The 1920s, the Great Depression, and the New Deal

Comprehensive practice flashcards covering the politics of the Roaring Twenties, economic collapse, Great Depression hardships, and New Deal legislative programs.

What actions did Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and his special assistant J. Edgar Hoover take during the Palmer Raids of $1919$ to $1920$?

They hunted down suspected Communists, socialists, and anarchists, invading private homes and offices, jailing suspects without legal counsel, and deporting hundreds of foreign-born radicals without trials.

Why were Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti convicted and sentenced to death following their May $1920$ arrest in South Braintree, Massachusetts?

Although charged with the robbery and murder of a paymaster and guard with circumstantial evidence, their conviction reflected nativist prejudice and hysteria against foreigners and draft-evading anarchists during the Red Scare.

How did the Emergency Quota Act of $1921$ and its $1924$ amendment limit immigration into the United States?

The law established a quota system that, as amended in $1924$, limited annual immigration from each European nation to $2\%$ of the number of its nationals living in the United States in $1890$, discriminating against southern and eastern Europeans and prohibiting Japanese immigration.

How did Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge respond to the Boston police strike of $1919$?

Coolidge called out the National Guard, declared that there is no right to strike against public safety at any time, and replaced the striking policemen with new hires.

What wage increase did John L. Lewis win for the United Mine Workers of America after the November $1, 1919$ strike?

Following defiance of a court order and arbitration appointed by President Woodrow Wilson, the coal miners received a $27\%$ wage increase.

What did Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes propose at the Washington Naval Conference in $1921$?

He urged that no more warships be built for ten years and suggested that the five major naval powers—the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy—scrap many of their battleships, cruisers, and aircraft carriers.

How did the Fordney-McCumber Tariff of $1922$ affect Britain and France's ability to repay their World War I debts to the United States?

It raised taxes on U.S. imports to $60\%$, making it impossible for Britain and France to sell enough goods in the United States to repay their debts, prompting the Dawes Plan loan cycle.

What corrupt action led to Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall's felony conviction in the Teapot Dome scandal?

Fall secretly leased government-owned oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California, to private oil companies and received over $\text{\$}400,000$ in loans, bonds, and cash.

What path did U.S. Highway 66 cover when established in $1926$, and what was its nickname?

Known as "the Mother Road," Route 66 ran $2,448\text{ miles}$ from Chicago to Los Angeles, connecting rural communities and triggering the growth of roadside towns, motels, and service stations.

What was the installment plan introduced during the $1920\text{s}$ economic boom?

An arrangement of easy credit enabling consumers to buy goods over an extended period with little money down at purchase ("a dollar down and a dollar forever"), allowing people to accumulate substantial personal debt.

What did the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act of $1919$ establish regarding alcohol?

The Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages, and the Volstead Act established the underfunded Prohibition Bureau in the Treasury Department to enforce it.

What core conflict did the $1925$ Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee, dramatize?

A clash between Protestant fundamentalism and modern science over whether public school teacher John T. Scopes could teach Charles Darwin's theory of evolution rather than the biblical account of creation.

In the $1920\text{s}$, what was a flapper, and what was the "double standard"?

A flapper was an emancipated young woman who embraced modern fashions and urban attitudes; the double standard was a set of principles granting greater sexual freedom to men while requiring women to observe stricter moral behavior.

Which aviator and aircraft, shown here, completed the first nonstop solo transatlantic flight in May $1927$?

Charles A. Lindbergh in the Spirit of St. Louis

What was the "Lost Generation" in $1920\text{s}$ American literature?

A group of American expatriate authors including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and John Dos Passos who settled in Europe, primarily Paris, and expressed disillusionment with American society, consumerism, and the glorification of war.

What program did Marcus Garvey advocate through the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)?

He promoted black pride, economic self-reliance through black-owned businesses, and a "Back to Africa" movement to build an independent African nation free from white colonial rule.

What was the Harlem Renaissance of the $1920\text{s}$?

A literary and artistic flowering led by well-educated, middle-class African Americans in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood celebrating black heritage and culture through literature, poetry, and jazz.

What four key economic weaknesses contributed to the outbreak of the Great Depression?

Tariffs and war debt policies that stifled foreign trade, an agricultural crisis of overproduction and falling prices, the expansion of easy credit, and an uneven distribution of income.

What is the difference between stock speculation and buying on margin during the late $1920\text{s}$?

Speculation involved buying stocks and bonds on the chance of a quick profit while ignoring risks; buying on margin meant paying a small percentage of a stock's price as a down payment and borrowing the rest.

What occurred on Black Tuesday, October $29, 1929$?

The stock market completely collapsed as a record $16.4\text{ million}$ shares were dumped, wiping out billions of dollars in paper profits and triggering nationwide financial panic.

