Question 1

What does Module 3 of the Tennessee US History EOC cover?

Accepted Answer

Module 3 covers the 1920s and 1930s (US.19 to US.23): the prosperity and culture of the Roaring Twenties (mass production, the automobile, consumer credit, the flapper, jazz, and the Harlem Renaissance); the cultural conflicts of the decade (Prohibition, the Red Scare and immigration quotas, the revived Ku Klux Klan, and the Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee); the causes of the Great Depression (the 1929 crash, overproduction, uneven wealth, margin buying, weak banks, and tariffs); the human impact of the Depression (unemployment, bank failures, the Dust Bowl, and Hoovervilles) and Hoover's limited response; and Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal of relief, recovery, and reform, including the Tennessee Valley Authority and Social Security.

Question 2

What made the 1920s 'roar,' and what conflicts ran beneath the surface?

Accepted Answer

Mass production, especially Henry Ford's assembly line, made goods like the automobile affordable, creating a consumer culture spread by advertising, radio, and movies and fueled by installment credit. Women had just won the vote, and the flapper symbolized new freedoms; jazz and the Harlem Renaissance flourished. Beneath the prosperity ran sharp conflicts: Prohibition and the organized crime it spawned, a Red Scare and strict immigration quotas, a revived Ku Klux Klan, and the fundamentalist-modernist clash dramatized by the 1925 Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, over teaching evolution.

Question 3

What caused the Great Depression, and how did it affect people?

Accepted Answer

The 1929 stock market crash triggered it, but the deeper causes were overproduction and underconsumption, the uneven distribution of wealth, reckless speculation and buying on margin, weak and unregulated banks, heavy consumer debt, and high tariffs that collapsed world trade. The human impact was severe: unemployment near 25 percent, thousands of bank failures that wiped out savings, the Dust Bowl that drove farm families west, and shantytowns called Hoovervilles. President Hoover favored limited government and voluntary action, and his response was widely seen as too little, too late.

Question 4

What was the New Deal, and how did it change government?

Accepted Answer

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal was a set of federal programs built on the three R's: relief (jobs and aid through the CCC and WPA), recovery (the AAA for farmers and the TVA for the Tennessee valley), and reform (the FDIC insuring deposits, the SEC regulating the stock market, and Social Security creating pensions and unemployment insurance). It did not fully end the Depression, which World War II did, and it faced opposition and a clash with the Supreme Court, but it permanently expanded the federal government's role and created a basic safety net.

Question 5

Why is the Tennessee Valley Authority important for Tennessee students?

Accepted Answer

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was the New Deal's flagship regional project. It built dams along the Tennessee River to control flooding, generate cheap hydroelectric power, and bring jobs and economic development to one of the poorest regions in the country, including much of Tennessee. It electrified rural homes and farms and transformed the valley, making it a frequent Tennessee-connection item on the EOC.

Tennessee US History EOC Module 3 (The Twenties and the Great Depression): a complete overview of the 1920s boom, cultural conflict, the crash, and the New Deal

What Module 3 actually demands

The Roaring Twenties (US.19)

Cultural conflict (US.20)

Causes of the Depression (US.21)

The human impact (US.22)

The New Deal (US.23)

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