Students have read earlier about the Prosperity Decade, the Roaring Twenties, when a seemingly limitless supply of money greased the wheels of the economy. Suddenly the money was gone. Where did it go? Students of economics taking the course and those in the class who have read the text carefully will have the answer. But the degree to which the economy operates on credit is not easy to grasp. For that reason a brief lecture on the creation of credit through the banking system will be very helpful. The lecture should also include a consideration of "pump priming" and of the Keynesian argument in favor of government intervention during depression. A good initial source will be a standard economics text such as Paul A. Samuelson and William D. Northaus, Microeconomics and Macroeconomics (1998). See also John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash, 1929 (1961); Paul B. Trescott, Financing American Enterprise: The Story of Commercial Banking (1982); Anatol Murad, What Keynes Means (1962); and Gordon A. Fletcher, The Keynesian Revolution and Its Critics (1987).

When Franklin Roosevelt came to Washington, he brought with him an experimental approach to solving the problems of the depression. He also brought a group of advisers, the so-called brain trust, that was willing and eager to seize the initiative. Who were these people, and what was their agenda? Roosevelt also made use of the services of other energetic lieutenants, some colorful, some studious, many controversial. A lecture on the purposes and personalities of key figures in the New Deal will help convey to students a sense of the energy and variety among Rexford Tugwell, Adolf Berle, "Ironpants" Hugh Johnson, Frances Perkins, and the others. See Elliot A. Rosen, Hoover, Roosevelt, and the Brains Trust: From Depression to New Deal (1977), and Joseph P. Lash, Dealers and Dreamers: A New Look at the New Deal (1987). Consult also some contemporary materials and memoirs, the authors of which often have interestingly biased views. See, for example, Roger W. Babson, Washington and the Revolutionists: A Characterization of Recovery Policies and of the People Who Are Giving Them Effect (1934); R. G. Tugwell, The Brains Trust (1968); and Raymond Moley, After Seven Years (1939). More recent studies include Jordan A. Schwarz, Liberal: Adolf A. Berle and The Vision of an American Era (1987), George McJimsey, Harry Hopkins: Ally of the Poor and Defender of Democracy (1987), and titles in the chapter bibliography.

It is not unusual in a survey course in United States history for the story of Native Americans to be pushed into the background after a consideration of the Dawes Act and the closing of the frontier--and left there. Students will find useful a lecture carrying the story forward, one that explains the significant changes during the New Deal and foreshadows the developments of the Eisenhower era. See Peter Iverson, "We Are Still Here": American Indians in the Twentieth Century (1998); Donald L. Parman, Indians and the American West in the Twentieth Century (1994); and the collection of essays edited by Vine Deloria, Jr., American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century (1985). William T. Hagan has also prepared an American Historical Association pamphlet, The Indian in American History (revised edition; 1985), which provides a good brief summary as well as bibliographic information.

The dramatic lecture has its place, and the struggle to unionize the auto industry is both dramatic and meaningful. The lecture would do well to start with an examination of other inclusive unions--the Knights of Labor, the Industrial Workers of the World--and then move on to the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the rising strength of the United Auto Workers. Just how significant was the role of the New Deal government? General histories include Foster Rhea Dulles and Melvyn Dubofsky, Labor in America (fifth edition; 1993); James R. Green, The World of the Worker: Labor in Twentieth-Century America (1978); and Robert H. Zieger, American Workers, American Unions, 1920-1985 (1988). Then, for one of the most dramatic events of the 1930s, see Sidney Fine, Sitdown: The General Motors Strike of 1936-1937 (1969).The depression was a disaster. Perhaps, said some, the system itself was at fault. Perhaps, said others, there are guilty persons or institutions to be excised from the body politic. Perhaps, said still others, some major changes in the distribution of wealth will solve the problem. The communists, the socialists, the followers of Huey Long, of Francis Townsend, of Charles Coughlin, and of others had a variety of proposed solutions, of nostrums and panaceas, of wise or foolish advice. A lecture that puts into some perspective the various voices calling for change or reform will help clarify a difficult matter for students. The instructor will find it useful to include an assessment of this question: How far left was the New Deal itself? Or maybe it will be even more useful to ask students to make such an assessment following a lecture dealing with the various schools of thought. The excellent bibliography at the end of Chapter 25 lists Alan Brinkley, Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression (1982), as a principal source. See also Rita J. Simon, editor, As We Saw the Thirties: Essays on the Social and Political Movements of a Decade (1967).

One of the most difficult figures of all is Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself. An assessment of his character and his contribution is quite important in helping students to understand the New Deal, the changing role of the national government, and the presidency. Was FDR a hero made tough and strong through personal adversity? Was he an opportunist with few scruples? An evaluation of Franklin Roosevelt might begin with a consideration of his role in the Great Depression, but it ought not to conclude without a subsequent lecture that includes Roosevelt's leadership during the war years. See Frank Freidel, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (four volumes; 1952-1976), and Frank Freidel, Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny (1990). See also James MacGregor Burns, The Lion and the Fox (1956), and William E. Leuchtenburg, The FDR Years: On Roosevelt and His Legacy (1995).