The Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, figures, programs, and events of the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II.

Causes of the Great Depression

Structural weaknesses in the 1920s economy, including severe unequal distribution of purchasing power, lack of economic diversification (overreliance on construction and automobiles), an unstable credit structure, European debt defaults, and declining international trade post-Hawley-Smoot Tariff.

Bonus Army

Group of over 20,000 World War I veterans who marched on Washington, D.C., in 1932 demanding immediate cash payment of their promised service bonuses; violently cleared out by General Douglas MacArthur under President Hoover's orders.

Dorothea Lange

Farm Security Administration (FSA) documentary photographer whose portraits, notably Migrant Mother, humanized the devastating emotional and economic toll of the Dust Bowl and rural poverty.

The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel chronicling the Joad family’s migration from Oklahoma to California, dramatizing the hardships, exploitation, and displacement endured by Dust Bowl migrants.

Movies (Depression Era)

Inexpensive Hollywood escapism that dominated 1930s mass culture (e.g., screwball comedies, musicals, gangster films, and Disney animation), designed to distract audiences from economic despair while reinforcing traditional social values.

Scottsboro Case

1931 Alabama case where nine Black youths were falsely accused of raping two white women on a freight train; convicted by all-white juries despite clear medical evidence of innocence, highlighting rampant Southern racial injustice.

Mexican Americans (Depression Era)

Faced severe job competition, relief discrimination, and forced "repatriation" campaigns that deported approximately 500,000 individuals—including many U.S. citizens—to Mexico to open low-wage agricultural and urban jobs for Anglo workers.

Emma Tenayuca

San Antonio labor organizer and activist who led the historic 1938 Pecan Shellers Strike, fighting for higher wages, safe working conditions, and civil rights for thousands of Mexican American women.

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

1933 First New Deal legislation that paid farmers subsidies to limit production and destroy surplus crops/livestock to raise agricultural commodity prices; disproportionately harmed sharecroppers and tenant farmers who were evicted.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

1933 regional public development program that built dams across the Tennessee River valley to control flooding, provide cheap hydroelectric power, and modernize one of the nation's poorest areas.

Truth in Securities Act (1933)

First New Deal regulation requiring corporations issuing new stock to provide complete, accurate, and truthful financial disclosures to investors to restore stock market confidence.

Broker State

The modern political framework produced by the New Deal where the federal government mediates, regulates, and balances the competing claims of organized interest groups (labor, agriculture, consumers, and business).

Securities and Exchange Act (1934)

Federal law that established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to police and regulate the stock market, eliminate insider trading, and supervise financial institutions.

Huey Long

Louisiana Senator and vocal New Deal critic who founded the "Share Our Wealth" movement, proposing heavy taxes on concentrated fortunes to guarantee every American family a minimum annual income and home.

Francis Townsend

California physician and New Deal critic who proposed a federally funded pension plan giving $\text{\$200}$ per month to citizens over 60, provided they retire and spend the full sum monthly; laid the political groundwork for Social Security.

Charles Coughlin

Catholic "radio priest" who initially supported FDR but later turned fiercely critical, advocating for silver remonetization, nationalization of banks, and issuing increasingly anti-Semitic, authoritarian broadcasts.

Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act of 1935)

Core Second New Deal measure that legalized collective bargaining, protected the right of industrial workers to join unions, and established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to stop unfair labor practices.

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

Labor coalition created by John L. Lewis within the AFL (and later separated) that organized workers by entire industry rather than by craft, mobilizing unskilled manufacturing workers, women, and Black laborers.

John L. Lewis

Head of the United Mine Workers (UMW) and founder of the CIO who pioneered militant industrial unionism, aggressive organizing tactics, and the sit-down strike in automobile and steel plants.

Social Security Act (1935)

Landmark Second New Deal welfare legislation that created a permanent national old-age pension fund funded by payroll taxes, an unemployment insurance program, and direct aid to dependent children and the disabled.

Indian Reorganization Act (1934)

"Indian New Deal" promoted by John Collier that reversed the assimilationist Dawes Act, restored tribal land ownership, and promoted local tribal self-government and cultural preservation.

European Fascist Leaders

Totalitarian dictators Benito Mussolini (Italy) and Adolf Hitler (Germany) who rejected democracy, crushed organized labor, expanded military power, and pursued aggressive territorial expansion throughout the 1930s.

Start of WWII

September 1, 1939, triggered by Nazi Germany's unprovoked invasion of Poland, prompting Britain and France to declare war after the failure of European appeasement.

Allied and Axis Powers

The main opposing military alliances of WWII: the Allies (Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Free France) versus the Axis powers (Germany, Japan, and Italy).

U.S. Reaction to the Holocaust

Severe federal reluctance and official inaction regarding Jewish refugees, driven by strict immigration quotas, public anti-Semitism, and State Department resistance, illustrated by turning away the refugee ship St. Louis in 1939.

Atomic Bombs

Weapons developed under the covert Manhattan Project and dropped under President Harry S. Truman on Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945), forcing Japan’s unconditional surrender.