Digital History
Digital History: The First Hundred Days
It is truly amazing to see how much legislation President Franklin Roosevelt was able to get through Congress in the first one hundred days of his administration. Read about the many programs that were implemented in an attempt to stem...
Digital History
Digital History: The Farmers' Plight
Read about the plight of American farmers in the Great Depression. Franklin Roosevelt instituted several programs to help the rural population, the most important of which was the Agricultural Adjustment Act. Find out whom this act...
University of California
History Project: Fdr and Courtpacking
This lesson provides the background for the decision by President Roosevelt to attempt to expand the number of Supreme Court justices from nine to twelve. Students are to use sections from provided primary source documents to analyze the...
Other
Fdr Project/ the First 100 Days
A school site that shows a collection of editorial cartoons from the 1930s responding to the First Hundred Days of Roosevelt's presidency. Great primary source material for viewpoints of the day.
Other
Us Department of Labor: Jshq: Remembering Frances Perkins
A biography of Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor under Franklin Roosevelt, from the Job Safety and Health Quarterly. A good description of her tireless work in improving working conditions in the United States. (Published Fall 2002)
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: 300 Women Who Changed History: Frances Perkins
Encyclopedia Britannica provides a biography of Frances Perkins. Appointed secretary of labor by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, she was the first female cabinet member.
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation: Labor and Law
Explore the rise of unions in the United States in the early 1900's. Understand Roosevelt's role in unions, the Wagner Act, and sit down strikes.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Growth of Government Intervention
Overview of the changing federal government role as it increased involvement and intervention in business and social welfare in the 1900s.
Library of Congress
Loc: America From the Great Depression to World War Ii
This resource contains 160,000 black and white photos and 1600 color photos documenting America from 1935-1945. These images make up the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection.
Wessels Living History Farm
Living History Farm: Farming in the 1930s: The Politics of the Rea
Electrifying rural America revolutionized farm life. Read about how the Rural Electrification Administration was instituted and what had to be done to encourage rural families to form electric co-ops. Included is an interview with a...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: The Tennessee Valley Authority and Marshall County
Students will create computer models based both on contemporary maps and primary sources to explore the role of the Tennessee Valley Authority's hydroelectric projects in altering more than 75 miles of the natural landscape and in...
University of Illinois
University of Illinois: Modern American Poetry: About Sharecropping
Three articles about the effects of sharecropping, a farming system that became prevalent after the Civil War for blacks and whites.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1890 1945: Fdr and the Great Depression
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president in 1932. He immediately embarked on an ambitious plan to get the country out of the Great Depression.
PBS
Pbs: American Experience: The Works Progress Administration (Wpa)
A great summary of the Works Progress Administration, its goals, and the support it gave ordinary workers as well as artists, writers, and musicians.
Other
Bienes Center for the Literary Arts: A Brief Overview of the Wpa
Read descriptions of the various programs for unemployed artists that were part of the Works Progress Administration.
Digital History
Digital History: The Second Red Scare
Senator Joseph McCarthy did not create the national obsession with communist subversion. It had arisen in the late 1930s, years before McCarthy had come to public notice. Angry that they had been barred from the corridors of power for 20...
A&E Television
History.com: Hoovervilles
Offers a concise overview of life during the Great Depression and the living conditions of Hoovervilles.
Wisconsin Historical Society
Wisconsin Historical Society: Edwin Witte, 1887 1960
Edwin Witte was known as the founder of Social Security, having created the plan for it when he worked on the Committee on Economic Security under President Franklin Roosevelt. This is a biography of his life.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: The Wpa: Antidote to the Great Depression?
[Free Registration/Login Required] A good assessment of the Works Progress Administration and its contribution not only of providing jobs for the unemployed during the Great Depression, but for the lasting improvements it made in the...
Other
Employment and Training Institute: Wpa Milwaukee Handicraft Project
Article on a WPA program in Milwaukee which provided work for unskilled women laborers. Great resource for students of all ages.
State Library-Florida
Florida Memory: Zora Neale Hurston and the Wpa in Florida
An account of the African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston and her experiences in Florida while working on the WPA. Includes a complete piece by Hurston entitled "Turpentine," photos and lesson plans.
University of Washington
University of Washington in Seattle: The Great Depression in Washington State
This website provides a large collection of resources, many of them primary resources, for studying about the impact of the Great Depression on Washington State.
Other
Hamilton College: The Emergence of Public Housing
Read a history of the federal government's funding of public housing during the Great Depression. Find information about the Housing Act of 1937 and 1940.
Social Security Administration
Social Security Online: A Tea Party That Changed History
Essay discussing how Frances Perkins was involved in passage of the Social Security Act. Also contains a link to a speech given by Perkins to SSA employees.