The WPA American Guide Series: Local History Treasures for the Classroom

Fuente: ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
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1. Verfasser: Golston, Syd
Format: Recurso educativo Open Access
Sprache:en
Veröffentlicht: 2010
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author Golston, Syd
author_facet Golston, Syd
Golston, Syd
collection Education Resources Information Center
contents The WPA American Guide Series: Local History Treasures for the Classroom Golston, Syd United States History Economic Climate Structural Unemployment Authors Employment Programs Guides Local History Social History High School Students Assignments The Federal Writers' Project was an arm of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Franklin Delano Roosevelt's massive program to put the unemployed back to work. The Writers' Project was charged with producing an extensive guidebook for each of the 48 states; and more than 6,000 local newspaper writers, novelists, poets, college professors, and local historians labored from 1935 to 1941 on these American Guide Series volumes. They are commonly regarded as masterpieces in social history, unique in the literature of the United States. These guidebooks can be found in local libraries, and several of them are coming back into the market as paperback reprints of the original manuscripts. They make wonderful classroom assignments, leading students to community sites they may never have explored, to oral interview opportunities, and to viewing their own neighborhoods as part of the panorama of American history. In this article, the author discusses using the WPA guidebooks in the classroom and presents an example that required a simple hour's research in a library, and an even briefer interview in a Massachusetts town hall. This example could be a great project for a high school student.
format Recurso educativo Open Access
id eric_EJ878909
institution ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
language en
publishDate 2010
record_format eric
spellingShingle The WPA American Guide Series: Local History Treasures for the Classroom
Golston, Syd
United States History
Economic Climate
Structural Unemployment
Authors
Employment Programs
Guides
Local History
Social History
High School Students
Assignments
The WPA American Guide Series: Local History Treasures for the Classroom Golston, Syd United States History Economic Climate Structural Unemployment Authors Employment Programs Guides Local History Social History High School Students Assignments The Federal Writers' Project was an arm of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Franklin Delano Roosevelt's massive program to put the unemployed back to work. The Writers' Project was charged with producing an extensive guidebook for each of the 48 states; and more than 6,000 local newspaper writers, novelists, poets, college professors, and local historians labored from 1935 to 1941 on these American Guide Series volumes. They are commonly regarded as masterpieces in social history, unique in the literature of the United States. These guidebooks can be found in local libraries, and several of them are coming back into the market as paperback reprints of the original manuscripts. They make wonderful classroom assignments, leading students to community sites they may never have explored, to oral interview opportunities, and to viewing their own neighborhoods as part of the panorama of American history. In this article, the author discusses using the WPA guidebooks in the classroom and presents an example that required a simple hour's research in a library, and an even briefer interview in a Massachusetts town hall. This example could be a great project for a high school student.
title The WPA American Guide Series: Local History Treasures for the Classroom
topic United States History
Economic Climate
Structural Unemployment
Authors
Employment Programs
Guides
Local History
Social History
High School Students
Assignments
url https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ878909