Essay plans for Edexcel A-Level history- In search of the American dream

50+ essay plans for Edexcel A-Level history in search of the
American dream- route 1F

Over 10,000 words with examples and evidence




American dream:

,How accurate is it to say that the American presidents were “do-
nothing” presidents in the period 1921-1933?

Rugged individualism

 People taking responsibility for themselves, self-resilience despite
poverty

 Didn’t regulate working hours, minimum wages, loans, businesses
(child labour)

 Immigration restriction- 1921 emergency quota act (3%)

Hoovers response to GD

 Bonus army episode

 Agricultural marketing

 Hawley smoot tariff (40%) exports

 RFC

Isolationism

 Did not join the league of nations / were heavily involved in foreign
affairs

 Didn’t restrict business from trading with other countries- profit over
morals

 Fordney Mccumber act- buy American

Were republican ideas the main reason for the fact that there was
a republican president and a republican majority in Congress in
the years 1921-31? (20 marks)

Republican ideas

 Normalcy, isolationism, lassiez faire

 Individualism, voluntarism

 League of nations

Democratic failures

 Absent president- league of nations

 Federal government intervened bringing in federal taxes, a sedation
act, 5 million men were drafted into the war

 Postwar there were economic problems, race rivalries, flu pandemic
(600,000 dead) and Wilson was in Paris

,  1924- brawls

 1928- catholic

Economic reasons

 Cutting taxes

 higher purchases (use of credit)

 stock market

 tariffs on imports, Fortney McCumber tariff act "buy American"

How far do you agree that it was hoovers policies that lost in the
1932 presidential election? (20 marks)

Hoovers policies

 Hawley-smoot tariff (1930)- buy American

 $47 million loans to support farmers- 25% still lost land

 RFC- $2 billion loans to banks

Great depression

 Hoovervilles and economic difficulties

 Bonus army episode

Roosevelts campaigning and propaganda

 Vague new deal

 End to prohibition

 Roosevelt's validity (governor of NY)

 Charismatic public image

How accurate is it to say that “rugged individualism” was the
main influence on presidential policies in the 1920’s?

Rugged individualism

 People taking responsibility for themselves, self-resilience despite
poverty

 Didn’t regulate working hours, minimum wages, loans, businesses
(child labour)

 Immigration restriction- 1921 emergency quota act (3%)

The red scare

,  1919- 350,000 steel workers went on strike

 Comintern- Lenin that promoted revolution (American communist
party)

 The palmer raids (Attorney general A. Mitchel palmer’s house
bombed by an anarchist

The great depression

 Bonus army episode

 Agricultural marketing

 Hawley smoot tariff (40%) exports

 RFC

How far do you agree that the impact of the northern migration
(1917- 32) can only be considered in terms of the migrants
themselves and the cities they move to? (20 marks)

Nothern migrants

 Significant political influence- mayor for Chicago 1919 listened to
black people

 Segregation meant more black people got in power as a black
American campaigning in a black ward would get the whole of the
black vote

 Segregation communities with their own facilities

Southern migrants

 The labour force shrank- harder work for less people

 Poorer farmers suffered the most economically and most were black

 Thought that the black people that stayed were excepting of the Jim
crow laws

White people

 Black migrants dislodged white workers campaigning for better
conditions

 Businesses put pressure on white workers to leave unions or lose
their jobs

How accurate is it to say that black Americans suffered just as
much discrimination in the North and West as in the south 1917-
1932?