. To attend newly founded state universities
Why: Severe drought combined with decades of poor farming practices caused massive dust storms that ruined crops and land across the Great Plains. Families lost their farms and migrated west, hoping to find work in California's large agricultural industry, though they often faced low wages and poor conditions.
Q5. What was the derogatory nickname given to Dust Bowl migrants who arrived in California?
- A. Forty-Niners
- B. Okies ✓
- C. Cowboys
- D. Pioneers
Why: Many migrants came from Oklahoma, and Californians often called them 'Okies' regardless of their actual home state, a term frequently used with contempt. The label reflected the hostility and prejudice these newcomers faced as they competed for scarce jobs and housing.
Module 6
Module 6: Hollywood, Radio and Popular Entertainment
Hollywood, Radio and Popular Entertainment
Knowledge check
Q1. Which film studio was known in the 1930s for its gangster films and for producing Warner Bros. hits such as 'Little Caesar' (1931)?
- A. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- B. Warner Bros. ✓
- C. Paramount Pictures
- D. RKO Radio Pictures
Why: Warner Bros. became famous in the early 1930s for hard-hitting gangster films like 'Little Caesar' and 'The Public Enemy', which reflected the crime wave of the Depression era.
Q2. What was the name of the 1934 Production Code enforcement body that began strictly policing Hollywood films for moral content?
- A. The Hays Office
- B. The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, through its Production Code Administration ✓
- C. The Federal Communications Commission
- D. The National Recovery Administration
Why: The Production Code Administration, headed by Joseph Breen from 1934, enforced the Hays Code, which strictly limited depictions of crime, sex and morality in American films. The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America oversaw it.
Q3. Which 1939 film, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, became one of the most popular movies of the decade and was set against the American Civil War?
- A. The Wizard of Oz
- B. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
- C. Gone with the Wind ✓
- D. Stagecoach
Why: 'Gone with the Wind' (1939), produced by David O. Selznick, was a massive commercial success and won multiple Academy Awards, becoming a defining film of the late 1930s.
Q4. Which radio programme, broadcast in 1938 by Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, caused widespread panic among some listeners who believed a real Martian invasion was occurring?
- A. The Shadow
- B. Amos 'n' Andy
- C. The War of the Worlds ✓
- D. Information Please
Why: Welles' Halloween 1938 adaptation of H.G. Wells' 'The War of the Worlds' was presented as a realistic news broadcast, and some listeners were frightened into believing an actual invasion was underway, though the extent of the panic was later exaggerated.
Q5. What was the main purpose of the 'Dish Night' promotions and double features that cinemas offered during the Depression?
- A. To raise money for war bonds
- B. To attract audiences during hard economic times when money was scarce ✓
- C. To comply with new government censorship laws
- D. To promote the newly invented colour film process
Why: Cinemas offered incentives such as free crockery (dish night), double features and giveaways to draw in cash-strapped audiences, helping the film industry remain popular despite the economic downturn.
Module 7
Module 7: Art, Literature and Voices of Protest
Art, Literature and Voices of Protest
Knowledge check
Q1. Which novel by John Steinbeck, published in 1939, follows the Joad family as they migrate from Oklahoma to California during the Dust Bowl?
- A. Of Mice and Men
- B. The Grapes of Wrath ✓
- C. East of Eden
- D. Tortilla Flat
Why: The Grapes of Wrath (1939) tells the story of the Joad family, displaced Dust Bowl farmers who travel to California in search of work and dignity. It is one of the most significant literary voices of protest from the decade.
Q2. Which photographer's 1936 image 'Migrant Mother' became an iconic symbol of Depression-era poverty?
- A. Walker Evans
- B. Dorothea Lange ✓
- C. Margaret Bourke-White
- D. Ansel Adams
Why: Dorothea Lange took 'Migrant Mother' while working for the Farm Security Administration. The photograph of a worried mother with her children in a pea-pickers' camp in California became one of the most recognised images of the Great Depression.
Q3. The Federal Art Project, which employed artists during the 1930s, was part of which New Deal agency?
- A. The Civilian Conservation Corps
- B. The Works Progress Administration ✓
- C. The Tennessee Valley Authority
- D. The Securities and Exchange Commission
Why: The Federal Art Project was a division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It employed thousands of artists, writers, and performers, supporting cultural production while providing work relief during the Depression.
Q4. Which Woody Guthrie song, written in response to the hardships of the Depression and Dust Bowl, became an unofficial anthem for working people?
- A. This Land Is Your Land ✓
- B. Blowin' in the Wind
- C. Strange Fruit
- D. We Shall Overcome
Why: Woody Guthrie wrote 'This Land Is Your Land' in 1940 as a response to the patriotic songs he felt ignored the struggles of the poor. Guthrie drew heavily on his experiences of the Dust Bowl and migrant life to create protest folk music.
Q5. What was the primary subject matter of the regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton's murals and paintings during the 1930s?
- A. Abstract geometric forms
- B. Urban skyscrapers and industry only
- C. Rural American life and working-class scenes ✓
- D. European classical mythology
Why: Thomas Hart Benton was a leading Regionalist painter who depicted rural American life, farmers, and everyday working people. His style rejected European modernism in favour of celebrating the heartland and its people, which resonated strongly during the Depression.