Term | Definition |
1. Speculation | practice of making high risk investments in hopes of obtaining large profits |
2. Black Tuesday | October 29, 1929 when stock prices fell sharply in the Great Crash |
3. Business Cycle | periodic growth and contraction of the economy |
4. Great Depression | period lasting from 1929 to 1941 in which the US economy faltered and unemployment soared |
5. Hawley-Smoot Tariff | protective import tax authorized by congress in 1930 |
6. Bread Line | line of people waiting for food handouts from charities or public agencies |
7. Hoover | term used to describe makeshift shantytowns set up by homeless people during the Great Depression |
8. Tenant Farmer | working for bigger landowners rather than for themselves |
9. Dust Bowl | the central and southern Great Plains during the 1930's when the region suffered from drought and dust storms |
10. Okies | general term used to describe Dust Bowl refugees |
11. Repatriation | process by which Mexican Americans were encouraged, or forced, by local, state, and federal officials to return to Mexico during the 1930's |
12. Localism | policy relied on by Hoover in the early years of the Depression whereby local and state governments act as primary agents of economic relief |
13. Reconstruction Finance Corporation | federal agency set up by congress in 1932 to provide emergency government credit to banks, railroads, and other large businesses |
14. Trickle-Down Economics | economic theory that holds that money lent to banks and businesses will trickle down to consumers |
15. Hoover Dam | dam on the Colorado River that was built during the Great Depression |
16. Bonus Army | group of WW1 veterans who marched on Washington D.C. in 1932 to demand early payment of a bonus promised to them by congress |
17. New Deal | programs and legislation enacted by FDR during the Great Depression to promote economic recovery and social reform |
18. Fireside Chat | informal radio broadcasts in which FDR explained issues and New Deal programs to average Americans |
19. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) | government agency that insures bank deposits, guaranteeing that depositors' money will be safe |
20. Tennessee Valley (TVA) | government agency that builds dams in the Tennessee River valley to control flooding and generate electric power |
21. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) | New Deal program that provided young men with relief jobs on environmental conservation projects, including reforestation and flood control |
22. National Recovery Administration (NRA) | New Deal agency that promoted economic recovery by regulating production, prices, and wages |
23. Public Works Admnistration (PWA) | New Deal agency that provided millions of jobs constructing public buildings |
24. Second New Deal | legislative activity begun by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 to solve problems created by the Great Depression |
25. Works Progress Administration (WPA) | key New Deal agency that provided work relief through various public works projects |
26. Pump Priming | economic Theory that favored public works projects because they put money into the hands of consumers who would buy more goods, stimulating the economy |
27. Social Security Act | 1935 law that 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, and the disabled |
28. 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 |
29. Collective Bargaining | process in which employers negotiate with labor unions about hours, wages and other working conditions |
30. Fair Labor Standards Act | 1938 law that set a minimum wage, a maximum workweek of 44 hours, and outlawed child labor |
31. Congress Of Industrial Organization | labor organization founded in the 1930s that represented unskilled industrial workers |
32. Sit-Down Strikes | labor protest in which workers stop working and occupy the workplace until their demands are met |
33. Court Packing | FDR plan to add up to six new justices to the nine-member Supreme Court after the Court had ruled that some New Deal legislation was unconstitutional |
34. Black Cabinet | group of African American leaders who served as unofficial advisers to Franklin D. Roosevelt |
35. Indian New Deal | 1930s legislation that gave Indians greater control over their affairs and provided funding for schools and hospitals |
36. New Deal Coaliton | political force formed by diverse groups who united to support Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal |
37. Welfare State | government that assumes responsibility for providing for the welfare of the poor, elderly, sick, and unemployed |
38. Wizard Of Oz | one of the most memorable depression-era films |
39. War Of The Worlds | drama of millions of Americans caused by the Mercury Theatre broadcast |
40. Federal Art Project | division of the Works Progress Administration that hired unemployed artists to create artworks for public buildings and sponsored art-education programs and exhibitions |
41. Mural | a large picture painted directly on a wall or ceiling |