XII. Depression and Reform

Question 1

What were the key dates of the stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression?

Answer 1

Black Thursday (August 24, 1929) and Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929).

Question 2

What were the economic reasons underlying the Great Depression?

Answer 2

Declining demand for building materials, underconsumption, income inequality, and corporate debt from poor business practices.

Question 3

What percentage of Americans were unemployed by 1933?

Answer 3

25%.

Question 4

How many businesses failed between 1929 and 1933?

Answer 4

100,000 businesses.

Question 5

What was the Dust Bowl?

Answer 5

A series of severe dust storms in rural America caused by drought, displacing many farmers.

Question 5

How were African Americans impacted during the Great Depression?

Answer 5

They faced discrimination in employment, and many Southern farmers migrated North, where opportunities were still scarce.

Question 6

What philosophy shaped Hoover’s response to the Great Depression?

Answer 6

American individualism—minimal government interference and opposition to direct public relief.

Question 7

What was the Smoot-Hawley Act (1930)?

Answer 7

Legislation that raised import taxes, leading to reduced foreign trade and worsening the economic crisis.

Question 8

What were “Hoovervilles”?

Answer 8

Makeshift shantytowns where homeless people lived, named sarcastically after President Hoover.

Question 9

What was the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932)?

Answer 9

A government lending institution to stabilize banks, railroads, and industries, though it failed to help smaller banks.

Question 10

What was the Bonus Army incident of 1932?

Answer 10

WWI veterans marched to demand early payment of war bonuses; Hoover’s authorization of military force to remove them caused public backlash.

Question 11

What were the “Three Rs” of Roosevelt’s New Deal?

Answer 11

Relief (for the needy), Recovery (economic recovery), and Reform (preventing future depressions).

Question 12

What was the Emergency Banking Act (1933)?

Answer 12

Legislation that reorganized and reopened solvent banks, restoring public confidence.

Question 13

What were Roosevelt’s “fireside chats”?

Answer 13

Radio addresses where he encouraged Americans to trust the banks and explained New Deal policies.

Question 14

What was the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)?

Answer 14

Paid farmers to reduce crop production to stabilize prices and restore parity.

Question 15

What was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)?

Answer 15

A program that created jobs for 2.5 million young men in conservation and public works projects.

Question 16

What was the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)?

Answer 16

It insured individual bank deposits to prevent bank runs and restore trust in the banking system.

Question 17

What did the Social Security Act (1935) provide?

Answer 17

Pensions for retirees, unemployment insurance, and support for dependent children and the disabled.

Question 18

What was the Wagner Act (1935)?

Answer 18

It guaranteed workers’ rights to unionize and established fair labor standards.

Question 19

Who were major critics of the New Deal?

Answer 19

Senator Huey Long (Share Our Wealth), Dr. Townsend (elderly pensions), and trade unions opposing restrictions on capitalism.

Question 19

What were some successes of the New Deal?

Answer 19

Doubled farm incomes (AAA), created millions of jobs (CCC, WPA), and established social safety nets (Social Security Act).

Question 20

What was the “court-packing” controversy?

Answer 20

Roosevelt’s plan to add more justices to the Supreme Court to protect New Deal reforms, leading to political backlash.

Question 21

What was the greatest achievement of the New Deal?

Answer 21

Restoring faith in democracy and establishing federal responsibility for the welfare of the economy and citizens.

Question 22

When did the Great Depression effectively end in the United States?

Answer 22

With the economic stimulus of WWII after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Question 23

How did the New Deal change American political coalitions?

Answer 23

It united working-class whites, African Americans, intellectuals, and others who supported an interventionist government.