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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. What did Bob Leary's father do during much of the Depression to avoid going crazy?

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

3. What food can Dorothe Bernstein not stand because of her days in an orphanage?

4. Where did Arthur Robinson keep thousands of dollars during the bank holiday?

5. What does Diane personally think about the suffering of the 1930's in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Bob La Follette?

2. How does Terkel explain his purposes in writing Hard Times?

3. What does Phyllis Mortimer do when her family falls on hard times in the 1930's?

4. How did the Bonus March end?

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

6. What did Arthur Robinson experience after the Wall Street Crash of 1929?

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

8. How did Yip Harburg find his way to making music?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Studs Terkel mentions throughout the book that the Roosevelt administration had a vested interest in chronicling the realities of the Depression as it was happening. Write an essay about three of these historical/artistic documents. What specific component of the Depression experience did each highlight? What was its medium? How was it received at the time and since? Why did the Roosevelt administration avoid publicizing that it was funding this sort of archiving work?

Part 1) Tobacco Road.

Part 2) The River.

Part 3) Dorothea Lange's portraits.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the tactic used by union supporters in the 1930's Rust Belt. How did they effectively shut down plants, stopping the introduction of scabs and limiting the union-busting? What kind of press did these strikes get, and how was Governor Frank Murphy of Michigan leveled by these events? What effect did the passage of the Wagner Act have on the ability of workers to unionize?

Essay Topic 3

The Great Depression was a period of time during which large organized movements sought to restructure American society. In a three part essay, discuss how several organized groups went about attempting the recreation of a country:

Part 1) What hole in the union movement did the CIO fill in the 1930's? What tactics did the unions use in the rust belt in order to organize industrial workers? What opposition did they face? How much success did the CIO achieve over the course of the Depression? How did its relationship with the AFL change in this time?

Part 2) How did the American Communist movement surge in popularity during the Hoover years, and how did events in Europe destroy much of its credibility? To what extent did Roosevelt's New Deal destroy its ability to accomplish its goals in the 1930's? What members did it lose after Roosevelt built his coalition?

Part 3) How were both the Catholic Worker and the Wobblies different from the unions and the Communists? What was each group's guiding philosophy? Did either one form a coalition during the Depression? What happened to them after the Depression?

(see the answer keys)

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