Building America: Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal (http://www.marist.edu/summerscholars/96/fdrhome.htm)

1		offers an interpretation of the New Deal and its impact on American society. Read the two links under both the Overview and the New Deal sections. How does this site explain the rise of the New Deal? How effective does it believe the New Deal was in reviving the American economy? Explain the points of agreement and disagreement this site provides in comparison to the views described in Where Historians Disagree.

From New Deal to New Liberalism (http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/rah/23.4brock.html)

2		reviews Alan Brinkley’s book The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War. What does Brock perceive as Brinkley’s main points in this book? How does he respond to these arguments?

Now read the review of An Appalachian New Deal: West Virginia in the Great Depression, by Jerry Bruce Thomas (http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ht/34.2/br_17.html).

3		This reviewer claims that one of the new trends in studying this topic is the examination of the New Deal experience in individual states. Does the author of this review think this shift improves our understanding of the New Deal? If so, how? Do you agree? Why or why not?
4		How do debates about the nature and success of New Deal programs affect American politics in the 21st century?

Other sites with primary and secondary information on the New Deal include:

5		New Deal Document Library (http://newdeal.feri.org/texts/index.htm) – Searchable archive of over 700 primary documents from the period. A Short History of the Tennessee Valley Authority (http://www.tva.gov/abouttva/history.htm) – A history of one of the major programs of the New Deal. Manuscripts From the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940 (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/wpaintro/wpahome.html) – Collection of primary documents written and researched by the Folklore Project of the U.S. Works Progress Administration.