TEACHING GUIDE TO
www.HarperAcademic.com
www.AmityShlaes.com
THE FORGOTTEN MAN
A New History of the Great Depression
Graphic Editioni
AMITY SHLAES
Illustrated by Paul Rivoche • Adapted by Chuck Dixon
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LESSON ONE: The 20s: Champagne and Euphoria or
a True Powerhouse Decade? ...................................................................... 1
LESSON TWO: The Crash of 1929: What Made It Unusual? ........................... 4
LESSON THREE: The New Deal, The Alphabet Agencies,
and Their Goals ........................................................................................... 6
LESSON FOUR: The Schechter Chicken Case, National Industrial
Recovery Act, Abuse of Power ..................................................................... 8
LESSON FIVE: The Economic Theories of the New Deal ............................... 11
LESSON SIX: An Evaluation of the New Deal ................................................ 13
A NOTE FROM AMITY SHLAES
The best way to educate students is with primary sources. The best source for these,
hands down, is Mortimer J. Adler, ed., “Annals of America,” Volumes 14 and 15, the two
collections for the 1920s and the 1930s. Here is a link for purchase, but most students
will find these anthologies of primary sources in libraries.
This teaching guide was written by Mike Koren.
LESSON ONE
The 20s: Champagne and Euphoria or a True Powerhouse Decade?
Timing: Three to four 40- to 45-minute class periods
Objectives:
1. Students will review different views of the economy of the 1920s.
2. Students will decide and debate how prosperous the decade of the 1920s
was and how it impacted the Great Depression.
LESSON PLAN
There has been much discussion about the prosperity of the 1920s. Review the
resources below to gather information on the economic prosperity of the 1920s.
ONLINE SOURCES
Library of Congress: For primary documents, search for Coolidge,
1920s, Roaring Twenties, Great Depression
The U.S. Economy in the 1920s by Gene Smiley
America in the 1920s
US Economy of the 1920s
BOOKS OF INTEREST
Coolidge by Amity Shlaes
2014: Harper Perennial
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
Available as a pdf from the Ludwig von Mises Institute
The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes
2008: Harper Perennial
Once in Golconda: A True Drama of Wall Street by John Brooks
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Middletown by Robert and Helen Lynd
An exhaustive portrait of one American town in the 1920s
The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith
2009: Mariner Books
Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s by Frederick L. Allen
1931: Harper Perennial
Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century
America by Richard Vedder
1997: NYU Press
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1925: Scribner
Taxation, the People’s Business, by Andrew Mellon
FILMS OF INTEREST
The Great Gatsby
2013: Directed by Baz Luhrmann
1.
After viewing numerous sources, students will write a one-page
summary explaining if they believe the decade was truly a decade of
prosperity or a false illusion of a prosperous decade.
2.
Students will prepare for and conduct a debate presenting their side of
the issue. Based on the responses of the students from their one-page
summary, divide students with similar opinions into groups of three or
four. Students will then begin to prepare the defense of their viewpoint
in the upcoming debate. (Based on the number of students, there will
be several debates to be held in order to involve all students in a
debate.)
3.
The teacher, students not involved in the debate, staff or department
members, or adult volunteers will judge the debate and determine
which side was more convincing in their argument. The rubric below
could be used to score each side’s presentation of the debate. (A
caution should be made about student judges voting for their friends or
voting for the side they will present later or have already presented.)
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4.
The teacher may choose to use the sample rubric below or create one
of his or her own.
SAMPLE DEBATE SCORING RUBRIC
A score of one is poor, two is below average, three is above average, and four is
excellent.
Clarity of the position taken
1
2
3
4
Logic of the points being made
1
2
3
4
Consistent argument throughout
1
2
3
4
Ability to saw audience to your view
1
2
3
4
5.
Summarize the main ideas from the lessons and debates.
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LESSON TWO
The Crash of 1929: What Made It Unusual?
Timing: Two or three 40- to 45-minute class periods
Objectives:
1.
Students will learn the basics of the stock market.
2.
Students will review different views about the crash of 1929.
LESSON PLAN
Procedures:
1. Students will view the resources below as well as other sources. Working
in groups of three, students will create a one- to two-page handout titled
“A Beginners Guide to the Stock Market.” This guide will explain basic
terms of the market and basic concepts of how the stock market operates.
2. After completing their research, students, working in groups of three, will
develop a flow chart showing events that led to the Great Depression.
Students will provide a one- to three- page summary that explains how
each component of the flowchart led to the Great Depression.
3. Students will be told they are going to lobby their Congressional
representatives about preventing another Great Depression from
occurring. Students will create a list of talking points to present to
members of Congress explaining what steps the government should take
to prevent a depression, similar to the Great Depression, from occurring
again. (This list should also include specific points about how government
should correct its own mistakes related to the beginning of the Great
Depression as well as addressing the other factors involved.)
