Unit V: The Great Depression

Helpful Links

Unit Reviews:
PPT or Text

Class Grades for:

History 3 History 4

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Key Concepts to Master (Chapters 14 & 15 in The Americans)
  • the kinds of conditions that came to be as a result of the widespread poverty of the Depression
  • the major ways that poverty impacted public health, families, and race relations
  • the specific ways that Hoover responded to the challenges of the Depression (Hawley-Smoot Tariff, Bonus Army, etc.)
  • the chief reasons why FDR was able to come in and easily defeat Hoover in the election of 1932
  • the chief shortcomings of the New Deal and the groups that were left out of it's reforms
  • the ways in which opponents of the New Deal used it to make political gains for themselves
  • the controversy around FDR's attempts to "pack the court"
  • the ways that organized labor was able to make significant gains in the late 1930's
  • the impact that the New Deal had on life and culture in the United States

There will not be a separate unit test on the Great Depression, it will be a part of the Fall Semester Final Exam. 

General Final Exam Information:
The final will be made up of one large MC type test and one large essay.  The Objective Test will consist of 75-80 questions.  Of these questions, there will be 25-20 specifically about the Great Depression.  The remaining questions will be drawn from the previous units, with 10-12 questions coming from each unit.

It is definitely helpful to look at the Unit Reviews:
Unit I
Unit II
Unit III
Unit IV

Final Essay Themes:
For your final essay you need to take one of the themes and trace its importance through all of the U.S. History that we studied this semester (1600-1939).  One thing that might help you get started is to pick your theme and then start looking at the unit reviews, which will help you start listing the important topics that relate to your theme.
  • Economic Growth and Development
  • Democracy and Civil Rights
  • War and Human Conflict
  • American morality and ideology