Unit 3: The Great Depression

Buying on Margin

Purchasing a stock using a loan. Many in the 1920s used this method for risky stocks. One of the causes of the Great Depression.

Buying on Credit

Purchasing products with the promise you will pay for the product at a future time. Also known as installment buying, this method became popular in the 1920s was one of the causes of the Great Depression.

Supply & Demand

Economic concept that states that the price of a good rises and falls depending on how many people want it (demand) and depending on how much of the good is available (supply). Overproduction (high supply/low prices) was one of the causes of the Great Depression.

Stock Market Crash

Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, when the major market in New York plummeted and lost a large amount of value. One of the causes of the Great Depression.

Drought

One of the causes of the Great Depression in which a series of natural disasters that occurred in Middle America, impacting agricultural production.

Dust Bowl

Region of the Great Plains that experienced a drought in 1930 lasting for a decade, leaving many farmers without work or substantial wages and causing many to lose their farms and livelihoods.

Herbert Hoover

31st U.S. President (R) when the Great Depression began. Believed in laissez-faire, the idea that the government should not interfere with the economy because it would eventually correct itself.

Bonus Army

World War I veterans tried to pressure Congress to pay them their 1945 retirement bonuses early to help the vets weather the Great Depression. Around 25,000 veterans marched on Washington, D.C., and Hoover called in the active U.S. military to remove them.

Hoovervilles

Shantytowns built by unemployed, homeless, and destitute people during the Depression of the early 1930s. Named after the president whom many blamed for their financial distress.

Franklin Roosevelt

32nd U.S. President (D) who believed that the government should step in and solve the issues of the Great Depression with his plan, called the New Deal.

Relief

One of the categories of New Deal programs intended to provide immediate assistance to help with basic survival.

Recovery

One of the categories of New Deal programs intended to help the economy to normalize, get back on its feet, and out of the Great Depression.

Reform

One of the categories of New Deal programs intended to make long-term changes, preventing a Great Depression from occurring again.

Bank Holiday

Declared by FDR, all these institutions were closed for 4 days as the government passed laws and reorganized parts of the system to alleviate the crisis and the public's panic and fear.

Fireside Chats

Informal radio broadcasts to the nation in which FDR explained issues and New Deal programs to average Americans. The first broadcast was intended to calm the economic fears of the American people.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

A New Deal program that allowed single men between the ages of 18 and 25 to enlist in work programs to improve America's public lands, forests, and parks. Provided workers with three meals a day and a bed, as well as education. Paid $30 per week, $25 of which was automatically sent home to their families.

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

A New Deal program that helped create around 9 million jobs for those who needed one, working on bridges, roads, airports, sewage systems, and buildings, as well as cultural initiatives and more.

Social Security Act

A New Deal program that guaranteed retirement payments for enrolled workers beginning at age 65; set up a federal-state system of unemployment insurance and care for dependent mothers and children, citizens with certain levels of disability, and public health.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

A New Deal program established to construct dams and power plants in rural areas to generate electricity as well as to prevent floods.

Court Packing

Attempt by Roosevelt to add up to six new justices to the nine-member Supreme Court. He wanted to prevent justices from dismantling the New Deal. The plan died in congress and angered opponents of New Deal and others.

Huey Long

Critic of the New Deal who proposed his alternate "Share Our Wealth" program, which would redistribute the wealth of the richest Americans to ensure a more equitable economy. He suggested capping personal fortunes, providing pensions for the elderly, and guaranteeing a living wage for working Americans.

Father Coughlin

A New Deal critic who called for a "social justice" approach driven by more state control over the economy. He was a Catholic priest and a popular radio personality who eventually lost popularity as his speeches became increasingly controversial, anti-Semitic, and politically radical.