Ymontiara Jones- Week 6 Assignment-Thinking Critically About Your Historical Topic
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Assignment 2: Thinking Critically About Your Historical Topic
YMONTIARA JONES
HIS110
Professor Ruff
November 14, 2022
1
Step 1: Knowledge
Research question:
How can the lessons learned from the Great Depression (1929–1941) help
prepare Americans for another economic depression?
What are some focused questions that will help you find the information you need in your
sources?
How did Americans live through The Depression?
How did programs help unemployment for millions of Americans?
How did Americans live through the shame, humiliation, and deprivation during the
Great Depression?
How did Americans make ends meet during The Great Depression?
Step 2: Comprehension
What have you learned from your primary sources about the historical challenges or social
changes that relate to your research question?
From my primary sources, I learned that stocks were falling in the early 1930s. Aside from
businesses failing, unemployment rose as companies chose to close their doors or limit their
employment. Americans lived through shame, humiliation, and deprivation during the great
depression by not living above their means. For example, families reached out for government
assistance during the Great Depression for clothing, food, or shelter. This source also shared that
sharecropper owners were taking all the crops leaving these families to live without enough
produce to last them through the season.
What have you learned from your primary sources about how these challenges were
addressed by society or how these changes affected society?
I learned from my primary source that the following challenges negatively affected society
because there was a lack of resources during the early 1920s. Americans had to rely on the
government and could not do much for the vast majority of the population during the Great
Depression.
How does the information you learned from your primary sources connect to the current
issues mentioned in your research question?
The information I learned from my primary sources connects to the current issues mentioned in
my research question by answering how Americans overcame the matters through trials and
tribulations to make ends meet.
What are some pieces of evidence (like facts or examples) from your secondary sources that
support what you’ve learned from your primary sources?
2
Pieces of evidence from my secondary sources that support what I have learned from my primary
sources would be that the government did indeed step in to promote jobs for the unemployed
Americans who lost their job due to the Great Depression. However, my secondary source went
into detail on how Franklin D. Roosevelt and congress went about doing so by coming up with
the New Deal.
What evidence (like facts, data, or examples) is missing from your secondary sources—
what else would you still like to learn about your topic that these sources didn’t tell you?
The evidence that needs to be included in the secondary sources that I would like to learn about
my topic I did not know would be how the works programs help jobless Americans. The article
told how Franklin D. Roosevelt promised to end the Great Depression by creating construction
jobs to have people building roads, bridges, schools, etc.
Step 3: Application
What connections or similarities do you see among your sources? Consider aspects like
their time period, the type of information they contain, and the perspective they offer on
events.
Both of my sources explain how the American government helped American citizens throughout
the Great Depression. Congress approved President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. After FDR's
New Deal supported this, federal money was allowed to aid in recovery and relief efforts, so the
workload increased.
What discrepancies or differences do you see among your sources? Think critically. Are
their perspectives different? Do they offer different explanations about how or why
something happened? Do any of your sources disagree with each other?
The discrepancy among my sources is that my first source was the firsthand view of how the
Great Depression affected the American people. The first source has countless stories, from
sharecroppers to people who needed help from the government to make ends meet. However, the
second source I selected helps give the point of view from congress and President Franklin D
Roosevelt's perspective on how they can get the economy back up and running. Yes, their
perspectives are critically different points of view, explaining the issues that people were
experiencing then. Neither source specify how or why something happened; it, more so ever, just
sets details on the struggles among the people. Neither of my sources disagrees with the other.
However, the second source goes into more detail than the first when explaining how the
government aids the American people during this recession.
Step 4: Analysis
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In your own words, describe your strongest evidence. Which pieces of information from
your sources are most helpful for answering your research question?
The information from my sources that were the most helpful was the firsthand accounts of the
Great Depression. When reading my first source, I could see how the men, women, and children
had to make ends meet during this time. For example, in my first source, some individuals
worked for the government to assist those in need, and sharecroppers explained their struggles.
All in all, my first source was the most helpful to me because their words are coming from the
people who experienced this recession firsthand and had to overcome the Great Recession.
In your own words, describe your weakest evidence. Which pieces of information from
your sources don’t connect as easily to your research question?
The weakest evidence is my second source. While reading this, I noticed this source should have
talked about how the New Deal truly helped the people during this time. My question when
reading this passage is, did it help the people, or are we just taking the government's word on
this? I liked that they did not detail how creating these construction jobs aided; how much did
they get paid? It allowed until other businesses got their feet off the ground because construction
does not last a lifetime.
What has been difficult about using these sources to answer your research question?
The difficulty of using these sources would be it does not explain how to help prepare for another
tragic event, such as the Great Depression. Both references were informative. We could see what
went on back then; I did not see how we could prepare for the future if an act like this were to
happen again.
Step 5: Synthesis
Summarize your argument.
The critical lessons learned from the Great Depression that would prepare Americans for another
economic depression would be understanding the importance of investing. There were fewer
options in supporting than we have in today's time. For example, we have 401k, Stocks, IRA,
Crypto, and Real Estate. People who invest their money while also creating that emergency fund
are in a better position to do something in the event of a recession. The Great Depression was a
significant tragic recession in American History, and I will explain to you how we, the people
had to prepare for this.
4
Sources
1.
Eric Goldschein. August 29, 2011. 10 Lessons from People Who Lived Through the
Depression. https://www.businessinsider.com/lessons-from-people-who-lived-through-
the-depression-2011-8
2.
Ron Elving. April 4, 2020. In the 1930s, Works Program Spelled HOPE for Millions of
Jobless Americans. https://www.npr.org/2020/04/04/826909516/in-the-1930s-works-
program-spelled-hope-for-millions-of-jobless-americans
3.
Firsthand Accounts of the Great Depression (Interviews by Studs Terkel). No date.
https://www.facinghistory.org/mockingbird/firsthand-accounts-great-depression
4.
Joyce Wadler. April 1, 2009. Making Ends Meet in the Great Depression.
https://login.libdatab.strayer.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-
com.libdatab.strayer.edu/newspapers/still-they-prospered/docview/434065466/se-2?
accountid=30530
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