American Boom Source Questions Essay Research Paper

American Boom Source Questions Essay, Research Paper The Great Depression Sources Coursework 1. Source A clearly gives us evidence about the depression, which make it useful. It is an election poster, meaning that it would give the view of the democrats. The actual content is a made up advert for a smilette. The idea of this was to show the Laissez faire attitude of the government. They are saying that if you wear this smilette, and look happy, everything is fine. This is the attitude that the Democrats have towards the government. This makes it useful in that respect. From my own knowledge, I know that this poster also portrays the view of the public. People would refer to poor towns as ‘Hoovervilles’ and poor cars as ‘Hoovercars.’ This gives a similar impression as

to what is portrayed about the government in the poster. However, this is only one point of view and it is obviously a very biased one as it is an election poster. It is trying to make the people turn against the republicans and is only from 1 point of view. Therefore I do not agree with the statement as I feel the poster is of use to give the point of view of the Democrats, and the people. 2. Sources B and C both say the same thing, but I feel that source C is more reliable. Both the sources have strengths and weaknesses. Source B was written by an American actor at the time of the event. What has been written fits in with my own knowledge about the rich people not sharing their wealth. This makes the source reliable. However, there were also points about this source that make

it unreliable. The source is written in a very emotive way. This means that the emotions of the writer were brought out, and seeing as he was very angry at that time, he would exaggerate the facts. He was trying to point the finger at anybody again meaning that his tone would be aggressive. Source C says the same thing as B but has been written after the event. In this case that is a good thing. The historian has had time to review and research the event. This is shown in the quote ‘Economic Experts have said…’ The tone that it has been written in is much more of an informative one and the view he has is unbiased. He is not trying to blame anybody for this. However, the historian was not actually there himself and little is known about him. Overall I think that source C is

more reliable when looking at the impact of the depression. Source B showed more the view of people at the time and cannot be relied upon, as it is too emotive. 3. Sources A, B and C give a good and clear idea of why the depression happened. The poor distribution of income is shown in sources B and C. This meant that the rich were getting a very high percentage of the national wealth and the lower classes were left with nothing much. Will Rogers describes the upper class as being “Drunk on money.” The historian O’Callaghan also shows this idea “too small a share of the increased national wealth of the 1920’s had been finding it’s way into the hands of workers as wages.” These sources also show how not enough people were buying products. Only the rich, a small

percentage of the population, could afford to buy new products and so the supply was large but there was not enough demand. Source A shows how the government at the time was very relaxed about the situation. This is shown in the source by the idea of the smilette taking away all of the problems. Even though this is made up and biased source, the view of the people at the time is projected. It shows how they were very unhappy. Source B also shows the view of the working class. The views and opinions of the actor are brought out and the anger shown shows us how the depression affected people very badly. The ideas put up in this source show how there was a divide between the two classes during the depression. Sources A, B, and C say that the economic depression happened due to the