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| Unit name |
The Sky Falls In: How North America Coped with The Great Depression (Level C Special Topic) |
| Unit code |
HIST14002 |
| Credit points |
20 |
| Level of study |
C/4
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
|
| Unit director |
Dr. Brian Miller |
| Open unit status |
Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
.
|
| Co-requisites |
None
|
| School/department |
Department of History (Historical Studies) |
| Faculty |
Faculty of Arts |
Description including Unit Aims
The Great Depression presents us with the drastically unfamiliar picture of an American society that was brought to its knees. It was - in the eyes of many devastatingly destructive of the American Dream, with up to one in four unemployed and often on the verge of starvation. But more than the USA was deeply mired in domestic catastrophe: two countries sharing North America (where the Depression and accompanying dust bowls were especially severe) were equally affected, in similar and in dissimilar ways. This involved two separate if related responses to the challenge of recovery: that of the American and of the Canadian (in a Canada that only achieved its full self-governance in 1931). How did the USA and Canada cope with this challenge from within their respective societies and political cultures?
Aims:
- To place students in direct contact with the current research interests of the academic tutor and to enable them to explore the issues surrounding the state of research in the field.
- To introduce students to working with primary sources
- To introduce students to issues relating to setting primary sources in their wider context
- To introduce students to the practice of learning independently within a small-group context
- To introduce students to the history of N. America in the Great Depression and to explore US responses to the challenge it posed.
Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the unit students should have:
- deepened their understanding of current historical research on the history of the Great Depression in N. America
- learned how to work with primary sources
- developed their skills in contributing to and learning from a small-group environment
Teaching Information
10 x 2 hour seminars.
Assessment Information
1 x 2 hour exam.
Reading and References
- D. Adams, Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal (1979)
- A.J. Badger, The New Deal. The Depression Years 1933-40 (1989)
- P. Berton, The Great Depression 1929-39 [in Canada] (2001)
- P. Boyer et. al., The Enduring Vision Ch. 24 (2003)
- H. Brogan, Penguin History of the United States Ch 21-22 (1990)
- R.E. de Bedts, Recent American History: 1933 Through World War II (vol. 1) Ch. 1-5 (1973)
- J.K. Galbraith, The Great Crash 1929 (1980)
- D. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear Part 1 (1999)
- G. Tindall & D Shi, America. A Narrative History Ch. 27-28 (1996)
