Great Depression
Select four of the following topics from Units III and IV and express your thoughts in at least 250 words per topic.
Potential Topic 1: Describe some of the economic limits of the “Roaring 1920s.” Describe how an era that seemed so prosperous could help fuel the Great Depression, the leading warning signs that signaled some key underlying economic weaknesses, and the vulnerable position that many Americans placed themselves in by embracing the consumer economy of the 1920s.
Potential Topic 2: Describe the experience of the Great Depression. Include the various factors that contributed to the Great Depression, the key events of that depression, and assess the federal response to the economic crisis by the Hoover Administration. Include the principles that guided Hoover’s policies and how Hoover’s policies evolved over the course of the depression.
Potential Topic 3: Describe the federal response to the Great Depression with the New Deal programs of Franklin Roosevelt’s Administration. Include the strategies that guided New Deal policymaking, the key areas of New Deal reform, the various challenges that FDR faced with his New Deal programs, and assess the overall effectiveness of the New Deal and whether it ended the Great Depression.
Potential Topic 4: Describe the American experience in World War II. Include the factors that prevented America’s involvement in the early years of the war and the single event that changed public opinion, the key domestic consequences of U.S. involvement and how that contributed to Allied victory in the war, and the events that made the World War II experience so horrific.
Potential Topic 5: Describe the Cold War era. Include how the United States and Soviet Union transitioned from allies to rivals, the key policies that guided foreign affairs in the Cold War era, and explain how those policies led to military interventions across the world. Include the most significant of those military engagements.
Potential Topic 6: Describe the African American experience from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement. Include how the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was a result of the failures of Reconstruction almost a century before, how African Americans were discriminated against and suffered in the decades between Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement, and how African Americans were able to lead a grassroots movement to promote federal legislation for civil and voting rights.
Potential Topic 7: Please describe the contributing factors to the malaise that seems to define American society by the end of the 1970s. Please include how the optimism at the beginning of the 1960s faded and provide a detailed description of the key social, political, and economic events that contributed to the growing distrust in American leadership and institutions by the end of the 1970s.
Potential Topic 8: Describe the most significant events and developments in recent U.S. History. Please provide a background on those events and developments, the key details of those events and developments, and include how they continue to impact current events today.
Potential Topic 9: Select any primary source document from an Additional Resources folder from Weeks 9-15. Please describe the nature of the document, its contents, what it communicates about that particular era, and how it enhances your understanding of that topic.
Potential Topic 10: How has your impression of history evolved over the course of the semester? What particular topics or historical issues have allowed you to reevaluate your understanding of how we study the past? How does this shape your thoughts on more current events?
