Great Depression and New Deal Lecture Notes

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering key terms, legislative acts, and events from the Great Depression and the New Deal era as discussed in the lecture notes.

Court-packing Scandal

A $1937$ attempt by FDR to expand the Supreme Court to $15$ justices to ensure they would support his New Deal acts.

Collective Bargaining

The process by which a union representing a group of workers negotiates with management for a contract.

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

A program where the government paid farmers to plow surplus crops under soil and destroy surplus livestock to help farmers recover.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)

The former New York Governor who became President in $1932$ and took an active role in managing the American economy.

The New Deal

FDR's plan to aid the Great Depression, focused on three goals: relief for the jobless, economic recovery, and reforms to prevent future depressions.

Alphabet Soup Programs

A series of acronym-named laws passed between $1933$ and $1939$ that provided relief, recovery, and reform through job creation and banking regulation.

National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)

A $1935$ law sponsored by Senator Wagner of NY that protected workers from being fired for joining unions and guaranteed collective bargaining.

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

A $1935$ program that employed the jobless for construction projects and hired artists and photographers to paint murals.

Bonus

An additional sum of money.

Bonus Army

WWI veterans who demanded their promised bonuses early and set up camp in Washington; they were eventually chased out and their tents burned by Hoover.

Pension

Sums of money paid to people on a regular basis after they retire.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

A program that hired unemployed single men aged $18$ to $25$ for $\$1$ a day to conserve natural resources and build infrastructure.

Hoovervilles

The shacks in which the homeless lived during the Great Depression.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

A $1934$ agency created to regulate the trading of securities, prevent fraud, and restore confidence in capital markets.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

A corporation that insured savings accounts in government-approved banks, ensuring depositors got their money back if a bank failed.

First Hundred Days

The period from March $9$ to June $16$, $1933$, during which Congress passed a record of $15$ major new laws.

The Great Depression

A period of economic downturn from $1929$ to $1941$ marked by overproduction and weaknesses in the banking system.

The Dust Bowl

A severe drought in the $1930s$ affecting states from Texas to the Dakotas, where high winds carried away topsoil in massive dust storms.

Tennessee River Authority (TVA)

An agency that built $49$ dams across $7$ states to control floods, deepen river channels, and provide health centers and schools.

Fireside Chats

The $30$ radio speeches FDR gave while in office to explain his programs and connect with the American people.

Black Tuesday

October $29$, $1929$, the day the stock market crashed as a stampede of selling hit the New York Stock Exchange.

Social Security Act (SSA)

A September $1935$ law that established pensions for the elderly, unemployment insurance, and support for dependent children and people with disabilities.

Rural Electrification Authority (REA)

An agency created to bring electrical service to rural areas, increasing farm electricity from $10\%$ to $25\%$..

Bank Holiday

A $4$-day closing of every bank in the country to ensure only those with enough funds could reopen.

Deficit Spending

The government practice of spending more money than it takes in, leading to an increase in the national debt.