Curated Video
The Banking Industry
Dr. Forrester describes the way in which banks work and why they are good for the economy. She talks about the way “buying on credit” was started. She closes by explaining the positive and negative aspects of buying on credit.
Curated Video
The Federal Reserve
Born from a series of financial crises in the 20th century, the Federal Reserve, or Fed, controls monetary policy in the United States to ensure economic growth through maximum employment and fair pricing.
Curated Video
Social Security
When times get tough, Social Security provides a vital financial lifeline for U.S. citizens in need. But how did this revolutionary legislation come into being and what benefits does it provide?
Curated Video
The Great American Songbook
The Great American Songbook, a collection of jazz standards and show tunes created by talented songwriters in early 20th century New York, provided solace and joy during difficult times in U.S. history.
Curated Video
Forced Removal to Mexico: Repatriation Drives
During the Great Depression, the U.S. government detained and deported almost 2 million Mexican American citizens and people of Mexican descent, in an initiative known as the Repatriation Drives.
Curated Video
Teddy Roosevelt's Square Deal
In the early 1900s, President Theodore Roosevelt's progressive legislation, dubbed the Square Deal, aimed to limit the power of corporations, protect consumers, and conserve natural resources. The Square Deal drastically changed the...
Curated Video
Hoovervilles: Shantytowns of the Great Depression
As the Great Depression worsened in the 1930s, thousands of Americans lost their jobs and eventually their homes. Shantytowns dubbed “Hoovervilles” named after unsympathetic President Herbert Hoover, spread across the U.S.
John D Ruddy
Presidents of the USA Part 2
An animated video outlining the Presidents of the United States from Theodore Roosevelt to Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The Art Assignment
Whose Migrant Mother was this?
Dorothea Lange captured this iconic photo known as Migrant Mother in 1936. But who was the woman pictured? And how did she and her family feel about its existence in the world? Guest host John Green introduces you to Florence Owens...
Weird History
What Happened Immediately After Black Tuesday
The younger crowd, and those in the older crowd who don’t remember high school history, might suspect that Black Tuesday was some sort of holiday-shopping event of yesteryear. Most people, however, recognize Black Tuesday—the day when...
Curated Video
Horse-Riding Librarians
The Pack Horse Library Initiative saw hundreds of female librarians cross the Appalachian Mountains to deliver books to those in need.
Professor Dave Explains
Business Cycles: Boom and Bust
We are all somewhat familiar with economic expansion and recession. And pretty much everyone has heard of The Great Depression. What are recessions and depressions? How do we describe the business cycles that produce them? Let's define...
Curated Video
The Great Depression
The Great Depression was one of the worst economic disasters America has ever experienced. But it’s also a period that produced some of the great innovations in US history.
TED-Ed
Why do Americans and Canadians Celebrate Labor Day?
A day off from work to celebrate...labor? Find out why on the first Monday of every September, Americans and Canadians celebrate Labor Day. Viewers will learn about the unique history of the first Labor Day, in which workers not only...
National Woman's History Museum
Women's History Minute: Dorothea Lange
Teach young scholars how to, in the words of Dorothea Lange, see life without a camera by looking at her life through the lens of a short video. Viewers are introduced to Lange's life, her work, and some of her famous photographs.
PBS
American Masters: The American Dream in the Grapes of Wrath
For many farmers displaced by the Great Depression and the droughts of the 1930s, California represented the American Dream: a place to find work, to establish a new life, and to provide for their families. The reality they found, as...
PBS
To Kill a Mockingbird Setting: A Portrait of a Southern Town in the 1930s
The characters of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird are formed and informed, in part, by the distinctive historical backdrop of Alabama during the Great Depression. Watch a video that details Lee's experience growing up in...
PBS
Deportations
A video details the life of the Castañeda family starting in Los Angelas in the 1920s. Daughter, Emilia, tells her story of how her family was deported during the Great Depression and her struggles to return the United States of...
Bill of Rights Institute
The Great Depression: Economic Causes and Repercussions
Brother, can you spare a dime? Scholars investigate an AP review video to understand the causes of the Great Depression and the economic collapse of the American economy. Viewers examine the many economic factors leading to the worst...
Crash Course
Economic Schools of Thought
Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes held different beliefs about economic systems that evolved from their predecessors, and then shaped by their countries' economic situations. A video from Crash Course Economics...
Crash Course
Recession, Hyperinflation, and Stagflation
What's the problem with a room full of cash? Learn about the problems and ramifications of extreme economic situations with an informative video about hyperinflation, recession and depression, and staggflation.
Crash Course
What's all the Yellen About? Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve
Most countries experience an economic slump from time to time. Learn about the ways the Federal Reserve can intervene in a struggling economy before a crisis occurs with a short video from Crash Course Economics that focuses on...
TED-Ed
How Did Hitler Rise to Power?
The Nazi party became overwhelmingly popular among the lower middle class, and somehow, Adolf Hitler rose to power in the early 1930s. Watch a illustrative video to find out more about Hitler's rise to power.
Biography
Franklin D. Roosevelt- Mini Biography
The New Deal, Fireside Chats, the Arsenal for Democracy, the Four Freedoms. This short video of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, provides viewers with a brief overview of FDR's life and...