US History Studies
Rosen
Unit Four: The Roaring 1920’s to the Great Depression
ESSAY QUESTIONS
THE NEW ERA
 What was Calvin Coolidge's philosophy of government? How was this philosophy
expressed during his administration?
 To what extent did American foreign policy retreat into isolationism during the 1920s?
 How did the automobile industry shape American life in the 1920s?
THE ROARING TWENTIES
 After the Nineteenth Amendment passed, how did women vote in the 1920s? What effect
did their voting patterns have on politics?
 To what extent did the Eighteenth Amendment live up to its supporters' claims that
prohibition would eliminate crime and lift the nation's morality?
 How did radio contribute to the rise of mass culture in America during the 1920s?
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
 Why did the revived Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s appeal to native-born white Americans?
 How did the 1925 Scopes trial symbolize the divisions between the city and the country?
 Why was Alfred E. Smith, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1928, a controversial
figure?
THE GREAT CRASH
 Why did Herbert Hoover think of himself as a progressive? Was his self-assessment
accurate?
 What weaknesses existed in the American economy of the 1920s?
 How did President Hoover respond to the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent
depression? What was the impact of his approach?
LIFE IN THE DEPRESSION
 What was the human toll of the Great Depression?
 What types of movies did Americans watch during the Great Depression, and why were
they popular?
 How did Communists and socialists react to the Great Depression, and what did this do to
their popularity among Americans?