4. Review the main ideas of the lesson.
ONLINE SOURCES
The American Experience: The Crash of 1929 (Video)
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TIME Magazine-The Crash of 1929
Wall Street Whiz: Stock Market Simulation (Students can invest in the
1929 stock market.)
National Bureau of Economic Research: Annual Estimates of
Unemployment in the United States, 1900 to 1954
Causes of the Great Depression, Econlib.org
Causes of the Great Depression by Sarah Carroll
What Social Classes Owe Each Other by William Graham Sumner
Please see “Forgotten Man” section
Cost of Living (for discussing Inflation, Deflation)
The Stock Market Crash of 1929 by Jesse Colombo
BOOKS OF INTEREST
Coolidge by Amity Shlaes
2014: Harper Perennial
The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes
2008: Harper Perennial
The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith
2009: Mariner Books
Rethinking the Great Depression by Gene Smiley
2003: Ivan R. Dee
Since Yesterday: The 1930s in America, September 3, 1929 to September
3, 1939 by Frederick L. Allen
Harper Perennial
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LESSON THREE
The New Deal, The Alphabet Agencies, and Their Goals
Timing: Three to four 40- to 45-minute class periods
Objectives:
1. Students will review the programs of the New Deal.
2. Students will evaluate the short and long term effects of each program.
Procedures:
There were many New Deal Programs presented in the book. Students can
use the book and the websites below and other resources to research these
programs.
New Deal Programs
American Heritage Center Museum
FDR Library
Images of New Deal Era
Students will choose at least five of these programs, research what the
program was supposed to accomplish, and determine the short and long
effects each program had.
Students, working in groups of three, will create a New Deal newspaper. The
newspaper will have seven articles describing different New Deal programs,
two editorials evaluating the short and long term success of two of the
programs, at least three political cartoons highlighting three different New
Deal programs, and a New Deal crossword puzzle (at least ten items down
and ten items across) focusing on programs, people, and events of the New
Deal. The newspaper will also have a name and place of publication.
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The rubric below will be used to evaluate the newspaper.
NEWSPAPER GRADING SHEET
__________ Seven News Articles (40 points)
__________ Two Editorials (20 points)
__________ Three Political Cartoons (20 points)
__________ Crossword Puzzle (15 points)
__________ Name and Place of Publication (5 points)
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LESSON FOUR
Abuse of Power by New Deal Personnel
Timing: Three to four class 40- to 45-minute class periods
Objectives:
1.
Students will list and explain examples where people administering the
New Deal may have abused their power.
2.
Students will explain if they felt power was abused.
3.
Students will create “Most Wanted” posters of various groups or
individuals who were targeted by the government.
4.
Students will write about “The Forgotten Man” – who was right,
Roosevelt with his Forgotten Man, or William Graham Sumner with
his? The men have two competing concepts. Describe them. Which
man is right?
Procedures:
1.
There were many examples in which people believed the
administrators of the New Deal abused their power. These include, but
aren’t limited to, examples involving the Supreme Court, the operation
of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the prosecution of the Schechters,
the creation of Casa Grande, the attempt to impeach Andrew Mellon,
the federal prosecution on mail fraud and antitrust charges of Samuel
Insull, and by providing subsidies to farmers.
2.
Students will work in groups of the three. By utilizing the book and
various websites, including those listed below, students will research
three examples of possible abuses of power and prepare a PowerPoint
presentation explaining the details of each situation—making certain to
describe how each situation could be viewed as an abuse of power.
Schechter Chicken Case
That’s Not Kosher: How Four Jewish Butchers Brought Down the First
New Deal
Chicago-Kent College of Law
Supreme Court Packing
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Andrew Mellon
Samuel Insull
Subsidies to Farmers
Middletown in Transition: A Study in Cultural Conflicts by Robert S.
Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd. A pair of sociologists revisit Muncie ten
years later to look at the effects of the crash and New Deal.
1982 Reissue: Mariner Books
PBS: The First Century Measured. Robert and Helen Lynd and
Middletown
Ball State University: The Center for Middletown Studies
Tennessee Valley Authority
“Forgotten Man” Governor Franklin Roosevelt speech at Albany in April
1932
The Forgotten Man and Other Essays by William Graham Sumner
1919: Yale University Press
Available as pdf from the Ludwig von Mises Institute
Swarthmore College: William Graham Sumner’s “The Forgotten Man”
lecture of 1883
3.
Students will write a position paper explaining why they do or do not
believe the government and government officials misused their
authority during the New Deal.
4.
