The Great Depression and New Deal Flashcards

1
Q

Causes of Depression

A
  • Drop in farm prices
  • uneven distribution of income
  • get rich quick using real estate and stocks
  • over extension of credits
  • too many goods
  • immediately caused stock market crash
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2
Q

Bubble Burst

A
  • October 29, 1929
  • stock market lost $30 billion
  • beginning of great depression
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3
Q

Banking System Collapse

A
  • banks heavily invested in the market
  • collapse of market -> bank failures
  • depositors panicked -> more bank failures
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4
Q

Hoover’s Response (to Crash)

A
  • believed that private charity was best suited to solve problems
  • efforts failed
  • Reconstruction Finance Corporation achieved success (loaned money to businesses so people an get employed “trickle”)
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5
Q

Hoovervilles

A
  • settlements of shacks inhabited by transients and unemployed
  • named after pres. hoover
  • every city had at least one
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6
Q

The Bonus Army

A
  • Patman Bill was to move up bonus payments from 1945 to 1933
  • Veterans camped near Capitol to support bill
  • Bill failed in Congress
  • Hoover removed veterans using army, seen as heartless
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7
Q

Election of 1932

A
  • Republicans -> Hoover

- Democrats -> FDR (winner by landslide)

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8
Q

Franklin D. Roosevelt

A
  • relative to Teddy
  • married Eleanor (cousin)
  • Political mirror to Teddy
  • Lost 1920 election to be vp
  • paralyzed in 1921
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9
Q

The “New Deal”

A
  • Relief: immediate assistance to jobs/banking
  • Recovery: bring economy back to how it was before stock market crash
  • Reform: fix things so crash doesn’t happen again
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10
Q

The “Brain Trust”

A
  • advisers who helped FDR in making early economic policy
  • some ppl: Moley, Tugwell, and Berle
  • members had varying opinions about jumpstarting the economy
  • eventually disbanded
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11
Q

The First Hundred Days

A
  • Three month period after FDR’s Inauguration
  • Flurry of Legislative activity
  • HONEYMOON PHASE between FDR and Congress
  • Allowed most New Deal’s relief program establishing act (including): Agricultural Adjustment Act, Tennessee Valley Authority, Glass-Staegall Banking Act
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12
Q

Solving the Banking Crisis

A
  • 1930-1933: Nearly 10,000 banks closed
  • Michigan gov. ordered banking “moratorium” in state
  • FDR called it bank “holiday”
  • Glass-Staegall Act created FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)
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13
Q

Fireside Chats

A
  • Radio talks
  • FDR spoke about issues and concern, 30 chats
  • informal
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14
Q

“Pump Priming” and the Dole

A
  • Federal Emergency Relief Act passed
  • FERA pumped money into economy for jobs
  • Also provided relief for unemployed
  • spent billions on public works through Civil Works Administration and Emergency Work Relief programs
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15
Q

FDR’s Farm Program

A
  • Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 sought to reduce farm surpluses
  • Resettlement Administration
  • Farm Security Administration
  • Rural Electrification Administration
  • *Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1936 (2nd one bc 1st one was unconstitutional): food markets taxed consumers, paid farmers not to grow food
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16
Q

The Dust Bowl: Causes

A
  • Overcultivation of land in the Great Plains, drought throughout region, winds blew loose soil
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17
Q

The Dust Bowl: Impact

A
  • > 500,000 left homeless
  • dust blew into cities such as Chicago and Buffalo
  • “Red snow” fell in towns in New England
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18
Q

The Plight of the “Okies”

A
  • Farmers from Oklahoma, went to Cali for farm jobs, about 15% of the population were migrants
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19
Q

Hardships (of Okies)

A
  • unsanitary camps
  • wages decreased for large numbers
  • California passed “anti-Okie” law
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20
Q

The “Migrant Mother”

A
  • famous New Deal-era photo

- Shot for the Resettlement Administration by Dorothea Lange

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21
Q

Work-Based Relief Programs

A
  • FDR thought unemployment was a problem
  • made programs so teens can work instead of dole (given money)
  • some saw the “make work” programs as boondoggles : waste of time
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22
Q

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

A
  • Provided jobs for young MEN ages 18-25
  • environmental works project
  • paid $30, sent $25 to family
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23
Q

National Youth Administration (NYA)

A
  • provided part-time jobs for youths who wanted to stay in school
  • paid $6-$40 per month “work study”
  • employed both male and female students
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24
Q

Public Works Administration (PWA)

A
  • money given to contractors for public works
  • Built bridges, schools, airports, roads, Navy ships
  • administered by Ickes
  • spent $6 mill
25
Q

Civil Works Administration (CWA)

A
  • mainly constructed bridges and buildings
  • spent over $1 bill in less than a year
  • considered boondoggle, abandoned
26
Q

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

A
  • Harry Hopkins
  • Public works on bridges, roads, runways
  • Included ARTS PROJECTS
27
Q

Federal Theater Project

A
  • part of “Federal One” project
  • Flanagan
  • controversies, some plays critical of govt., socialistic
28
Q

Federal Arts Project

A
  • Specialized in Visual Arts

- created over 200,000 works

29
Q

Federal Writers Project

A
  • Writers work directly for the govt.
  • writers paid “subsistence” wage
  • Famous: Steinbeck, Zora Neale Hurston, Terkel, Wright
30
Q

