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Lesson Plans
The American Nation: A History of the United States ©2000
by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes
Focus Lesson 21
Chapter 27: "The New Deal, 1933–1941"
AP* Course Description
- New Deal
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Background, ideas
- Philosophy of New Deal
- 100 Days; "alphabet agencies"
- Second New Deal
- Critics, left and right
- Rise of CIO; labor unions
- Supreme Court fight
- Recession of 1938
- American people in the Depression
- Social values, women, ethnic groups
- Indian Reorganization Act
- Mexican-American deportation
- The racial issue
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Diplomacy in the 1930s
- Isolationism: neutrality legislation
- Aggressors: Japan, Italy, and Germany
- Appeasement
- Rearmament; Blitzkrieg; Lend-Lease
Key Components
- Instructor's Manual: pp. 261–270
- Study Guide, Vol. II: pp. 179–198
- Test Bank: pp. 452–469
Key Web Sites
Given the changing nature of the Internet, you may wish to preview these sites. Check the Online Companion Web site for updated links to U.S. history sites.
Key Words and Terms
- bank holiday
- fireside chats
- TVA "yardstick"
- payroll tax
- sit-down strikes
- dark horse
- alphabet agencies
- WPA
- Schecter Poultry Corp. v. United States
- CIO
- "Quarantine" speech
- Lend-Lease Act
- Wendell L. Wilkie
- Father Charles Coughlin
- Hugo Black
- Frances Perkins
- Gerald P. Nye
- John L. Lewis
- William Allen White
- Walter F. George
- Hundred Days
- parity
- old-age revolving pensions
- "economic royalists"
- destroyers-for-bases deal
- conservative coalition
- CCC
- "Share the Wealth" movement
- NLRB
- REA
- Fair Labor Standards Act
- Sudetenland
- Henry A. Wallace
- Harry L. Hopkins
- Alf Landon
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- General Francisco Franco
- Walter Mills
- Winston Churchill
Suggested Pacing
Allow one week for the teaching of this chapter.
Test Strategy
The best situation is when a student reads a question stem and the answer choices and knows the correct answer immediately. This may not always happen and students need a strategy for dealing with a difficult question. As they read through the answer choices, they should eliminate any that are obviously incorrect. They should then go back and reconsider the remaining choices carefully. If they know something about the content and can eliminate one or two choices, they should guess—even the College Board suggests this. You can reassure them that they would need to guess incorrectly four times in order to get a full-point deduction on their raw score, but a single correct guess will give them a full-point addition to their raw score.
Key Concepts
- Borrowing and synthesizing ideas
Overall, the New Deal was startling in the breadth and boldness of its scope yet only partially successful in its goal of spurring economic recovery in the nation. Some of the ideas that Roosevelt tried were actually borrowed from others. From Theodore Roosevelt and the New Nationalism, Roosevelt took the idea of relaxing antitrust laws. Populists had first advocated inflating currency. The efforts to help the poor were borrowed from Progressives, and the establishment of bureaucracies borrowed from Wilson's efforts to mobilize during World War I. Roosevelt took the idea of deficit spending from British economist John Maynard Keynes. - The influence of World War I
By the 1930s, many Americans had concluded that the nation's participation in World War I had been a mistake. Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts limiting the sale of munitions to warring countries. These actions were in part taken as a result of the findings of the Nye Committee, which laid much of the blame for World War I on international bankers and arms makers. Some Americans started a campaign known as "America First" and attempted to turn the country toward a policy of isolationism. It was against this background that Roosevelt attempted to help the nation's allies.
Summing Up Student Understanding
Point out to students that Roosevelt's goal was business recovery, not massive government spending. "Pump priming" was a means to an end. To help students remember the many important pieces of legislation passed during Roosevelt's first two terms in office, have students create a table that lists the major legislation of the New Deal and the provisions of each law. Have them classify the aim of each piece of the legislation as either relief, recovery, or reform.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
You might also find these additional readings useful in developing students' background knowledge or for DBQ activities:
- American Issues: Vol. II Since 1865, edited by Unger and Tomes—Chapter 9
- The Power of Words: Vol. II From 1865, edited by Breen—Chapter 8
- Constructing the American Past, Vol. II, edited by Gorn, Roberts, and Bilhartz—Chapter 9
- American Experiences: Vol. II From 1877, edited by Roberts and Olson (secondary source readings)—Part Five