Social Security Act
On August 14, 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, which created new federal programs designed to relieve poverty among particular
groups of Americans. The Social Security Act was one of the largest and longest lasting of Roosevelt’s reforms, which historians refer to collectively as the New Deal.
Historians today generally agree that the Social Security Act was the heart of the New Deal reforms. In fact, the opinions most Americans had about Social Security
were very similar to the opinions they had about the New Deal as a whole.
In your second paper for this course, you will use your knowledge, along with a set of primary sources, to investigate the opinions different Americans had about the
best ways to relieve poverty during the Great Depression. As you do so, you’ll answer the following question:
What does Social Security tell us about the set of policies & programs called the New Deal?
Your paper should make an argument, using these primary sources as evidence, about the New Deal, including who was excluded from its programs, how different groups of
Americans viewed Roosevelt’s policies, and the alternatives that they proposed during the 1930s. Based on what these documents say about the 1935 Social Security Act,
what generalizations can historians make about the New Deal?
Getting Started:
• Navigate to Historical Thinking Matters’ assignment page on Social Security . This is where you will access the materials required to complete this assignment.
• Watch the introductory video.
• For historical context, you should read closely in The American Promise, focusing on “Launching
the New Deal,” “Challenges to the New Deal,” and “Toward A Welfare State” in Chapter 24.
o I strongly recommend that you learn about several other New Deal programs by name.
• Read the historical primary sources for the Warm-Up Exercise (goo.gl/PKVwcA). Read each of
the two sources on the left-hand side of the page (you can toggle between them using the “1931 Advertisement” and “Long” tabs) and use the questions on the right-hand
side of the page (click on the “questions” tab to view them) to guide your analysis. You may create an account on the site if you wish, but this is not required.
• Follow the instructions in the Week 8 Course Content for further guidance.
I will distribute specific guidelines for the format and structure of the paper, as well as more information
about grading criteria, in the coming weeks.
• Future weeks will also include Skills Practice assignments that will prepare you to score well on the paper. To earn a high grade on the p
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