APUSH: Chapter 24 Great Depression and New Deal

1.      Stock speculation/margin buying/Black Thursday/Great Crash/Great Depression

a.    Stock speculation: engagement in business transactions involving considerable risk but offering the chance of large gains, esp. trading in commodities, stocks, etc., in the hope of profit from changes in the market price

b.   margin buying: purchasing stock with borrowed money

c.    Black Thursday: collapse of stock market on October 24, 1929

d.   Great Crash: the collapse of the American stock market in 1929

e.    Great Depression: a severe, worldwide economic crisis which lasted from the end of 1929 to the outbreak of WW2.

2.      Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)/Bonus marchers

a.       Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC): agency established by Hoover to provide funds to banks and insurance companies

b.      Bonus marchers: WWI veterans- camped and marched in Washington, D.C. - summer 1932- seeking immediate payment for pensions from president Hoover that they were promised in 1924- repelled by general MacArthur- better reception from FDR

3.      Election of 1932/Franklin D. Roosevelt/New Deal

a.       Election of 1932: Republicans nominated Hoover (Stuck by his failed antidepression measures). Democrats nominated Franklin D. Roosevelt (Not clear on how he would fight the Depression). The anti-Hoover sentiments of the people caused FDR victory

b.      Franklin D. Roosevelt: won the love of the poor and the hatred of many of the financially privileged

c.       New Deal: the name of president Roosevelt’s program for getting the united states out of the depression

4.      Eleanor Roosevelt/Frances Perkins/Harold L. Ickes/Henry A. Wallace/Henry Morgenthau, Jr.

a.       Eleanor Roosevelt: Along with her social worker and women reformer friends Pushed for legislation to assist the economically disadvantage and minority groups

b.      Frances Perkins: former Progressive reformer and first woman cabinet member (Secretary of Labor) , led the committee that wrote the Social Security Act

c.       Harold L. Ickes: FDR's liberal Rep. cabinet member Interior Secretary who ran the PWA

d.      Henry A. Wallace: Secretary of Agriculture

e.       Henry Morgenthau, Jr.: treasury secretary who advocated the reduction of federal expenses and budget, arguing that the stagnant economy was caused by a reluctance of investors stemming from fear of gov intervention in the economy.

5.      Hundred Days/Emergency Banking Act/FDIC

a.       Hundred Days: period between March 9 and June 16, 1933 in which Congress enacted more than a dozen major bills; these measures expanded federal involvement in the national economy

b.      Emergency Banking Act: preceded "bank holiday"; permitted healthy banks to reopen, set up procedures to manage failed banks, increased government oversight, required that banks separate savings deposits from their investment funds

c.       FDIC: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Insured bank accounts up to $5,000

6.      CCC/Harry Hopkins/AAA/PWA/NRA/SEC/TVA

a.       CCC: Civilian Conservation Corps, Employed jobless young men on conservation projects (reforestation, park maintenance, and erosion control)

b.      Harry Hopkins: A former administrator of New York State charitable organizations; emerged as one of the most powerful figures in the New Deal; suggested direct federal relief; headed Civil Works Agency

c.       AAA: Agricultural Adjustment Administration, agency overseeing effort to help farmers by reducing production, raising prices; producers of major agricultural commodities received subsidies in return for cutting production

d.      PWA: massive public works program during the Second New Deal; included programs to employ artists, writers, and actors; relief funneled directly to individuals; created lots of jobs

e.       NRA: National Recovery Administration, Aimed at reviving businesses, Helped business draft and enforce codes to eliminate cutthroat competition, price-cutting, and the use of child labor, Management promised to bargain with the unions chosen by their employees

                                                                    i.      attempt to gain cooperation in recovery efforts among government, business, labor leaders; codes of "fair competition" that set production limits, wages, working conditions; section 7a gave workers right to organize unions and bargain collectively

f.       SEC: Securities and Exchange Commission, governmental agency that was established in 1934 to protect investors in securities. it registers all securities, licenses brokers, hears complaints, and penalizes people or companies who dont fallow the rules

g.      TVA: Tennessee Valley Authority, ambitious plan of economic development; centered on dam building for poor Appalachian area; supplied cheap hydroelectric power, electricity, industry and jobs to the region; gov't ownership of the means of production and distribution of services

7.      Dust Bowl/CWA

a.       Dust Bowl: region of the great plains that experienced a drought in 1930 lasting for a decade, leaving many farmers without work or substantial wages

b.      CWA: civil works adminstration: emergency work relief program, put more than four million people to work during the winter of 1933-34

8.      Fireside chats

a.       the informal radio conversations Roosevelt had with the people to keep spirits up. it was a means of communicating with the people on how he would take on the depression.

