The Great Depression and the New Deal Vocabulary

Vocabulary terms, key historical figures, agencies, and legislation from the Great Depression and New Deal era.

Herbert Hoover

Served as secretary of Commerce and later as the President of the United States from 1929 to 1933, during the Great Depression. His administration's response to the Great Depression was widely criticized for its ineffectiveness.

Speculation

Practice of making high-risk investments in hopes of obtaining large profits.

Black Tuesday

October 29, 1929, when stock prices fell sharply in the Great Crash.

Great Depression

Period lasting from 1929 to 1941 in which the U.S. economy faltered and unemployment soared.

Hawley-Smoot Tariff

Protective tax on imports enacted by Congress in 1930 in an effort to counter the nation's slide into the Great Depression.

Hoovervilles

Temporary shelters built during the Great Depression grouped together.

Tenant Farmers

Farmers who lost their farms but remained on the land working for bigger landowners rather than for themselves.

Dust Bowl

Term used for the central and southern Great Plains during the 1930s, when the region suffered from drought and dust storms.

Okies

General term used to describe Dust Bowl refugees.

Repatriation

Process by which government officials return persons to their country of origin.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

Federal agency set up by Congress in 1932 to provide emergency government credit to banks, railroads, and other large businesses.

Hoover Dam

Dam on the Colorado River that was built during the Great Depression.

Bonus Army

Group of World War I veterans who marched on Washington, D.C., in 1932 to demand early payment of a bonus promised them by Congress.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

He served as assistant secretary of the Navy (1913-1920), before running unsuccessfully for Vice President on the Democratic ticket in 1920. Stricken with polio the following year, Roosevelt recovered to resume his political career as governor of New York (1929-1933). Elected President in 1932, he lead the nation through the Great Depression and World War II before dying in office in 1945.

Eleanor Roosevelt

The wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt who became a public figure in her own right with FDR's election in 1932, traveling the country promoting causes to help women, children, and the poor. After her husband's death, she served as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations (1945-1951), focusing on human rights and women's issues.

New Deal

Programs and legislation pushed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression to promote economic recovery and social reform.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

Government agency created during the New Deal that insures bank deposits, guaranteeing that depositors' money will be safe.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Government agency created during the New Deal to build dams in the Tennessee River valley to control flooding and generate electric power.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

New Deal program that provided young men with relief jobs on environmental conservation projects, including reforestation and flood control.

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

New Deal agency that promoted economic recovery by regulating production, prices, and wages.

Public Works Administration (PWA)

New Deal agency that provided millions of jobs constructing public buildings as well as airports, dams, and bridges.

Huey Long

Elected governor of Louisiana in 1928, where he won a wide following by providing reforms to help the poor during the depression. While serving in the U.S. Senate (1932-1935), he became a vocal critic of Roosevelt's New Deal and called for a redistribution of the nation's wealth. In 1935, he announced his plan to run for President but was assassinated that same year.

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

Key New Deal agency that provided work relief through various public works projects.

John Maynard Keynes

A British economist best known for his advocacy of government intervention to protect the economy from the negative effects of recessions, depressions, and booms. He outlined his ideas in The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, published in 1936.

Social Security Act

1935 law that set up a pension system for retirees, established unemployment insurance, created insurance for victims of work-related accidents, and provided aid for poverty-stricken mothers and children, the blind, and the disabled.

Fair Labor Standards Act

1938 law that set a minimum wage, a maximum work week of 44 hours, and outlawed child labor.

Court Packing

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan to add six new justices to the nine-member Supreme Court after the Court had ruled some New Deal laws to be unconstitutional.