Mini-Investigation Paper (Rough Draft)

A Plan of the investigation

1.          Whether the unemployment rate increased the number of protests against the government.

2.          Did the amount of unemployed people during the economic depression increase the number of protests against the government?

3.          During the economic depression, the unemployment rate increased rapidly. Many Americans were out of jobs and didn’t have enough money to buy anything they needed. The number of people that would go against the government might have increased and caused more protests to happen during the Great Depression.

4.          Reliable websites (government websites), encyclopedias, books on the Great Depression

B Summary of evidence

1.            VanGiezen, Robert, and Albert E. Schwenk. "Compensation from before World War I through the Great Depression." Bureau of Labor Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2009. .

‐              From 1923-1929 the average unemployment rate is 3.3%

‐              Stock market declined 90% from 1929-1932

‐              Highest unemployment rate in 1932 with unemployment of about 25%

‐              Economic recovery was slow, hesitant, far from complete

‐              In 1940, unemployment rate still at 15%

2.            "Great Depression." Encyclopedia of Chicago. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2009. .

‐              Great Depression had one of the most volatile strikes and protests in Chicago’s history.

‐              Active social protest movements occurred

‐              Housewives also protested about businesses that refused to lower prices

3.            "Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945." The Learning Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2009. .

‐              Half of the African Americans were out of jobs

‐              Racial violence became more and more common in the South

‐              Lynching occurred more often during the depression

‐              There were protests that were caused by the depression

C Evaluation of sources

The website by Robert VanGiezen and Albert E. Schwenk contains statistics of the unemployment rate during the economic depression. The origin of the document has a limitation where the information that the author thinks is not important is left out by the author. The origin also affects the value of this document where information that may be needed by the reader is left out of the document, which loses its value. The purpose of the document can limit the information given. The author may want to persuade the reader by only giving out certain information. Its purpose could also change the value of the document. If the author was trying to persuade the reader, there would only be one side of the situation, with the other side of the situation left out. This could change the reader’s value of the document.

D Analysis

Facts in the first source have given enough information on the unemployment rate during the Great Depression. The source contains accurate statistics of the percentages of unemployment and the condition the United States was in during the depression.

Factual material in the second source has given some information on how the people in the United States have felt during the depression. The facts that were given in the source weren’t enough to give a complete answer to the question. The whole document only contained facts on the city Chicago.

The third source gave facts that told how the people were like during the Great Depression. Many people including housewives protested. Racism was also mentioned in the document. The source didn’t give the exact information needed to answer the question fully. Some of the facts in the document wasn’t needed at all for answering the question.