9.      Charles E. Coughlin/Francis E. Townsend/Huey Long/"Share Our Wealth"

a.       Charles E. Coughlin: Detroit Catholic priest and radio spellbinder; followers mainly consisted of lower-middle-class National Union of Social Justice

b.      Francis E. Townsend: California physician who proposed that the government pay $200 monthly to all retired citizens, requiring them to spend it within 30 days

c.       Huey Long: country lawyer from Louisiana who was elected governor in 1928; one of FDR's biggest rivals; "Share Our Wealth" program

d.      "Share Our Wealth" : radical relief program proposed by senator huey long in the 1930s to empower the government to seize wealth from the rich through taxes and provide a guaranteed minimum income and home to every american family

10.  Second New Deal/WPA/John Maynard Keynes/deficit spending/REA/Wagner Act/SSA

a.       Second New Deal: 1935 More radical, Impose greater govt. regulation, Introduced legislation to benefit workers, farmers, sharecroppers, and others at the bottom of the economic ladder

b.      WPA: Public Works Administration, large-scale public works agency headed by Harold Ickes in the First New Deal

c.       John Maynard Keynes: british economist who thought deficit spending would create jobs and stimulate the economy.

d.      deficit spending: FDR in order to improve economy and creates programs, went into deficit spending. Did not like it, but did it for time being.

e.       REA: Rural Electrification Administration, Low-interest loans to utility companies and farmers' cooperatives, to extend electricity to rural America

f.       Wagner Act: National Labor Relations Act, July 1935, Pro-union, Stimulated the growth of organized labor, Required employers to recognize their employees’ unions, Employers also must bargain with those unions, Established the National Labor Relations Board (Acts as a watchdog in labor-management relations)

g.      SSA: provided: Old-age pensions, Survivors’ benefits for families of deceased workers, Unemployment insurance, Aid to dependent mothers and children , Aid to handicapped

11.  Election of 1936/Alf Landon/Mary McLeod Bethune/Marian Anderson

a.       Election of 1936: 1) Roosevelt (d) vs. Alfred e. Landon(r)  2) Roosevelt won by a landslide, carrying every state except Maine and Vermont

b.      Alf Landon: 1936 Republican candidate running against Roosevelt, defeated in a landslide

c.       Mary McLeod Bethune: one of FDR's many African American policymakers who had the highest position of any black person in FDR's new deal. she was made the head of the division of negro affairs in the national youth administration, and reported to the president on the state of his legislation on blacks and proposed new laws to help them

d.      Marian Anderson: one of the greatest concert singers of her time. first African-American to perform at the Whitehouse. Eleanor Roosevelt set her up to perform on the steps of the Lincoln memorial when the daughters of the American revolution refused to let her rent constitution hall

12.  Soil Conservation Service/Taylor Grazing Act/Grand Coulee Dam/Indian Reorganization Act

a.       Soil Conservation Service: Projects demonstrated value of contour plowing, terracing, crop rotation

b.      Taylor Grazing Act: Restricted grazing that had compounded problem on public lands

c.       Grand Coulee Dam: on Columbia River, PWA

d.      Indian Reorganization Act: 1934, Reversed the steady loss of Indian lands, Restored tribes as legal entities, Set the stage for later law suits by Native Americans to regain rights and land promised in long-violated treaties

13.  Court-packing scheme /the “Roosevelt” recession

a.       Court-packing scheme : scheme proposed by FDR that would have given the president the power to appoint an additional Supreme Court member for each justice over 70 (up to a total of 6)

b.      the “Roosevelt” recession: term for the dip in the economy in August 1937

14.  FSA/Housing Act/Fair Labor Standards Act/Hatch Act

a.       FSA: Farm Security Administration , made low-interest loans to help tenant farmers and sharecroppers become more self-sufficient,

b.      Housing Act: this appropriated 500 million dollars for urban slum clearance and public housing. (gave money out for people to clean up the cities and create nice, new homes)

c.       Fair Labor Standards Act: federal regulation setting a national minimum wage (40 cents per hour initially) and a maximum workweek (40 hrs); banned child labor

d.      Hatch Act: Anti-New Deal conservatives passed this in 1939 forbidding federal workers from participating in electoral campaigns

15.  John L. Lewis/CIO/Walter Reuther/UAW

a.       John L. Lewis: president of the united mine workers, combined with seven other american federation of labor organizations to form the committee for industrial organization. wanted to bring together all of the unskilled workers together to mass-production industries

b.      CIO: congress of industrial organizations. proposed by john l. lewis in 1932. a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the united states and canada from 1935 to 1955.

c.       Walter Reuther: Led the UAW, led sit-down strikes, Halted production for 6 weeks, Pres. Roosevelt and the governor of MI refused to use the army or militia to remove the strikers,The strikers beat back the attack of local police, forcing GM, Ford, and Tom Gridler to sign contract

d.      UAW: (united auto workers) a labor union which represents workers in the united states founded in order to represent workers in the automobile manufacturing industry

16.  Warner Brothers/Frank Capra/Marx Brothers/Gone with the Wind/Shirley Temple

a.       Warner Brothers: studio (which had close ties with the Roosevelt administration) made a series of movies in 1934–1936 celebrating the New Deal.

