History 271

Devine

Fall 2004

 

Paper Assignment #1 (OPTION B)  – Russell Baker, Growing Up

 

The Growing Up paper is due 28 October.  Papers must be FOUR COMPLETE PAGES with one-inch margins.  See the “On Writing Papers…” section of the syllabus for further information on the paper assignment.  The syllabus is available on line at:

 

http://www.csun.edu/~twd61312/271syl2004.htm

 

If you did not submit a Children of the City paper, you must turn in this paper.  If you did write on Children of the City, but would like to try for a higher grade you are welcome to do so.  I will count the higher of the two grades and drop the other.

 

Choose ONE of the following:

 

  1. During the late 1930s, a noted sociologist remarked, “The depression has killed the American family.  Unemployment, dislocation, and the inevitable interpersonal tensions that hard times produce have all combined to rend the social fabric of the family.  It has been a national tragedy. It is difficult to say if the institution of the family will ever recover.”

 

To what extent do you believe this statement applies to Russell Baker’s family?

 

 

  1. Drawing from what you’ve read in Growing Up, what were the most significant ways in which the Great Depression affected people’s everyday lives? (In answering, you should take into consideration that not all of the effects need be negative – perhaps the Depression had some indirect or unintended positive effects.)

 

  1. What role did Russell’s mother play in shaping her son’s life?  How did she exercise influence over him?  To what extent was she a positive or negative influence?