AP United States History Chapter 23

Smoot-Hawley Tariff (p. 736)

A high tariff enacted in 1930 during the Great Depression. By taxing imported goods, Congress hoped to stimulate American manufacturing, but the tariff triggered retaliatory tariffs in other countries, which further hindered global trade and led to greater economic contraction.

Bonus Army (p. 738)

A group of 15,000 unemployed World War I veterans who set up camps near the Capitol building in 1932 to demand immediate payment of pension awards due to be paid in 1945.

Fireside chats (p. 740)

A series of informal radio addresses Franklin Roosevelt made to the nation in which he explained New Deal initiatives.

Hundred Days (p. 740)

A legendary session during the first few months of Franklin Roosevelt's administration in which Congress enacted fifteen major bills that focused primarily on four problems: banking failures, agricultural overproduction, the business slump, and soaring unemployment.

Glass-Steagall Act (p. 740)

A 1933 law the created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insured deposits up to $2,500 (and now up to $250,000. The act also prohibited banks from making risky, unsecured investments with customers' deposits.

Agricultural Adjustment Act (p. 741)

New Deal legislation passed in May 1933 that aimed at cutting agricultural production to raise crop prices and thus farmers' income.

National Recovery Administration (p. 741)

Federal agency established in June 1933 to promote industrial recovery during the Great Depression. It encouraged industrialists to voluntarily adopt codes that defined fair working conditions, set prices, and minimized competition.

Public Works Administration (p. 741)

A New Deal construction program established by Congress in 1933. Designed to put people back to work, the PWA build the Boulder Dam (renamed Hoover Dam) and Grand Coulee Dam, among other large public works projects.

Civilian Conservation Corps (p. 741)

Federal relief program that provided jobs to millions of unemployed young men who built thousands of bridges, roads, trails, and other structures in state and national parks, bolstering the national infrastructure.

Federal Housing Administration (p. 744)

An agency established by the Federal Housing Act of 1934 that refinanced home mortgages for mortgage holders facing possible foreclosure.

Securities and Exchange Commission (p. 745)

A commission established by Congress in 1934 to regulate the stock market. The commission had broad powers to determine how stocks and bonds were sold to the public, to set rules for margin (credit) transactions, and to prevent stock sales by those with inside information about corporate plans.

Liberty League (p. 746)

A group of Republican business leaders and conservative Democrats who banded together to fight what they called the "reckless spending" and "socialist" reforms of the New Deal.

National Association of Manufacturers (p. 746)

An association of industrialists and business leaders opposed to government regulation. In the era of the New Deal, the group promoted free enterprise and capitalism through a publicity campaign of radio programs, motion pictures, billboards, and direct mail.

Townsend Plan (p. 747)

A plan proposed by Francis Townsend in 1933 that would give $200 a month (about $3,300 today) to citizens over the age of sixty. Townsend Clubs sprang up across the country in support of the plan, mobilizing mass support for old age pensions.

Welfare state (p. 747)

A term applied to industrial democracies that adopt various government-guaranteed social-welfare programs. The creation of Social Security and other measures of the Second New Deal fundamentally changed American society and established a national welfare state for the first time.

Wagner Act (p. 747)

A 1935 act that upheld the right of industrial workers to join unions and established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency with the authority to protect workers from employer coercion and to guarantee collective bargaining.

Social Security Act (p. 747)

A 1935 act with three main provisions: old-age pensions for workers; a joint federal-state system of compensation for unemployed workers; and a program of payments to widowed mothers and the blind, deaf, and disabled.

Classical liberalism (p. 749)

The political ideology of individual liberty, private property, a competitive market economy, free trade, and limited government. The idea being that the less government does, the better, particularly in reference to economic policies such as tariffs and incentives for industrial development. Attacking corruption and defending private property, late-nineteenth-century liberals generally called for elite governance and questioned the advisability of full democratic participation.

Works Progress Administration (p. 749)

Federal New Deal program established in 1935 that provided government-funded public works jobs to millions of unemployed Americans during the Great Depression in areas ranging from construction to the arts.

Roosevelt recession (p. 751)

A recession from 1937 to 1938 that occurred after President Roosevelt cut the federal budget.

Keynesian economics (p. 751)

The theory, developed by British economist John Maynard Keynes in the 1930s, that purposeful government intervention in the economy (through lowering or raising taxes, interest rates, and government spending) can affect the level of overall economic activity and thereby prevent severe depressions and runaway inflation.

Indian Reorganization Act (p. 756)

A 1934 law that reversed the Dawes Act of 1887. Through the law, Indians won a greater degree of religious freedom, and tribal governments gained their status as semisovereign dependent nations.

Dust bowl (p. 759)

A series of dust storms from 1930 to 1941 during which a severe drought afflicted the semiarid states of Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arkansas, and Kansas.

Tennessee Valley Authority (p. 760)

An agency funded by Congress in 1933 that integrated flood control, reforestation, electricity generation, and agricultural and industrial development in the Tennessee Valley area.

Rural Electrification Administration (p. 760)

An agency established in 1935 to promote nonprofit farm cooperatives that offered loans to farmers to install power lines.

Herbert Hoover

American president at the beginning of the Great Depression, initially attempting to solve the problem through voluntarism and high tariffs but later getting directly involved with programs such as the Reconstruction Finance Corporation; forcibly evicted the Bonus Army from their camps near the Capitol building

FDR

Became president after defeating Herbert Hoover in the election of 1932, promising vigorous action and change to end the Great Depression; stimulated recovery, provided relief to the unemployed, and regulated banks and other financial institutions with the First New Deal; promoted social-welfare legislation that provided Americans with economic security with the Second New Deal

Father Charles Coughlin

Popular "radio priest" who joined forces with doctor Francis Townsend and Louisiana senator Huey Long in protest of the New Deal, arguing that Roosevelt and the Democratic party had not gone far enough to ensure the social welfare of all citizens

Huey Long

Democratic governor of Louisiana who achieved stunning popularity and almost dictatorial control of the state government; broke with the New Deal and, along with his Share Our Wealth Society, advocated a tax of 100 percent on all income over $1 million and on all inheritances over $5 million

Frances Perkins

The first woman to be named to a cabinet post as secretary of labor throughout Roosevelt's presidency

Eleanor Roosevelt

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's wife and the most prominent woman in American politics who tirelessly advocated for women's rights and worked to expand positions for women in political parties, labor unions, and education

Mary McLeod Bethune

Appointee to Roosevelt's informal "black cabinet" who had previously founded Bethune-Cookman College and served as president of the National Association of Colored Women during the 1920's; pushed continually for New Deal programs to help African Americans

John Collier

Progressive, intellectual commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs who understood that most Indian tribes had been left poor, isolated, and without basic self-determination by the government's policies; helped write and push through Congress the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934