Social Studies this quarter will focus primarily on American history and civics. This week: the mid 20th century including the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) and the New Deal, and WWII.

This is an important era because it was instrumental in making the country and government look like it does today. The stock market crash of 1929 is generally recognized as the event that began the Great Depression, a time of high unemployment, poverty, and economic crisis that dwarfed our current condition. When FDR was elected, he embarked on an ambitious program of using government power and resources to lift people out of poverty. Conservatives might think of this era as the birth of "big government", but there's no doubt that it marked a wholesale change