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48 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Great Depression
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During this time, the economy plunged dramatically, leaving many Americans without jobs or money. The birth and marriage rates declined, and women had to work more hours and harder to provide for their families.
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Hoovervilles
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Also called shantytowns, hoovervilles were shack towns that sprang up during the Depression, named after President Hoover.
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Dustbowl
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In 1500 miles between Kansas and Oklahoma, huge dust storms began to rise up, because of the lack of rain. This was an ecological phenomenon that named the entire decade “the dirty thirties”.
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John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath 1939
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In this novel, Steinbeck introduces a family who is traveling through Arizona and New Mexico to get to the west coast, symbolizing the many families who made the same trek for more opportunities.
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Okies
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This term was used to describe any Dust Bowler migrating to California, even though most of the Dust Bowl range was not in Oklahoma.
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Repatriation of Chicanos
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The repatriation, or deportation of Mexicans back to Mexico started in 1931, because many Anglo communities started to blame them for the Great Depression. As a result, the Latino population in the Southwest dropped by half a million people, and because of the harvest in which many Mexicans made their living, many children could not go to school.
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LULAC
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An acronym for the League of United Latin American Citizens, LULAC was a Hispanic civil rights association, with only American citizens as members. They wanted to desegregate schooling, and limit immigration to America from Mexico so that existing Mexican Americans could gain better jobs.
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Scottsboro Boys 1932
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The Scottsboro boys were black males who were accused of raping two white women on a train headed for Scottsboro, Alabama. All white juries sentenced eight of them to death, but later it was found that they had been framed. Although four of the boys had their charges dropped, the other had to serve prison time. This was a prime example of the extreme racism during the Great Depression.
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President Herbert Hoover 1928-1932
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Although not his fault, Hoover’s presidency was plagued with dissatisfaction and hatred because of the Great Depression, which struck after seven months of his presidency. His presidency was a transitional one, which set the way for more active presidents to come.
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Smoot-Hawley Tariff 1930
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Endorsed by Hoover, this tariff was supposed to protect the US from cheap foreign goods. Unfortunately, this became disastrous when countries abroad stopped world trade and significantly reduced all American sales overseas.
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Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) 1932
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This agency, the RFC, was an attempt to save the banks, and could lend money to banks and chief corporate debtors, which included insurance companies and railroads. This was successful in saving many banks, because bank failures dropped from seventy a week to one every two weeks.
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Glass-Steagall Banking Act 1932
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This act helped banks to loan money, because it added $2 billion of new currency to the money supply, which was backed by Federal Reserve government bonds.
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Bonus Army 1932
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The Bonus Army was a group of World War I veterans who were hungry and wanted to cash the bonus certificates that they got from Congress for their wartime service. At one time, there were 20,000 who marched on Washington, but when only 2000 stayed, the President sent in the U.S. Army, who only left 300 wounded veterans.
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Election of 1932
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During this election, the Republicans stuck with Hoover and endorsed him and his plan to end the Depression, where the Democrats backed Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the governor of New York that wanted a new deal for the American people. Roosevelt ended up getting 58% of the popular vote and the presidency, breaking nearly 30 years of Republican rule in the US.
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President Franklin Delano Roosevelt 1932-1945
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Born to a rich family in New York, he idolized and loved his cousin Theodore Roosevelt, and mimicked his career, except as a Democrat instead of Republican. He graduated from Harvard, was the assistant secretary of the navy in 1913, but was struck with poliomyelitis in 1921, which paralyzed him from the waist down for the rest of his life.
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The First 100 Days
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In the first 100 days of Roosevelt’s presidency, there was a burst of legislation, which stressed recovery from the Depression through planning and cooperation with business.
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The New Deal
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The New Deal, especially early, started to take place during the first 100 days of legislation. It tried to aid the unemployed as well as reform the economic system, while working with businesses to correct the Depression.
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Eleanor Roosevelt
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The wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, she held weekly press conferences, wrote a column called “My Day”, which appeared in 135 newspapers, and broadcasted twice weekly on the radio. She was popular throughout the country, and by 1939 she was more loved than her husband.
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The Brains Trust
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A group of economic advisors that Roosevelt compiled, the Brains Trust shared the goals of economic recovery, solace for the unemployed, and reform to ward off further depressions, but they disagreed on how to go about succeeding. They all did agree though, that the first course of action would be to save the banks.
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Emergency Banking Act 1933
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This act gave moderate government help to banks, where sound banks were reopened with governmental support. Banks that were not as stable were assigned federal “conservators”, who worked with the banks to attain solvency.
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Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) 1933
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The FDIC was a corporation that had insurance for federal deposits of up to $2500. Under this corporation, fewer banks failed in the rest of the decade of the ‘30’s than the best year in the 1920’s.
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Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) 1934
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The Securities & Exchange Commission was created as a result of the Security Exchange Act, and its purpose was to oversee the stock market to prevent a further crash.
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Work relief 1933-1940
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Hopkins, a formal social worker, convinced FDR to expand work relief by implementing a work program that would see workers through the winter.
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Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) 1933
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A very successful work relief program, the CCC took 18- to 25-year-old unmarried people into the forests to plant trees, build parks, and correct soil erosion, which accomplished FDR’s goals for conservation, as well as satisfying his compassion for youth.
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Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) 1933
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A public work project, the TVA helped to correct unemployment, as well as to contribute to regional planning. They constructed a series of dams to control flooding, as well as launched social programs which tried to stop malaria, as well as those which created regional lakes.
