APUSH

1920-1941

Nativism

Nativism

the belief that native-born Americans are superior to foreigners- movement based on hostility to immigrants, especially Irish & Catholic ones importance: nativists considered immigrants as despots overthrowing the American republic;resulted in the formation of anti-immigrant societies, most notably the "know nothing" party

Sacco and Vanzetti

Two men arrested at the peak of the Red Scare in 1920 for the murder of two men during a robbery of a shoe company in Massachusetts. Sacco and Vanzetti were Italian aliens and self-proclaimed anarchists who avoided the draft. They were sentenced to death in 1927, because of close ties to radical groups.

National Origins Quota act

This 1924 law established a quota system to regulate the influx of immigrants to America. The system restricted the new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and Asia. It also reduced the annual total of immigrants.

Great Migration

The migration of African Americans from the rural South to the industrial North, which held promises of jobs, during and after World War I.

Harlem Renaissance

A flourishing of African American artists, writers, intellectuals, and social leaders in the 1920s, centered in the neighborhoods of Harlem, New York City.

Langston Hughes

A leading poet of the Harlem Renaissance who described the rich culture of african American life using rhythms influenced by jazz music. He wrote of African American hope and defiance in poems such as "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and "My People"

Zora Neale Hurston

Black writer who wanted to save African American folklore. She traveled all across the South collecting folk tales, songs & prayers of Black southerners. Her book was called Mules and Men.

Louis Armstrong

Leading African American jazz musician during the Harlem Renaissance; he was a talented trumpeter whose style influenced many later musicians.

Duke Ellington

Born in Chicago middle class. moved to Harlem in 1923 and began playing at the cotton club. Composer, pianist and band leader. Most influential figures in jazz.

Flappers

women in the 1920's who bobbed their hair, wore short skirts, and defied the morals and restrictions of the earlier generations

Speakeasies

An illegal bar where drinks were sold, during the time of prohibition. It was called a Speakeasy because people literally had to speak easy so they were not caught drinking alcohol by the police.

Al Capone

An American gangster during the Roaring Twenties and the prohibition era. Known for smuggling and bootlegging liquor and the bribery of government figures and prostitution. He used some of his money to make donations to various charitable endeavors. Was arrested for tax evasion.

Scopes monkey Trial

was an American legal case in July 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which had made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school.

William Jennings Bryan

(1860-1925) A politician who was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Did not support the Gold Standard, railroads, or banks. Supporter of populist Dem. Promoted Free Silver, anti-imperialism, and trust-busting. 41st Secretary of State under Pres. Woodrow Wilson. A populist leader. Prosecuted John Scopes for teaching evolution in a Tennessee school.

Warren Harding

29th President of the United States (1921-1923). A Republican from Ohio. promised return to normality after WW1 used efforts of make no enemies during his presdiency. scandals affected his presidency such as the Ohio Gang that had to do with financial jobs that he offered his friends. Died into his presidency.

"Return to normalcy"

campaign theme of warren harding during the election of 1920 it reflected the conservative mood of the country after the constant appeals to idealism that characterized both the progressive era and wilson's fight over the League of Nations. 100 days.

Teapot Dome scandal

Harding Administration scandal in which Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall profited from secret leasing to private oil companies of government oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California.

Consumerism

concentration on producing and distributing goods for a market which must constantly be enlarged.

Trickle down economics

Theory that by loaning money to the banks and high end people in the pyramid of economics with the hopes that it would then 'trickle down' to the lower classes.

Andrew Mellon

the Secretary of the Treasury during the Harding Administration. He felt it was best to invest in tax-exempt securities rather than in factories that provided prosperous payrolls. He believed in trickle down economics (Hamiltonian economics) and that the economy would heal itself.

Welfare capitalism

A method used by employers in the 1920s to avoid labor unrest and delay the growth of labor unions by giving employees minor benefits, such as shorter work weeks, raised wages, and paid vacation

Great Bull Market

a situation in which the value of stocks is rising quickly. This occurred in 1929 when the New York Stock Exchange had reached an all-time high, with stocks selling for more than 16 times their actual worth.

