Great Depression
Unit description: In this unit, students will study how economic and environmental disasters in the 1930s created hardships for many Americans. In addition, students will investigate, despite much debate about the appropriate role of government, how President Franklin D. Roosevelt helped to create intensive government interventions in the United States economy and society.
Standards
Standards: 1, 3, 5; Themes: TCC, SOC, GOV, ECO
Essential Questions and Big Ideas
Big idea of the unit: Economic and environmental disasters in the 1930s created hardships for many Americans.
What economic practices of the 1920s contributed to the coming of the Great Depression?
- Risky investing, protectionism, and overproduction led to the collapse of the stock market, a wave of bank failures, and a long and severe downturn in the economy called the Great Depression.
What were the lasting effects of the Great Depression on American families?
- Lasting effects of the Great Depression on American families were loss of jobs, wealth, and homes, noting varying effects based on class, race, and gender.
- Deteriorating conditions in New York City and other communities within New York state during the Great Depression.
What was the purpose of the New Deal and what were the long lasting effects on society and economic life?
- President Roosevelt issued the New Deal in an attempt to revive the economy and help Americans deal with the hardships of the Great Depression.
- These New Deal reforms had a long-lasting effect on the role of government in American society and its economic life, but did not resolve all of the hardships Americans faced.
Download the complete Grade 8 Social Studies Unit 5 framework to customize for your own planning.