U.S. 20th Century Challenges

Question A 

The emergence of the Great Depression is attributed to various forces, which were connected thereby leading the situation to worsen significantly. The Great Depression served as a global issue that led to a tremendous decline in the economic activity of the world during early 1930s. In the case of economists, they have suggested different forces that led the Great Depression to take place the way it did in the U.S. The 1920s U.S. was in a boom period, leading to an increase in industrial output. Here, the banks raised their retail sales while at the same time providing businesses, individuals, and huge companies various credit facilities. The increased economic activity witnessed at this time witnessed an increase in manufactured goods than needed. As such, supply exceeded demand for those kinds of products, which contributed to job cuts as well as downsizing initiatives. The issue resulted to downturn of the economy and deflation because of the increased money value. The practices by banks were poor leading to emergence of bank runs that led the public to panic and ended up selling tremendous amounts of stock. The people who used to hoard cash because of uncertainty that was being experienced in the banking sector also led to the worsening of the problem. Various banks became bankrupt whereas the ones that remained operational tightened their policies for offering credit. As a result, businesses and individuals found it expensive to acquire credit facilities because of their increased costs. This then led people to spend less resulting to numerous layoffs (Norton, Kamensky, Sheriff, Blight, & Chudacoff, 2015) . The rate of unemployment during this period served as the highest in the history of the U.S. at 25 percent. 

Additionally, the economic policies that prevailed between Europe and the U.S. precipitated the Great Depression. The entry together with the support of the U.K. to the U.S. with the goal of assisting the country to sustain the Gold standard indicated that the economy of the U.S. was inflated. Furthermore, the introduction of the 1930 Tariff Act, which aimed at safeguarding industries in the U.S. from foreign rivalry, indicated that other countries would end up retaliating by instituting constricting tariffs on goods emanating from the U.S. The economic policy changes between countries during this time resulted to a situation that led the global trade to decline by around two-thirds. The First World War effects revealed that nations in Europe would not pay the loans that the U.S. had lent them when the war was taking place. In this case, the U.S. ended up calling in the loans. The condition together with constricting trade policies led the situation to worsen further. As such, all industries within the U.S. lost many jobs leaving a ripple effect on the countries that cooperated with the U.S. in global trade (Norton, Kamensky, Sheriff, Blight, & Chudacoff, 2015) . In this perspective, therefore, it is evident that a myriad of forces were related in terms of leading to the emergence of the Great Depression of the 1930s. 

Question B 

The New Deal emerged with the goal of addressing the problems experienced during the Great Depression in various ways. The New Deal served as a tool that the government of the United States introduced to facilitate in dealing with the issues witnessed during the Great Depression. It comprised of three key elements that were utilized to deal with the issues that prevailed during that time. Firstly, it targeted providing organizations and industries that he Great Depression his with short-term relief. The second element aimed at offering instant economy recovery. The last element was the need for instituting permanent reforms, which industries and organizations in the U.S. would put into practice. During the Great Depression’s aftermath, the Congress of the United States introduced several legislations, which targeted safeguarding the nation against such situations. When the Emerging Banking Relief Act was passed, it allowed the president of the U.S. to have absolute power on issues related to countrywide finances. The recovery and relief efforts were introduced to assist in dealing with the ever-increasing rates of unemployment in the country. Creation of jobs emerged as a priority when the Civilian Consumption Corps was formed. The Civilian Consumption Corp’s’ establishment assisted in ensuring that the industries that faced the effects of the Great Depression received unskilled manual workforce. Individuals arranged themselves to into outdoor groups with the goal of controlling floods, fighting fires, and constructing access roads (Norton, Kamensky, Sheriff, Blight, & Chudacoff, 2015) . The workers managed to establish trade unions since the New Deal brought about recovery efforts. Additionally, fair competition was supported while a limit was imposed on the labor hour numbers. 

