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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 popular American novel did Jack Kirkland adapt into a successful play?

2. According to Emma Teiller, why did armed men enter a relief house in her neighborhood?

3. What did Hiram Sherman do in The Cradle Will Rock?

4. Why did C. Wright Patman push for the impeachment of Hoover's Treasury Secretary?

5. What happened to Orrin Kelly after the incident with the Iowa judge?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Neil Schaffner's theatre troupe have to change their business model after the Crash 1929?

2. How does Christopher Lasch explain the possibility of a socialist revolt in the 1930's?

3. What does Dr. Martin Bickham discover about the American drive to work through his relief work in the 1930's?

4. According to James Farley, how did Roosevelt alienate members of his own administration?

5. According to Elizabeth Wood, how did public housing develop the stigma it has today?

6. What humiliation did Ward James face seeking relief in the 1930's?

7. What safety concerns pervaded mines in the 1930's?

8. Describe Harry Hartman's experiences repossessing belongings in the Depression.

9. What was the most controversial component of the New Deal?

10. How did Ray Wax's life disillusion him to the idea of strive-and-succeed?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Over the course of Hard Times, Studs Terkel interviews several individuals who held powerful elected positions during the Depression. These men took different positions on the issue of the day, and these positions were best expressed in terms of their support or opposition to FDR. Write an essay about these three figures. What did they think of FDR and the New Deal? How did each attain the power they enjoyed in the 1930's? Was each able to make a definitive mark on the country at this time?

Part 1) C. Wright Patman

Part 2) Stanley Fish

Part 3) Alf Landon

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the Appalachian mining communities' attempts to unionize. How was this group of workers facing Depression-style injustice before the Depression started? What type of power did companies wield in Appalachia, and how did they enforce this power? Discuss how normal tension between management and would-be unionizing broke into full war in the 1930's? What was the result?

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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