Great Depression/New Deal Vocabulary

Black Tuesday October 29, 1929 when stock prices fell sharply in the Great Crash

Bonus Army Group of WWI veterans who marched on Washington D.C. in 1932, to demand early payment of a bonus promised for them by Congress

Deficit Spending Paying out more money from the annual federal budget than the government receives in revenues

Dust Bowl Term used for the central and southern Great Plains in the 1930s when the region sustained a period of drought and dust storms

Great Depression Period lasting from 1929 to 1941 in which the U.S. economy faltered and unemployment soared

Hooverville Term used to describe a makeshift shantytowns set up by homeless people during the Great Depression

Hawley-Smoot Tariff Highest import tax in history, passed by Congress in 1930

Hundred Days Period at the start of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency in 1933, when many New Deal programs were passed by Congress

Closed Shops Workplace open only to union members

Trickle down economics Economic theory that holds that money lent to banks and businesses will trickle down to consumers

New Deal Programs and legislation enacted by Franklin D Roosevelt during the Great Depression to promote economic recovery and social reform

Penny Auctions Farm auctions during the Great Depression at which neighbors saved each other’s property from foreclosure by bidding low

Public Works Administration Agency that provided millions of jobs constructing public buildings

Reconstruction Finance Corporation Federal agency set up by Congress in 1932 to provide emergency government credit to banks, railroads and other lare businesses

Social Security System 1935 law set up a pension system for retirees, established unemployment insurance, and created insurance for victims of work-related accidents; provided aid for poverty stricken mothers and children, the blind & the disabled

Speculation Practice of making high-risk investments in hopes of obtaining large profits

Court Packing FDR plan to add up to 6 new justices to the nine-member Supreme Court after the Court had ruled that some New Deal legislation was unconstitutional

Wagner Act New Deal law that abolished unfair labor practices, recognized the right of employees to organize labor unions, and gave workers the right to collective bargaining.

Second New Deal legislative activity launched begun by President Roosevelt in 1935 to solve problems created by the Great Depression

Father Caughlin “radio Priest” who supported and then attacked President Roosevelt’s New Dal; prevented Catholic Church from broadcasting after he praised Hitler

Dorthea Lange Photographed migrant farm workers during the Great Depression; inspired Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath

Huey Long LA politician in 1930’s; suggested redistributing large fortunes by means of grants to families; assassinated 1935

Frances Perkins The Secretary of Labor under Roosevelt; first woman Cabinet member

Fair Labor Standards Act 1938 law that set a minimum wage, a maximum workweek of 44 hours and outlawed child labor

The Grapes of Wrath Book about Dust Bowl victims who traveled to CA in search of a better life

Tennessee Valley Authority Government agency that built damns in the Tennessee River valley to control flooding & generate electric power

Fireside Chats Informal radio broadcasts in which FDR explained issues and New Deal programs to average Americans

Civilian Conservation Corps New Deal program that provided young men with relief jobs on environmental conservation projects