Great Depression Vocab

Smoot-Hawley Tariff

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

Fireside Chats

a series of informational radio addresses Franklin Roosevelt made to the nation in which he explained new deal initiatives

Hundred Days

a legendary session with the first few months of Franklin Roosevelt administration in which Congress enacted 15 major bills that focus primarily on four problems: banking failures, agricultural overproduction, the business slump, and so unemployment

Glass-Steagall Act

a 1933 law that created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insured deposits up to 2,500 (and up to 250,000) the act also prohibited banks for making risk risky, unsecured investments with customers deposits

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

new deal legislation passed in May 1933 the aimed at cutting agricultural production to raise prices and thus farmers income

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

federal agency established in June 1933 to promote industrial recovery during the Great Depression. It encouraged industrial is to voluntarily adopt codes that find fair working conditions, set prices, and minimized competition.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

federal relief program that provided jobs to millions of unemployed young men who built thousands of bridges, rose, trails, and other structures and state and national parks, both during the national infrastructure

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

the commission established by Congress in 1934 to regulate the stock market. The commission had broad power to determine how stocks and bonds were sold to the public, to set rules for margin (credit) transactions, and prevent stock sales by those with inside information

Welfare State

a term replied to industrial democracy that adult various government guaranteed social welfare programs. The creation of Social Security and other measures of the second fundamentally changed American Society and established a national welfare state for the first time.

Wagner Act

a 1935 act that upheld the right of industrial workers to join unions that established a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency with the authority to protect workers from employer coercion, and to guarantee collective bargaining

Social Security Act

a 1935 act with three main provisions: old age pension for workers; a joint federal state system of compensation for unplugged workers; and a program of payments to mothers and the blind, death, and disabled

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

federal new deal program established in 1935 that provide provided government funded public work jobs to millions of unemployed Americans during the Great Depression and areas ranging from construction to the arts

Roosevelt Recession

a recession from 1937 to 1938. That occurred after president Roosevelt cut the federal budget.

Dust Bowl

the series of dust storms from 1930 to 1941 during which a severe drought, afflicted the semiarid areas of Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arkansas, and Kansas

Keynesian economies

the theory, developed by British economist John Maynard Keynes in the 1930s, that purposeful government intervention and the economy (through lowering or raising taxes, interest rates, and government spending) can affect the level of overall economic activity and hereby prevent severe depression and runaway inflation

Herbert Hoover

31st President of the United States

A successful mining engineer and humanitarian, whose presidency was overshadowed by the onset of the group depression

Franklin D. Roosevelt

32nd President of the United States

Served from 1933 to 1945 and is renowned for leading the country through the Great Depression and most of World War II

Huey Long

an influential and controversial American politician, known for his populist policies as governor of Louisiana and is push for wealth distribution through his “share our wealth” program

Frances Perkins

The first woman to serve in the US presidential cabinet and a pioneering advocate for workers rights, guiding the creation of Social Security, minimum wage loss, and labor protection instead of the new deal

Eleanor Roosevelt

An American political figure, human humanitarian, and most influential lady in US history, known for her advocacy of human rights and a transformative role in American and global affairs