GED Social Studies
20th Century: Wars, Depression & Civil Rights
Four giant stories dominate the century: two World Wars, the Depression between them, the Cold War after, and the Civil Rights Movement running through it. Each has a compact cause → response → consequence shape, and the questions test those shapes.
The words first
- Great Depression (1929–~1941)
- the economy's collapse after the 1929 crash — 25% unemployment
- New Deal
- FDR's response: jobs programs, Social Security, bank regulation
- World War II (US 1941–45)
- entered after Pearl Harbor; ended with Allied victory
- Cold War (~1947–1991)
- US–Soviet standoff — rivalry without direct war
- Civil Rights Movement
- the campaign that ended legal segregation, peaking 1954–1968
The method
FOUR STORIES, FOUR SHAPES
DEPRESSION crash 1929 → banks fail, 25% jobless →
New Deal: government takes responsibility
for the economy (Social Security, FDIC, jobs)
WWII Pearl Harbor Dec 1941 → US enters both fronts →
victory 1945 → US emerges a superpower;
war industry finally ends the Depression
COLD WAR two nuclear superpowers, incompatible systems →
containment, arms race, Korea & Vietnam as
proxy wars → Soviet collapse 1991
CIVIL RIGHTS Brown v. Board 1954 → Montgomery bus boycott →
sit-ins, marches (nonviolent, televised) →
Civil Rights Act 1964 (segregation banned) +
Voting Rights Act 1965 (the vote enforced)
Worked all the way through
The problem
How did the New Deal change what Americans expect from their federal government? Name two programs still operating.
- Step 1 — The before.Pre-1929, Washington largely stayed out of the economy; downturns were weathered, not managed.
- Step 2 — The crisis.A quarter of workers jobless, banks collapsing with people's savings inside — private charity was overwhelmed.
- Step 3 — The response.The New Deal put government INTO the economy: employing millions directly, insuring bank deposits, paying pensions.
- Step 4 — The lasting change.The expectation flipped — economic security became partly a federal job. Social Security and FDIC deposit insurance run to this day.
On the board
before: government hands-off
1929 crash → 25% jobless
the crisis
New Deal: jobs, insurance, pensions
expectation flips: security is federal work
the legacy
still here: Social Security, FDIC
Answer
It made economic security a federal responsibility — Social Security and FDIC insurance survive from it
A second one, in a different form
The Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965) did different jobs. Match each law to its job.
segregation in public places & hiring
→ Civil Rights Act 1964
poll taxes, literacy tests at the ballot
→ Voting Rights Act 1965
1964 opens the lunch counter
1965 opens the voting booth
Answer
1964 banned segregation and job discrimination; 1965 dismantled the barriers to voting
The usual mistake
Reversing Plessy and Brown, or misdating the major acts.
Check yourself
File every 20th-century question into one of the four stories first, then apply that story's cause → response → consequence shape. Dates matter less than which story you are standing in.
Practice it
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