Working Through the Crash Course New Deal Worksheet
I spent last week going through the Crash Course US History episode on the New Deal with a student who was struggling with question 14 on the worksheet. The one about the WPA versus the CCC. That question trips up most people because the worksheet tries to make you distinguish between two programs that feel identical on the surface. The video itself runs about 13 minutes. John Green covers the alphabet agencies, the Second New Deal, and the political opposition that cropped up by 1936. The worksheet has 20 questions covering the major programs, the Supreme Court clash, and the long-term impact.
The New Deal Crash Course Us History 34 Worksheet Answers
Here are the answers based on the video content. I wrote these out from scratch rather than copying from wherever they circulate online, because the answer keys floating around often have errors on questions 7 and 19. 1. Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in 1933. 2. The Hundred Days refers to the first 100 days of FDR's presidency when an unprecedented number of legislative acts were passed.
3. The Emergency Banking Act restored public confidence in the banking system by closing insolvent banks and reopening solvent ones under federal supervision. 4. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) aimed to raise crop prices by paying farmers to reduce production. 5. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) provided electricity, flood control, and economic development to the Tennessee Valley region.
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6. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulated the stock market and required companies to disclose financial information. 7. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed millions in a wider range of projects including construction and the arts, while the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) focused on environmental conservation work for young men. Common mistake here: the worksheet answer key on some sites flips these two. The CCC was 1933, the WPA was 1935. If you're writing about the later program that funded artists and teachers, that's the WPA. 8. The Social Security Act established a system of old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, and aid for dependent children and the disabled.
9. The Second New Deal refers to the wave of legislation in 1935-36, including the WPA, SSA, and Wagner Act. 10. The National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) guaranteed workers the right to unionize and bargain collectively. 11. The Supreme Court threatened FDR's agenda when it struck down several key New Deal programs as unconstitutional.
12. FDR's court-packing plan proposed adding one justice for every sitting justice over age 70, which would have given him up to six new appointments. 13. The court-packing plan failed in Congress, though the Supreme Court did start upholding New Deal legislation afterward, an event critics called "the switch in time that saved nine." 14. The Republican and business opposition to the New Deal included the American Liberty League, which argued the programs expanded government beyond constitutional limits.
15. Huey Long proposed the Share Our Wealth program, which would have capped individual fortunes and guaranteed every family a minimum income. 16. Father Coughlin was a radio priest who initially supported the New Deal but later turned against it, broadcasting increasingly inflammatory political views. 17. The New Deal did not fully end the Great Depression. Unemployment remained around 15 percent through 1940.
18. The New Deal's main legacy was creating a social safety net and establishing the expectation that the federal government has a responsibility toward economic security. 19. By 1936, many conservatives viewed the New Deal as a failure because unemployment was still high and the economy had not recovered to pre-1929 levels. Note: some answer keys say the New Deal "ended the Depression." That's wrong according to the video. The war production starting in 1941 is what really ended it. 20. Critics from the left argued the New Deal didn't go far enough, while critics from the right said it gave too much power to the federal government.
I ran into a specific problem last month when a student asked me about question 11 regarding the Supreme Court. They kept citing the term "Judicial Review" when the video was actually talking about the Court using its power of judicial review to strike down New Deal legislation. The worksheet answer should reference specific cases like Schechter Poultry v. United States or Carter v. Carter Coal, not just the general concept. I had them go back to the 8:45 mark in the video where Green explicitly names these cases. That distinction matters for grading. Another thing nobody warns you about: question 15 on Huey Long. The video mentions him for about 40 seconds, but the worksheet expects you to know the name of his program ("Share Our Wealth") and the basic mechanism (caps on personal fortunes, guaranteed annual income). If you only watched the video once, you will miss that. I usually tell people to pause and rewind around the 10:30 mark specifically for that section. The whole worksheet takes most students about 30 to 45 minutes if they're watching the video actively and taking notes as they go. Passive watching adds another 15 minutes because you'll need to rewatch sections to answer the harder questions. I've seen a lot of students skip the rewatch and then get stuck on questions 7, 14, and 19, which are the ones the video treats as more nuanced.
If you want a download link for the actual worksheet PDF, it's available directly from the Crash Course website under the US History section for episode 34. The answer key isn't officially published there, which is why the unofficial ones circulate with errors. I'd recommend cross-referencing anything you find against the video timestamp rather than trusting a downloaded answer sheet blindly. One more practical note: the essay-style questions at the end of the worksheet asking about whether the New Deal was successful require you to take a position. The video itself is deliberately balanced. It credits the psychological impact and institutional changes while noting the economic limitations. A strong answer acknowledges both sides and picks a defensible middle position, like the one this worksheet seems to lean toward. Don't oversimplify it to "it worked" or "it failed." That's the mistake I see most often on this assignment.
