America’s History: Printed Page 764
| MAKING CONNECTIONS | Recognize the larger developments and continuities within and across chapters by answering these questions. |
ACROSS TIME AND PLACE People often view the New Deal as a set of government programs and policies enacted by President Roosevelt and Congress. In this version, change comes from above. Yet there is also evidence that ordinary Americans played an important role in inspiring and championing aspects of the New Deal. Find several specific examples of this, and think about the possible connections between the struggles, protests, and actions of ordinary people and the programs of the New Deal.
VISUAL EVIDENCE Consider two images: the famous Dorothea Lange photograph of Florence Thompson and the photograph of workers building the Grand Coulee Dam. Why is the first image more frequently associated with the Great Depression than the second? How would it change our understanding of the era if we made the second photograph the iconic representation of the depression?