EXPLORE:
Use the following activities to investigate related topics on the web.Alternative 1: Broadening the inquiry: What was happening with labor unions during the 1930s?
- Look up and write down definitions for any unfamiliar words in Mintz’s statement. Paraphrase Mintz’s claim.
Quest: Using the list of websites below find 2 primary sources that support or contest Mintz’s claim about what happened to organized labor in the 1930s.
- Write down two search terms that you might use to investigate this topic. Read your textbook or more of Mintz’s words (select “online textbook”) for help.
- New Deal Network [http://newdeal.feri.org/]: Go to http://newdeal.feri.org/texts/subject.cfm and select a relevant subject to browse and find documents.
- American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940 [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html]: Use your search terms to browse at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaquery.html and find documents.
- Labor Arts [http://laborarts.org/collections/set.cfm?setid=21&page=1]: Browse collection of 1930s images to find one to analyze.
- For each of the two sources that you select, list the:
- author;
- time and place of origin;
- url.
Read and analyze each source. (Remember to use questions to source, contextualize, read closely, and corroborate.)
- Write a paragraph for each source: How does this source contest or support Mintz’s claim? Explain using examples and quotes from the sources.
- Write two questions that you still have about these sources and the labor movement in the 1930s.
At http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/great_depression/index.cfm, historian Steven Mintz states that: “[The Great Depression] fundamentally altered labor relations, producing a revived labor movement and a national labor policy protective of collective bargaining.”
Alternative 2: Deepening the inquiry: Reading posters and advertisements
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Quest: Pick one website from the list below to explore. Answer the following questions about two sources from that site. Choose sources that were created between 1933-1943.
(For a helpful introduction and guide to analyzing sources like these, explore http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/Ads/.)
- By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA 1936-1943, [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaposters/wpahome.html] Searching options: Enter keyword for search; Browse by “subject”; Go to “collection highlights.”
- U.S. History Images: Advertisements Great Depression [http://historyproject.ucdavis.edu/imageapp.php?Major=AD&Minor=G]
- Ad Access [http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/search.html] Put in a year between 1935 and 1940 and then explore the search results.
- Answer the following three questions about each of the two sources you select:
- List the:
- author;
- time and place of origin;
- url where you found it.
- What is this source trying to do? Consider the author, purpose, and intended audience.
- What does the source reveal and/or conceal about the years, 1936-1943?
Click on the poster or advertisement to enlarge it and examine its details. Look at the words, colors, pictures, and how these components are put together. Refer to specific aspects of the source to answer questions 2 and 3.
- List the:
- Consider the website and compare sources.
- How are the two sources alike? How are the two posters different?
- What conclusions and questions do you have regarding the two posters?
- What does this data bank of sources tell you about the time period and the New Deal?