US HISTORY II CP
THE GREAT DEPRESSION/NEW DEAL SYLLABUS
This unit syllabus is a guide to class. It is subject to change. Check the website for any updates. Readings will be due the date as
indicated. Other homework assignments will be added as the unit progresses. You are expected to be prepared to every class that
includes bringing this syllabus.
In his acceptance speech of 1928, delivered in the Stanford University
football stadium, Hoover optimistically envisioned the day when poverty
would be banished from the United States. A popular Republican slogan
was, “a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage.” The next year the
stock market collapsed and depression descended. Hoover, a “rugged
individualist” who had pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, was
unwilling to turn Washington into a gigantic soup kitchen for the
unemployed. He struggled desperately to half the Depression, but in his
general efforts were too little to late.
“Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive
pronouncement.
Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the
economic body – the producers and consumers themselves.”
—Herbert Hoover, Message to Congress - June 15, 1931
Thursday, 12/5 [Day 2]
Period 3,7: Introduction to Unit: How the Stock Market
Works/Why did it crash?
H.W. - Reading (pgs. 670-677)
Friday, 12/6 [Day 3]
Period 1: Introduction to Unit: How the Stock Market Works/Why did it crash?
H.W. - Reading (pgs. 670-677)
Period 3,7: Hardship and Suffering during the Great Depression
H.W. – Reading (pgs. 678-683)
Monday, 12/9 [Day 4]
Period 1: Hardship and Suffering during the Great Depression
H.W. – Reading (pgs. 678-683)
Tuesday, 12/10 [Day 1]
Period 1,3,7: Hoover Struggles/Government Response
H.W. – Reading (pgs. 684-689)
Wednesday, 12/11 [Day 2]
Period 3,7: Quiz
Photo Analysis In Class Project
Thursday, 12/12 [Day 3]
Period 1: Quiz
Photo Analysis In Class Project
Period 3,7: 1932 Election - Roosevelt’s First Inauguration Speech
In 1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected overwhelmingly on a campaign promising a New Deal for the American
people. Roosevelt worked quickly upon his election to deliver the New Deal, an unprecedented number of reforms
addressing the catastrophic effects of the Great Depression.
Together with his “brain trust,” a group of university scholars and liberal theorists, Roosevelt sought the best course of
action for the struggling nation. During the first 100 days of his presidency, a never-ending stream of bills was passed, to
relieve poverty, reduce unemployment, and speed economic recovery.
In addition to certain key economic programs, several of the most prominent New Deal initiatives focused on providing
work relief to unemployed workers from all segments of U.S. society--from unskilled laborers to highly skilled artists and
technicians. The projects in which these workers were employed were as diverse as their backgrounds and extended from
public works projects--the construction of roads, buildings, parks, tunnels bridges, to cultural documentation projects
carried out by writers, artists, historians, actors, and musicians.
“The only thing to fear, is fear itself.” – FDR March 4, 1933
Friday, 12/13 [Day 4]
Period 1: 1932 Election
Roosevelt’s First Inauguration Speech
Monday, 12/16 [Day 1]
Period 1,3,7: Rugged Individualism v. Action, and Action
now
Tuesday, 12/17 [Day 2]
Period 3,7: New Deal/Second New Deal Programs
H.W. - Reading (pgs. 694-700, 701-707)
Wednesday, 12/18 [Day 3]
Period 1: New Deal/Second New Deal Programs
H.W. - Reading (pgs. 694-700, 701-707)
Period 3,7: Finish Projects (Per. 7 – Present)
Thursday, 12/19 [Day 4]
Period 1: Finish Project
Friday, 12/20 [1/2 Day]
Period 1,3: Presentations and Complete ‘Alphabet
Soup’ Chart
Thursday, 1/2 [Day 1]
Period 1,3,7: Pros and Cons of New Deal
Programs/Impact
H.W. - Reading (pgs. 710-715 and 721-725)
Friday, 1/3 [Day 2]
Period 3,7: Critics of the New Deal
Political Cartoon Activity
Monday, 1/6 [Day 3]
Period 1: Critics of the New Deal
Political Cartoon Activity
Period 3,7: Was the New Deal a Success? - In-class writing assignment
Tuesday, 1/7 [Day 4]
Period 1: Was the New Deal a Success? - In-class writing assignment
Wednesday, 1/8 [Day 1]
Period 1,3,7: War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast and Fads and Culture of the 1930’s
H.W. - Reading (pgs. 716-720)
Thursday, 1/9 [Day 2]
Period 3,7: Review/Make-up day
Friday, 1/10 [Day 3]
Period 1,3,7: Unit Test
Study Guide Due
Monday, 1/13 [Day 4], Tuesday, 1/14 [Day 1], Wednesday, 1/15 [Day 2]
Film: Cinderella Man
Journal Entries due on the last day of film.
*If you are absent on a film day – you must make an
appointment to watch the film with the teacher on
your own time (before or after school or during
lunch)! You have worksheets to complete during each
section of the film. You are not allowed to make up
the class-work at home!*