Compare the Decades

Compare the Decades

In 2008, a recession took place in the United States that seemed to echo the Great Depression of the 1930s. Called the Great Recession, it was a time when unemployment spiked in 2008 and 2009 and many people lost their homes. How was this recession similar to the Great Depression?
Download a Printer-Friendly PDF
A Monumental History

A Monumental History

From Reconstruction

Monuments designed to honor places, events, or people stand in public places across the United States. Some, such as the Lincoln Memorial and the Statue of Liberty, are classic icons. Others, such as the 2,000-pound African Killer Bee located in Hidalgo, Texas, are less than traditional. Monuments are often controversial. What is honorable to one person may be offensive to another. Also, the meanings of monuments change as the culture around them evolves. What do...

View
Does Racial Inequality Exist in Your School?

Does Racial Inequality Exist in Your School?

From Changing Laws

It can sometimes be hard to recognize racial inequality when it doesn’t directly affect you. Take a look at the statistics relating to your own school and see if anything surprised you.

View
Listen!

Listen!

From Singing for Equality

Music of the Civil Rights Era arose from several different styles of music, most notably gospel, folk, blues, and jazz. What did these different styles offer? How did they combine to form music that was completely new?

View
Planning a Boycott

Planning a Boycott

From Boycotts, Strikes, and Marches

Segregated buses and trains were only one of the ways whites discriminated against African Americans in the Jim Crow South. A boycott is the act of refusing to buy, use, or participate in something as a form of protest. Why didn’t the African American community use boycotts more often in their fight against segregation?

View

Reviews

Booklist Online Exclusive 
“Provides appealing and engaging support for American history students trying to make sense of the Great Depression . . . glossary, vocabulary exercises, key questions, and suggestions for games, projects, and experiments, helps make this a useful research tool and teaching resource.”

Chris Brick, Editor and Principal Investigator, Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project
“This new volume illuminates not just the economic crisis that the Great Depression unleashed, but the range of human responses that rose to confront it, and the fascinating politics, culture, and society that took shape as a result.”

Ronald Edsforth, Distinguished Senior Lecturer, Department of History, Dartmouth College
“This book presents a fine overview of America's economic, political, social, and cultural history, 1929-1941. While it rightly defines these years as a time of widespread insecurity and poverty, the book also presents the stories of political leaders, businesses, and working people whose creative responses to the Great Depression made America a stronger, more prosperous, and more democratic society in the long run.”

 

Detailed Book Description

In The Great Depression: Experience the 1930s from the Dust Bowl to the New Deal, readers ages 12 to 15 compare and contrast the America of today with an America that saw extreme unemployment, food riots, the Dust Bowl, the invention of the analog computer, and the first splitting of the atom.

  • The 1930s was a pivotal time in American history and has had lasting consequences on the consciousness of an entire generation of Americans.
  • Investigating previous events in the country's history can help students understand the causes and effects of the most recent recession.
Available In:
Hardcover, $22.95
9781619303362
Paperback, $17.95
9781619303409
Includes: Table of Contents | Timeline | Charts | Glossary | Resources | Index
Specs: 8 x 10 size | 4-color interior | 128 pages
Subject: Social Studies
Content Focus: U.S. History

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Timeline

Introduction
A Turbulent Time

Chapter 1
Boom to Bust

Chapter 2
Not a Job in Sight

Chapter 3
A New Deal

Chapter 4
A Dusty Disaster

Chapter 5
Quintuplets, Gangsters, and Monopoly

Chapter 6
Inventing the World of Tomorrow

Chapter 7
War and Recovery

Glossary
Resources
Index