Question C 

C1 

When the Second World War ended, it played a role in the emergence of the Cold War. For instance, the arms race contributed to the emergence of the tensions that were associated with the Cold War. The U.S. and the Soviet Union embarked on a nuclear arms race, which resulted to superiority predicament between the two countries, which prevailed during the entire period of the Cold War. The Second World War set a foundation on which the two countries would rival and portray their nuclear together with military abilities. When the U.S. managed to deploy the atomic bomb successfully resulting to an explosion in Nagasaki, the Second World War ended. The manner in which the U.S. managed to accomplish the bombing in an inhumane way led to the emergence of the nuclear era, since the Soviet Union was envious of the progress that the U.S. had realized in such kind of technology. The resultant establishment of a global organization by the U.S. together with allied countries from Europe targeted controlling creation of atomic and nuclear weapons. In retribution, the soviets created and propelled their initial atomic bomb in 1949. During this time, it was apparent that the U.S. and the soviet Union were rivaling on who had the capacity of creating more nuclear weapons, and hence resulting to the nuclear arms race pre-Cold War. The advent of the nuclear arms race resulted to anxiety between Soviet Union and the U.S. while every country exercised tremendous caution and measures to refrain from utilizing nuclear codes. When the two countries created intercontinental ballistic missiles in the 1950s, this meant that both the U.S. and Soviet Union would annihilate each other by push of a button. This would destroy the two countries, thereby leading the two nations to embark on diplomatic solutions to the military challenges they were experiencing. In this perspective, therefore, it is worth noting that the rivalry that prevailed between the Soviet Union and the United States for nuclear and atomic weapon strength played critical role in terms of fuelling the tensions that prevailed at the time of the Cold War (Norton, Kamensky, Sheriff, Blight, & Chudacoff, 2015) . The situation would have worsened in the event that the two countries did not come engage in diplomatic solutions, particularly because of the tremendous advancements they had realized in the manufacture of atomic and nuclear weapons. 

C2 

The U.S. and the Soviet Union had differing ideologies, which resulted to a rise in tensions during the Cold War. The political and social differences that existed between the Soviet Union and the United States played a critical role in aggravating the tensions that existed between them during the Cold War period. For the United States, it served as a capitalistic country whereas the Soviet Union followed communism. With the U.S. being a capitalist state, this meant that is citizens would be able to own land while rivalry between enterprises was encouraged. In addition, democracy was essential because people had the power of choosing the leaders they wanted. In the case of the communist Soviet Union, on the other hand, the government controlled everything and possessed all power. At the time of the Cold War, the two nations differed tremendously in terms of their way of lives as well as operations. This emerged as a war mostly characterized by propaganda rather than war involving the military by the two nations. In this case, the existence of the propagandas revolving the manner in which the two countries operated indicated that the two countries would not agree on various policies, which meant that tensions increased. This mostly because the two countries possessed tremendous military and nuclear power, indicating that if the conflicting ideologies proceeded in an uncontrolled manner, the state of the Cold War would worsen (Norton, Kamensky, Sheriff, Blight, & Chudacoff, 2015) . As such, the differing political and social ideas by the two countries during the Cold War era played a significant role in terms of leading the tensions to increase between the two nations. 

C3 

The Cold War influenced the culture and politics of America in various ways. The tension that prevailed between the two great nations had tremendous influence on Americans lives than they had ever experienced before. For the U.S., via its military agencies, it established and encouraged the utilization of propaganda. For instance, in the case of the film industry, it was encouraged to make films that discouraged communism. The rise in the number of films produced lead more citizens to become patriots while increased their sentiments on communism. These kinds of sentiments also prevailed in the political environment to an extent that the various domestic developed by the country were anticommunist (Norton, Kamensky, Sheriff, Blight, & Chudacoff, 2015) . Thus, the Cold War influenced the Americans domestic policies as well as culture. 

Question D 

Between the early 1950s and 1960, the advent of the civil rights movement resulted to changes in the economic, social-cultural, and political lives among Americans. The civil rights movement served as a period led to the end of slavery while diverse rights’ movements supported its eradication. This emerged because of diverse legislative changes that prevailed between 1865 and late 1960s. For the 1865 13 th Amendment, it banned slavery in the U.S. Additionally, the ruling by the Supreme Court bin 1954 affirmed the unconstitutionality of racial segregation while at the same time ending the racism that prevailed in schools. They provided African American kids with an opportunity for relating with whites while in school. Concerning the 1957 Civil Rights Act, it led to the upholding of the Africans Americans’ right for voting. This indicated that blacks were now capable of taking part in elections. As such, they acquired political power and providing them with an opportunity for venturing into the political environment. Additionally, the era of the Civil Rights movement depicted a time where various activists and civil rights groups targeted social justice. The creation of philanthropic activist organizations advocated for immigrants’ rights for residing and working within the U.S. Regarding changes in the sociocultural setting, it marked the commencement of advocating for the rights of African Americans to receive equal treatment while at the same time ending the issue of segregation based on a person’s color (Norton, Kamensky, Sheriff, Blight, & Chudacoff, 2015) . In this vein, it is evident that the civil rights movement altered the manner in which individuals viewed each other in America . 

Reference 

Norton, M. B., Kamensky, J., Sheriff, C., Blight, D. W., & Chudacoff, C. (2015). A people and a nation: a history of the United States. Boston: Cengage Learning.