Buying on the margin

Buying stocks and borrowing money from a bank or broker; if the money way not paid back, the bank would foreclose on possessions; everyday people could buy stock; led to stock market crash because of over extension

Calvin Coolidge

he 30th President of the United States (1923-1929). A Republican lawyer from Vermont. Succeeded into presidency after the sudden death of Warren G. Harding. He restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor's administration, and left office with considerable popularity.

Herbert Hoover

Republican candidate who assumed the presidency in March 1929 promising the American people prosperity and attempted to first deal with the Depression by trying to restore public faith in the community.

Great Stock Market Crash

October 1929; result of unregulated financial speculation; U.S. banks made large loans to customers, but stock prices collapsed and they could not repay the banks.

Hoovervilles

Shanty towns that the unemployed built in the cities during the early years of the Depression; the name given to them shows that thte people blamed Hoover directly for the Depression.

Dust bowl

A drought beginning in 1930 that caused an area from Texas to the Dakotas to be known as the "Dust Bowl;" rainfall decreased, heat increased, farming regions were turned into deserts. "Okies" The farm economy produced more food than Americans could buy, causing the price of farm goods to plummet.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

A government lending agency established under the Hoover administration in order to assist insurance companies, banks, agricultural organizations, railroads, and local governments.

Smoot-Hawley Tariff

A high tariff enacted in 1930 during the Great Depression. By taxing imported goods, Congress hoped to stimulate American manufacturing, but the tariff triggered retaliatory tariffs in other countries, which further hindered global trade and led to greater economic contraction.

Bonus army

A group of almost 20,000 World War I veterans who were hard-hit victims of the depression, who wanted what the government owed them for their services and "saving" democracy. They marched to Washington and set up public camps and erected shacks on vacant lots.

Franklin Roosevelt

often referred to by his initials FDR, was the thirty-second President of the United States. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945, and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms of office. He was a central figure of the 20th century during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war., overcame polio to become President; his New Deal attempted to solve the economic problems of the Great Depression; he was a symbol of hope, courage, and optimism.

New Deal

President Franklin Roosevelt's precursor of the modern welfare state (1933-1939); programs to combat economic depression enacted a number of social insureance measures and used government spending to stimulate the economy; increased power of the state and the state's intervention in U.S. social and economic life.

Fireside chats

The informal radio talks President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had with Americans during the Great Depression. They not only unified America with these nationwide speeches, but he roses American spirits by encouraging Americans through the Great Depression. FDR was the first president to effectively use the radio for politics. These talks occurred at least once a month, maybe even more frequently

Bank Holiday

Starting on March 6, FDR issued a proclamation closing all American Banks for four days until Congress could meet in special session to consider banking reform legislation. This created a general sense of relief and hope.

Emergency Banking Act

a generally conservative bill designed to protect the larger banks from being dragged down by the weakness of smaller ones. The bill provided for Treasury inspection of all banks before they could reopen, federal assistance to some troubled institution, and for a thorough reorganization of the banks in the greatest difficulty.

FDIC

This entity provided insurance to personal banking accounts up to $5,000. These assured people that their money was safe and secure. This agency still functions today.

CCC

1933. This unemployment relief act hired young men for reforestation programs, firefighting. flood control, spawn drainage, etc;

TVA

Tennessee Valley Authority. Built dams for flood control and hydroelectric power in the Tennessee valley, created projects to combat erosion and deforestation.

AAA

Agriculture Adjustment Act. Government paid farmers not to plant crops, provided loans for farmers to help pay mortgages.

NRA

National Recovery Administration. more government regulation of companies; set standards for products, prices, and price increases; set min wages and max hours.

WPA

Works Progress Administration. Built roads, bridges, buildings, even provided money for art projects; by 1936 7% of the American work force was employed by the WPA.

SEC

Security & Exchange Commission ; New Deal agency established to provide a public watchdog against deception and fraud in stock trading.

