The Great Depression and World War II Vocabulary Practice

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the economic policies, social impacts, and global conflicts surrounding the Great Depression and World War II.

Hoover's Philosophy

The belief that depressions are normal business cycle phases and the economy will self-correct; it opposed direct federal aid to maintain self-reliance and favored voluntary business cooperation.

Black Tuesday

The event on $Oct 29, 1929$, when the stock market crashed and $16.4$ million shares were dumped in panic, acting as the catalyst for the global depression.

The Dust Bowl

The environmental disaster in the Great Plains during the early $1930s$, caused by severe drought and decades of over-farming that stripped vegetation.

Okies

Hundreds of thousands of migrants from devastated regions like $KS$, $OK$, and $TX$ who fled to $CA$ via $Route 66$ for farm work during the Dust Bowl.

Hoovervilles

Shanty towns built by evicted, homeless families on city edges, named after President Hoover to blame him for federal inaction.

The Bonus Army

A group of $10,000+$ WWI veterans who marched on $D.C.$ in the summer of $1932$ demanding early payment of promised bonuses; they were eventually gassed and evicted by the U.S. Army.

The New Deal

President FDR’s massive $1933$ wave of domestic programs, public works, and financial regulations designed to address the Great Depression.

The Three R's

The core goals of the New Deal: Relief for the poor, Recovery for the economy, and Reform for the financial systems.

Share Our Wealth

A program pushed by liberal critic Huey Long to heavily tax the rich and guarantee incomes for families.

FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Act)

Managed by Harry Hopkins, this act provided $500$ million in direct federal grants for cash relief and work programs.

CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)

A relief program employing single men aged $18-25$ for environmental projects; they were paid $30$ per month, with $25$ sent home to families.

WPA (Works Progress Administration)

The largest Second New Deal agency that spent $11$ billion to employ $8$ million people in building airports, roads, and supporting cultural projects.

SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission)

A $1934$ regulatory agency created to police the stock market, ban insider trading, and restore public trust.

Fair Labor Standards Act

A $1938$ law that established a $40$-hour workweek, a national minimum wage of $25\text{¢/hr}$, and banned child labor under the age of $16$.

Social Security Act

A $1935$ act providing retirement pensions for the elderly aged $65+$, unemployment insurance, and aid to the disabled.

Joseph Stalin

The totalitarian Communist leader of the $USSR$ who crushed rivals and controlled all property and the economy.

Benito Mussolini

The totalitarian Fascist leader of Italy who promoted extreme nationalism and placed the state above individual rights.

Adolf Hitler

The Nazi leader of Germany whose extreme fascism was driven by radical racism, anti-Semitism, and the desire for expansion.

Hideki Tojo

The militarist leader of Japan who drove aggressive imperial conquest across Asia and the Pacific.

Mein Kampf

The book written by Hitler outlining his beliefs in Aryan supremacy, anti-Semitism, and lebrensraum (living space).

Policy of Appeasement

The strategy of giving in to an aggressor's demands to maintain peace, such as when Chamberlain gave Hitler the Sudetenland at the $1938$ Munich Conference.

Blitzkrieg

Meaning 'lightning war,' a fast and overwhelming motorized strike used by Germany to invade Poland on $Sept 1, 1939$.

Lend-Lease Act

A $March 1941$ law allowing the U.S. to lend or lease weapons to any nation vital to its defense, turning the U.S. into the 'arsenal of democracy.'

Cash and Carry

A $1939$ provision requiring warring nations to pay cash for U.S. arms and transport them on their own ships.

Pearl Harbor Attack

A surprise strike by Japan on $Dec 7, 1941$, in Hawaii, meant to cripple the Pacific Fleet after the U.S. imposed an oil embargo.

WAAC (Women's Army Auxiliary Corps)

A $1942$ law allowing women to volunteer in non-combat military roles like radio operation and driving.

Rosie the Riveter

The symbol used to represent the $6$ million+ women who joined the workforce during WWII to work in heavy industry jobs like welding and aircraft building.

Tuskegee Airmen

A group of African American pilots who served in segregated military units during World War II.

Navajo Code Talkers

Native Americans who used their native tongue to create an unbreakable military code for the U.S. during the war.

Executive Order 9066

An order issued by FDR in $Feb 1942$ authorizing the relocation of $110,000+$ Japanese Americans to internment camps based on racial prejudice.

Manhattan Project

The top-secret U.S. scientific program directed by J. Robert Oppenheimer to develop the atomic bomb.

D-Day Invasion

Occurring on $June 6, 1944$, also known as Operation Overlord, it was the largest amphibious invasion in history, led by Eisenhower at Normandy, France.

Island Hopping Strategy

A Pacific framework led by MacArthur and Nimitz that involved seizing weaker, strategic islands to build airfields and advance toward mainland Japan.

Kamikaze

The 'divine wind' suicide tactic where Japanese pilots deliberately crashed explosive-laden planes into Allied warships.

The Marshall Plan

A post-war program that sent billions in economic aid to rebuild Western Europe and contain the spread of Communism.

Rationing

The $OPA$ mandatory coupon system that limited consumer purchases of scarce war goods like meat, sugar, and gas.

Yalta Conference

A $Feb 1945$ summit of the 'Big Three' (FDR, Churchill, Stalin) to plan post-war Europe and the creation of the United Nations.

The Holocaust

The systematic, state-sponsored persecution and mass murder of millions by Hitler's Nazi regime between $1933$ and $1945$.

Genocide

The deliberate and systematic extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or cultural group.

Kristallnacht

The 'Night of Broken Glass' on $Nov 9-10, 1938$, involving state-organized riots against Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues.

The Final Solution

Hitler's industrial blueprint for the genocide of all European Jews, involving forced ghettos and death camps like Auschwitz.