Apush: Unit 9 Key Terms - Decades of Boom, Bust, And Recovery: 1917-1945

Red Scare (1919-1920)

A brief wave of fear over the possible influence of Socialists/Bolsheviks in American life.

Immigration Act of 1924

Also known as the Johnson-Reed Act. Federal law limiting the number of immigrants that could be admitted from any country to 2% of the amount of people from that country who were already living in the U.S. as of the census of 1890.

Eighteeth Amendment (18th)

1917 law made it illegal to sell alcoholic drinks anywhere in the united states.

Fundamental

the belief in the need to subscribe to or return to traditional values and practises, usually involving the literal translation and belief in areligious text

Scientific Modernism

Movement that recognized new scientific advancements and challenged old modes of thought

NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

advocated for rights for African Americans through the courts

United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)

A black nationalist organization founded in 1914 by the Jamaican-born Marcus Garvey in order to promote resettlement of African Americans to their "African homeland" and to stimulate a vigorous separate black economy within the United States.

A. Mitchell Palmer

Attorney General who rounded up many suspects who were thought to be un-American and socialistic; he helped to increase the Red Scare; he was nicknamed the "Fighting Quaker" until a bomb destroyed his home; he then had a nervous breakdown and became known as the "Quaking Fighter."

Sacco and Vanzetti

In 1920 these two men were convicted of murder and robbery. They were found guilty and died in the electric chair unfairly

John T. Scopes

An educator in Tennessee who was arrested for teaching evolution. This trial represented the Fundamentalist vs the Modernist. The trial placed a negative image on fundamentalists, and it showed a changing America.

Henry Ford

1863-1947. American businessman, founder of Ford Motor Company, father of modern assembly lines, and inventor credited with 161 patents.

Laissez-faire

Idea that government should play as small a role as possible in economic affairs.

Harem Renaissance

a haven, a place of self-discovery, cultural awareness, and political activism for African Americans

Teapot Dome Scandal

A government scandal involving a former United States Navy oil reserve in Wyoming that was secretly leased to a private oil company in 1921

Dawes Plan (1924)

This loan program was crafted to give money to Germany so that they could pay war reparations and lessen the financial crisis in Europe; the program ended with the 1929 stock market crash.

Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930)

Passed under President Hoover, it raised tariffs up to sixty percent which became the nation's highest protective tariff during peacetime. Hoover & Republicans hoped it would help US economy, but instead it resulted in retaliatory tariff increases against the US by other countries. It deepened depression and increased international financial chaos.

Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929)

On this day the stock market boom had fell out, as millions of panicky investors ordered their brokers to sell, when there were practically no buyers to be found. After that stock prices continued to go down until they finally hit bottom.

Hoovervilles

Depression shantytowns, named after the president whom many blamed for their financial distress

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

Agency established in 1932 to provide emergency relief to large businesses, insurance companies, and banks.

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

New Deal agency that promoted economic recovery by regulating production, prices, and wages

Agriculture Adjustment Administration

payments to farmers who agreed not to grow wheat, corn, tobacco, and other crops so farm prices went up and farmers better off

Dust Bowl

Region of the Great Plains that experienced a drought in 1930 lasting for a decade, leaving many farmers without work or substantial wages.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

A relief, recovery, and reform effort that gave 2.5 million poor citizens jobs and land. It brought cheap electric power, low-cost housing, cheap nitrates, and the restoration of eroded soil.

Social Security Act

(FDR) 1935, guaranteed retirement payments for enrolled workers beginning at age 65; set up federal-state system of unemployment insurance and care for dependent mothers and children, the handicapped, and public health

National Labor Relations Act

A 1935 law, also known as the Wagner Act, that guarantees workers the right of collective bargaining sets down rules to protect unions and organizers, and created the National Labor Relations Board to regulate labor-managment relations.

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

a labor organization composed of industrial unions founded in 1938, it merged with the AFL in 1955

Court Packing Plan

President FDR's failed 1937 attempt to increase the number of US Supreme Court Justices from 9 to 15 in order to save his 2nd New Deal programs from constitutional challenges

Keynesianism/ Deficit Spending

Theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes, stating that government spending should increase during business slumps and be curbed during booms.

Elanor Roosevelt

1st lady, acted as president's eyes and ears, fought for womens rights and African American justice.

Frances Perkins

U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman ever appointed to the cabinet.

welfare state

A government that undertakes responsibility for its citizens through programs in public health and public housing and pensions and unemployment compensation etc.