At Home: 1920: Bonnie Johnson: Activities

Suggested Activities

The following activities analyze the private impact of public events

Prohibition
The Great Depression
World War II

Each of these events affected the lives of nearly everyone in society. Are there contemporary events that have ramifications for everyone? Listed below are World Wide Web resources for the Great Depression and World War II. Remember to "bookmark" this website so you can easily return.

Overview of the Great Depression at:
https://www.scruz.net/%7Ekangaroo/THE_GREAT_DEPRESSION.htm
Reminiscences of the Great Depression at:
https://www.sos.state.mi.us/history/museum/techstuf/depressn/teacup.html
World War II Resources at:
https://wwwibiblio.org/pha Primary sourses of WW II
https://www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html Black and White Photos
https://www.nara.gov/exhall/powers/powers.html Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art of WW II
War Stories from World War II at:
https://www.pagesz.net/%7Ejbdavis/ww2.html

1. Oral Interview

The purpose of this interview is to find out what the Great Depression was like for people living at that time.

Interview your parents, grandparents, or older members of your community about the Great Depression and their memories of life at this time. You might ask them the following kinds of questions:

How did the Depression affect you and your family economically?
How did the Depression affect you and your family emotionally?
What types of sacrifices did you or your family have to make?
After the depression ended, what was the attitude towards spending?
Can you compare what America is like today with what it was like when you were growing up?

You can read other oral interviews with people who lived through the Depression at:
https://www.sos.state.mi.us/history/museum/techstuf/depressn/teacup.html

2. What is Prohibition?

Compare the impact of Prohibition of the 1920s to the contemporary prohibition on drugs. You can present your comparison in a number of ways:

As an essay
As charts which show government spending on the prohibition of alcohol from 1920 - 1930 and government spending on prohibition of drugs from 1980 - 1990
As a poster for or against the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s or a contemporary poster for or against the prohibition of drugs
As a proposition to the U.S. government to put a prohibition on cigarettes.

3. What is poverty?

Compare the financial hardship of the Johnsons with the relative security of your own family. With the main income earner out of work, the Johnsons fell into near poverty. How near or far are you from poverty?

Using census records that you can find at your local library, determine the medium income of those living in poverty in your part of the country or state.
Construct a rough budget for your family.

What if the main earner in your family became disabled, unemployed, or somehow incapable of work. How long could your family continue in your present lifestyle? What adjustments would you have to make to your family budget?

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