National Industrial Recovery Act

A
  • center of New Deal
  • Sought to promote fair competition, raise wages and prices, institute collective bargaining
  • “codes of fair competition”
  • enforced by NRA
  • symbol: Blue Eagle
31
Q

The “Sick Chicken” Case

A
  • Supreme Court struck down the NIRA
  • Decided Congress had given Pres. too much lawmaking power
  • ruled NIRA violated the Constitution’s commerce clause
32
Q

The “Nine Old Men”

A
  • Supreme Court dominated by conservatives
  • FDR unable to make appointments to Court
  • declared several New Deal programs unconstitutional
  • FDR believed Court was hampering needed relief and reform
33
Q

FDR’s “Court-Packing” Plan

A
  • FDR to preserve New Deal reforms
  • Introduced Legislation: new judge for every Supreme Court member over age 70.5, increases Supreme Court to a max of 15 members
  • didn’t pass, FDR lost political support
34
Q

New Deal “Agitators”

A
  • Opposed New Deal, felt FDR gone too far, or not far enough

- Didn’t have much influence on the 1936 election or New Deal

35
Q

The American Liberty League

A
  • saw FDR traitor to his class
  • Believed New Deal lead to socialism
  • challenged legality of Wagner Act
  • disappeared by 1940
36
Q

Father Charles Coughlin

A
  • Catholic priest who used radio to reach mass audience
  • First a New Deal supporter, later a critic
  • Sympathetic to anti-Semitic policies of Hitler and Mussolini
  • forced off air because of broadcast rules
37
Q

Huey Long: “The Kingfish”

A
  • Louisiana governor and senator
  • Believed New Deal didn’t do enough
  • proposed “Share the Wealth” program
  • Revenue Act of 1935 incorporated some of Long’s ideas
38
Q

The Townsend Plan

A
  • proposed a monthly pension of $200 for all citizens over 60
  • paid by national sales tax
  • Social Security Act
39
Q

The Election of 1936

A

Democrats -> FDR (winner)

Republicans -> Alf Landon

40
Q

“New Deal Coalition”

A
  • groups who supported FDR in 1936: Labor unions, Urban political machines, Racial and religious minorities, Southern Whites
  • agreed mostly on New Deal
41
Q

New Deal Reform Measures

A
  • programs still in effect today: Social Security, Pure food and drug laws, Tennessee Valley Authority, FDIC
42
Q

Social Security Act of 1935

A
  • suggested by Perkins
  • Provided: old age pensions, unemployment insurance, aid to dependents
  • funded by payroll tax
43
Q

National Labor Relations Act

A
  • aka Wagner Act
  • Allowed collective bargaining
  • protected rights of laborers to form unions
  • Also created NLRB (National Labor Relations Board)
44
Q

Fair Labor Standards Act

A
  • Guaranteed federal minimum wage
  • 25c per hours
  • Guaranteed overtime paid “time and half”
  • prohibited “oppressive child labor”
45
Q

Tennessee Valley Authority

A
  • Lilienthal
  • provided flood control and cheap hydroelectric power
  • protect social and economical welfare of people in the area
46
Q

Help for Homeowners

A
  • Home Owners Loan Corporation: low interest loans for current homeowners
  • Federal Housing Authority: loans for home repair and new building projects
  • United States Housing Authority: low-cost public housing
47
Q

Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act

A
  • strengthened FDA
  • standards for regulated quality of food
  • safety and legitimacy of drugs
  • controlled product advertisement
48
Q

Securities and Exchange Commission

A
  • created through Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934
  • laws required truth in sales of securities and fair treatment of investors
  • SEC’s purpose to provide market stability and protect investors
49
Q

Creation of the “Welfare State”

A
  • Govt. became overseer of citizens’ welfare from “cradle to grave”
50
Q

Women of the New Deal Era

A
  • Roosevelt: most significant and influential first lady, ideas and deals come from her, advocate for Civil Rights
  • Bethune: education, part of Black cabinet, part of Blacks Roosevelt would like
  • Anderson: opera singer
  • Perkins: first lady in pres. cabinet
51
Q

FDR and Civil Rights

A
  • debate against FDR’s civil rights record
  • Refused to support anti-lynching law
  • Did not work to integrate armed forces
  • FEPC (Federal Employment Practice Committee) ensured equal opportunity for African Americans in govt. and defense-industry jobs
  • African Americans appointed to govt. positions
52
Q

Woody Guthrie

A
  • This Land Is Your Land, other songs about Depression-era life
53
Q

John Steinbeck

A
  • The Grapes of Wrath, praised and criticized

- insinuated govt. needed to do more

54
Q

Films of 1930s

A
  • Hollywood’s “golden era”
55
Q

Will Rogers

A
  • American humorist
  • Radio, movie star, newspaper columnist
  • satirized politics and current events
56
Q

The War of the Worlds

A
  • produced by Welles

- episode “Mercury on the Air” caused mass panic, anxiety over events in Europe heightened fear

57
Q

The Election of 1940

A

Republican -> Wendell Willkie “dark horse”

Democrat -> FDR (winner)

58
Q

The End of the New Deal

A
  • recession and jump in unemployment raised concerns about the New Deal
  • Some New Deal agencies continued to early 1940s
  • Full employment and the end of Depression only occurred with U.S. involvement in World War II
59
Q

The Legacy of the New Deal

A
  • Enlargement of govt.
  • Deficit spending
  • Welfare state
  • Inspiration for future welfare programs, such as Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society”