b.      Frank Capra: director for Warner Brothers, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington celebrated what? and offered idealistic message that "the people" would always triumph over entrenched interests

c.       Marx Brothers: created comedies like Animal Crackers and Duck Soup, these vaudeville troupers of German-Jewish immigrant origins created an anarchic world that satirized authority, fractured the English language, and defied logic. Sentiments matched American views.

d.      Gone with the Wind: Hollywood confined black performers to stereotypical roles such as the scatterbrained maid played by Butterfly McQueen

e.       Shirley Temple: child actress could dance and sing very well, was able to keep up with bill Robinson in tap dancing, was seen as the hope during the great depression

17.  John Steinbeck/James Agee/Aaron Copland/Benny Goodman/Zora Neale Hurston

a.       John Steinbeck: novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) Steinbeck stressed not only the strength and endurance of ordinary Americans in depression America, but also their social cooperation and mutual support

b.      James Agee: 1936 journalist lived with Alabama sharecropper families while researching a magazine article. From this experience came Agee’s masterpiece,”Let Us Now Praise Famous Men” (1941) evoked the strength and decency of Americans living on society’s margins

c.       Aaron Copland: Composer, “Billy the Kid” (1938), drew upon American legends and folk melodies

d.      Benny Goodman: Benny Goodman, of a Chicago immigrant family, had played the clarinet as a boy at Jane Addams’s Hull House. Included black players with him. Goodman’s band performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall, a citadel of high culture

e.       Zora Neale Hurston: a heightened interest in regional literature, painting, and folk art. novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God“(1937), exploring a black woman’s search for fulfillment, was set in rural Florida

18.  1939 New York World's Fair/Orson Welles/War of the Worlds broadcast

a.       1939 New York World's Fair: Belief in science and technology as a means to economic prosperity and personnel freedom, Americans gained hope and optimism for their society in the future

b.      Orson Welles: an actor, director, producer, writer. created one of the most renowned radio broadcasts of all time ' the war of the worlds"

c.       War of the Worlds broadcast: caused mass hysteria when Welles staged alien attack. 10/30/38) series over Mercury Air, causes a panic due to use of experts, eyewitnesses, soundscape, interruptions and SILENCE

DUE MONDAY March 11^th:  Short Essay Questions: Answer 3 out of 4 questions of your choice and be prepared to discuss. 

1.      What factors brought on the Great Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression which followed it?  How would you assess President Hoover’s response to the crisis?

a.       In 1928, wild speculation started. Over nine million Americans invested in the Stock market on credit. The stock prices rose to dangerous inflated levels.

b.      Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon used trickledown theory and lowered the taxes for the rich.

c.       Banks easily gave away credit

d.      Speculators ignoring warning signs

e.       When the market crashed on Black Thursday, the panicked shareholders rushed to sell. Continuing on Farm prices declined by 60%, over 5000 banks failed and unemployment rose to 25%.

f.       Over production vs. low wages. Depressed agricultural economy, depressed European economies and debts with unbalanced trade with US.  

g.      Hoover’s stay committed to private-sector initiative, limited govt. intervention, and balanced federal budget severely handicapped him in dealing with the Depression

h.      He has business leaders to stop wage cuts and firing, but leaders did not keep promise for long since they could not sell products.

i.        He refused government aid, stating that private charity and local government should handle the jobless

j.        He seemed callous and the people hated him. He was a hand-offs president at the wrong time.

k.      Hoover ordered the army to remove the “bonus marchers” WW1 soldiers from the capital

2.      How did President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs help to address the problems of the Great Depression?  Focus on at least one example each of programs that focused on relief, recovery, and reform.

a.       FDIC insured bank accounts , the CCC employed jobless men, FERA Federal $$ for relief efforts, AAA Aimed at reviving agriculture, NRA Aimed at reviving businesses

3.      Why did FDR seek to “pack” the Supreme Court in 1937?  Was his strategy ultimately successful?  Consider the Court’s opposition to important New Deal programs and Roosevelt’s landslide election victory in 1936. 

a.       In Feb. 1937, FDR proposed a court reform bill that would allow the president to appoint a new Supreme Court justice to serve alongside each member of the Court who had reached 70 years old and would not retire. The reason for this “court-packing” plan because the aging, conservative majority on the Supreme Court had been declaring reform and recovery laws unconstitutional (NRA, AAA) and was about to declare others unconstitutional as well.

b.      FDR did influence a number of the elderly, conservative judges to modify their views or retire. Between 1937-1939, FDR was able to fill 4 Court vacancies with liberal New Dealer, causing the Supreme Court to uphold the Wagner Act. He was successful

4.      Did FDR’s New Deal programs help America by rescuing capitalism from itself or did they hurt America by laying the foundations for a costly welfare state? 

a.       FDR’s plan caused the economy to suffer. (1) a reduction in consumer spending power because of social-security deductions (2) a tightening of money supply when the Federal Reserve Board raised interest rates (3) cutbacks in New Deal work and relief programs to try to balance the budge

b.      But did manage to help the minorities rise from bottom