In this first week of class, I’ve come to realize how little I know about such an influential time period in American history. While I obviously learned briefly about the Great Depression in school, it never struck me as something that bears much relevance in American life today. Unbeknownst to me, a lot of the policies and programs that are commonplace in our government today were created as a result of and in response to the problems facing the nation during this time period. At the time, programs like the Social Security Act effectively mitigated poverty for the unemployed and those soon to retire. Today, it’s something somewhat expected and, despite some efforts to discontinue the program, has helped provide benefits to many who face similar problems to those experienced during a period of grievous financial suffering. I hope to learn more throughout the semester about the effects that major changes like this have on our nation today.
I also hope to expand my understanding of the various methods by which digital history is shared and made accessible. It has been interesting to learn already how technology allows us to share information in so many ways other than just listing it textbook style. Already we have begun to analyze different types of projects that share digital history via media and video. This has shown me how useful digital history is already, and how easily we have come across it and not realized it, taking it for granted. Different digital projects allow the virtually endless possibilities of making information accessible at an unprecedented availability, while allowing the viewer much more ease and interaction than simply reading a book. I expect we will learn a lot more about how to utilize and evaluate these resources.
This process begins with analyzing “Apartheid Heritage,” a domain where one can view a searchable and categorized list of links to resources on the history of Apartheid in South Africa. The categories include, “Nelson Mandela,” “History Mandela Nelson,” “Nelson,” “Mandela,” and “History.” The project allows those looking for information on Apartheid History to easily find reliable resources on the topic. The creator has collected these sources, organized and categorized them, and made them both web accessible and searchable.
Dana Cochran et al., “The Great Depression,” Matthew Downs, ed., in The American Yawp, eds. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018).
Apartheid Heritage. http://apartheidheritages.org/ Retrieved from URL. Accessed August 28th, 2019.
