1. WHAT WERE THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION?

2. KEY HISTORICAL THINKING SKILL: CAUSATION
Definition: the relationship(s) between the circumstances that influence a historical event and the event itself.
Goal: to think of causation in more sophisticated ways; to go beyond “cause and effect” or “this led to this.”

3. PART I
Use metaphor to think deeply about historical causation

4. THE LEGEND OF ALPHONSE THE CAMEL, I.
Listen to the story of poor Alphonse the Camel.
The first time around, create a drawing that depicts what happened to Alphonse.
In your drawing you should illustrate and label as many causes leading to Alphonse’s death as you can identify.
5 min

5. THE LEGEND OF ALPHONSE THE CAMEL, II.
Working in pairs, reread Alphonse the Camel.
As you read, make a list of causes that contributed to poor Alphonse’s death.
For each cause, write 2-3 sentences of analysis that explains how and/or why the cause contributed to Alphonse’s death.
5 min

6. 3 min Causes Consequences
List as many causes that contributed to Alphonse’s death as you can identify.
How or why did this cause contribute to Alphonse’s death?
3 min

7. CLASSIFY CAUSES
Consider the role that they perform in relation to the outcome (that is, the consequence or effect— for example, poor Alphonse’s death!)
Return to your list of causes and consequences from Step 2. Classify each cause/consequence according to its role in Alphonse’s death:
Annotate all causes that start something off with a *
Annotate all causes that speed something up with a #
Annotate all causes that make things worse with a !
2 min

8. EXPLORING MODELS
10 min

9. BUILDING A CAUSAL NETWORK
Think of one specific decision that you’ve made in the last month. Place it at the center of a network.
Think of circumstances that led you to your decision. Place each circumstance on the outside of your circle.
Level 1: Focus on each circumstance and push for deeper analysis. Create a chain of cause and effect relationships that represents how each circumstance came to be.
Level 2: Now consider your chains in relation to one another. What relationships do you see between circumstances, or chains?

10. PROCESSING
Write a MEAL paragraph in which you explain the causal circumstances that led you to your decision (consequence).
Claim – My decision to ____________ was influenced by multiple chains of factors, some of which relate and work together to influence the outcome.
Evidence – You need identify two related cause and effect chains (A and B).
Analysis –
Clearly and thoroughly explain the relationships within each cause and effect chain.
Clearly and thoroughly explain the relationship between cause and effect chains.
Challenge: Clearly and thoroughly explain how each/both cause and effect chains work together to influence the outcome.

11. LEVELS OF CAUSAL ANALYSIS
Level 1: Identify relationships within cause and effect chains (this led to this, which led to this, which led to the circumstance that influenced the outcome).
Level 2: Identify relationships between chains (this chain connects to this chain because…)
Level 3: Identify how your chains work together to influence the outcome (Chain 1 works together with Chain 2 to influence the outcome because…)

12. EXEMPLAR
Claim – Alphonse the Camel’s death was influenced by multiple chains of factors, some of which relate and work together to influence the outcome.
Evidence – For example, Alphonse’s birth defect and Frank’s cruelty towards camels contributed to Alphonse’s death.
Analysis –
Alphonse was born with a birth defect, which made him vulnerable to injury. Frank suffered a traumatic incident with a camel when he was a boy, which led him to despise camels. This prejudice made him indifferent to the plight of camels and led him to overload Alphonse and send him on multiple unnecessary trips. Heavy loads and unnecessary trips exacerbated Alphonse’s back injury, which led to Alphonse’s collapse and eventual demise.

13. LINK WORDS
Organize and classify the words according to how you think they will be useful (e.g. starting things off, speeding things up, making things worse)
Write a historical claim in which you identify at least 2-3 different types of causes using the link- words. Your claim should answer the historical investigation question: What caused Alphonse the Camel’s death?
15 min

14. PART I HOMEWORK
Designed to help you transfer your historical thinking about causation to our study of the significant causes that led to the Great Depression.
Complete the homework assignment.

15. PART II ACTIVATOR 3 min Work with a colleague.
Looking through your notes (Chapter 30 analysis of causes), identify causes that influenced the Great Depression and explain how each cause influenced the outcome of the Great Depression.
3 min

16. ANALYSIS OF CAUSES
Complete the “Analysis of Causes” grid using your notes, readings and any other resources that you have at your disposal. To do this you will need to:
a) Add significant causes
b) Identify at least one consequence for each cause
Causes
Consequences
Provide historical context
Define (explain thoroughly) the cause
Use analysis to clearly explain the relationship between your cause and the Great Depression. Push yourself by asking, answering the “so what?” questions.
5 min

17. POSSIBLE CAUSES Black Tuesday Consumer confidence & investment
Speculation
Buying on the margin, paying in installments
Growing income gap
Bank rushes
Banking crises
Overproduction
Under consumption
Tariff
Laissez faire
Survival of the fittest
Social Darwinism
Lack of government regulation
Greed
Capitalism

18. MINI-LESSON: ANALYTIC FRAMEWORKS AND LENSES
Remember that the goal is to understand the relationship between circumstance (cause) and event (effect).
To this end, historians will classify causes in different ways.
Historians create systems called “frameworks” in order to classify causes.
Within each framework, historians adopt multiple “lenses.”
A “lens” is a way of seeing or interpreting a circumstance/event relationship.
5 min

19. MINI-LESSON: COMPLEX CAUSES
Black Tuesday
Started something off (role)
Trigger, short-term, immediate (time)
Direct (influence)
Less important than other, underlying causes like over-speculation (importance)
A cause that led to economic collapse (historical)
5 min

20. INDEPENDENT WORK: DIAMOND NINE
Complete the ‘diamond nine’ graphic organizer
Place the causes you consider to be most important toward the top and the least important towards the bottom.
Be prepared to defend your analysis and present it to the class. You must be able to give reasons to support your causes.
10 min

21. DIAMOND NINE: ANALYSIS
Apply 2-3 analytic lenses to your nine causes.
You can use color-codes, diagonal lines, symbols or other techniques to represent these different analytic lenses. Regardless of which analytic lenses you choose, create a key to clarify each classification system.
For example, red can be used to represent the time analytic frame and lenses (triggers, short- term and long-term causes).
15 min

22. PROCESSING
What was a significant cause that contributed to the Great Depression, and why?
In answering,
1) Identify a key analytic frame/lenses and explain why you chose them.
2) Use causal reasoning link-words to help explain the relationship between cause and the historical event.
3) Your analysis should clearly explain how/why the cause influenced the historical event, or the Great Depression.
2 min