Discuss the Great Depression and Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt’s responses to it. (use the textbook and the lecture on the Scottsboro Boys)
In this essay, start with Hoover’s election in 1928 and the causes of the Depression. Look at Hoover’s response and Andrew Mellon. Smoot-Hawley, Reconstruction Finance Corp etc. What was American life like? Look at the Scottsboro Boys case and the issue of transients.
Then look at FDR’s election. I would divide this into the First New Deal and the Second New Deal.
First New Deal: cover banking, the First 100 days, NRA, CCC, PWA, AAA, Dust Bowl, housing. How does labor react? Who opposed FDR’s policies?
Then in the Second New Deal, look at WPA, Social Security, Wagner Act, court packing etc. How did the New Deal affect women? Native Americans? Mexican-Americans? African-Americans?
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