Exam Connection

🎯 Exam Connection

Frequency: This topic appeared in 4 out of 5 recent AQA sittings (HIGH). Questions about inequality, who benefited from the boom, and why the Depression happened all require this knowledge.

Typical questions you will face:

• "Describe two features of wealth inequality in 1920s America" (4 marks) — Strong answers: "60% of families earned below the $2,000 poverty line, meaning most Americans couldn't afford the consumer goods driving the boom" + "Farmers faced a structural crisis as wheat prices collapsed from $2.50 to $1 per bushel, forcing 600,000 into bankruptcy."
• "Explain why not all Americans benefited from the economic boom" (8 marks) — At Level 3, explain the MECHANISM: farmers + WHY they suffered + specific evidence + link to broader instability. Then a second group with the same depth.
• "How far do you agree that the 1920s boom was a period of great prosperity for all Americans?" (12+4 marks) — Argue FOR (genuine growth for some: cars, consumer goods, rising wages for industrial workers), argue AGAINST (farmers, Black Americans, old industry workers, 60% poverty), then make a clear judgement about whether prosperity was real or illusory for most.

For Level 4 on the 12-mark essay: Show how inequality CAUSED the Depression — it wasn't just that some people missed out, it was that their poverty made the whole economy fragile. "The 60% of Americans living below the poverty line couldn't afford the consumer goods factories were producing. This overproduction meant the boom was unsustainable — once credit dried up and confidence fell, there was no genuine mass consumer demand to sustain it."