90 pages 3 hours read

Studs Terkel

Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1970

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Essay Topics

1.

Why do you think Studs Terkel includes interviews with young people who did not experience the Depression directly? What is the significance of the “generation gap” they represent?

2.

What impact did “race” have on American life during the Depression? What elements of “racial” experience still existed in the 1960s when the book was written? What, if anything, had changed?

3.

Do you think the United States came close to experiencing a social and political revolution during the Depression? Why or why not?

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