Key Terms/Ideas/People/Events

USHC 6.4 Key Terms/Ideas/People/Events & Vocabulary

Key Terms/Ideas/People/Events

·  Franklin Delano Roosevelt – president elected to fix the economy; he promised Americans massive government action to fix the economic conditions by passing a series of laws that would provide relief, allow recovery and reform; his program was known as the New Deal

·  New Deal – government program to provide relief, allow economic recovery and reform the economy; massive government spending was needed; deficit spending was used; permanently change the way society viewed the federal government; New Deal provided relief and put money into the economy, but it DID NOT end the Great Depression

·  Socialism – economic philosophy where the public (government) controls most of the industries and directs the economy; there is little private ownership; the fear was because of how large the federal government grew under the New Deal and the lingering fear from the 1920s (Red Scare)

·  Capitalism – economic philosophy which has private ownership and the pursuit of profit as its main goals; little government involvement in the economy; opposite of socialism;

·  World War II – seminal event that helped to define the 20th century; discussed in detail in Unit 7; government spending on the products for this war is what will bring the United States out of the Great Depression

·  Depression – downturn in the economy; the US has gone through several depressions it its history, but specific steps that were taken, such as high tariffs, contraction of money supply by the Federal Reserve, collapse of much of the banking system, the overproduction of farms & industries made this depression much longer and deeper than previous ones

·  Bank holiday – federal government enforced closure of all banks in order for the federal government to assess the health of the bank; if banks were healthy (meaning they were not in danger of closing) they were allowed to reopen; banks that were not healthy were not permitted to reopen until they were or the government would provide depositors their money

·  Fireside Chat – method of communicating with the American public by President Roosevelt; FDR could explain what was going on and put the public’s mind at ease; his first chat dealt with the banking crisis and he urged listeners to have faith in the banks when they reopened after the bank holiday

·  Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) – New Deal agency; designed to insure bank deposits thereby restoring faith in the nation’s banks; still around today; help the nation recover

·  Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – New Deal agency; designed to regulate the Stock Market, thereby fixing the problems that caused the stock market crash of 1929; help the nation to recover; still around today

·  Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) – New Deal agency; designed to help farmers by paying them not to produce as much; provided relief for farmers; only helped farmers who owned the land, not tenant farmers or sharecroppers; Supreme Court ruled the agency unconstitutional; no longer a government agency

·  Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) – New Deal agency; designed to build dams in order to provide electricity to rural communities in the American Southeast; also provided jobs for skilled workers; help the Southeastern region to recover; still with us today

·  Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) – New Deal agency; designed to employ young men in manual labor positions such as planting trees, fighting forest fires, etc.; provide relief for unemployed men; no longer a government agency

·  Works Progress Administration (WPA) – New Deal agency; designed to provide work for writers, artists & actors; established precedent for federal support of the arts; provide relief for the unemployed; no longer a government agency

·  Liberals – individuals who tend to support a larger government to help the poor and needy; during the Great Depression, liberals criticized the president for not doing enough to redistribute income from the rich to give to the elderly and poor

·  Conservatives – individuals who tend to support smaller government intrusion into their lives; during the Great Depression, conservatives criticized the president for greatly increasing the size of government and accused the president of taking too much power; also criticized the president for having an unbalanced budget

·  Executive branch – the part of government that enforces the laws and administers the state; headed by the president

·  Fascist leaders – Germany (Hitler) & Italy (Mussolini) leaders who practiced totalitarian regimes where they controlled virtually all aspects of their society; fear of FDR becoming like them when he tried to take over the Supreme Court

·  “Court-packing” plan – FDR was upset with the Supreme Court for declaring some of his New Deal programs unconstitutional (AAA and NRA); he proposed that Congress increase the size of the Supreme Court; the president nominates candidates, so it would be a method to get FDR’s supporters on the court; American public greatly disliked this plan

·  Social Security Act – New Deal law which created the Social Security Administration; a national insurance policy for the unemployed, disabled, the elderly and dependent children; workers paid into the plan for protection against unemployment as well as for retirement; designed for reform and would not immediately help those in need; Social security is still part of government today

·  Fair Employment Practices Act (Wagner Act) – law which recognized the right of workers to organize into labor unions and bargain collectively; this had been the goal of unions since the late 19th century

·  Fair Labor Standards Act – law which established minimum wage and maximum hours for workers (not farmers)