Students will hypothesize why some of these individuals (Mellon and
the Schechters) continued to support Roosevelt or show him respect
even though the government took legal actions against them. (The
Schechters felt Nazism could have come to the U.S. if the attempts to
solve the Great Depression failed. Mellon may have felt a sense of
loyalty and patriotism to the country for the success he had.)
5.
Students, working in groups of three, will create three “Most Wanted”
posters highlighting three instances in which the government acted
against an individual, a group of individuals, an institution, or a
business during the New Deal. Students should go to Google Images
and search under Most Wanted Posters for samples and ideas.
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BOOKS AND ARTICLES OF INTEREST
David Lilienthal defends the Tennessee Valley Authority
Insull by Forrest MacDonald
Tuxedo Park: The Rise and Fall of a Billionaire Utility Tycoon by
Jennet Conant
2003: Simon & Schuster
Government Project: The Story of the Casa Grande Farm by Edward
C. Banfield
1951: Free Press
TVA and the Disposessed: The Resettlement of Population in the
Norris Dam Area by Michael J. McDonald and John Muldowny
1981: Tennessee University Press
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LESSON FIVE
Economic Theories of the New Deal
Timing: Three or four 40- to 45-minute class periods
Objectives:
1. Students will discuss the different ideas about how the government could
have handled the Depression.
2. Students will analyze the effects each theory could have had on the
economy.
3. Students will choose what they believe is the best alternative.
Procedures:
1. After reading the book, students will have learned about various ways to
deal with the Great Depression—from the ideas of Andrew Mellon and
John Maynard Keynes to those who believed in the concept of classic
liberalism.
2. Students will visit the sites below to gather information on how to end The
Great Depression.
Benjamin Anderson, Economics and the Public Welfare
National Center for Policy Analysis: What Is Classical Liberalism?
Wall Street Journal: FDR and the Lessons of the Depression by Thomas
Cooley and Lee Ohanian
Library of Economics and Liberty’s EconTalk podcast: Amity Shlaes on the
Great Depression
New York Times: “Keynes was Right” by Paul Krugman
WiseGEEK: What is Keynesian Economics?
3. Assign students into groups. Each group will research one of the theories
above. (Mellon, Keynes, and classic liberalism ideas)
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4. Students will prepare a pamphlet highlighting each system and explain
how well they felt that system worked or would have worked. Each group
will present their pamphlet to the class.
5. After hearing all the options, all students will write at least a one-page
summary about which theory they think would have been the best way to
deal with the Great Depression.
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LESSON SIX
Evaluation of the New Deal
Timing: Four or five 40- to 45-minute class periods, depending on class size
Objectives:
1.
Students will evaluate the success of the New Deal.
2.
Students will develop a plan to implement in case another Great
Depression were to occur.
Procedures:
1. In the previous five lessons, students have evaluated several aspects of
the New Deal. Students will review the various websites they visited,
consider the evidence presented in the book, analyze other sources, and
look at the materials they have presented and created.
2. Students will view these websites below and other resources to review the
goals of the New Deal.
University of Maryland, Baltimore County: Roosevelt and the New Deal
AP Study Notes: The New Deal
National Archives: FDR’s Fireside Chat on the Purposes and Foundations
of the Recovery Program
3. Working in groups of three, students will prepare a news show of 15 to 20
minutes similar to 20/20 or Dateline NBC. The focus of this show will be
to develop three news stories to evaluate the success of the New Deal in
accomplishing its goals. Students should use pictures, images, charts,
and graphs to go along with each story they create. This news show will
be videotaped.
4. Within their groups, students will prepare their own action plan to
implement in case we experience another Great Depression. Students
will consider all the viewpoints presented in the materials they viewed, the
book they read, and the assignments they completed in order to
accomplish this task.
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5. Each group will share its action plan and video with the class. Depending
on time, you may want to show only part of each group’s news show.
6. Review the main ideas of all of the lessons.
ONLINE RESOURCES
Library of Congress’s Exploring Contexts: Migrant Mother Photograph by
Dorothea Lange
C-Span: The Contenders: They Ran & Lost But Changed Political History,
Wendell Wilkie
BOOKS OF INTEREST
Annals of America, vols. 14 and 15, edited by Mortimer J. Adler
Economics and the Public Welfare: Financial and Economic History of the
United States, 1914-1946 by Benjamin M. Anderson, Ph.D.
Available online from the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes
2008: Harper Perennial
The Great Depression: A Diary by Benjamin Roth, edited by James
Ledbetter
2010: Public Affairs
FILMS
The Grapes of Wrath
1940: Directed by John Ford
It’s a Wonderful Life
1947: Directed by Frank Capra
Indiana University: Films that Depict the Great Depression
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