Roaring Twenties

  • Nature of government involvement in economy during the 1920s and the impact that this had

  • What fueled the economic boom of the 1920s?

  • Creation of common national culture — what facilitated this?

  • Jazz Age — How/why did Jazz become so popular?

  • The Lost Generation — Who were they, where did they go, why, what did they do?

  • New Technology and Consumerism during the 1920s, and new methods of advertising

  • Women’s changing roles, female liberation — the flapper, attitudes, dress

  • Women’s suffrage — Arguments for and against it? How many actually voted in the first election and why?

  • Welfare capitalism — What was it and did it work? Why or why not?

The Great Depression

  • Why do economists find the Great Depression remarkable?

  • What caused the Stock Market Crash?

  • What were the ripple effects of the Stock Market Crash in the U.S.?

  • What caused the Great Depression? Warning signs? Why did it spread worldwide? Know the cycle of depression, both in U.S. and globally

  • Effects of Great Depression on American citizens/democracy — shanty towns, discrimination, unemployment rates, underemployment, etc.

  • Farm Distress, why were farms struggling and then how were they impacted later when the Dust Bowl occurred?

  • The Dust Bowl — causes and effects

  • What % of Oklahoma population went to California during the 1930s?

  • Hoover’s strategy, Hawley-Smoot Tariff, how Hoover’s strategy differed from FDR’s strategy

  • John Maynard Keynes — Who was he and what was his economic theory?

  • FDR, his background, and his personality as it related to his presidency, etc. Why did people have confidence in him? (What did he do to calm things down?)

  • Roosevelt and the New Deal — What were the successes, failures, legacy of the New Deal? What were some of the successful New Deal programs that were created?

  • Social Security (Social Security Act of 1935) — Who did it apply to? How did it work?

 

Post WWII

  • Suburbanization, highways, and modern consumerism

  • Reasons for economic growth after WWII

  • LBJ, Great Society, War on Poverty — Successes, failures, legacy

  • Medicare and Medicaid — What are these two programs?

  • Ronald Reagan, Reaganomics, 3 campaign promises or what changes he made

  • Gross Domestic Product, National Deficit and Debt, and current deficit and debt trends (Government spending, past and present, and the “sequester”)

  • Tax structure, including brackets and history of top marginal tax rate, and types of taxes

  • American Presidents, in order

Social Issues

  • Krugman and the American Middle Class — What did he say in the article we read regarding “The Great Compression”, the New Gilded Age, and the standard of living in the United States?

  • Sociology — What is it the study of?

  • Poverty — What % of Americans live below the poverty threshold? What % will fall below threshold? % below 18? % of elderly?

  • How is poverty calculated?

  • Income in U.S. and quintiles, know trends over the past 40 years

  • Welfare and reform (Why was it reformed, what were the changes made?), successes, and failures of the reform

  • Socioeconomic Status (SES) — What is it? Biggest Predictors? Correlations?