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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. Why did Martin DeVries hate Roosevelt?

2. How did Frank Czerwonka's mother make money during the Depression?

3. What demagogic figure of the 1930's did Dawn McCullough despise?

4. What dubious art did Jerome Zerbe develop in the 1930's?

5. Which famous American film critic is interviewed in Hard Travelin'?

Short Essay Questions

1. How was Robin Langston's family affected by the Depression?

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

3. How did Blackie Gold end up maintaining national forests in the 1930's?

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

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

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

7. What was the purpose of the Bonus March?

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

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

10. How did the "southern belle" Diane Morgan become socially conscious in the 1930's?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Roosevelt Administration took special care to ensure that arts professionals were employed in the period of the Great Depression. Write an essay about the changes in the performing arts during this period of history. How did the actors union gain strength at this time? What did traveling sketch troupes have to do to remain viable? To what extent did the theatre begin to tackle more current and controversial subjects? Which famous artists emerged from this crucible?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

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.

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