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great depression
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| great depression | the worst economic times in u.s history characterized by business failures, high unemployment, and falling prices |
| Herbert hoover | republican president elected before the stock market crash, he remained committed to laissez- faire capitalism even while the economy spiraled down |
| Franklin d. Roosevelt | democratic president that promised Americans a "new deal" that would create jobs |
| john Steinbeck | wrote article about "oakies" living in migrant worker camps in California; wrote first novel, grapes or wrath |
| Dorothea lang | a photographer who documented the suffering people of the great depression |
| dust bowl | the great plains were known by this term after a series of droughts and mismanagement of farmland literally dried up hundreds of miles of land, turning them to dust |
| new deal | a series of programs and projects instituted during the great depression by president Franklin d, Roosevelt that aimed to restore prosperity to Americans |
| hoovervilles | Shanty towns of the homeless and unemployed that sprang up on the outskirts of cities during the depression. |
| fireside chats | Frequent radio addressed made by FDR to the American people to explain his policies and restore public confidence in government. |
| Eleanor Roosevelt | FDR’s wife who traveled the country and reported what she saw to the president. She was an activist for women’s rights and the poor. |
| relief, recovery, reform | The “New Deal” measures that Roosevelt enacted in his first hundred days as president in order to combat the economic crisis. |
| national recovery administration | (1933) Asked businesses to voluntarily follow codes which set standard prices, production limits, and minimum wages—it was later found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. |
| banking crisis | When fear that a bank was unstable, customers would withdraw all their money en mass, causing banks to fail. FDR enacted a “Bank Holiday” to evaluate the strength of each bank. |
| agricultural adjustment acts | (1933/1938) Government subsidies to farmers in an attempt to increase crop prices. The first one was declared unconstitutional. |
| civilian conservation corps | (1933) Gave jobs to young men, such as planting trees. They lived in camps and sent most of their wages to their parents. |
| federal reserve | the central bank of the United States. It was created by the Congress to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. |
| gold standard | the system by which the value of a currency was defined in terms of gold, for which the currency could be exchanged. Roosevelt stopped this in 1933 by executive order |
| fiat money | Intrinsically valueless money used as money because of government decree |
| twenty second amendment | limits the president to only two 4 year terms in office. |
| schechter poultry v. us | The Supreme Court ruled that even during a crisis, Congress could not give the President more powers than those granted in the Constitution. |
| court packing plan | (1937) Roosevelt proposed that the President be allowed a new appointment for each Justice who was over 70.5 years. old. This idea was rejected. |