The Great Depression
From the boom of the Twenties to the New Deal, 1919 to 1941
In the 1920s many Americans bought their first car and radio, danced to jazz and put money into a rising stock market. The same decade brought Prohibition, a new Ku Klux Klan, strict immigration quotas and farmers who never shared in the boom. In October 1929 the market crashed. Within a few years thousands of banks had failed, about a quarter of workers were jobless, and dust storms were stripping farms on the Plains. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal changed what Americans expected from their government.
The course picks up where the Gilded Age and Progressive Era left off. Start with the Roaring Twenties and work through all four units in order.
About This Course
This course follows the United States from the boom of the 1920s to the eve of World War II. Unit 1 looks at the Roaring Twenties: cars and credit, radio and jazz, Prohibition and the backlash against immigrants and new ideas. Unit 2 follows the stock market crash of 1929, the bank failures that came after it and the slide into the worst depression in American history, when about one worker in four had no job. Unit 3 moves to the Great Plains, where drought, dust storms and debt drove families from their farms in the Dust Bowl. Unit 4 examines Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, what it tried, what it changed and what it left undone.
Several questions run through all four units. What caused the Depression, and why did it last so long? What should government do when the economy fails, and how far should it reach into people’s lives? Who suffered most, and who was left out of the recovery? Each unit adds evidence, so students can return to these questions and revise their answers as the course goes on.
Start Here
The Roaring Twenties
Normalcy and scandal, cars and radio, jazz and the Harlem Renaissance, Prohibition, the Klan and the Scopes trial. Includes a filterable timeline, a “Modern or traditional?” activity, primary sources and a quiz.
Open the unit ›Units
All four units are ready now. The course is complete.
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The Roaring Twenties
Boom, jazz and backlash, 1919 to 1929.
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The Crash of 1929
Speculation, Black Thursday and Black Tuesday, bank failures and the spread of the Depression.
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The Dust Bowl
Drought and dust storms on the southern Plains, and the migrants who headed west.
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The New Deal
Franklin Roosevelt, the Hundred Days, Social Security, and the New Deal’s critics.
The Era at a Glance
A few landmark dates. Each unit covers its part of the story in more detail.
- 1919 The 18th Amendment is ratified, and Prohibition begins the next year.
- 1920 The 19th Amendment is ratified. Warren G. Harding wins the presidency promising “normalcy.”
- 1924 The Immigration Act sets national quotas that sharply cut immigration from southern and eastern Europe and bar most immigrants from Asia.
- 1927 Charles Lindbergh flies alone from New York to Paris.
- 1929 The stock market crashes in October.
- 1930–1933 Thousands of banks fail, and unemployment climbs to about one worker in four.
- 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt takes office and launches the New Deal. The 21st Amendment ends Prohibition.
- 1935 Congress passes the Social Security Act. Dust storms strike the southern Plains.
- 1941 The United States enters World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor.