1K The making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975 – only) Crisis of identity, 1920–1945 (A-level only) — AQA A-Level History

The 'Crisis of identity, 1920–1945' covers the tumultuous interwar decades during which the United States grappled with the contradictions of modern consumer capitalism, socio-cultural divisions, economic collapse, and international responsibilities. Starting with the cultural wars and unequal prosperity of the Roaring Twenties, the study moves into the catastrophe of the Great Depression and the transformative policy response of Roosevelt's New Deal.

The period culminates with American entry into World War II, examining how total war mobilisation dismantled isolationism, sparked the 'Double V' campaign among African Americans, and propelled the nation onto the world stage as an atomic superpower. Mastering this era is vital for understanding the 20th-century expansion of executive authority, the shifting nature of American citizenship, and the structural roots of the post-1945 Cold War.

• →Cultural and Racial Polarisation: The tension between urban modernist liberalism and rural, traditionalist nativism during the 1920s (Scopes Trial, 18th Amendment, Immigration Quota Acts).
• →Structural Causes of the Depression: The intersection of maldistribution of wealth, agricultural distress, easy credit, stock market speculation on margin, and systemic banking weaknesses.
• →The New Deal Coalition and Welfare State: The realignment of the Democratic Party and the emergence of direct federal intervention through relief, recovery, and regulatory reform (WPA, Social Security, Wagner Act).
• →Total War Mobilisation and Social Transition: How World War II ended unemployment, spurred demographic migrations (Sunbelt, Second Great Migration), challenged Jim Crow ('Double V' Campaign), and eroded isolationist foreign policy.

• Identify the core tenets of Republican conservatism in the 1920s, including laissez-faire economics, tax cuts, and protectionist tariffs.
• Evaluate the impact of Harding's 'Return to Normalcy' and the political fallout from the Teapot Dome scandal on public trust.
• Analyse Coolidge's pro-business policies and his ideological commitment to minimal federal intervention in the economy.
• Assess Hoover's response to the Great Depression, contrasting his belief in 'rugged individualism' with his later, limited federal interventions like the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
• Differentiate between the aims and legislative focus of the First New Deal (recovery and relief) and the Second New Deal (reform and social security).
• Analyse the ideological opposition from the political right, including the Liberty League and Supreme Court rulings against federal overreach.
• Evaluate the criticisms from the political left, such as Huey Long's 'Share Our Wealth' movement and Dr Townsend's pension plans.
• Assess how FDR's policies permanently altered the constitutional and practical role of the Federal Government in managing the economy and providing social welfare.
• Identify specific structural weaknesses of the 1920s economy, such as the depressed agricultural sector and the over-reliance on credit.
• Evaluate the transition from boom to bust, linking the Wall Street Crash to underlying economic fragilities rather than viewing it as the sole cause of the Depression.
• Assess the economic impact of the New Deals, noting both successes in banking stabilisation and limitations regarding the persistence of high unemployment.
• Analyse the role of the Second World War in achieving full economic recovery through unprecedented federal spending and the Lend-Lease programme.
• Analyse the cultural shifts of the Jazz Age, including the clash between modern urban values and traditional rural conservatism.
• Evaluate changes in the role of women, contrasting the social liberation of the 1920s with the practical economic necessities of the 1930s and 1940s.
• Assess the significance of Prohibition's failure, focusing on the rise of organised crime and the exposure of federal enforcement limitations.
• Compare the social impacts of the Depression, such as poverty and migration, with those of the Second World War, including workforce expansion and demographic shifts.
• Explain the rural-urban divide, focusing on cultural conflicts like Prohibition and religious fundamentalism versus modern urban lifestyles.
• Analyse regional economic and social differences, contrasting the industrialised North and expanding West with the economically stagnant, agricultural South.
• Evaluate the experiences of African-Americans, including the push and pull factors of the Great Migration and the reality of de facto segregation in the North.
• Assess the reasons for the rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan, noting its broadened nativist agenda targeting immigrants, Catholics, and Jews alongside African-Americans.
• Assess the extent of US isolationism in the 1920s and 1930s, noting the rejection of the League of Nations alongside continued economic diplomacy.
• Analyse the impact of the Neutrality Acts (1935-1939) as legislative attempts to prevent the USA from being drawn into foreign conflicts.
• Evaluate FDR's role in gradually shifting US foreign policy from strict neutrality to active support for the Allies through Cash and Carry and the Lend-Lease Act.
• Explain the significance of the Pearl Harbor attack as the catalyst that definitively ended American isolationism and initiated full entry into the Second World War.

• 💡Use specific legislative examples, such as the Fordney-McCumber Tariff or the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, to demonstrate the practical application of Republican conservatism.
• 💡When evaluating Hoover, balance the traditional view of his 'do-nothing' presidency against revisionist perspectives that highlight his unprecedented, albeit limited, federal interventions.
• 💡Link the economic policies of Harding and Coolidge directly to the structural weaknesses that exacerbated the 1929 Wall Street Crash.
• 💡Use the 'alphabet agencies' (e.g., TVA, CCC, WPA) as specific evidence to demonstrate the expanding scope of federal intervention.
• 💡When discussing the 'conflict of ideas', ensure you balance the conservative critique of federal overreach with the radical critique that FDR was too conservative.
• 💡Analyse FDR's 'court-packing' plan of 1937 as a key example of the constitutional crisis generated by the expanding role of the Federal Government.
• 💡When evaluating the New Deal's economic impact, distinguish between short-term relief measures and long-term structural reforms.
• 💡Use specific statistics, such as unemployment rates dropping from 25 percent in 1933 to under 2 percent by 1943, to demonstrate the comparative impact of the New Deal and the Second World War.
• 💡Link the structural weaknesses of the 1920s directly to the severity of the 1930s bust to build a cohesive analytical argument.
• 💡Contrast the social conservatism of rural America with the progressive 'Jazz Age' culture of the cities to demonstrate nuance in 1920s social values.
• 💡When discussing the social impact of the Depression, reference specific phenomena like the Dust Bowl migration to provide concrete evidence.
• 💡Evaluate how the Second World War acted as a catalyst for long-term social change, particularly regarding women's employment and civil rights expectations.
• 💡Use specific examples like the 1925 Scopes Trial to illustrate the ideological clash between traditional rural values and modern urban ideas.
• 💡When discussing regional divisions, link economic disparities to social attitudes, such as how Southern agricultural depression fuelled racial scapegoating.
• 💡Connect the rise of the KKK to broader national themes of nativism and the Red Scare to demonstrate a synoptic understanding of 1920s American society.
• 💡Use the Dawes and Young Plans as evidence to argue that US isolationism in the 1920s was primarily political rather than economic.
• 💡Trace the evolution of FDR's foreign policy by chronologically linking the Quarantine Speech, Cash and Carry, and Lend-Lease to show the gradual erosion of neutrality.
• 💡Consider the role of domestic pressure groups, such as the America First Committee, when evaluating the challenges FDR faced in ending isolationism.
• 💡Maintain precise chronological precision; do not conflate the First New Deal (1933–1934, prioritising immediate economic planning and corporatist recovery) with the Second New Deal (1935–1938, prioritising social justice, labour rights, and permanent safety nets).
• 💡Integrate statistics accurately to substantiate arguments, such as peak unemployment reaching 24.9% in 1933, the fall to 14.3% by 1937, and the 'Roosevelt Recession' spike back to 19% in 1938.
• 💡Evaluate historical significance through contemporary perspectives, contrasting New Deal critics from the political Left (Huey Long's 'Share Our Wealth', Father Coughlin) with those from the Right (American Liberty League, Supreme Court rulings like Schechter Poultry Corp v. US).

