Key Figures and Policies of the New Deal Era

Brain Trust

Specialists in law, economics, and welfare who advised President Franklin D. Roosevelt and helped develop the policies of the New Deal.

New Deal

The economic and political policies of Franklin Roosevelt's administration in the 1930s, aimed to solve the problems of the Great Depression.

Hundred Days

The first hundred days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, when an unprecedented number of reform bills were passed.

Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act

A law creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insured individual bank deposits.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

A government program created to hire young unemployed men to improve the rural environment.

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

An early New Deal program designed to assist industry, labor, and the unemployed through centralized planning.

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)

A New Deal program designed to raise agricultural prices by paying farmers not to farm.

Dust Bowl

Nickname for the Great Plains region devastated by drought and dust storms during the 1930s.

Indian Reorganization Act of 1934

Also known as the 'Indian New Deal', aimed to reverse forced assimilation and promote economic well-being of reservations.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

A New Deal public works project that brought cheap electric power and environmental improvements to the Tennessee Valley.

Social Security Act

A law providing for unemployment and old-age insurance financed by a payroll tax on employers and employees.

Wagner Act

Also known as the National Labor Relations Act, it protected the right of labor to organize in unions.

Fair Labor Standards Act

Regulated minimum wages and maximum hours for workers involved in interstate commerce.

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

A labor organization that broke away from the AFL to organize unskilled industrial workers.

Court-packing plan

Franklin Roosevelt's scheme to add a new justice to the Supreme Court for every member over seventy.

Keynesianism

An economic theory advocating for government intervention to manage economic cycles.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The thirty-second president of the United States, known for the New Deal and leadership during World War II.

Eleanor Roosevelt

The most active First Lady, known for her devotion to the impoverished and oppressed.

Harry L. Hopkins

A major architect of the New Deal, heading the Federal Emergency Relief Administration.

Father Charles Coughlin

A Catholic priest known for his anti-New Deal radio broadcasts.

Francis E. Townsend

Promoted a plan to pay seniors $200 a month, popular among the elderly during the Great Depression.

Huey P. Long

Louisiana governor whose 'Share Our Wealth' program promised economic equality.

John Steinbeck

An American novelist known for his works depicting the lives of the working class.

Frances Perkins

The first woman cabinet member and secretary of labor under Roosevelt.

Mary McLeod Bethune

The highest-ranking African American in the Roosevelt administration, leader of the 'Black Cabinet.'

Robert F. Wagner

A Democratic senator responsible for the passage of significant New Deal legislation.