Chapter 21 Vocab

Front 1

“Roll on Columbia”

Back 1

a popular song that was composed by Woody Guthrie, it became a popular statement of the benefits that resulted when government took the lead in economic planning and in improving the lot of ordinary citizens

Front 2

Grand Coulee Dam

Back 2

went into operation in 1941, it was the largest man-made structure in the world history. Dam in the Columbia River. The dam became the cheapest electricity in the country for towns that sprang out of no where.

Front 3

“Public works revolution”

Back 3

A scholar’s phrase; it transformed the American economy and landscape during the 1930’s.

Front 4

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Back 4

believed regional economic planning like that in the Northwest would promote economic growth, ease the domestic and working lives of ordinary Americans, and keep control of key natural resources in public hand rather than private hands.

Front 5

“New deal”:

Back 5

The economic measures introduced by FDR in 1933 to counteract the effects of the Great Depression. It involved a massive public works program, complemented by the large-scale granting of loans, and succeeded in reducing unemployment by between 7 and 10 million.

Front 6

“Brain trust

Back 6

A group of academics including a number of Columbia University professors, who believed bigness as inevitable in a modern economy

Front 7

“Bank holiday”:

Back 7

Temporarily halted all bank operations, during holidays to save money

Front 8

Glass-Steagall Act

Back 8

It barred commercial banks from becoming involved in the buying and selling of stocks.

Front 9

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Back 9

A government system that insured the accounts of individual depositors.

Front 10

NRA: National Recovery Administration

Back 10

it worked with groups of business leaders to establish industry codes setting standards for output, prices, and working conditions. Running competition out of business

Front 11

“Hundred Days”

Back 11

The first three months of Roosevelt’s administration, where he passed a few laws hoping to stable the economy

Front 12

Economy Act

Back 12

: One of the first measures of the Hundred Days. It reduced federal spending in an attempt to win the confidence of the business community.

Front 13

Relief

Back 13

this thing made people feel less stressful, by making grants to local agencies that aided those impoverished by the depression

Front 14

CCC: Civilian Conservation Corps

Back 14

March 1933, it set unemployed young men to work on projects like forest preservation, flood control, and the improvement of national parks and wildlife preserves.

Front 15

PWA: Public Works Administration

Back 15

, It built roads, schools, hospitals, and other public facilities, including New York City’s Triborough Bridge and the Overseas Highway between Miami and Key West, Florida.

Front 16

CWA: Civil Works Administration

Back 16

it employed 4 million people in the construction of highways, tunnels, courthouses, and airports.

Front 17

TVA: Tennessee Valley Authority

Back 17

a product of the Hundred Days, it built a series of dams to prevent floods and deforestation along the Tennessee River and to provide cheap electric power for homes and factories in a seven-state region where many families still lived in isolated log cabins. Put the federal government for the first time of the business of selling electricity in competition

Front 18

AAA: Agricultural Adjustment Act

Back 18

it authorized the federal government to try to raise farm prices by setting production quotas for major crops and paying farmers not to plant more. Destroying a lot of crops and killing pigs

Front 19

The Grapes of Wrath

Back 19

: John Steinbeck’s novel (1939) that tracked a dispossessed family’s trek from Oklahoma to California.

Front 20

UAW: United Auto Workers

Back 20

, a fledging CIO union that unveiled the sit-down strike method.

Front 21

Sit-Down

Back 21

A strikingly effective tactic when in strike; workers stopped working but instead of leaving just sat down in the factory so they couldn’t bring anyone else in

Front 22

“Kingfish”

Back 22

one of the most colorful characters in the twentieth-century American politics, he was refered as this by both his admirers and critics

Front 23

Share Our Wealth:

Back 23

A movement launched by Long, with the slogan “Every Man a King.” He called for confiscation of most of the wealth of the richest Americans in order to finance an immediate grant of $5000 and a guaranteed job and annual income for all citizens.

Front 24

WPA: Workers Progress Administration

Back 24

it hired 3 million Americans in virtually every walk of life each year until it ended in 1943. Under Harry Hopkins’s direction, it constructed thousands of public buildings and bridges, over 500,000 miles of roads, and 600 airports. Also constructed stadiums, swimming pools, and sewage treatment plants.

Front 25

Wagner Act

Back 25

: Known as “Labor’s Magna Carta”, it brought democracy into the American workplace by empowering the National Labor Relations Board to supervise elections in which employees voted on union representation.

Front 26

Social Security Act

Back 26

(1935) It embodied Roosevelt’s conviction that the national government had a responsibility to ensure the material well being of ordinary Americans. It created a system of unemployment insurance, old age pensions, and aid to the disabled, the elderly poor, and families with dependent children.

Front 27

“Fireside chats”

Back 27

Roosevelt’s radio addresses to bring them his message directly at them.

Front 28

Southern Veto

Back 28

because of this the majority of black workers found themselves confined to the least generous and most vulnerable wing of the new welfare state

Front 29

Indian Reorganization Act

Back 29

(1934) It ended the policy of dividing Indian lands into small plots for individual families and selling of the rest.

Front 30

Popular Front

Back 30

A period during the mid-1930’s when the Communist Party sought to ally itself with socialists and New Dealers in movements for social change, urging reform of the capitalist system rather than revolution.

Front 31

Arts of the West

Back 31

A painting by Thomas Hart Benton, part of his series “Arts of Life in America.” It illustrated the widespread fascination during the 1930’s with expressions of American folk culture.

Front 32

“Scottsboro Boys”:

Back 32

Nine young black men arrested for the rape of two white women in Alabama in 1931.
right to make a comfortable living” even little evidence they were still found guilty.