Apush unit 7B

Henry Ford

Perfected a system for manufacturing automobiles by means of an assembly line

assembly line

Production method created by Ford in which workers remained in one place all day and performed the same simple operation over and over again at rapid speed... this increased productivity and helped improve mass production

consumer appliances

Electricity in their homes enabled millions of Americans to purchase these (refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washing machines)

Welfare Capitalism

Voluntarily offering their employees improved benefits and higher wages in order to reduce their interest in organizing unions

mass media

Forms of communication, such as newspapers and radio, that reach millions of people.

radio

A new medium of mass communication and entertainment that emerged in the 1920s

Hollywood

The movie industry was centered here. The industry grew rapidly in the 1920s. Sound was introduced to movies in 1927. By 1929 over 80 million movie tickets were sold each week.

phonographs

Early devices for playing recorded disks, these made jazz music available to a huge (and youthful) public.

Charles Lindberg

A young aviator who thrilled the entire world by flying nonstop across the Atlantic from Long Island to Paris in 1927.

modernism

A historical and critical view of certain passages in the Bible and believed they could accept Darwin's theory of evolution without abandoning their religious faith

Fundamentalism

Condemned the modernists and taught that every word in the Bible was literally true. A key example of this doctrine is that creationism (the belief that God had created the universe in seven days, as stated in the Bible) explained the origin of life.

Scopes trial

A highly publicized trial in 1925 when a Tennessee high school teacher violated a state law by teaching evolution. The courtroom clash between Darrow (a famous Chicagoan lawyer who represented the defendant) and Bryan (the three-time Democratic candidate who testified as an expert on the Bible) dramatized that the debate on evolution symbolized a battle between two opposing views of the world. The teacher was eventually convicted, then the conviction was later overturned by a technicality.

Volstead Act (1919)

A federal law enforcing prohibition

Al Capone

A Chicago gang leader who fought for control of the lucrative bootlegging trade and sold alcohol to people during prohibition

21st Amendment

Repealed the 18th amendment (prohibition)

quota laws

Congressional acts passed in 1921 and 1924 that severely limited immigration to the United States in response to nativist fears and the Red Scare. The first quota act limited immigration to 3 percent of the number of foreign born persons from a given nation based on the 1910 census. The second set quotas of 2 percent based on the census of 1890. These laws chiefly restricted those groups considered "undesirable" and ended the traditional policy of unlimited immigration.

Sacco and Vanzetti

In 1920 these two men were convicted of murder and robbery. Liberals protested that the two men had not received a fair trial and that they had been accused, convicted, and sentenced to die simply because they were poor Italians and anarchists. After six years of appeals and debates over their trial, they were executed

Ku Klux Klan

In the 1920s this terrorist group resurged. It was against not only African Americans, but also Catholics, Jews, foreigners, suspected communists, and all groups which did not have a protestant background. They were most prevalent in the Midwest and the south. They eventually became less popular when officials were caught embezzling money.

Birth of a Nation

Film that portrayed the KKK during Reconstruction as the heroes, and the white backlash to the race riots of 1919. KKK membership increased due to the film.

"lost generation"

Scorning religion as hypocritical and bitterly condemning the sacrifices of wartime as fraud perpetrated by money interests were two dominant themes of the leading writers of the postwar decade. This disillusionment caused writer Gertrude Stein to call these writers THIS.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

A novelist and chronicler of the jazz age, wrote The Great Gatsby, eventually took to a life of drinking.

Ernest Hemmingway

A young novelist from Paris who decided to move to America. He was an ambulance driver in WWI, and had seen the war's worst. His early novels, "The Sun Also Rises" and "A Farewell to Arms", reflected the mood of despair that followed the war.

consumer culture

Created by advertisement, and began American's need to buy things.

"Harlem Renaissance"

With a population of almost 200,000, Harlem became famous in the 1920s for its concentration of talented actors, artists, musicians, and writers. Because of their artistic achievements, this period is known as THIS.

Langston Hughes

African American poet who described the rich culture of african American life using rhythms influenced by jazz music. He wrote of African American hope and defiance, as well as the culture of Harlem and also had a major impact on the Harlem Renaissance.

Duke Ellington

Born in Chicago middle class. moved to Harlem in 1923 and began playing at the cotton club. Composer, pianist and band leader. One of the most influential figures in jazz.

Louis Armstrong

Leading African American jazz musician during the Harlem Renaissance; he was a talented trumpeter whose style influenced many later musicians.

Bessie Smith

African American blues singer who played and important role in the Harlem Renaissance.