Dorothea Lange-"Migrant Mother"

Photographer who took pickers of Florence Owens. Employed by the New Deal agency to document conditions among farmworkers in California.

Schechter v US

"the sick chicken case"; Declared the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional on three grounds: That the act delegated legislative power to the exectutive; that there was a lack of constitutional authority for such legislation; and that it sought to regulate the businesses that wre wholly intrastate in character

Court packing

Roosevelt's proposal in 1937 to "reform" the Supreme Court by appointing an additional justice for every justice over age 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.

Frances Perkins

The U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945 and the first woman ever appointed to the cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her friend Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition.

Harry Hopkins

A New York social worker who headed the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and Civil Works Administration. He helped grant over 3 billion dollars to the states wages for work projects, and granted thousands of jobs for jobless Americans. Frances Perkins. secretary of labor, 1st woman cabinet member.

Mary McLeod Bethune

A leader in the struggle for women's and black equality. She founded a school for black students that eventually became Bethune-Cookman University. She also served as an adviser to FDR. Black Cabinet.

Keynesian economics

Economic theory that advocated deficit spending to stimulate the economy; with the depression still lingering in 1937, FDR announced a bold new program embracing this theory and effectively reversing current economic policies.

Isolationism

Economic theory that advocated deficit spending to stimulate the economy; with the depression still lingering in 1937, FDR announced a bold new program embracing this theory and effectively reversing current economic policies.

Nye Committee

officially known as the Special Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry, was a United States Senate committee chaired by U.S. Senator Gerald Nye. The committee investigated the financial and banking interests which underlay United States' involvement in World War I and came to the conclusion that big businesses had conspired to have America enter WWI so that war materials could be sold and the industry would make profit (it called the bankers and arms producers "merchants of death"). The Nye Committee was a significant factor in public and political support for American neutrality in the early stages of World War II.

Charles Lindbergh

mail service pilot who became a celebrity when he made the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927; a symbol of the vanishing individualistic hero of the frontier who was honest, modest, and self-reliant, he later became a leading isolationist.

Neutrality Acts

Acts were laws passed in 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1939 to limit U.S. involvement in future wars. They were based on the widespread disillusionment with World War I in the early 1930s and the belief that the United States had been drawn into the war through loans and trade with the Allies.

The 1935 act banned munitions exports to belligerents and restricted American travel on belligerent ships.

The 1936 act banned loans to belligerents.

The 1937 act extended these provisions to civil wars and gave the president discretionary authority to restrict non-munitions sales to a "cash‐and‐carry" basis (belligerents had to pay in advance then export goods in their own ships). (These bills were signed and publicly applauded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, although he complained privately that they limited presidential authority.)

The 1939 act, passed with President Roosevelt's active support in November under the shadow of the European war, banned U.S. ships from carrying goods or passengers to belligerent ports but allowed the United States to sell munitions, although on a "cash‐and‐carry" basis. Roosevelt further eroded neutrality over the next two years, trading surplus U.S. destroyers to Britain for access to naval and air bases and providing U.S. military equipment to enemies of Germany and Japan under the Lend‐Lease Act. Congress repealed the Neutrality Acts on 13 November 1941, officially ending any form of neutrality.

Although seen as the high tide of interwar isolationism, the neutrality legislation of 1935-37 had minimal impact on U.S. defense planning. The 1939 act encouraged combat testing of U.S. equipment by Allied forces, but also created shortages as U.S. production initially was unable to meet requirements of both Allies and expanding U.S. forces.

America First

Leading isolationist group advocating that America focus on continental defense and non-involvement with the European war

Destroyer Deal

In 1940, President Roosevelt arranged to trade fifty old American naval destroyers to Britain in exchange for six Caribbean naval bases, it was a shrewd deal that helped save Britain's fleet and bolster U.S. defenses in the Atlantic

Four Freedoms

freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

Lend-Lease Act

Permitted the United States to lend or lease arms and other supplies to the Allies, signifying increasing likelihood of American involvement in World War II.