Study Guide Great Depression

Question 1

Stock Market Crash

Answer 1

The Stock Market Crash of 1929 occurred on October 29, 1929, when Wall Street investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. In the aftermath of that event, sometimes called “Black Tuesday,” America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression, the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world up to that time.

Question 2

Causes of unemployment after WW1

Answer 2

Both unemployment and inflation increased significantly in the years immediately following the war. The rise in unemployment was largely a result of the end of government orders for war materials and demobilization. Factories laid off workers and the military discharged two million soldiers.

Question 3

Buying on Margin

Answer 3

Buying on margin occurs when an investor borrows money from a broker to purchase stock. Broker- a person or firm who arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller.borrowing money from a broker to purchase stock

Question 4

Compare and Contrast Economies of 1920s and 1930s

Answer 4

During the 1920’s the economy increased and people were very wealthy. On the other hand, in the 1930’s, it was a time of depression and getting over problems. Unemployment increased more, there was lots of poverty, and people had to sell their houses, cars, and belongings to get money.

Question 5

Causes of Great Depression

Answer 5

stock market crash, bank failures, unemployment, banking panics, the Dust Bowl

Question 6

Hoover Response to Great Depression

Answer 6

President Herbert Hoover resisted the use of government authority and money to arrest the situation. He had a theory that financial losses should affect profits, not unemployment.

Question 7

Hooverville’s

Answer 7

a shantytown built by unemployed and destitute people during the Depression of the early 1930s.

Question 8

Bonus Army

Answer 8

The Bonus Army was a group of 43,000 demonstrators – 17,000 veterans of U.S. involvement in World War I, their families, and affiliated groups – who gathered in Washington, D.C., in mid-1932 to demand early cash redemption of their service bonus certificates.

Question 9

FDR Response to Great Depression

Answer 9

a series of programs and policies of Relief, Recovery and Reform to combat the effects of the Great Depression called the New Deal.

Question 10

Fireside Chats

Answer 10

an influential series of radio broadcasts in which Roosevelt utilized the media to present his programs and ideas directly to the public and thereby redefined the relationship between the President and the American people

Question 11

AAA

Answer 11

The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was a United States federal law of the New Deal era designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses. The government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers subsidies not to plant on part of their land.

Question 12

CCC

Answer 12

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) recruited unemployed young men from urban areas to perform conservation work throughout the nation’s forests, parks, and fields.

Question 13

FDIC

Answer 13

The Banking Act of 1933 authorized the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) to pay up to $2,500 to depositors in insured banks that failed

Question 14

SSA

Answer 14

The Social Security Act created a social insurance program designed to pay retired workers age 65 or older a continuing income after retirement

Question 15

Causes of Dust Bowl

Answer 15

extended drought, unusually high temperatures, poor agricultural practices and the resulting wind erosion

Question 16

Lasting Impact of FDRs New Deal

Answer 16

the programs helped improve the lives of people suffering from the events of the depression and the CCC helped to create many national parks.

Question 17

1937 Court Packing

Answer 17

a plan to expand the Supreme Court to as many as 15 judges, allegedly to make it more efficient.

Question 18

Causes of End of Great Depression

Answer 18

when America’s involvement in the Second World War resulted in the drafting of young men into military service, and the creation of millions of jobs in defense and war industries.

Question 19

Fascism and FDR

Answer 19

The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) first charged Roosevelt with being fascist less than two months after he took office. On May Day, 1933, the CPUSA ran a series of newspaper advertisements denouncing “the whole Roosevelt program of preparation for fascism and war” and calling Roosevelt a “fascist dictator”.

Question 20

1940 election

Answer 20

The 1940 United States presidential election was the 39th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1940. Incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican businessman Wendell Willkie to be reelected for an unprecedented third term in office.

Question 21

1936 election

Answer 21

The 1936 United States presidential election was the 38th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1936. In the midst of the Great Depression, incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican Governor Alf Landon of Kansas.

Question 22

22nd amendment

Answer 22

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

Question 23

Bank failures

Answer 23

Many of the small banks had lent large portions of their assets for stock market speculation and were virtually put out of business overnight when the market crashed. In all, 9,000 banks failed–taking with them $7 billion in depositors’ assets.

Question 24

Hoover Dam

Answer 24

Hoover Dam, dam in Black Canyon on the Colorado River, at the Arizona-Nevada border, U.S. Constructed between 1930 and 1936, it is the highest concrete arch-gravity dam in the United States. It impounds Lake Mead, which extends for 115 miles (185 km) upstream and is one of the largest artificial lakes in the world.
Today the Hoover Dam controls the flooding of the Colorado River, irrigates to over 1,500,000 acres of land, and provides water to over 16,000,000 people

Question 25

Deflation

Answer 25

reduction of the general level of prices in an economy.