The Wall Street Crash

The 1920s had been a "boom" decade, but in October 1929 the American stock market collapsed — the Wall Street Crash. Share prices had been driven far above their real value, and when confidence broke, prices crashed and fortunes vanished overnight.

The Crash triggered the Great Depression, the worst economic slump in US history:

• Thousands of banks failed, wiping out people's savings.
• Factories closed and unemployment soared — around 13 million out of work by 1932.
• Homeless families built shanty towns nicknamed "Hoovervilles" — mocking President Hoover, who they blamed.

Why "Hoovervilles"? President Herbert Hoover believed the economy would recover on its own and was slow to give direct help — so his name became attached to the misery of the Depression.

A nation in crisis

The Depression touched almost every American. It was a human disaster as much as an economic one.

By 1932 Americans wanted change. In that year's election they voted overwhelmingly for a president promising a "New Deal" — Franklin D. Roosevelt.

What set it off?

Roosevelt and the New Deal

Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) was elected president in 1932 and took office in 1933. He promised a "New Deal" for the American people — active government intervention to fight the Depression.

• The "Hundred Days" — a burst of laws in early 1933 to rescue the banks and get help flowing.
• "Fireside chats" — FDR spoke directly to the nation on the radio to restore confidence.
• His aim was "Relief, Recovery and Reform" — help now, rebuild the economy, and stop it happening again.

Key contrast: where Hoover had largely left things to sort themselves out, FDR used the power of the federal government to act on a huge scale.

The "alphabet agencies"

The New Deal created dozens of new government bodies, known by their initials — the "alphabet agencies":

• AAA — the Agricultural Adjustment Administration helped farmers by paying them to cut production and raise prices.
• CCC — the Civilian Conservation Corps gave young men jobs on conservation projects.
• TVA — the Tennessee Valley Authority built dams to control floods and bring electricity and jobs to a poor region.
• WPA — the Works Progress Administration created jobs building roads, schools and public works.

The Social Security Act (1935) was a landmark reform — it introduced pensions for the elderly and help for the unemployed and disabled, a permanent safety net.

Who launched the New Deal?

War ends the Depression

The New Deal eased the worst of the Depression, but it was the Second World War that finally ended it. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the USA entered the war.

• Factories switched to war production — planes, ships, tanks — and unemployment vanished.
• With so many men away fighting, millions of women went to work in industry ("Rosie the Riveter").
• The war made the USA the world's greatest industrial and military power.

Not everyone shared in it: Japanese Americans were interned, and Black Americans, though vital to the war effort, still faced deep segregation and discrimination at home.

Why the USA joined the war

The post-war boom

The 1950s brought an age of affluence. American industry was undamaged by war, and prosperity spread widely — the "American Dream" of a comfortable, consumer lifestyle.

• Consumerism boomed — cars, televisions, fridges and washing machines filled homes.
• Families moved out to new suburbs, often bought on easy credit.
• Advertising and popular culture (rock 'n' roll, Hollywood) shaped a confident new lifestyle.

Cold War shadow: alongside the affluence came fear of communism at home — McCarthyism and the "Red Scare" of the early 1950s saw Americans accused of being communists.

The Civil Rights Movement begins

Prosperity was not shared equally. In the South, Black Americans lived under segregation ("Jim Crow" laws) — separate, unequal schools, buses and facilities. The 1950s saw the Civil Rights Movement take off:

• Brown v Board of Education (1954) — the Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional.
• Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–56) — after Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat, Black residents boycotted the buses. It launched Martin Luther King as a leader.

When was Brown v Board?

"I Have a Dream"

Through the early 1960s the movement grew, using non-violent protest — sit-ins, freedom rides and marches — led above all by Martin Luther King.

• In 1963 around a quarter of a million people joined the March on Washington.
• There King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, calling for an end to racism.
• TV coverage of peaceful marchers being attacked won huge sympathy for the cause.

President Kennedy, who had backed civil rights reform, was assassinated in November 1963. His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, pushed the reforms through.

The great civil rights laws

The movement's pressure produced two landmark laws under President Johnson:

• The Civil Rights Act (1964) outlawed segregation and discrimination in public places and jobs.
• The Voting Rights Act (1965) ended barriers (like unfair literacy tests) that had stopped Black Americans voting.

These were huge legal victories — but real equality was slower to arrive, and problems of poverty and prejudice remained.

Landmark law

Malcolm X and Black Power

Not everyone agreed with King's non-violent approach. Some argued for a more militant path, especially where poverty and racism persisted in Northern cities:

• Malcolm X argued Black Americans should defend themselves and take pride in a separate Black identity, "by any means necessary" (he was assassinated in 1965).
• The Black Power movement of the later 1960s emphasised Black pride, self-reliance and, for some, more radical action.
• Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, sparking grief and riots across US cities.

Balance the picture: King's non-violence won the great legal changes, but Black Power reshaped how many African Americans thought about pride and identity.

Vietnam divides the nation

The late 1960s were years of deep division. The USA's involvement in the Vietnam War grew steadily, and by the late 1960s it split the country.

• Huge anti-war protests, especially among students, spread across America.
• A wider "counter-culture" challenged traditional values.
• Alongside the civil rights struggle, this made the late 1960s a time of protest and unrest.

Public opposition to Vietnam grew so strong that it helped drive President Johnson from office and shaped US politics for years.

Watergate and Nixon's fall

Distrust of government deepened with the Watergate scandal. It began with a break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters (the Watergate building) and grew into a cover-up reaching the White House.

• Investigation revealed President Richard Nixon had tried to cover up the crime.
• Facing certain impeachment, Nixon resigned in 1974 — the only US president ever to do so.

Watergate badly damaged Americans' trust in their politicians and in the presidency itself.

The president who resigned

Reagan and the end of the Cold War

The USA recovered its confidence in the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan (in office 1981–89), who cut taxes, boosted defence spending and took a tough line on communism.

• The Cold War ended as Soviet power collapsed — the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the USSR broke up in 1991.
• This left the USA as the world's sole superpower.
• The 1990s brought economic growth and the rise of new technology, carrying the USA into the year 2000 as the dominant global power.

Across the whole period 1929–2000, the USA moved from the depths of the Depression to unrivalled global power — while still wrestling with questions of equality and trust in government.

Event ↔ significance

Tap an event on the left, then tap its significance on the right.

Timeline: 1929 → 2000

Put the events in order

Tap the events in the correct time order, from earliest to latest.

Name the safety-net law

Sources and interpretations

In the exam you handle sources and interpretations about the USA. Two quick habits win marks:

• Ask who made it and why (provenance). A Depression-era photograph and a New Deal government poster show the same era very differently — one to record hardship, one to build support.
• Use your own knowledge to judge it. Support or challenge a source with facts you know (dates, events, causes).

Interpretations differ: historians disagree about how much the New Deal really cured the Depression, or how far the Civil Rights Movement succeeded. Knowing that interpretations vary — and why — is exactly what the exam rewards.

Thinking like a historian

Who led the movement?

The essentials to remember

You've covered the whole Eduqas Development of the USA 1929-2000 period study. Press Finish to see your score.