The learning unit Homesteads: Economic Experiment provides opportunities for faculty and students to investigate the impact of New Deal policies on a New Jersey rural community; specifically, whether Jersey Homesteads, a new community established within the Division of Subsistence Homesteads of the National Recovery Act (NRA) under Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies, was successful in meeting the goals and aspirations of its founders and community members. Through use of unique primary sources available in the New Jersey Digital Highway repository and elsewhere, students are challenged to evaluate the relative success or failure of Jersey Homesteads as a New Deal experiment in social reform, while improving their skills in interpreting and analyzing historical sources.