Use these chapters and pages from ‘Major Problems in American History’ Textbook and information provided from virtual lectures starting March 15th and ending March 29th.
Link to Virtual Lectures: http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/history/faculty/jonathan-rosenberg/history-152-jonathan-rosenberg
Chapter 8: The Depression, the New Deal, and Franklin D. Roosevelt
Introduction (220)
Document 1: Hoover on Limited Government (222-3)
Document 2: This is an optional reading. This article on The Nation magazine may be useful for you to assess the public perception of President Hoover’s approach to the Depression. (223-5)
Document 4: Roosevelt’s inaugural speech (227-8)
Essay: FDR: Advocate for the American People by David M. Kennedy (235)
Essay: FDR: The Anti-Christ by Matthew Avery Sutton (244)
ASSIGNMENT: Write an essay that examines how the two documents shed light on the crisis the United States confronted during the depression of the 1930s, and how the two leaders sought to address the challenges of those years. By placing the documents in historical context and analyzing the language of the documents (you may include short quotations from the documents), your essay should examine the different approach each leader embraced in this period. Consider how the Hoover document sheds light on his approach to addressing the problems the country faced. Then do the same with the Roosevelt document, examining what Roosevelt thought would be the most effective response to the crisis of the early 1930s.
Before you consider the two sources, the introduction of your essay (1-2 paragraphs) should discuss the challenges the country faced in the early 1930s. The body of the paper (the next couple of pages) should look closely at the sources and examine how Hoover and Roosevelt sought to meet those challenges. After you have done this, you should conclude the essay with a paragraph or two on the significance of the New Deal in twentieth-century US history. This concluding section should reflect your perspective on why the New Deal is historically important.
Some further thoughts: In analyzing the documents, you should briefly say something about Hoover and Roosevelt (identify who they were), and about the purpose of each document. If you do quote directly from the source, you should use quotation marks to indicate that it is a direct quotation. Since this is a short paper, you should focus on those sections of each source that you find most important or illuminating. The aim of your essay is to use the two primary sources to help the reader understand this crucial period in the history of the United States. If you quote directly from the document, here is an example of how to do so: According to Hoover, the true growth of the Nation is the growth of character of its citizens (222).
