ALEX Classroom Resources

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SS2010] WH9 (9) 13 :

13 ) Explain challenges of the post-World War I period.

Examples: 1920s cultural disillusionment, colonial rebellion and turmoil in Ireland and India, attempts to achieve political stability in Europe

•  Identifying causes of the Great Depression

•  Characterizing the global impact of the Great Depression

[SS2010] ECON (12) 3 :

3 ) Describe different economic systems used to allocate scarce goods and services.

•  Defining command, market, and mixed economic systems

•  Describing how different economic systems answer the three basic economic questions of what to produce, how to produce, and for whom to produce

•  Evaluating how each type of system addresses private ownership, profit motive, consumer sovereignty, competition, and government regulation

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SS2010] WH9 (9) 13 :

13 ) Explain challenges of the post-World War I period.

Examples: 1920s cultural disillusionment, colonial rebellion and turmoil in Ireland and India, attempts to achieve political stability in Europe

•  Identifying causes of the Great Depression

•  Characterizing the global impact of the Great Depression

[SS2010] US11 (11) 6 :

6 ) Describe social and economic conditions from the 1920s through the Great Depression regarding factors leading to a deepening crisis, including the collapse of the farming economy and the stock market crash of 1929. [A.1.a., A.1.b., A.1.d., A.1.f., A.1.i., A.1.j., A.1.k.]

•  Assessing effects of overproduction, stock market speculation, and restrictive monetary policies on the pending economic crisis

•  Describing the impact of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act on the global economy and the resulting worldwide depression

•  Identifying notable authors of the 1920s, including John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, and Zora Neale Hurston (Alabama)

•  Analyzing the Great Depression for its impact on the American family

Examples: Bonus Army, Hoovervilles, Dust Bowl, Dorothea Lange

Throughout 1929 daily papers reported that the future looked bright for investors -- even after the devastating market crash in October. Learn more with these primary sources, from American Experience: "The Crash of 1929."

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SS2010] WH9 (9) 13 :

13 ) Explain challenges of the post-World War I period.

Examples: 1920s cultural disillusionment, colonial rebellion and turmoil in Ireland and India, attempts to achieve political stability in Europe

•  Identifying causes of the Great Depression

•  Characterizing the global impact of the Great Depression

[SS2010] US11 (11) 6 :

6 ) Describe social and economic conditions from the 1920s through the Great Depression regarding factors leading to a deepening crisis, including the collapse of the farming economy and the stock market crash of 1929. [A.1.a., A.1.b., A.1.d., A.1.f., A.1.i., A.1.j., A.1.k.]

•  Assessing effects of overproduction, stock market speculation, and restrictive monetary policies on the pending economic crisis

•  Describing the impact of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act on the global economy and the resulting worldwide depression

•  Identifying notable authors of the 1920s, including John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, and Zora Neale Hurston (Alabama)

•  Analyzing the Great Depression for its impact on the American family

Examples: Bonus Army, Hoovervilles, Dust Bowl, Dorothea Lange

The stock market crashed on October 29, 1929, a day that would come to be known as "Black Tuesday." The crash punctured a speculative bubble that had been building throughout the 1920s, throwing one-and-a-half million Americans out of work. In three years, that number would triple. In response to the lower wheat prices, more wheat was planted.

Learning Objective:

Students will understand how the agricultural response to the Great Depression fueled the already dire ecological situation in the Great Plains, leading to the Dust Bowl. 

About the Author:

Eden McCauslin is a Social Studies and English teacher in Chicago Public Schools. Eden previously taught in the District of Columbia Public Schools