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GCSE History
Exam revision guide
Unit 2: 20th Century Depth Studies
Section A
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Date: Friday June 15th 2012
Revision help
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This guide
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Your exercise book
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CGP Revision guide (purchased last year, copies available from Ms Peers for £2.00)
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Textbook Unit 2 Twentieth Century Depth Studies isbn: 978 1 4085 0321 8
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Useful sites
www.johndclare.net/
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history
www.schoolshistory.co.uk
Please do not loose this revision guide. You will not be given another revision guide for
Section A questions.
However you will be given another revision guide to explain how to answer Section B
questions.
GCSE History
Overview of structure of course
Unit 1 37.5% of final grade (taken in year 10)
Unit 3 Controlled assessment 25% of total grade (completed autumn year 11)
Unit 2 37.5% of final grade (taken in summer of year 11)
Unit 2 20th Century Depth Studies
GCSE Exam Friday June 15th 2012
Time allowed: One hour and 45 minutes
You will answer one Section A question and two questions from Section B.
Section A The Roaring Twenties USA 1919-1929
Section B Depression and New Deal: The USA 1929-1941
Race Relations in the USA 1955-1968
You have no choice in the questions you answer. You answer the questions we have
prepared you for
Types of questions
Section A
Inference question (4 marks) x1
An explain how question (6 mark) x1
A Usefulness question (10 marks) x1
Section B
A describe question (8 marks) x2
An Analysis and Explanation question (12 marks) x2
Total marks available for paper 2 = 60
Unit 2 Section A: The Roaring 20s USA 1919-1929
How and why did the USA achieve prosperity in the 1920’s?
Isolationism and its effects:
• American rejection of the Treat of Versailles and refusal to join the League
of Nations\
• The consequences for the USA
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Tariff policy (Fordney McCumber Tariff of 1922)
Mass production (e.g. Ford and the motor industry):
• Consumer industries and advertising
• Hire purchase
Purchase of shares:
• The stock market boom
Republican Government policies
Developments in the entertainment industries (e.g. The cinema)
How far was the USA a divided society in the 1920’s?
Rich versus poor: continuation of poverty for some (e.g. farmers)
Race:
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Immigration controls
The quota system of 1921
National Origins Act of 1924
The Ku Klux Klan and its activities
Prohibition:
• Groups for and against it
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Organised crime
The impact on society
Young people:
• Fashions
• Flappers
Why did the USA Stock Exchange collapse in 1929?
The problems of the 1920’s:
• Over production
• Lack of credit control
• The effects of the tariff policy
• Unequal distribution of wealth
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The Wall Street Crash
• Events and immediate consequences
How do I answer an ‘Inference’ question?
For this type of question you will simply be asked
What does Source X suggest about something?
Your answer is worth 4 marks. It is the easiest part of the Paper 2 question, and
you should be looking at spending no more than 5 minutes on it. You can get two
marks simply by looking for facts in the source itself.
You need to ask yourself what the author is trying to get you to think. Have a look
at the provenance and think about what the author would want you to come away
believing.
Study the exemplar below
Source X The price of some American shares before and after the Wall Street Crash October 29
Some leading US
companies
American Can
General Electric
General Motors
New York Central
Radio
Woolworth
United states Steel
Price of shares (in cents)
3rd September 1929
182
396
182
256
505
251
279
Price of shares (in cents)
13th November 1929
86
168
36
160
28
52
150
From The Age of Excess: America 1920-1932 by J. Brooman 1986
Explain what you can learn form Source X about what happened to share
prices in the USA in 1929.
Share prices fell very quickly between September and November 1929 as investors
tried to sell their shares. The consumer industries seemed to be very badly hit,
most notable was the fall in the value of radio shares.
Clearly the US economy had some serious underlying weaknesses and it only seemed
strong. Most of the weaknesses were caused by greed.
REVISION TASKS Preparing to answer an inference question
What can you infer from the following facts?
Draw two inferences from each of these facts. What general issues or events of
the time does each fact hint at?
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In the 1920 election Warren Harding talked about a return to ‘normalcy’.
Between 1920 and 1929 the number of motor cars on the roads increased
from 9 million to 26 million
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The Republican governments did not place any controls on industry or
financial institutions
In 1922 Congress introduced the Fordney McCumber tariff.
By 1929 more than 110 million Americans were going to the cinema every
week
When Rudolph Valentino died in 1926 thousands of fans attended his funeral.
In 1929 60% of Americans lived below the poverty line.
During the 1920’s some farmers were evicted; others were forced to sell
their land.
In 1921 Emergency Quota Act limited the number of immigrants to 357000
a year.
The jury found Sacco and Vanzetti guilty of murder and they were executed
in 1927.
