The USA 1919-1948: the People and the State | OCR GCSE History A (J410)
The USA 1919-1948: the People and the State
- 113 questions
- 9 subtopics
- Paper 1
- Paper 1
The USA 1919–1948: The People and the State is examined in Paper 1, Period study with non-British depth study.
It covers the US economy and women in the ‘Roaring Twenties’, prohibition, the Red Scare and immigration restrictions, jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan and attempts to combat prejudice, economic and social effects of the Great Depression and government response, the Second New Deal, the mobilisation of the US people for the war effort, social impact of the war, the Detroit Race Riots 1943 and segregation in the armed forces and the state and the American people, 1919–1948.
Sample questions from The USA 1919-1948: the People and the State
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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The US economy and women in the ‘Roaring Twenties’
How did Henry Ford's assembly line change the making of cars?
Show the answer
Each worker repeated one task as the car moved past, so cars were built far faster and the Model T became cheap enough for ordinary families. -
Prohibition, the Red Scare and immigration restrictions
Why was the ban on alcohol abandoned in 1933?
Show the answer
It was widely broken, it made gangsters such as Al Capone rich and corrupted police and officials, and repeal promised jobs and tax revenue in the Depression. -
Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan and attempts to combat prejudice
What methods did the NAACP use to fight racial injustice?
Show the answer
It challenged discriminatory laws in the courts, lobbied politicians and used publicity, including its magazine The Crisis. -
Economic and social effects of the Great Depression and government response
How did Hoover respond to the slump, and why did his response ruin his reputation?
Show the answer
He trusted to self-help and charity, though the Reconstruction Finance Corporation of 1932 did lend public money to banks and businesses. He was then blamed for sending troops to burn out the unemployed veterans camped in Washington to demand their war bonus. -
The Second New Deal
What rights did the Wagner Act give American workers?
Show the answer
The right to join a trade union and to bargain collectively, protected by a National Labor Relations Board that could act against employers who refused. -
The mobilisation of the US people for the war effort
How did American industry change once the country was at war?
Show the answer
Factories switched from consumer goods to weapons, so car plants turned out tanks, aircraft and jeeps, and production outstripped that of every enemy. -
Social impact of the war
Why did the divorce rate rise?
Show the answer
Couples married in haste before men left, then spent years apart, and many marriages did not survive the reunion. -
The Detroit Race Riots 1943 and segregation in the armed forces
How were Black Americans treated in the wartime armed forces?
Show the answer
They served in separate units under mostly white officers, with segregated barracks, canteens and even blood supplies, and many were given labouring rather than combat duties.
The 9 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| The US economy and women in the ‘Roaring Twenties’ | The three Republican presidents, laissez-faire and rugged individualism, tariffs and tax cuts, Ford's assembly line, hire purchase, booming and declining industries, farmers and other losers, the Nineteenth Amendment, Alice Paul's campaign and the Sheppard-Towner Act. | 13 |
| Prohibition, the Red Scare and immigration restrictions | The temperance campaigners, the Eighteenth Amendment, speakeasies and bootleggers, why prohibition was abandoned in 1933, the Red Scare, the Palmer Raids, Sacco and Vanzetti, and the immigration quotas of 1921 and 1924. | 9 |
| Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan and attempts to combat prejudice | The Jim Crow Laws, the beliefs, targets, strength and decline of the Ku Klux Klan, the NAACP and its methods, the Dyer Bill, Marcus Garvey and the UNIA, Back to Africa, the Black Star Line, Garvey's fall and why little had changed by 1929. | 13 |
| Economic and social effects of the Great Depression and government response | Buying on the margin, unemployment and bank failures, Hoovervilles and the Dust Bowl, Hoover's response, the 1932 campaigns and Roosevelt's landslide, the Hundred Days, the banking rescue, and the AAA, CCC, FERA, NRA and Tennessee Valley Authority. | 16 |
| The Second New Deal | Why Roosevelt launched new reforms in 1935, the Works Progress Administration, the Social Security Act, the Wagner Act, the Resettlement and Farm Security Administrations, business and radical critics, the Supreme Court quarrel and the results. | 10 |
| The mobilisation of the US people for the war effort | Pearl Harbor, the Office of War Information, Rosie the Riveter, war bonds, industry's switch to weapons, the War Production Board, the end of unemployment, presidential power, price and wage controls, the draft and public opinion. | 12 |
| Social impact of the war | Rationing and victory gardens, wartime taxation, housing shortages, divorce, women's war work and what followed it, Executive Order 9066 and the internment of Japanese Americans, and the war's foundations for civil rights. | 10 |
| The Detroit Race Riots 1943 and segregation in the armed forces | Racial tension in wartime Detroit, the rioting of June 1943 and its end, Black Americans in the segregated forces, the Tuskegee Airmen, Executive Order 8802 and Randolph's threatened march, and Truman's desegregation of the armed forces in 1948. | 10 |
| The state and the American people, 1919–1948 | Republican aims in the 1920s, Roosevelt's three aims, the new agencies, the growing reach of Washington, the states' role, the poor, women, youth, Black Americans, persecuted groups, party support, wartime unity and the sources. | 20 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
OCR GCSE History A Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 1,449 questions with their answers.