Why did the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act of $1930$ worsen the global economic crisis?

By establishing the highest protective tariff in U.S. history, it prevented European nations from earning dollars to buy American goods, prompted retaliatory foreign tariffs, and caused world trade to drop by more than $40\%$.

What physical factors created the Dust Bowl in the Great Plains during the early $1930\text{s}$?

Extensive plowing that removed the prairie grasses, soil exhaustion from overproduction, and severe drought combined with high winds that blew away millions of tons of topsoil across states like Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

What iconic $1936$ photograph by Dorothea Lange, shown here, came to symbolize the suffering of migrant farm families during the Great Depression?

"Migrant Mother"

What was Boulder Dam (later Hoover Dam), and how did President Hoover propose to finance its construction?

A $726\text{-foot-high}$ dam authorized on the Colorado River to provide flood control, water, and electricity, financed through revenues generated by sales of the electric power it produced.

What was the purpose of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) created in January $1932$?

To authorize up to $\text{\$}2\text{ billion}$ in emergency financing for banks, life insurance companies, railroads, and other large businesses, based on the belief that funds would trickle down to average workers through jobs and wages.

Who made up the Bonus Army, and what happened when they assembled in Washington, D.C., in $1932$?

Between $10,000$ and $20,000$ World War I veterans and their families who came to support the Patman Bill for early payment of wartime service bonuses; after the bill was rejected, the U.S. Army under General Douglas MacArthur used tear gas, bayonets, and force to disband them.

What were the three general goals of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal programs?

Relief for the needy, economic recovery, and financial reform.

What protection did the Glass-Steagall Act of $1933$ provide to bank customers?

It reorganized the banking system and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which originally insured individual bank accounts up to $\text{\$}5,000$.

How did the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) attempt to raise farm crop prices in $1933$?

It paid farmers subsidies to leave a portion of their land unseeded, paid cotton growers to plow under $10\text{ million}$ acres of crops, and paid hog farmers to slaughter $6\text{ million}$ pigs to lower supply.

What work did young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) perform between $1933$ and $1942$?

Nearly $3\text{ million}$ men aged $18$ to $25$ built roads, developed over $800$ state parks, planted over $200\text{ million}$ trees in the Great Plains, and worked on flood-control and soil-erosion projects, earning $\text{\$}30$ a month.

Why did the Supreme Court declare the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) unconstitutional in $1935$?

The Court ruled that the law improperly delegated legislative powers to the executive branch and that the enforcement of industry codes within states exceeded federal constitutional powers to regulate interstate commerce.

What social program did Louisiana Senator Huey Long champion in opposition to FDR's New Deal?

The nationwide "Share-Our-Wealth" program under the banner "Every Man a King," which proposed guaranteeing every American family a home, income, food, clothing, and education by taxing large fortunes.

What did President Roosevelt propose in his February $1937$ "Court-packing bill"?

He asked Congress to enact a court-reform bill permitting him to appoint up to six new Supreme Court justices to counterbalance conservative judges who had struck down New Deal legislation.

What scale of relief did Harry Hopkins's Works Progress Administration (WPA) provide between $1935$ and $1943$?

It spent $\text{\$}11\text{ billion}$ to employ more than $8\text{ million}$ workers to construct airports, roads, and public buildings, while also employing artists, writers, and theater professionals.

What rights did the Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act of $1935$) guarantee to workers?

It protected workers' rights to join unions and engage in collective bargaining, prohibited unfair labor practices by employers, and established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to arbitrate disputes.

What three major provisions were established under the Social Security Act of $1935$?

An old-age insurance plan for retirees aged $65$ or older and their spouses, an unemployment compensation system funded by a tax on employers, and federal aid to families with dependent children and the disabled.

What historical first was achieved by Frances Perkins during the Roosevelt presidency?

She became the first female cabinet member in American history when appointed Secretary of Labor, helping create the Social Security system.

What major shift in government policy was mandated by the Indian Reorganization Act of $1934$?

It moved away from assimilation and toward tribal autonomy by returning unsold reservation land to collective tribal ownership, permitting tribes to elect governing councils, and reducing boarding schools in favor of on-reservation education.

What was the New Deal coalition that emerged to support the Democratic Party in the $1930\text{s}$?

An alignment of diverse political groups including Southern whites, urban voters in large cities, African Americans, and unionized industrial workers.

Which famous $1930$ painting by Grant Wood, shown here, became a well-known portrayal of Midwestern life during the Great Depression?

"American Gothic"

What role did the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) play in the region's development following its creation in May $1933$?

It renovated five dams, constructed $20$ new dams, generated affordable hydroelectric power, controlled seasonal flooding, and fostered industrial and agricultural growth across seven southern states.