Studied by 114 people
Smoot-Hawley Tariff (p. 736)
A high tariff enacted in 1930 during the Great Depression. By taxing imported goods, Congress hoped to stimluate American manufacturing but the tariff triggered retaliatory tariffs in other countries, which further hundered 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 or pension awards due to be paid in 1945.
Fireside Chats (p. 740)
A series of informal radio addresses Franklin Roosevelt made to the nation 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 that 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 built 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 Authority (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 “reckless spending” and “socialist” reforms in 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 labor unions and established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency with the authority to protect workers from employer coercion and the 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.
Classic 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 unempoloyed 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 regained 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.
Hoovervilles
Shanty towns that the unemployed built in the cities during the early years of the Depression
Unemployment Rate (1933)
In 1933, at the worst point in the Great Depression years, unemployment rates in the United States reached almost 25%, with more than 11 million people looking for work. armers who had lost their land and homes to foreclosure as a result of the Dust Bowl made up a large part of the idle workforce.
Gold Standard
This was signed by McKinley. It stated that all paper money would be backed only by gold. This meant that the government had to hold gold in reserve in case people decided they wanted to trade in their money.
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Established in early 1932 and based on the War Finance Corporation of the World War I years. Designed to make government credit available to ailing banks, railroads, insurance companies, and other businesses. Emergency Relief Act (ERA).
Court-Packing Plan
Roosevelt's proposal in 1937 to "reform" the Supreme Court by appointing an additional justice for every justice over age of 70; following the Court's actions in striking down major New Deal laws, FDR came to believe that some justices were out of touch with the nation's needs.
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Flashcard (21)