Georgia Milestones US History Module 5 Prosperity, Depression, and World War: a complete overview of the 1920s, the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II

What Module 5 actually demands

Module 5 covers the boom, the bust, and the war: prosperity, depression, and world war, GSE standards SSUSH16 to SSUSH19, roughly 1920 to 1945. It explains the consumer culture and conflicts of the 1920s, how the economy collapsed into the Great Depression, how the New Deal responded and reshaped government, and how the United States fought and won World War II while transforming life at home. The dominant skills are cause and effect, reading charts and photographs, and matching programs and events to their purposes. All four standards sit in Domain 4 (Establishment as a World Power), the most heavily weighted domain at about 24 percent.

This guide ties together the matching dot-point pages, each with its own practice questions: the Roaring Twenties, cultural conflicts of the 1920s, the Great Depression, the New Deal, the United States enters World War II, and World War II at home and abroad.

The Roaring Twenties and its conflicts

The 1920s brought prosperity and a new consumer culture: the automobile (Ford's assembly line), buying on credit, and mass media (radio and movies) created a shared national culture, while the Harlem Renaissance celebrated African American art and spread jazz. But the decade also saw a backlash: Prohibition failed and fueled organized crime; nativism produced immigration quotas and a revived Ku Klux Klan; and modernism clashed with traditionalism in the Scopes Trial.

The Great Depression and the New Deal

The 1929 stock market crash (worsened by buying on margin), bank failures, overproduction, and the Dust Bowl plunged the nation into the Great Depression, with unemployment near 25 percent. Hoover's limited response failed, and voters elected Franklin Roosevelt, whose New Deal pursued relief, recovery, and reform through agencies like the CCC, WPA, TVA, and FDIC, and the lasting Social Security Act (1935). The New Deal did not fully end the Depression but permanently expanded the federal government's role.

World War II

The aggression of the Axis powers and the failure of appeasement led to war; the US moved from neutrality through Lend-Lease to full involvement after Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941). The Allies won in Europe (D-Day, 1944; Germany's surrender, 1945) and uncovered the Holocaust, and in the Pacific through island hopping after Midway. At home, war production ended the Depression, women (Rosie the Riveter) and minorities took new jobs, but Japanese American internment was a grave injustice. The war ended after the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945).

Check your knowledge

A mix of recall and application questions covering Module 5. Attempt them under timed conditions, then check against the solutions.

1. Explain how the automobile and credit shaped the 1920s economy. (2 marks)
2. Explain the significance of the Harlem Renaissance. (2 marks)
3. Explain why Prohibition is considered a failure. (2 marks)
4. Describe the modernism-versus-traditionalism conflict. (2 marks)
5. Identify three causes of the Great Depression. (3 marks)
6. Explain the causes of the Dust Bowl. (2 marks)
7. Explain the three goals of the New Deal. (3 marks)
8. Explain why Social Security was a lasting reform. (2 marks)
9. Explain how the US moved from neutrality to war by 1941. (2 marks)
10. Explain the significance of D-Day. (2 marks)
11. Describe Japanese American internment. (2 marks)
12. Explain Truman's reasoning for using the atomic bomb. (2 marks)