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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what war did the Bonus marchers fight?

2. In Hard Travelin', what does Peggy Terry think would happen if another Depression happened today?

3. Which movement sought to replace the American Federation of Labor in the 1930's?

4. What was the occupational community of which Jimmy Partland was a part, that lent back and forth regularly?

5. In Man and Boy, what does Clifford Burke credit with black men's survival in the Depression?

Short Essay Questions

1. What resources for the transient did Ed Paulson discover during the Depression?

2. How did the jazz community take care of its own in the Depression?

3. How did hobos get by during the Depression?

4. How did a small community develop around the Ford plant strike in Detroit?

5. How did William Benton make his fortune?

6. How was Dr. Lewis Andreas converted to union support in 1937?

7. What does Slim Collier's discussion of her father say about the effect unemployment has on men?

8. How did Mrs. Winston Roberts of Chicago survive the Depression?

9. What is Doc Graham's attitude toward Franklin Roosevelt?

10. How do interviewees who were young in the 1930's realize something bad happened in the country?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the young people who are interviewed about the Depression in Hard Times. What information do most of them have about the facts of the 1930's? What current events - those of 1970 - concern these interviewees? How are the concerns of the 1930's connected to the present issues? Discuss how the more politically-active interviewees view the consumerist spirit that was born out of the Depression.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the Horatio Alger narrative and how the Great Depression forced individuals to reassess the legitimacy of it. Which interviewees in the text subscribed to the strive-and-succeed philosophy of Alger? Did any of them succeed? Of those who failed, what elements in the 1930's work environment proved incompatible with the rags-to-riches mythology? What did these people discover as a new philosophy?

Essay Topic 3

The federal government went through a series of processes in its attempt to react to the 1929 crash of the stock market and to stem the sinking of the national economy. Write an essay about these attempts at governmental assistance and how they did or did not succeed:

Part 1) How did the Hoover administration react in the immediate aftermath of Black Tuesday? Discuss what sort of governmental initiatives went into place, and whether the administration succeeded in stemming the decline or allaying fears in the general populace. What unrest cropped up at this time?

Part 2) Discuss the first steps taken by the Roosevelt administration upon its arrival into office. What, specifically, was the NRA? What powers did this administrative body offer Roosevelt to place limits on the private sector? Why was the NRA preemptively shut down soon after its creation?

Part 3) How did the Works Progress Administration prove to be more effective at stemming destitution than simple relief? What did this desire of Americans for work programs say about the country's work ethic? What were some material results of the WPA?

(see the answer keys)

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