Two New Lessons About the Great Depression and the New Deal

Zinn Education Project - Teaching People's History

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Teach the people's history of the Great Depression and the New Deal

Two U.S. history lessons about economic boom, bust, and recovery under capitalism have just been posted at the Zinn Education Project. Both lessons are by high school teacher Adam Sanchez and were originally published by Rethinking Schools.

What Caused the Great Depression? The Widget Boom Game

A market simulation helps students understand the causes of economic crises so they can better understand what caused the Great Depression ---- and other, more recent, economic crises. This lesson (inspired by Bill Bigelow's Thingamabob Game) takes the standard textbook explanation, with its stock market crash, and delves deeper into the past to teach students about the root causes of economic depressions under capitalism.

Who Made the New Deal? The Economic Recovery Conference Role Play

Students explore how different groups influenced New Deal legislation through an economic conference simulation and primary sources. Students consider whether the New Deal reforms were an instance when the government intervened on the side of poor and working people or, as historian Howard Zinn wrote, were aimed at "giving enough help to the lower classes to keep them from turning a rebellion into a real revolution"? They also look at the racist disparities in the New Deal programs.

Rethinking Schools Summer 2019 Issue

The latest issue of Rethinking Schools is hot off the press and features cover art by Molly Crabapple and invaluable lessons and articles including The Green New Deal and Our Schools; Creating Bias Detectives, Blowing Up Stereotypes, and Writing Essays that Matter; Solar Power Comes to Math Class; Time to Get off the Testing Train; "I Can't Make a Teacher Love My Son:" A Black parent's journey to racial justice organizing; and much more.

Read this issue and subscribe today.

Zinn Education Project T-Shirt

Show your support with a union-made Zinn Education Project t-shirt. The front features our name and logo. The back features a quote by Howard Zinn:

History should emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when people showed their ability to resist, to join together, and to occasionally win.

The Zinn Education Project lessons are made possible by support from individuals like you. Please donate today so that more teachers receive free lessons, books, and workshops to support social justice teaching in their classrooms. Donate now!

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