Juries made up of white people were reluctant to convict people for Ku Klux
Klan activities.
During the 1920s new wilder dances such as the Charleston became popular.
The Anti Flirt association was set to try to control the excesses of the
young.
By 1930 there were nearly a quarter of a million speakeasies in the USA.
Al Capone became a celebrity – he mixed with businessmen, politicians and
movie stars.
Ordinary people bought shares ‘on the margin’.
On Tuesday 29th October shareholders lost a total of48 billion
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How do I answer an ‘Explain how’ question?
The second part of the question is worth 6 marks. Spend about 10 minutes on it.
Confusingly this question may take a number of forms.
1. It may simply ask you to explain why something happened. Here’s an example
• Explain why the Ku Klux Klan gained support in the USA in the 1920’s
2. Or it may ask you to explain the consequences of an event
• Explain the consequences of prohibition for the USA in the 1920’s
3. Or finally it may ask you to explain a process
• Explain how the policies of the US government in the early 1920’s
encouraged American isolation in world politics
Remember when you write a ‘how’ essay you need to give REASONS and
EXPLANATIONS. An answer which simply detailed what prohibition was would get
you zero marks.
For a WHY question give REASONS
For a HOW question give WAYS
For a CONSEQUENCES question give RESULTS
To get a high mark you need to give at least two reasons, ways or results. Devote
one paragraph to each. A really good start to each paragraph is
• The first reason or way or result was.....
• The second reason way or result was.....
All these different kinds of questions revolve around the ‘how’ of history. How did
one thing lead to another? The better your explanation the more marks you get.
REVISION TASKS Preparing to answer an explain question
Answer each question below by finding THREE REASONS (Why), WAYS (How) or
RESULTS (What consequences) The EXPLAIN HOW all three led to or arose from
the situation in the question.
1. Why did a mood of isolationism grow in the USA after 1919?
2. Why did the USA refuse to join the League of Nations?
3. What were the effects of isolationism in the USA during the 1920’s?
4. Why did American industry experience a boom in the 1920’s?
5. Why was Henry Ford so successful?
6. Why did the USA impose high tariffs on imports in the 19320’s?
7. What were the consequences of Fordney McCumber tariff?
8. Why did the entertainment industry prosper in the 1920’s?
9. Why were the 1920’s called ‘the roaring twenties’?
10. Why did jazz appeal to young people in the 1920’s?
11. How were the 1920’s a bad time for some farmers, black people and workers
in old industries?
12. Why did the US government impose strict immigration controls in the
1920’s?
13. Why was there a ‘Red Scare’ in the 1920’s?
14. Why were black Americans so often attacked in the 1920’s?
15. Why was the Ku Klux Klan able to attach black Americans so often in the
1920’s?
16. Why did the US government impose Prohibition in the 1919?
17. What were the effects of prohibition in the 1920”s?
18. Why did organised crime flourish in the 1920’s?
19. In what ways was the US economy weak in the 1920’s?
20. Why did Wall Street ‘crash’ in 1929, and what were the consequences?
How do I answer a “Usefulness question?
The third part of the Paper 2 question asks you to evaluate the usefulness of a
source. It is worth 10 marks. When dealing with this part of the exam you should
be looking at the source and asking yourself, ‘How might this information be useful
to a historian?’ Do not forget that this question is worth as much as the other two
parts put together. You should spend about 15 minutes on it. As for all questions
about sources you must address two issues.
1.
The provenance (Where does the source come from? Who wrote it drew it or said it?
Is that person a reliable witness whose opinions might be useful)
To get an A*-C mark you need to look at the motive and purpose of the writer
You would need to explain how these factors might make the source both more
useful and less useful.
2.
The content (What is its message? How might the information it holds be useful to
historians)
You need to give specific instances of how the information might be useful to
historians. The source might for example supply facts for historians who want
to study a particular issue, tell historians something about the author, show
historians about one political group or social grouping, or provide facts which
illustrate some underlying issue you know about.
Summary
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Briefly describe source and its content
Look at provenance say why it’s useful and any limitations. Use own knowledge
Look at content say why it’s useful and any limitations. Use own knowledge
Conclusion - summarise usefulness of source
REVISION TASKS Practising a usefulness question
Source X An American cartoon May 1921. Caption reads Uncle Sam’s quota. (this refers to the
Emergency Quota Act)
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How useful is this source to an historian studying attitudes towards immigration in the
1920’s? (10 marks)
Source K A cartoon from New York magazine in 1927. The cartoon shows a man in hospital about
to have an operation but still worrying about his investments.
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How useful is Source K to an historian studying attitudes towards the stock market in
the USA in the 1920’s (10 marks)