The Great Depression: Causes & Everyday Consequences — Practice · Grade 8 Social Studies

Chapter: World War I, the 1920s & Depression

What this practice covers

By the end of The Great Depression: Causes & Everyday Consequences you should be able to:

6 questions, written answer, each with a worked explanation.

Vocabulary used: context, corroboration, interpretation, contraction, bank run.

Problem 1

Why does the crash alone not explain the whole Depression?
Answer and explanation

It does not describe banking failures, credit contraction, spending, international pressures, or policy responses. Explain how these affected production and employment.

Problem 2

Why might households experience the same downturn differently?
Answer and explanation

Savings, debt, occupation, location, discrimination, and support networks vary. A national unemployment figure does not describe every family’s resources.

Problem 3

Why is drought an incomplete Dust Bowl explanation?
Answer and explanation

Land use, soil exposure, vegetation, and economic pressures shaped vulnerability. Weather and human choices interacted rather than acting independently.

Problem 4

Why are relief and recovery different?
Answer and explanation

Relief assists people facing hardship; recovery restores broader economic activity. A program can help households without ending the national downturn.

Problem 5

Teaching scenario: a bank closes, families lose access to savings, local purchases fall, and shops reduce staff. Other banks and public relief are not described. Explain the mechanism connecting the bank closure to employment and identify evidence needed to establish its size or wider reach.
Answer and explanation

The sequence supplies a plausible reinforcing contraction. It does not establish that every closure produced the same outcome or that one bank caused a national depression. Local sales and employment records could test the proposed chain.

Lost access to funds can reduce household spending.

Lower sales can lead shops to reduce work and wages.

Compare timing, alternative credit, relief, and records from other places.

Response criteria

  • Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
  • Use relevant evidence and explain how it supports the claim.
  • Represent perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
  • Identify a limitation, counterevidence, or information still needed.

Problem 6

Unemployment falls after a relief program begins, but national demand also rises. What conclusion is too strong?
Answer and explanation

That the program alone caused the entire fall. Compare its direct employment effect, wider demand, timing, and other changes.

Response criteria

  • Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
  • Use relevant evidence and explain how it supports the claim.
  • Represent perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
  • Identify a limitation, counterevidence, or information still needed.

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