• Claiming Hoover did absolutely nothing to combat the Depression; correction: Hoover did intervene later in his presidency, such as creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, though it was insufficient.
• Confusing the specific policies of Harding and Coolidge; correction: attribute the 'Return to Normalcy' and Teapot Dome to Harding, and the strict pro-business, minimal-government philosophy specifically to Coolidge.
• Assuming Republican conservatism meant no government action at all; correction: Republicans actively used government power to support business, such as raising tariffs and breaking strikes, rather than being purely hands-off.
• Treating the New Deal as a single, cohesive ideological programme; correction: distinguish between the First and Second New Deals, noting the shift from emergency economic planning to long-term social reform.
• Stating that the Supreme Court opposed all New Deal legislation; correction: specify that the Court struck down specific acts like the NRA and AAA on constitutional grounds of states' rights and executive overreach.
• Assuming the New Deal ended the Great Depression; correction: clarify that while the New Deal provided relief and reform, it was the industrial mobilisation for the Second World War that ultimately ended the economic depression.
• Claiming the Wall Street Crash was the only cause of the Great Depression; correct by explaining the underlying structural weaknesses like unequal wealth distribution and agricultural decline.
• Stating the New Deal completely ended the Great Depression; correct by noting that while it provided relief and reform, full economic recovery and full employment only occurred with the onset of the Second World War.
• Ignoring the agricultural sector during the 1920s boom; correct by highlighting that farmers experienced a 'bust' throughout the 1920s due to overproduction and falling prices.
• Assuming the 'flapper' lifestyle represented the experience of all American women in the 1920s; correct by acknowledging that these new social values were largely confined to young, urban, middle-class women.
• Stating Prohibition reduced crime; correct by explaining that it significantly increased organised crime and corruption, leading to its eventual repeal.
• Treating the social impact of the Second World War as entirely positive; correct by noting the persistence of racial segregation and the internment of Japanese Americans alongside employment gains.
• Assuming the KKK only operated in the South; correction: note that the Second KKK was a national organisation with significant political influence in Northern and Western states like Indiana and Oregon.
• Claiming the Great Migration completely resolved African-American hardships; correction: explain that while escaping Southern Jim Crow laws, migrants faced severe de facto segregation, race riots, and economic discrimination in Northern cities.
• Treating the rural-urban divide as purely economic; correction: emphasise that the countryside versus city division was also deeply ideological, involving clashes over religion, morality, and immigration.
• Describing 1920s US policy as total isolationism; correction: clarify that the USA remained highly active economically and diplomatically, such as through the Washington Naval Conference and the Kellogg-Briand Pact.
• Stating that FDR wanted to enter the Second World War from the beginning; correction: explain that FDR recognised the fascist threat but had to carefully navigate strong domestic isolationist sentiment and anti-war legislation.
• Confusing the terms of Cash and Carry with Lend-Lease; correction: distinguish that Cash and Carry required belligerents to pay in advance and transport goods themselves, whereas Lend-Lease allowed the President to lend or lease arms without immediate payment.
• Assuming the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 was the sole cause of the Great Depression, rather than a catalyst triggering pre-existing structural flaws like agricultural depression, saturated consumer markets, and under-regulated banking.
• Believing that Herbert Hoover did nothing to resolve the economic crisis; in reality, Hoover introduced unprecedented peacetime measures such as the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) and Hawley-Smoot Tariff, but was constrained by rigid fiscal conservatism and voluntarism.
• Viewing the New Deal as equally beneficial for all Americans, neglecting how Southern congressional influence systematically excluded African American and female agricultural and domestic labourers from the Social Security Act and Fair Labor Standards Act.

1. 1Week 1 (Days 1-3): The 1920s - Review Republican ascendancy (Harding, Coolidge, Hoover), structural economic vulnerabilities, nativism, prohibition, and the revival of the KKK.
2. 2Week 1 (Days 4-7): The Crash and Hoover's Presidency - Analyse the systemic causes of the Great Depression, the limits of Hoover's voluntarism, the Bonus Army incident, and the 1932 election.
3. 3Week 2 (Days 8-11): FDR, the New Deal, and its Opposition - Map the First and Second New Deals, court-packing crisis, opposition from the Left and Right, and impacts on African Americans, women, and Native Americans.
4. 4Week 2 (Days 12-14): World War II - Evaluate home front mobilisation (War Production Board, Office of Price Administration), social shifts (Rosie the Riveter, Japanese-American internment, Executive Order 8802), and complete timed essay questions.

• 📋Breadth Essay (25 marks): Thematic evaluation across the entire 1865–1975 period, requiring sustained comparisons of federal authority, civil rights, or economic management involving the 1920–1945 era.
• 📋Depth Essay (25 marks): Targeted analysis focusing squarely on a focused issue within 1920–1945, such as the effectiveness of the New Deal, the drivers of 1920s cultural conflict, or the impact of WWII on the US economy.
• 📋Extract Interpretation Question (30 marks for AQA Component 1): Analysis and evaluation of three historical extracts assessing interpretations of key events like the onset of the Great Depression or the legacy of the New Deal.