·  Deficit spending – spending more than you take in; in the case of the federal government, spending more on government and government programs than that what was taken up in taxes; having an unbalanced budget

·  ‘Prime the pump’ – effort to stimulate the economy; use government money to get the economy going and then the economy would take off on its own without any more money; much like an engine – prime it once, then, once it is going, you no longer need to prime it for it to run

·  Welfare state – nation where the government provides cradle to grave assistance to its citizens; belief that Social Security laid the foundation set on the welfare state

·  Farm subsidies – government payments to farmers for them not to plant; paid to the owners of the land, not the sharecropper or tenant farmer

·  Sharecroppers – farmers who promised a portion of their crop for payment of working the land; generally very poor; the New Deal was not designed to assist them, just the landowners with the AAA; many were African-American

·  tenant farmers – farmers who rented the land they farmed on; like sharecroppers, the New Deal agency, AAA was not designed to help them - it did help the owners of the land

·  “Black Cabinet” – a group of African-Americans government employees who advised FDR on the situation of the African-American community during the Great Depression; greatly helped the shift of African-Americans to the Democratic party

·  Eleanor Roosevelt – wife of FDR; she was FDR’s eyes and ears for the country because FDR had been stricken with polio; was responsible for helping the African-American singer, Marian Anderson, have a concert at the Lincoln Memorial

·  Marian Anderson – African-American singer who was denied the opportunity to sing at Constitutional Hall because of her race by the Daughters of the American Revolution; Eleanor Roosevelt was able to have her give a concert at the Lincoln Memorial

·  Daughters of the American Revolution – group that refused to allow an African-American singer, Marian Anderson, to sing at Constitutional Hall because of her race;

·  Lincoln Memorial – location of many civil rights moments including Marian Anderson concert as well as Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech

·  Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) – federal agency created that was established to protect the rights of African-Americans in wartime industries; African-Americans threatened to march on Washington D.C. if they were not granted equality in hiring and wage considerations with wartime industries

·  National Recovery Administration (NRA) – New Deal agency which sought to adjust wages and prices; it was determined to be unconstitutional; women were allowed to be paid less for the same amount of work under this agency; not still a government agency, but many of its ideas are laws

·  Frances Perkins – first female cabinet member; Secretary of Labor

·  Progressive Movement – social & political movement at the turn of the 20th Century that wished to solve the problems that resulted from the industrialization, immigration & urbanization problems that plagued the United States of this era; Theodore Roosevelt was the first progressive president; laws were passed which made meat safer and some political corruption was stopped, etc.

·  Civil Rights movement – social & political movement to improve conditions for African-Americans in the United States; led by Martin Luther King Jr., the movement sought to achieve equality by ending segregation and other discriminatory practices;

·  Great Society – President Lyndon Johnson’s (1963-1968) expansion of government to increase spending on domestic programs; included Medicare & Medicaid; considered an extension of the New Deal because of the massive government spending

Vocabulary

USHC 6.4 Key Terms/Ideas/People/Events & Vocabulary

·  Destitution – poverty

·  Beset – affected or overwhelmed

·  Controversial – provocative

·  Emphasis – stress or importance

·  Critics – opponents

·  Alleviated – eased or lessened

·  Bleakest – most desperate

·  Massive – enormous

·  Initiated – started

·  Magnitude – large degree

·  Initial – first

·  stabilize – steady

·  escalating – rising or intensifying

·  subsided – diminished or lessened

·  instilled – inspired or filled

·  boost – improve or enhance

·  subsidies – payments

·  Rural – country

·  Generate – make or produce

·  precedent – example or model

·  despair – misery

·  criticism – disapproval

·  redistribute – reallocate

·  stimulus – incentive or spur

·  spiral – direction

·  fueled – powered or increased

·  overturn – reverse

·  championed – supported & defended

·  impacted – effected

·  cite – name or mention

·  recession – economic downturn

·  disproportionally – unequally

·  privation – hardship

·  discrimination – prejudice

·  segregated – separated by race

·  concerted – intensive

·  consulted – sought advice from

·  championed – supported & defended

·  commission – committee or board group

·  reaction – response

·  advancements – developments

·  continuation – extension

·  precursor – forerunner

USHC 6.4 Key Terms/Ideas/People/Events & Vocabulary