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National Recovery Administration (NRA) 1933
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Led by chief Hugh Johnson, the NRA was a federal agency that aimed at controlling competition. Representatives from government, business, labor and consumer groups bound together under the NRA, and drew up “codes of fair practices” on an industry-by-industry basis.
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Public Works Administration (PWA) 1933
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The PWA was a $3.3 billion public work plan, and was created to boost industrial activity and consumer spending, Harold Icks was the leader of the PWA, but spent funds too slowly for fear of corruption and thus could never jumpstart the economy.
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Schecter Poultry vs. US 1935
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In this Supreme Court case, the NRA was struck down for exceeding its federal bounds by regulating the Schecter brother’s poultry business in New York. Many New Dealers worried about this verdict, because the NRA’s code-making represented “an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power”, which meant that all executive agencies could fail.
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Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) 1933
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The AAA was successful in increasing prices, because it only covered seven basic commodities. To help push these prices up, the Commodity Credit Corporation gave out loans to farmers who stored their crops instead of selling them, so farmer’s income raised by $3.3 billion in three years. The administration was voided in 1936, because the government had no right to regulate agriculture according to the Supreme Court.
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The Second New Deal 1936-1936
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By 1935, the Democrats had gained their largest majority in Congress for decades. Thus, there was a “second hundred days” of lawmaking, starting the “Second New Deal”. The emphasis shifted then to greater regulation of business rather than cooperation, and bolder reform began to take place.
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The Liberty League
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Conservatives started the American Liberty League in 1934, because they believed that Roosevelt hated private property and was nearly a dictator. They spent almost $1 million on anti-New Deal advertising, but only succeeded in convincing FDR that businesses were not cooperating.
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EPIC
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Standing for End Poverty in California, it was the slogan for Upton Sinclair, who was a socialist running for Governor of the state. Republicans became very upset, and launched a counterattack, showing Sinclair as a Bolshevik, atheist and free-lover. Although he lost, he did win one million votes.
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Huey Long
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A “flamboyant” Louisiana senator, he pushed through reforms that regulated utilities, built roads and schools, and distributed free schoolbooks.
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Father Coughlin
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Long’s urban counterpart, Father Coughlin blamed the banks for the Depression, and broadcasted his radio show in Detroit to his working-class listeners.
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Francis Townsend
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A physician retired from California, Townsend set up Old Age Revolving Pensions in 1934. He wanted the government to pay $200 a month to those 60 years or older who quit their jobs and spent the money within 30 days. His clubs counted almost $3.5 million members.
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Second Hundred Days 1935
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This second hundred days, which spanned throughout April until the middle of July, moved the New Deal towards Roosevelt’s ultimate goal, which was to soften the impact of industrialism, protect the needy, and compensate for the boom-and-bust business cycle.
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Works Progress Administration (WPA) 1936
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Created with the $4.8 billion for relieve and employment by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, the WPA employed at least 8.5 million people and built/improved over 100,000 schools, post offices, and other public buildings. WPA workers also taught art classes at a mental hospital in Cincinnati, drafted a Braille map for the blind in Massachusetts, and pulled a library by packhorse through the hills of Kentucky.
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Social Security Act 1935
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This act was passed to help those who couldn’t help themselves, like the aged poor, the infirm, and the dependent children of the nation. This act also raised the groundwork for the modern welfare state, as well as acted as an economic stabilizer by furnishing pensions for retirees and insurance for people who were suddenly fired from their jobs.
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National Labor Relations Act (NLRB) /Wagner Act 1935
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The National Labor Relations Act created the NLRB, a board that supervised the election of unions and ensured union rights to bargain. They also had the power to enforce these policies, so the number of unionized workers doubled.
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Roosevelt Coalition
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This coalition of Democrats who reigned as the dominate party for thirty years rested on three main points, which were traditional Democratic support in the South, citizens of the big cities, especially ethnics and African Americans, and labor, both organized and unorganized.
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Rural Electrification Administration (REA) 1935
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This agency of the Roosevelt administration changed the way people lived most dramatically, because after six years, 40% of the population had electricity compared to only 10%. Then, by 1950, almost 90% of people had electricity, which changed the lives of ordinary people more than the government ever had.
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John L. Lewis & UMW
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Lewis fought to unionize unskilled laborers, and headed the United Mine Workers, which was connected to the AFL. Within one year, the UMW had 400,000 members.
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Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) 1934
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Lewis, with the heads of seven other labor unions formed the Committee for Industrial Organization, which mostly took care of unskilled laborers.
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Sit down strikes 1936
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Because of the Wagner act, a group of rubber workers in Ohio stopped working on the job as their strikes. The only way to stop these strikes was for the companies to recognize the unions and accept their demands for wages and hours.
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Federal Arts Projects: FWP, FAP, FTP
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All of these projects were started by the federal government to help employ many workers who were in the musical and other art fields and had lost their jobs previously during the Depression.
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Court packing plan 1937
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Roosevelt wanted to be able to vitalize the judiciary system with new members, so that if a 70-year old judge had served for at least ten years without retiring, the President could add another, up to six to the Supreme Court and 44 to the lower federal courts. Unfortunately, FDR met much more resistance than he planned, because the American people did not want efficiency, but rather stability.
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John Maynard Keynes / Keynesianism
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Keynes was a British economist who advocated for the same kind of deficit spending, which Roosevelt had implemented. He believed that governments should spend their way out of depression, and then could pay off their debts with taxes once the economy stabilized itself.
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Roosevelt Recession 1938
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In 1937, there began to be cuts in federal spending, which started the Roosevelt recession. During this time, industry sunk to 1935 levels, and it was only ended by FDR proposing a $3.75 billion omnibus bill.
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