Great Depression Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. An economist argues that when households and businesses sharply reduce spending, the government should temporarily increase expenditure to support employment and demand. Which idea does this most closely reflect?
A return to mercantilist limits on finished-goods exports
A policy of balancing the budget through immediate spending cuts
Keynesian support for countercyclical government spending
A belief that monetary policy must always remain unchanged
2. Which statement best summarizes African Americans’ experiences with the New Deal?
Some programs provided assistance or jobs, but discrimination and unequal access persisted
Every program required complete racial equality from its first year
African Americans were legally barred from all New Deal employment nationwide
The New Deal immediately ended segregation in every state
3. Rumors spread that a local bank is in trouble, so many depositors demand their money at once. Why could this cause an otherwise functioning bank to fail in the early 1930s?
Federal law required the bank to close whenever withdrawals increased
Depositors automatically became responsible for the bank’s unpaid loans
Banks kept only part of their deposits as cash and could not meet every simultaneous withdrawal
The stock exchange canceled the bank’s currency during a panic
4. A government responds to falling domestic sales by sharply raising tariffs on imported goods. What international consequence was associated with this approach after the Smoot-Hawley Tariff?
Trading partners retaliated, contributing to a contraction in world trade
Foreign governments removed most of their own import barriers
International lenders rapidly increased long-term credit to farmers
European nations immediately adopted the US dollar as a shared currency
5. What major policy framework was established by the US Social Security Act of 1935?
Old-age benefits and a federal-state system of unemployment insurance
Federal ownership of all commercial banks and insurance companies
Guaranteed employment for every adult through the armed forces
Immediate national health insurance for every US resident
6. Which development contributed most directly to eliminating mass unemployment in the United States by the early 1940s?
The complete cancellation of consumer debt after the stock crash
Wartime mobilization, military recruitment, and large-scale defense production
The permanent closure of the Federal Reserve
A return to the international gold standard during World War II
7. Which interpretation best reflects women’s paid work during the Great Depression?
Women were unaffected because employment losses occurred only in heavy industry
Women faced pressure to yield jobs to men, yet many continued working, often in lower-paid or gender-segregated occupations
Federal law prohibited married women from holding any paid job nationwide
Women replaced nearly all male workers in manufacturing by 1932
8. An unemployed carpenter receives a government-funded job constructing a school and repairing public roads. Which New Deal agency is most closely associated with this type of employment?
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Federal Reserve Board
Securities and Exchange Commission
Works Progress Administration
9. A historian calls the Great Depression more than an ordinary recession. Which distinction best supports that description?
A depression affects agriculture, while a recession affects only factories
The Great Depression involved an unusually deep, prolonged contraction with extensive unemployment and financial distress
A recession occurs worldwide, while a depression must remain within one country
A depression has a universally fixed legal definition of exactly two years
10. Which event is most commonly used to mark the beginning of the Great Depression in the United States?
The peak of Dust Bowl migration in the mid-1930s
The national bank holiday of March 1933
The Wall Street crash of October 1929
The United States entering World War II in 1941
11. Which comparison between Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt is most historically accurate?
Hoover rejected every federal intervention, while Roosevelt immediately nationalized all major industries
Both presidents followed essentially identical policies throughout the Depression
Hoover created Social Security, while Roosevelt transferred relief programs entirely to the states
Roosevelt’s New Deal expanded federal relief and regulation beyond Hoover’s generally narrower and more indirect approach
12. Which New Deal program employed many young men in conservation work such as planting trees, improving parks, and reducing soil erosion?
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Civilian Conservation Corps
Securities and Exchange Commission
National Labor Relations Board
13. Which combination contributed most directly to the Dust Bowl disaster on the Great Plains?
Coastal flooding and declining factory production
Heavy snowfall and restrictions on western migration
Severe drought combined with farming practices that left soil vulnerable to erosion
Major earthquakes combined with the closure of national parks
14. A factory dismisses workers, who then cut household spending. Local shops lose customers and dismiss more workers. Which Depression-era mechanism does this illustrate?
A banking recovery driven by expanding private investment
A rapid rise in prices caused by excessive consumer demand
An export boom produced by higher household purchasing power
A downward cycle of unemployment, reduced demand, and further job losses
15. After repeated bank panics, lawmakers want to reassure ordinary depositors that losing one bank will not necessarily erase their insured savings. Which measure best fits that goal?
Creating the Works Progress Administration
Passing the Agricultural Adjustment Act
Establishing the Tennessee Valley Authority
Creating federal deposit insurance through the FDIC
16. During the 1920s, Germany depended heavily on short-term American loans. How did this connection worsen Germany’s downturn after 1929?
American lending contracted, placing added strain on German banks, businesses, and public finances
Germany was excluded from selling any goods in European markets
US lenders forced Germany to replace the mark with the dollar
US farm subsidies caused German agricultural wages to rise too quickly