Back-to-Africa movement

Encouraged those of African decent to return to Africa to their ancestors so that they could have their own empire because they were treated poorly in America.

Marcus Garvey

Advocated individual and racial pride for African Americans and developed political ideas of Black nationalism. Building on DuBois's pride in Black culture, he est an organization for Black separatism, economic self-sufficiency, and a back-to-Africa movement. Eventually, he was tried, convicted, and jailed for fraud and deported to Jamaica, leading to the collapse of his movement.

Black Pride

Many African American leaders agreed with Marcus Garvey's ideas on racial pride and self-respect. This influenced another generation in the 1960s.

Teapot Dome

Scandal during the Harding administration involving the granting of oil-drilling leases on government land in return for money

Black Tuesday

The day the stock market crashed. Millions of panicky investors ordered their brokers to sell. Lead to the Panic of 1929

Dow Jones index

The Wall Street stock market index. In September 1929 the index was at a high of 381, in three months it fell to 198. Three years later, the index would finally hit bottom at 41, less than one-ninth of the peak.

buying on margin

Allowed people to borrow most of the cost of the stock, making down payments as low as 10 percent

overproduction

Business growth, aided by increased productivity and use of credit, had produced a volume of goods that workers with stagnant wages could not continue to purchase.

Federal Reserve

Some economists have concentrated blame on this central bank of the United States for its tight money policies, as hundreds of banks failed. Instead of trying to stabilize banks, the money supply, and prices, they tried to preserve the gold standard.

stock market crash

Another leading component to the start of the Great Depression. The stock became very popular in the 1920's, then in 1929 in took a steep downturn and many lost their money and hope they had put in to the stock.

business failure

The depression of the 1830s caused more of these than the preceding ones... a situation when a business is unable to repay its lenders or meet the expectations of its investors because of economic or business conditions

bank failures

One of the factors that led to the Great Depression; when a bank ran out of reserves to pay customers who wanted to withdraw their deposits. Without depositors' insurance, people panicked and sought to get their money out of the banks, which caused these.

Gross National Product

The value of all the goods and services produced by a nation in one year, dropped significantly during the Great Depression

Herbert Hoover

Republican candidate who assumed the presidency in March 1929 promising the American people prosperity and attempted to first deal with the Depression by trying to restore public faith in the community.

Hawley-Smoot Tariff

Passed by the Republican Congress, this law set tax increases ranging from 31 percent to 49 percent on foreign imports.

debt moratorium

Suspension on the payment of international debts. In 1931, President Hoover proposed a suspension of international debt payments.

Farm Board

Created in 1929 before the crash but supported and enacted to meet the economic crisis and help farmers. Authorized to help farmers stabilize prices by temporarily holding surplus grain and cotton in storage.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

This federally funded, govt owned corporation was created by Congress early in 1932 as a measure for propping up faltering railroads, banks, life insurance companies, and other financial institutions. It marked an attempt by the fed govt to become more active in financial markets.

bonus march

A thousand unemployed WW1 veterans marched to Washington, DC to demand immediate payment of the bonuses promised them at a later date. They were eventually joined by thousands of other veterans who brought their wives and children and camped in improvised shacks near the Capital. The incident caused many Americans to regard Hoover as headless and uncaring because he ordered the army to break up the encampment.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

32nd US President - He began New Deal programs to help the nation out of the Great Depression, and he was the nation's leader during most of WWII

Eleanor Roosevelt

FDR's Wife and New Deal supporter. Was a great supporter of civil rights and opposed the Jim Crow laws. She also worked for birth control and better conditions for working women. The most active first lady in history

New Deal

A series of reforms enacted by the Franklin Roosevelt administration between 1933 and 1942 with the goal of ending the Great Depression.

three R's (relief, recovery, reform)

New Deal programs served these: relief for people out of work, recovery for businesses and the economy as a whole, and reform of American economic institutions.

Brain Trust

In giving shape to his New Deal, Roosevelt relied on this group of university professors for advice on economic matters

Frances Perkins

Roosevelt's secretary of labor, the first woman ever to serve in a president's cabinet

Hundred Days

Immediately after being sworn into office, Roosevelt called Congress into a special session. Congress passed into law every request of President Roosevelt, enacting more major legislation than any previous Congress in such a short time.

bank holiday

All the banks were ordered to close until new laws could be passed. An Emergency Banking Law was rushed through Congress. The law set up new ways for the federal government to funnel money to troubled banks It also required the Treasury Department to inspect banks before they could re-open.

fireside chats

Radio broadcasts made by FDR to the American people to explain his initiatives, and assured that the banks which reopened on the bank holiday were safe

Public Works Administration

Directed by Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, it allotted money to state and local governments for building roads, bridges, dams, and other public works. Such construction projects were a source of thousands of jobs

Civilian Conservation Corps

Employed young men on projects on federal lands and paid their families small monthly sums

Tennessee Valley Authority

A huge experiment in regional development and public planning. As a govt corporation, it hired thousands of people in one of the nation's poorest regions to build dams, operate electric power plants, control flooding and erosion, and manufacture fertilizer.

