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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. Where did Blackie Gold spend his childhood?

2. What unorthodox job did Phyllis Mortimer take when her family fell short of money in the 1930's?

3. How did strike organizers in Detroit finally stop scabs from coming?

4. At the end of High Life, what does Judy blame for the Depression?

5. According to Harburg, who suffered most when the financial system collapsed?

Short Essay Questions

1. During the Depression, what did Terkel do instead of becoming a lawyer?

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

3. What does Peggy Terry have to say about race and the Depression?

4. Why was psychoanalysis largely ineffective in the Depression?

5. Why is Jerome Zerbe's interview oddly disturbing?

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

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

8. How did the effects of the Crash become apparent in Terkel's parents' business?

9. How did William Benton make his fortune?

10. Describe E.D. Nixon's struggle to unionize sleeping car porters.

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

Studs Terkel interviews enough people who lived through the Depression that certain archetypes begin to emerge over the course of the book. Write an essay in which you choose an interview that fits each archetype:

Part 1) Choose an interview from an individual who lost wealth in the Depression and discovered a talent at making money through hard work. Where did this person turn to make money? What did he or she discover about society that this person did not know about before? What is this person's worldview after the Depression?

Part 2) Choose an individual who is disappointed by the fact that the country was not largely radicalized by the Depression. To what cultural-political ideology does this person subscribe? What was his or her personal experience during the 1930's? What hope does this person have for the future of America?

Part 3) Choose an individual who lived in a bubble of comfort in the Depression and was not aware of widespread suffering. What was the nature of the bubble in which this person lived? What is his or her impression of the Depression?

Essay Topic 3

During the Depression, the United States government offered amenities to its people that were unheard of in the past: farmland, housing, camps for the indigent. Write an essay about the public reaction to these amenities. How did each of them prove a model of cooperation? To what extent did people view them as a stepping stone to private ownership? Which of these amenities are still in existence? Why did some disappear and others degrade over time?

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