The Great Depression (1929-1942)

A collection of 25 vocabulary flashcards detailing the key political, economic, and social terms of the Great Depression and New Deal era.

Herbert Hoover

The Republican candidate who won the presidency in 1928, known for assisting Belgians during WWI, serving as the head of the FDA, and serving as Secretary of Commerce.

Commerce

Business and trade conducted across state or national lines.

October 24, 1929

The date when stock prices plummeted, such as General Electric dropping from $400 to $283 a share, prompting financiers like J.P. Morgan and Rockefeller to pool wealth to keep the market afloat.

Black Tuesday

October 29, 1929, the date when over 16 million shares were sold off, leading to the stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression.

Hawley-Smoot Tariff

Legislation signed into law by Herbert Hoover to keep Americans invested in the country, which instead drove item prices high and caused fewer Americans to purchase products.

Hoovervilles

The name given to shantytowns and areas where newly homeless Americans lived during the early 1930s, often sleeping on park benches and in empty railcars.

Tenant farming

An arrangement in which impoverished farmers sold their land to big businesses while continuing to live and work on the property.

The Dust Bowl

An environmental phenomenon in the Great Plains characterized by severe wind erosion that choked off rivers, killed livestock, and devastated agricultural land.

Okies

A name mistakenly applied by Californians to describe impoverished families migrating from Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas to look for agricultural work.

Repatriation

The process promoted by southern nativists calling for immigrants to be returned to their native countries during the economic crisis.

Judicial Procedure Reform Bill of 1937

A proposed court-packing initiative by Franklin D. Roosevelt to expand the Supreme Court from 9 to 13 justices after conservative rulings blocked his New Deal legislation.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

An agency created during FDR's first 100 days that insured individual bank deposits up to $5,000 to prevent bank runs and insolvency.

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

New Deal legislation created to end crop overproduction and raise agricultural prices, portions of which were later struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

An agency that coordinated with business and labor leaders to establish fair competition, instituted the minimum wage, and stabilized market prices until it was ruled unconstitutional.

Second New Deal

The expansion phase of FDR's administration beginning in 1935, consisting of new government programs intended to further lower unemployment.

John Maynard Keynes

A renowned British economist who argued that continued government spending would restore consumer faith in the marketplace and pull the nation out of the depression.

Social Security Act

A 1935 New Deal measure designed to provide insurance for elderly Americans following retirement, which was also expanded to include unemployment insurance.

American Federal of Labor (AFL)

A prominent labor union organization that saw resurgence during the Great Depression as workers organized to fight against unfair business practices.

John Lewis

The President of the United Mine Workers who collaborated directly with President Roosevelt to craft New Deal programs protecting union labor.

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

A labor union confederation that partnered with the United Auto Workers during the Great Depression to secure and expand union employment opportunities.

Alfred Landon

The Republican nominee defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in a decisive landslide victory during the presidential election of 1936.

Interstate commerce

Trade that crosses state boundaries; the Supreme Court ruled that the president lacked constitutional authority to regulate it, resulting in the invalidation of the NRA.

Bread lines

Long lines of individuals formed across American towns and cities during the 1930s to receive free charitable food as hunger and poverty deepened.

Federal Reserve (1935-1936)

The central banking system that increased interest rates following early economic recovery, causing credit to tighten, unemployment to rise to 20%, and small business borrowing to plummet.

"Last to be hired, first to be fired"

A phrase describing the disproportionate employment discrimination suffered by Black Americans and immigrant workers during the Great Depression.