Fear Itself: The American People, the Great Depression, and the New Deal, 1929-1942

Catalog description

In March 1933, three years into the economic and social catastrophe of the Great Depression, newly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt struck a confident note in his first inaugural address: “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” With fascism on the march at home and abroad, the domestic unemployment rate reaching 24.9%, and as thousands of banks folded – and took with them Americans’ savings and homes – FDR sought to galvanize the American people. He continued: “unreasoning, unjustified terror . . . paralyzed needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” In this research seminar, we explore the lived experience of the Great Depression and the variety of ways Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal attempted to surpass it: its many failures and successes, as well as its many controversies, such as when FDR attempted to “pack” a defiant Supreme Court with additional justices. Over the course of the semester, students will develop an original, primary source-based, 15-20ish page historical research paper on a theme and topic of their choosing. In our class meetings, students will explore a variety of methodological and thematic approaches to the history of the 1930s, broadly construed, including the history of labor organizing, the social history of the Depression, African American history, women’s and gender history, and the political and policy history of the New Deal itself. We will also read and interpret key primary sources, and students’ archival work might encompass not only the many physical and digital archival materials available at Penn but also numerous repositories in the greater Philadelphia region, including, for instance, the Hagley Museum and Library’s collection of materials related to business’ anti-New Deal mobilization.