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

2. How many people does Terkel Interview in this introduction?

3. How did Dr. Lewis Andreas help strikers in Chicago in 1937?

4. Why would hobos put marks on people's houses with chalk?

5. What was Bob La Follette's signature issue in the 1928 election?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Why was psychoanalysis largely ineffective in the Depression?

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

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

6. How did William Benton make his fortune?

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

8. Who is Bob La Follette?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A recurring question in Hard Times is how America would handle another Depression, were one to occur. Write an essay on this question. What experiences in the 1930's inform the interviewees who answer a question regarding America's ability to handle hard times? How close do these people think the US came to collapse? Do they, by and large, think that America is stronger or weaker as a system and culture now?

Essay Topic 2

The 1930's, as a result of the abject poverty and of Prohibition, became an era of romanticized criminality. Write an essay on the popularity of illegal behavior at this time. What was the nature of the industry dedicated to circumventing Prohibition laws? Why were figures like John Dillinger and Machine Gun Kelly folk heroes for robbing the banks? To what extent were they enacting public disgust with failed institutions?

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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This section contains 904 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample