Analyzing Evidence about Social Security Worksheet
This worksheet helps students to analyze three pieces of evidence about Social Security (a government poster, a letter about the program, and Congressional testimony about the program) and write a paragraph explaining the evidence's different points of view.
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
2013
2017, 2018, 2020
Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
"A monthly check to you"
The Social Security Act of 1935 started a national old-age pension for workers who earned wages. This meant that at age 65 these workers could retire and receive monthly payments from the government. To pay for this program, workers and employers each paid money into the fund. The Social Security Board distributed this poster in 1936 and 1937 to publicize and explain this new program.
U.S. Social Security Administration
U.S. Social Security Administration, http://www.ssa.gov/history/pubaffairs.html
1936 - 1937
2021
Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
What is Social Security?
This brief overview describes how the Social Security program originated during the Great Depression and how the program works.
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
2013
Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
The NAACP Challenges Social Security (with text supports)
President Roosevelt sent his Social Security bill, named the “Economic Security Act,†to Congress in January 1935. Congress held committee hearings on the bill. Here, a representative of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a group dedicated to advancing the rights of African Americans, testifies before Congress about how the bill excludes certain groups of people.
Charles H. Houston, representing the NAACP
Excerpt from the Statement of Charles H. Houston, representing the NAACP, to the House Ways and Means Committee on the Economic Security bill, February 1, 1935. Washington, D.C. Excerpt from <em>Historical Thinking Matters</em>, http://historicalthinkingmatters.org/socialsecurity/0/inquiry/main/resources/34/
1935
2021
Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
A Citizen Opposes Social Security
In this letter to first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, an American protests the Social Security program, created two years earlier. For Social Security, the federal government took money out of working people’s paychecks in order to create a fund that gave payments to the elderly when they retired.
Unknown
Excerpt from a letter sent to Eleanor Roosevelt by an anonymous woman, January 18, 1937, from <em>Historical Thinking Matters</em> http://historicalthinkingmatters.org/socialsecurity/0/inquiry/main/resources/37/
1937
2021
Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
"A Mad Tea Party" Analysis Worksheet
This worksheet helps students undertake a close reading of the 1936 cartoon "A Mad Tea Party," about President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. It also asks them to write a paragraph explaining the cartoon's argument.
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
2013
2013
Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
Timeline of Selected New Deal Legislation Close Reading Worksheet
This worksheet helps students undertake a close reading of a timeline of New Deal programs and write a paragraph explaining one of them.
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
2013
1515
Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
Differing Federal Responses to the Great Depression Close Reading Worksheet
This worksheet helps students undertake a close reading of letters from President Herbert Hoover and President Franklin Roosevelt and summarize their different ideas about the role of government during an economic crisis.
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
2013
1375, 1373, 1374
Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
"A Mad Tea Party"
This cartoon uses characters from Lewis Carroll's <em>Alice in Wonderland</em> story to criticize federal spending on New Deal programs. The cartoonist depicts President Franklin Roosevelt as the Mad Hatter; Postmaster General and Chairman of the Democratic Party James Farley as the March Hare; and Congress as the sleepy Dormouse.
Gregor Duncan
Gregor Duncan, "A Mad Tea Party," <em>Life</em>, May 1936.
1936
2016
Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
Childhood Lost: An Overview of the Great Depression
The Great Depression cut childhoods short as poverty and unemployment soared. Young people struggled to stay healthy. Millions moved--sometimes with their families, sometimes on their own--in search of jobs. Many found relief in New Deal programs after 1933. Student activism also rose during the period. Throughout the period, as this film documents, American notions of childhood were challenged and changed in response to the crises of the 1930s.
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, 2009.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
2009
English
Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)