Exam 2 (Roaring Twenties, New Deal, WWII) Flashcards
Prohibition
Established by the 18th Amendment in 1920. Enforced by an understaffed and extremely corrupt Federal Prohibition Bureau.
Bootlegging
Organized crime rose in response to prohibition. This gave rise to a group of infamous gangsters wielding the new Tommy guns.
Speakeasies
Illicit establishment that sold alcoholic beverages.
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1929)
Slaughter of 7 men widely thought to be orchestrated by Al Capone.
Al Capone
Infamous gangster who got away with numerous crimes until an income tax evasion charge finally stuck and gave him 10 years.
Clara Bow
1920s actress known as “the it girl.”
The Jazz Singer
The first film to have spoken audio.
Emergency Immigration (Quota) Act of 1921
Passed out of fear that war-torn Europe would lead to a flow of immigrants to America. Heavily limited immigration.
Immigration (National Origins) Act of 1924
Allowed Western and Northern European immigration, but restricted immigration from others.
Five-Power Naval Treaty (1922)
Limited naval construction between the big five powers. Done to prevent an arms race.
Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)
States that signed onto the pact agreed to not use war to resolve disputes.
Sacco Vanzetti
Italian immigrants who were probably unjustly convicted of murder. Representative of the larger nativism present in the U.S.
Second Ku Klux Klan
National organization (~3 million) formed atop Stone Mountain. Not only anti-black but anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, anti-Hispanic.
Teapot Dome Scandal
Harding’s Sec. of the Interior took bribes from oil companies in exchange for leases. Albert Fall was imprisoned and fined.
Scopes Trial
John Scopes broke Tennessee law by teaching Darwinian evolution. He was convicted, but the case was later overturned on a technicality.
Harlem Renaissance
African-American cultural revolution in the 1920s. Hemingway, Cummings, Hughes.
Marcus Garvey
Black nationalist who supported the mass immigration of blacks back to Africa. Leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Convicted of mail fraud and deported.
Birth of Radio
Spurred media and advertisement.
Charles Lindbergh
First transatlantic solo flight, NYC to Paris, 1927. National hero/celebrity.
Causes of the Great Depression
Grossly unequal distribution of income, agricultural depression of the 1920s, instability of the banking industry, defaults by European nations on their debts to the US.
Black Tuesday
Major American stock market crash in October 1929 that led to the Great Depression.
Hoovervilles
Homeless camps that the public blamed President Hoover’s inaction for.
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Federal agency that loaned money to banks, railroads, manufacturers, and mortgage companies.
Bonus Army
In 1924, Congress voted to give WWI veterans a “cash bonus” in 1946; unemployed vets began demanding immediate payment in 1932 & marched to D.C.
Election of 1932
Landslide election for Franklin Deleanor Roosevelt and his New Deal.
Scottsboro Boys
Nine African-American teenagers accused of raping two white women. Example of lack of justice in the American legal system.
Eleanor Roosevelt
First “activist” first lady, particularly as a champion for the impoverished, women, and minorities.
Fireside Chats
A series of evening radio addresses given by FDR.
First Hundred Days
Refers to spate of reform and emergency legislation passed by Congress at Roosevelt’s urging during his first 100 days in office.
This legislation made up most of the “First New Deal.”
Emergency Banking Act
Permitted sound banks to reopen and provided money and managerial assistance to banks in trouble.
Glass-Steagall Act
Created the FDIC to insure bank deposits up to $2,500. Separated commercial banking from investment banking (this clause was repealed in 1999).
Civilian Conservation Corps
Provided conservation related jobs for young men aged 18-25.
Agricultural Adjustment Acts
Paid landowning farmers to produce less crops or meat or poultry or dairy products. Declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1936.
National Industrial Recovery Act
Helped businesses organize codes setting prices and minimum wage. Put people back to work at decent jobs, wages and working conditions. Declared unconstitutional in 1935.
Tennessee Valley Authority
Created economic development in the TN Valley through flood control and cheap electricity.
Works Progress Administration
Provided federal funding for public construction projects, arts programs, and other job creation programs that would also be of benefit to the public.
Social Security Act
Old-age pensions. Unemployment and disability insurance (in conjunction with the states).
National Labor Relations Act
Guaranteed labor unions the right to organize and engage in collective bargaining.
Fair Labor Standards Act
Set a minimum wage of 40 cents/hour. Set the length of the work week at 40 hours and mandated overtime pay. Prohibited the employment of children under 16.
Huey Long
Liberal critic of FDR. He was a lot more radical of a Democrat (confiscate money from Rich, UBI) than FDR and threatened to run against him.
Francis Townsend
Proposal provided $200 a month to everyone 60 or older. The idea died out after Roosevelt created Social Security.
Charles Coughlin
The best radio orator in America. Initially supported FDR but then became an ardent foe after he didn’t nationalize banks.
Court Packing Plan
After his second inauguration, FDR proposed (without success) increasing the number of Supreme Court justices from 9 to 15. After this, however, the justices began shifting to pro-FDR.
FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy
Pledged a policy of cooperation with and non-intervention in Latin American nations. Helped lead most Latin American nations to support the Allies in WWII.
Nye Committee
Suggested that US entry into WWI had been unduly influenced by “merchants of death” (munitions makers) and bankers who loaned money to the Allies.
Neutrality Acts
No sale or shipment of arms to belligerents, no loans or credits to belligerents, no travel by U.S. citizens on belligerents’ ships. Purchase of nonmilitary goods by belligerents to be paid in cash and transported in their own ships (cash-and-carry).
Munich Pact
Agreement between Germany, Great Britain, and France: Germany could keep the Sudetenland but would make no further territorial demands.
Lend-Lease Act
Allowed Great Britain (and other Allied nations) to make military purchases from the USA on credit.
Atlantic Charter
Agreement between FDR and Churchill (UK) in which they agreed upon some mutual war aims, such as achieving peace, freedom of the seas, and establishing what in 1945 became the United Nations (UN).
Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor
2,400 Americans killed, 1,200 more wounded, 19 US Navy ships sunk or damaged. USA declared war on Japan, Dec. 8; at war with Germany and Italy by Dec. 11.
Manhattan Project
Initiated in 1941 to develop and build atomic bombs.
Battle of Midway
Turning point in June 1942 when the USA defeated Japan.
Executive Orders 8802 & 9066
8802: Barred racial discrimination in hiring in defense industries. 9066: Ordered the relocation of 112,000 Japanese Americans to prison camps.
D-Day
The Allies landed at Normandy, France (156,000 British, American, and Canadian troops).
Yalta Conference
Soviet aid in the US’s war against Japan. Political figure of Germany & eastern Europe.
Death of FDR
On April 12, FDR died; Truman became president. Truman was largely left in the dark and had little communication with FDR.
Potsdam Conference
Germany and Berlin were divided into zones of Allied occupation.
The Holocaust
Allied troops discovered concentration camps holding what was left of millions of Jews and other “undesirables.”
Hiroshima & Nagasaki / The End of WWII
On July 26, 1945, Allied leaders delivered a surrender ultimatum to Japan that was rejected. President Truman was convinced that bomb’s use was an acceptable alternative to the horrific carnage of a U.S. invasion of Japan.
