American Economic History

Second Term Paper

Instructions:

1. Read various chapters from Studs Terkel’s Hard Times to get an idea of how to interview and ask questions about someone’s experience during the Great Depression (1929 to 1940).
2. Find 3 to 6 people who lived during the Great Depression (or whose parents lived through the Great Depression or if necessary whose grandparents lived throught he Great Depression).
3. Interview each person either in person or by phone or even by email.
4. Write up their stories in a way similar to the way Terkel writes up the stories of these sorts of people.
5. Write as if that person were doing the talking
6. Stay as close to their words as makes sense
7. 3 stories = C; 4 sotries = B; 5 stories = A-
8. a class presentation of a story raises your grade one step (e.g. from a B to a B+);
9. How long should the stories be? About 500 to 1000 words each. Don’t worry about length too much, though. Just get the story down.
1. The big benefit of this exercise is that you will remember the story for the rest of your life.