AP US History · Topic 7.9
The Great Depression Practice
Part of Period 7: 1890–1945.
Practice questions
16
Sample questions
5 of 16 — sign in to practice the rest with adaptive difficulty and mastery tracking.
Sample 1difficulty 3/5
The realignment shown in 1932 most directly contributed to which long-term political development?
- Acheck_circle
The New Deal Coalition, which made Democrats dominant in national politics through the 1960s.
- B
The collapse of the two-party system.
- C
The rise of the Republican Party in the urban North.
- D
The end of presidential politics in the South.
Why
FDR's victory united urban workers, immigrants, African Americans (after 1936), white southerners, and farmers into a Democratic coalition that controlled the presidency for 28 of the next 36 years and made government activism mainstream.
- A
Sample 2difficulty 3/5
The Great Depression (1929-39)
- A
Affected only the U.S. economy while leaving European and global markets unscathed
- B
Lasted only one year before strong New Era growth resumed across all sectors
- C
Was a brief recession that ended within months and left employment largely untouched
- Dcheck_circle
Saw 25% unemployment, widespread poverty, bank failures, and global economic collapse
Why
Worst economic crisis in modern history; deeply shaped the 20th century.
- A
Sample 3difficulty 3/5
— Black Tuesday newspaper headline (October 29, 1929)
A New Deal response specifically aimed at preventing a repeat of 1929 speculation was the
- Acheck_circle
Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 establishing the SEC
- B
Tennessee Valley Authority
- C
Civilian Conservation Corps
- D
Agricultural Adjustment Act
Why
The Securities Act of 1933 and the SEC (1934) regulated disclosure and trading practices to address abuses that fueled the 1929 crash.
- A
Sample 4difficulty 3/5
"And then the dispossessed were drawn west — from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico... 50,000 old cars — wounded, steaming. Restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do." — John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, 1939
The map and excerpt together best illustrate which Depression-era phenomenon?
- Acheck_circle
The mass migration of Plains farmers to California due to drought, dust storms, and farm foreclosures.
- B
Voluntary urban-to-rural movement during the 1930s.
- C
Successful crop yields throughout the Plains during the 1930s.
- D
Federal refusal to assist Plains farmers, leading to permanent abandonment of agriculture.
Why
Severe drought combined with topsoil loss from over-plowing turned much of the southern Plains into the Dust Bowl. About 2.5 million people left, with roughly 200,000 "Okies" reaching California, where many became migrant farm workers.
- A
Sample 5difficulty 3/5
"We were challenged with a peace-time choice between the American system of rugged individualism and a European philosophy of diametrically opposed doctrines — doctrines of paternalism and state socialism. The acceptance of these ideas would have meant the destruction of self-government through centralization... it would have meant the undermining of the individual initiative and enterprise." — Herbert Hoover, campaign speech, October 1928
Which factor most directly undermined the optimism Hoover expressed in 1928?
- A
The fall of the gold standard in Britain in 1925
- B
Soviet entry into World War I
- C
Federal nationalization of railroads under Wilson
- Dcheck_circle
The 1929 stock market crash and ensuing wave of bank failures
Why
The October 1929 crash exposed speculation, weak banking, and overproduction, triggering the Great Depression.
- A