Emergency Banking Relief Act

Authorized the government to examine the finances of banks closed during the bank holiday and reopen those judged to be sound

Glass-Steagall Act

increased regulation of the banks and limited how banks could invest customers' money

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Guaranteed individual bank deposits

National Recovery Administration

Directed by Hugh Johnson, this agency attempted to guarantee reasonable profits for business and fair wages and hours for labor. The complex program operated with limited success for two years before the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.

Schechter v. U.S

Supreme Court that declared that the NRA was unconstitutional

Securities and Exchange Commision

Created to regulate the stock market and place strict limits on the kind of speculative practices that had led to the Wall Street crash in 1929. The SEC also required full audits of, and financial disclosure by, corporations to protect investors from fraud and inside trading.

Federal Housing Administration

Gave both the building industry and homeowners a boost by insuring bank loans for building, repairing, and purchasing houses. It provided many families their first chance to buy a home and build wealth they could pass on to their children.

Works Progress Administration

New Deal agency that helped create jobs for those that needed them. It created around 9 million jobs working on bridges, roads, and buildings.

National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act (1935)

This major labor law of 1935 replaced the labor provisions of the National Industrial Recovery Act, after that law was declared unconstitutional. It guaranteed a worker's right to join a union and a union's right to bargain collectively. It also outlawed business practices that were unfair to labor. A new agency, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), was empowered to enforce the law and make sure that workers' rights were protected.

Social Security Act (1935)

It created a federal insurance program based on the automatic collection of taxes from employees and employers throughout people's working careers. They would receive this money in a monthly pension when they reached the age of 65. The unemployed, disabled, and mothers with dependent children would also receive this money.

New Deal coalition

Alliance of the Solid South, White ethnic groups in cities, Midwestern farmers, labor unions, liberals, and African Americans in Northern cities who supported the Democratic Party for 40 years

Father Charles E. Coughlin

This Catholic priest attracted a huge popular following in the early 1930s through his weekly radio broadcasts. He founded the National Union for Social Justice, which called for issuing an inflated currency and nationalizing all banks. His attacks on the New Deal became increasingly anti-Semitic and Fascist until his superiors in the Catholic Church ordered him to stop his broadcasts.

Francis E. Townsend

A retired physician who had lost his savings in the Great Depression and promoted a plan, popular with senior citizens, to use a 2% sales tax to pay every person over sixty $200 a month, provided that the money was spent within the month. This eventually became the social security system.

Huey Long

Known as the "Kingfish", this Louisiana senator became a prominent national figure by proposing a "Share Our Wealth" program that promised a minimum annual income of $5,000 for every American family, to be paid by taxing the wealthy.

reorganization plan

President Franklin Roosevelt proposed a plan that allowed the president to appoint a new Supreme Court justice for each current justice over the age of 70. Congress refused to pass this legislation.

John L. Lewis

President of the United Mine Workers union, became the leader of the Committee of Industrial Organizations

Fair Labor Standards Act

Established several regulations on business and interstate commerce, including a minimum wage, a maximum standard workweek, and child labor restrictions on those under 16

minimum wage

Established by the Fair Labor Standards Act, initially set at 40 cents per hour

Dust Bowl

A drought in the 1930s that turned the Great Plains very dry and ruined crops. Poor farming practices coupled with high winds blew away millions of tons of dried topsoil, and farmers' farms and health were compromised.

"Okies"

Displaced farm families from the Oklahoma dust bowl who migrated to California during the 1930s in search of jobs that could not be found.

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

(1939) a story of Dust Bowl victims who travel to California to look for a better life; a novel set during the great depression, focuses on a poor family of sharecroppers driven from their home by drought, economic hardship, and changes in the agriculture industry.

Fair Employment Practices Committee

Executive order which assisted minorities in gaining jobs in defense industries.

A. Philip Randolph

Head of the Railroad Porters Union who influenced President Roosevelt to est the Fair Employment Practices Committee by threatening a march on Washington to demand equal job opportunities for African Americans.