Exam Tips for Wealth Inequality
Part of Wealth and Inequality — GCSE History
This exam tips covers Exam Tips for Wealth Inequality within Wealth and Inequality for GCSE History. Revise Wealth and Inequality in America 1920-1973 for GCSE History with 10 exam-style questions and 12 flashcards. This topic appears regularly enough that it should still be part of a steady revision cycle. It is section 13 of 14 in this topic. Treat this as a marking guide for what examiners are looking for, not just a fact list.
Topic position
Section 13 of 14
Practice
10 questions
Recall
12 flashcards
💡 Exam Tips for Wealth Inequality
🎯 Question Types for This Topic:
- Describe two features (4 marks, ~8 minutes) — Two distinct groups or aspects of inequality. Each needs a specific statistic or named evidence. Don't repeat the same point with different wording.
- Explain why (8 marks, ~15 minutes) — "Explain why not all Americans benefited from the boom" is a classic question. Two paragraphs, each covering a different group (e.g., farmers + Black Americans) with causes explained, not just described.
- How far do you agree? (12+4 SPaG marks, ~25 minutes) — Essays about the boom's prosperity or the causes of the Depression always require this knowledge. You must argue BOTH sides — evidence of genuine prosperity AND evidence of profound inequality.
📈 How to Move Up Levels — This Topic Specifically:
- Level 1: "Not everyone benefited from the boom." — Too vague, no evidence.
- Level 2: "Farmers suffered in the 1920s because food prices fell." — States a fact but doesn't explain WHY prices fell or what impact this had.
- Level 3: "Farmers were already in a depression before 1929. During WW1 they had expanded production to feed Europe, borrowing to buy machinery. But when European farms recovered after the war, demand collapsed and wheat prices fell from $2.50 to just $1 per bushel — a 60% drop. Farmers couldn't repay loans and 600,000 went bankrupt. This shows that inequality was a structural feature of the economy, not just bad luck." — This explains the mechanism with specific evidence.
- Level 4: Link to the bigger picture: "This agricultural crisis foreshadowed the Depression. Farmers were already experiencing falling incomes throughout the supposed prosperity of the 1920s, which meant the rural economy had no cushion when the Wall Street Crash hit. Furthermore, with 60% of all families below the poverty line, overproduction was inevitable — factories were producing consumer goods that most Americans simply couldn't afford to buy. The inequality of the boom years directly caused the severity of the Depression that followed."
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid:
- Writing only about one group. Strong answers discuss at least two of: farmers, Black Americans, old-industry workers, Native Americans. Each group had DIFFERENT reasons for being left behind.
- Not connecting inequality to the Depression. The ultimate significance of 1920s inequality is that it made the Depression inevitable and severe. Examiners reward students who make this link explicit.
- Describing inequality without explaining its causes. "Farmers were poor" earns Level 1. "Farmers were poor because post-war overproduction caused a 60% collapse in wheat prices, trapping them in debt they had taken on to expand during WW1" earns Level 3.
- Forgetting that the government chose not to help. Republican laissez-faire was a political choice — Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover could have introduced farm subsidies or minimum wages, but refused. Mentioning this earns higher marks because it shows you understand the POLITICAL context of inequality.
Quick Check: What happened to wheat prices between 1919 and 1929, and why did this devastate American farmers?
Wheat prices collapsed from $2.50 per bushel in 1919 to just $1 per bushel by 1929 — a 60% fall. This devastated farmers because: (1) they had borrowed money to buy machinery and expand production during WW1, when European demand was high; (2) after WW1, European farms recovered and American food prices fell; (3) farmers couldn't repay loans at the new lower prices; (4) 600,000 farmers went bankrupt and 6 million rural Americans left the land. Farmers were already in a depression years before the Wall Street Crash.
Quick Check: What percentage of American families lived below the poverty line during the 1920s boom, and what does this tell us about the boom?
60% of American families earned below the $2,000 poverty line throughout the 1920s boom. This tells us that the "Roaring Twenties" was a prosperity enjoyed by a wealthy minority, not the majority. Most Americans couldn't afford the consumer goods that factories were producing — which meant the boom was built on fragile foundations of credit and overproduction, not genuine mass purchasing power. When credit dried up in 1929, there was no broad consumer base to sustain demand. The inequality of the boom directly explains why the Depression was so severe.