Digital History (2024)

Digital History (1)
Digital History (2) Human Meaning of the Depression Children Turn to the President Government Responds to the Young Teacher Resources eXplorations Menu
Digital History (3)

The economic collapse of the 1930s was staggering in its dimensions.

Unemployment jumped from less than 3 million in 1929 to 4 million in 1930, 8 million in 1931, and 12 1/2 million in 1932. In that year, a quarter of the nation's families did not have a single employed wage earner.

Even those fortunate enough to have jobs suffered drastic pay cuts and reductions in hours. Only one company in ten failed to cut pay, and in 1932, three-quarters of all workers were on part-time schedules, averaging just 60 percent of the normal work week.

The economic collapse was terrifying in its scope and impact. By 1933 average family income had tumbled 40 percent, from $2,300 in 1929 to just $1,500 four years later.

In the Pennsylvania coal fields, three or four families crowded together in one-room shacks and lived on wild weeds. In Arkansas, families were found inhabiting caves. In Oakland, California, whole families lived in sewer pipes.

Vagrancy shot up as many families were evicted from their homes for nonpayment of rent. The Southern Pacific Railroad boasted that it threw 683,000 vagrants off its trains in 1931. Free public flophouses and missions in Los Angeles provided beds for 200,000 of the uprooted.

To save money, families neglected medical and dental care. Many families sought to cope by planting gardens, canning food, buying used bread, and using cardboard and cotton for shoe soles. Despite a steep decline in food prices, many families did without milk or meat. In New York City, milk consumption declined a million gallons a day.

President Herbert Hoover declared, "Nobody is actually starving. The hoboes are better fed than they have ever been." But in New York City in 1931, there were 20 known cases of starvation; in 1934, there were 110 deaths caused by hunger. There were so many accounts of people starving in New York that the West African nation of Cameroon sent $3.77 in relief.

The Depression had a powerful impact on family life. It forced couples to delay marriage and drove the birthrate below the replacement level for the first time in American history. The divorce rate fell, for the simple reason that many couples could not afford to maintain separate households or pay legal fees. But rates of desertion soared. By 1940, 1.5 million married women were living apart from their husbands. More than 200,000 vagrant children wandered the country as a result of the breakup of their families.


Essential Questions:

  • What was it like to grow up during the Great Depression of the 1930s?
  • How did the Depression alter family roles?
  • Did Depression hardship strengthen or weaken family bonds?

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Digital History (2024)

FAQs

Is digital history a good source? ›

Digital History acts like an online museum of historical works, but also includes a broad collection of reference tools including original documents, teachers' tools and transcripts as well as audio of book talks given by important historians. The enormous array of resources is impressive--at first.

What do you mean by digital history? ›

Digital history might be understood broadly as an approach to examining and. representing the past that works with the new communication technologies of. the computer, the internet network, and software systems.

How to answer a question in history? ›

To answer historical questions, you need to do research, analysis, and synthesis. Research involves finding and evaluating primary and secondary sources that are relevant and reliable. Analysis involves interpreting and comparing the sources, and identifying the evidence, arguments, and perspectives that they offer.

What are digital sources in history? ›

Digital history involves the use of digital tools to:

Research, analyse, and visualize patterns in historical information. • Present research findings and historical narratives in an enriched content format that is both informative and entertaining.

Is digital history a textbook? ›

The centerpiece of Digital History is an online textbook that describes itself as “an interactive, multimedia history” of North America from the pre-Columbian period to the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

What is the most accurate source of history? ›

Most Reliable Source of History: Primary Sources

Primary sources are considered the most reliable source of history due to their direct connection to the events and people being studied. These sources provide firsthand accounts and original documents from the time period under investigation.

What are the 4 types of digital? ›

Exploring Digital Transformation: Types and Real-World Examples from Industry Giants. According to its main approach, digital transformation can be divided into 4 distinguishable types: business model transformation, business domain transformation, business process transformation, and cloud transformation.

What is digital in short answer? ›

Digital describes electronic technology that generates, stores and processes data in terms of positive and nonpositive states. Positive is expressed or represented by the number 1 and nonpositive by the number 0. Thus, data transmitted or stored with digital technology is expressed as a string of 0s and 1s.

Is digital history a database? ›

Digital history not only involves the accumulation and dissemination of historical knowledge and facts using digital tools (think of databases, online syllabi, historical search engines, digitized archives, and the like), but it can also mean producing historical narratives that use or even rely on digital technology.

How do you answer fully question history? ›

Your answer requires a clear judgement e.g. '… explains to an extent'. Source points selected (quote directly from the source or paraphrase) should be supported by a detailed explanation clearly linked to the question.

What is history best answer? ›

History is the study of past stories of the events, peoples and countries that have brought political, social and economical changes to the society.

How to answer 16 mark questions in history? ›

You should plan these points beforehand, and format each paragraph with the 'PEEL' (point, evidence, explain, link) structure so that you are: making it clear what your point is; providing relevant historical evidence to support this, in relation to the given statement; analysing how this agrees/disagrees with the ...

What is digital history examples? ›

Digital history outputs include: digital archives, online presentations, data visualizations, interactive maps, timelines, audio files, and virtual worlds to make history more accessible to the user.

What does digital mean in history? ›

Digital history is history scholarship and teaching that engages self-consciously with digital media and computational methods. This engagement can generally be categorized in three ways: The use of digital tools and techniques to enhance and extend historical research and teaching.

What is digital media history? ›

The first digital media devices, such as the compact disc (CD) and the digital versatile disc (DVD), were introduced in the 1980s. These technologies allowed for the storage and distribution of digital media in a way that was not possible with analog media.

What is a reliable source of history? ›

Primary sources: It include document or artifacts created by a witness to or participant in an event.It may include diaries, letters, interviews, oral histories, photographs, newspaper articles, government documents, poems, novels, plays, and music.

What is the best source to learn history? ›

Library of Congress. Bottom Line: The Library of Congress delivers the best of America's past and present, and with teacher support it could be a reliable research resource for students.

What is the best source of historical data? ›

Examples of primary sources include: personal journals/diaries/memoirs, letters, court proceedings, legislative debates, newspaper and magazine articles, movies, music, art, etc. Secondary Sources (i.e., historiography) – Books and articles produced by historians.

Is Digital World good or bad? ›

However, there are potentially negative effects too. Harmful activities include cyber-bullying and harassment, identity theft, and the possibility of children viewing unsuitable content.

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