The Great Depression Assignment and Answers

The Great Depression Assignment and Answers

Episode 8 Podcast Guide: “The Great Depression”
These episode podcast guides provide you with a general outline of the lecture, along with the key terms and concepts discussed therein. The guide is intended to highlight significant content as well as enable you to more easily return to this content when writing papers and exams. The guides conclude with questions for consideration and a few illustrations.
Introduction: Women in the Depression [to 6:05 min mark]
 Ideology of women’s domesticity and men’s role as the family ‘breadwinner’
 Women’s employment during the Depression
 Impact on the family unit
 Annette Hanshaw, “When I’m Housekeeping for You” (1929)
“The Causes of the Great Depression” [6:05 to 20:10]
 The pre-Depression struggles of farmers
 Bob Ferguson, “Eleven Cent Cotton, Forty Cent Meat” (1928)
 Declining demand
 Increased debt
 Stock market speculation
 International economic conditions
 Government policies (example of Hawley-Smoot Tariff, 1930)
The Ordeal of Herbert Hoover [20:10 to 27:30]
 Bing Crosby, “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?” (1932)
 Associationalism
 American Individualism
 Woody Guthrie, “I Ain’t Got No Home” (1940)
Hard Times [27:30 to end]
 “Hoovervilles”
 Jimmie Rodgers, “Hobo Bill’s Last Ride” (1930)
 Dust Bowl
 “Repatriados”
 Farmer’s Holiday Association
 Unemployed Councils
 Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit” (1939)
 Bonus Army
 Ben Selvin and His Orchestra, “Happy Days are Here Again” (1930)
Questions for Consideration
1. Why did the Great Depression happen? Which of the various causes discussed in this episode was most responsible for the Depression, and why?
2. What did the Depression mean for ordinary people? How did they experience these years, and what were the various ways people coped with and responded to hard times?
3. How did U.S. leaders, in particular President Hoover, react to the onset of the Depression? How would you assess the government’s response to the economic calamity?
4. What do the songs featured in this episode indicate about American culture in the Great Depression?