In leading America through the Great Depression and implementation of the New Deal, FDR had to convince Americans to see the world through a new hopeful perspective in the midst of anxiety and fear. Staging the Theodore Roethke conversation just before studying FDR’s response to the Depression would be a great way to show how the power of perspective can lead the transformation of despair into hope.
Level: Elementary and secondary social studies
Subject Area: U.S. history
Author: Dan Fouts