History
476
Devine
Spring
2016
Study Questions: Youth in the Great
Depression
Thomas Hine, The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager,
Chapter 11
1.
Hine sees the economic conditions of the
Great Depression and the emergence of the high school as the two most important
common experiences for young people in the 1930s. How did the coming together
of these two experiences create a paradox?
2. How did the New Deal play a key role in the “creation”
of the teenager? Why does the author argue that the NYA was a response
to problems the New Deal itself had created?
- Why did many
American adults believe they had good reason to fear young people during
the 1930s? Were such fears
warranted?
- Radicals hoped
that bleak economic conditions would turn American young people into
revolutionaries. Why didn’t this
happen?
- Why could one
argue that the Scottsboro Boys incident had as much to do with class
as it did with race?
- What was the
purpose of the CCC? How did those
who joined the CCC respond to the program? Why does the author argue that
the value of the CCC was “limited”?
- What challenges
did schools face during the Depression?
Why does the author argue that educators dealt poorly with
working-class students?
- According to
Hine, why was “hanging around the filling station” a “more effective
educational experience than going to high school” for many male teens?
(219) How did the “car culture”
prepare teens for their future?
- Why did a
distinct youth culture become less visible during the 1930s? Why did young people no longer drive
popular culture?
- How did dating
and attitudes toward sex change between the 1920s and 1930s?
- How did
portrayals of youth in the movies change between the 1920s and 1930s? How did adults interpret these
portrayals differently than young people?
- How did the
movies and comic books reinforce young people’s images of themselves?
Palladino, Chapter 3
“A New Deal For Youth”
- Why did
“transient youth” become a cause for concern during the 1930s? What short- and long-term crises did
this social problem threaten to create?
- How did the NYA
work? What opportunities did it
offer unemployed and disadvantaged teenagers?
- How did the NYA
transmit values to young people?
Was this a good idea?
- Why does the
author say the NYA both “accomplished its mission” and “failed dismally?”
- How did the NYA
attempt to fight the “culture of poverty”?
Were its methods effective?
Palladino, Teenagers, Chapter 4 “Swing Shift”
- How did swing
music impact social life and high school style in the early 1940s?
- Why was creating
a teen market a “path of least resistance” for advertisers?
- If the “bobby
soxers” were not typical American teens, why did advertisers try to
portray them as typical?
- Why did parents
find teen stars like Mickey Rooney (Andy Hardy), Deanna Durbin, and Judy
Garland attractive and reassuring?
- How did real teenagers differ from the
teens portrayed in the movies in both their values and preferences?
- How did the
style and behavior of the Mexican-American “pachucos” and “pachuquitas”
contrast with that of the “bobby soxer”?
In what ways were the two groups similar?
- How did the
coming of the Second World War affect teen life and adult expectations for
teens?