The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression

What is The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression?

Within History, which covers ancient civilisations, empires, revolutions, world wars and the making of the modern world, this topic explains The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression. History topics connect events, people and ideas across time, so each one here gives a clear summary and a way to test your understanding.

Check that you can explain The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression in your own words and give one example from everyday life. If you can do that, you have understood the core idea.

Understanding The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression helps you explain change over time and judge why events happened, which is the core skill in history essays.

The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression in detail

In the 1920s, the USA had an economic boom with mass production (Ford's assembly line), consumer goods, jazz, cinema and credit buying. Not everyone shared the prosperity, with farmers, African Americans and immigrants facing hardship. Many people bought shares on credit, causing a bubble.

In October 1929, the Wall Street Crash wiped out share values. Banks failed, factories closed and millions lost jobs, leading to the Great Depression, which spread worldwide through trade and debts. In the USA, President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the New Deal in 1933, with government work programmes and reforms. The Depression helped extremist parties in Europe, such as the Nazis.

How the interactive helps you understand The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression

Watch the growth curve in the interactive. Use any sliders or buttons it offers to change the values and see how the growth curve responds.

Before you change anything, predict the result. Then change one value at a time and check whether your prediction was right. This is a quick way to build a correct mental model of The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression.

Real-life uses and examples

• Judge how important The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression was by weighing evidence from more than one source.
• Explain the causes and consequences of The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression in a well-structured paragraph.
• Compare The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression with another event to spot patterns of change and continuity.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Treating one source as the whole story when you study The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression.
• Describing events without explaining why they happened.
• Learning the definition without testing it. Use the quiz and the interactive to check that you can apply the idea.