America: The Last Best Hope, Volume IIE, Chapter 5—FDR and the New Deal 1933-39
Chapter Overview Handout for Students
Key Historical Points
1.
Franklin Roosevelt and the new Democratic Congress responded to the crisis of the Great Depression with dramatic
legislation during the "Hundred Days." The result was the New Deal.
2. New Deal measures addressed three components of the economic crisis: relief, recovery, and reform.
3. The United States restored diplomatic relations to the Soviet Union in 1933.
4. New Deal programs that provided jobs to the unemployed helped Americans maintain hope and a belief in the nation's
capitalist system.
5. A "Dust Bowl" devastated the American farm belt during the 1930s.
6. Desperate times led to the rise of demagogues such as Huey Long and Father Charles Coughlin.
7. Despite the rise of dictatorships in Italy, Germany, and Japan that each sought to expand though violence, Americans were
determined to remain out of future wars, as shown through the passing of the Neutrality Acts.
8. African-American athletes Jesse Owens and Joe Louis brought pride to all Americans by defeating German rivals and
showing the fallacy of Hitler's racial theories.
9. FDR lost his attempt to check the power of the Supreme Court with his "court packing" plan, showing that Americans did
not want to disrupt the delicate balance of power between our government's three branches.
10. As Germany became more aggressive during the 1930s, Britain and France attempted to appease him. Some Americans
supported appeasement, but others were beginning to see his regime as a threat that would eventually need to be
confronted.
Timeline of Key Events
1933 Franklin Roosevelt inaugurated as President; Adolph Hitler comes to power in Germany; Prohibition ends; Roosevelt's 100
Days of legislation; Alphabet agencies begin (CCC, WPA, NRA, et al.); U.S. ends the gold standard
1934 Bruno Hauptmann arrested in the Lindbergh kidnapping case
1935 NRA is declared unconstitutional in Schechter Poultry Corporation V. United States; Huey Long is assassinated in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana
1936 Remilitarization of the Rhineland by Germany; Berlin Olympic Games; Jesse Owens wins four gold medals; Spanish Civil
War; Franklin Roosevelt re-elected for a second term
1937 Roosevelt attempts to stack the Supreme Court; Golden Gate Bridge is completed in San Francisco; Japanese occupy
Manchuria; Amelia Earhart is lost somewhere in the Pacific; Hindenburg Disaster
1938 Munich Agreement cedes the Sudetenland to Germany; beginning of the policy of appeasement; Joe Louis defeats Max
Schmeling for the heavy weight championship; Kristallnacht in Germany; Orson Wells' broadcast of War of the Worlds
1939 Poland is invaded; World War II begins in Europe
Historical Questions
1.
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3.
Giving examples of specific New Deal programs, explain how FDR’s administration provided relief, recovery, and reform for
the stricken U.S. economy.
What were the messages of Huey Long and Father Charles Coughlin and why did they achieve such a broad audience during
the 1930s?
Describe the actions taken by Adolf Hitler to dismantle the Versailles Treaty during the 1930s and the response of the
democracies in Europe. Why did they respond in this way?
Key People
Adolf Hitler
Alf Landon
Amelia Earhart
Benito Mussolini
Bruno Hauptmann
Charles Lindbergh
Eleanor Roosevelt
Father Charles Coughlin
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Gutzon Borglum
Helene Mayer
Huey Long
Jesse Owens
Joe Louis
John Reed
Joseph P. Kennedy
King Edward VIII (Duke of Windsor)
Marian Anderson
Max Schmeling
Neville Chamberlain
Scottsboro Boys
Will Rogers
William Bullitt
Winston Churchill
Key Events
Hindenburg disaster
Hitler’s violations of the Versailles Treaty
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)
Louis-Schmeling Fights
Historical Terms and Places
New Deal
Brain Trust
First 100 Days
Political "Left" and "Right"
Alphabet soup agencies
Bank run
Bank Holiday
Fireside chats
Gold standard
Greenbacks
"rubber stamp"
"coattails"
"Blue Eagle"
Kingfish
Creation of Mount Rushmore Monument
1936 Election
1936 Olympics
1937 recession
Rhineland
Swastika
Luftwaffe
Führer
Nazism
"Black Cabinet"
"Nine Old Men"
FDR’s “Quarantine Speech”
Trial of Bruno Hauptmann
War of the Worlds broadcast
"Court Packing Scheme"
"Cliveden Set"
Anschluss
Gestapo
Sudetenland
"Peace in Our Time"
Laws and Legislation
National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) created the National Recovery Administration (NRA) and gave the president the
power to regulate businesses by establishing codes of fair practice; declared unconstitutional by Supreme Court
Civilian Conservation Corps provided work for young men ages 18-25 working in the nation's state and national parks and on
other conservation and building projects
Agricultural Adjustment Act another New Deal measure declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court; it attempted to raise
commodity prices by paying farmers to take acreage out of production and thus lower supply and increase demand
Tennessee Valley Authority launched the largest array of public works projects the nation had ever seen
Farm Credit Act measure offered government support to let farmers refinance their mortgages over a longer time period
Home Owner's Loan Corporation helped over one million homeowners refinance their home loans for longer periods and at
lower rates of interest, helping these struggling Americans keep their homes
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation designed to guarantee the deposits of Americans in private banks
Social Security Act provided benefits for the unemployed and the disabled
Wagner Act affirmed the right of workers to organize unions, bargain collectively and strike as a means to gain their demands;
also set up the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to investigate charges of unfair labor practices
Securities and Exchange Commission independent regulatory agency charged with enforcing federal laws preventing fraud and
insuring honesty in the stock market
Twenty-first Amendment overturned the Eighteenth Amendment and thus ended America's experiment with the prohibition
Public Works Administration PWA had a budget of 3.3 billion dollars to be used to for large public works, such as dams,
bridges, and highways
Works Progress Administration employed millions of unemployed Americans in towns, cities, and rural communities; WPA
workers largely completed public works projects such as roads, bridges, airports, and public buildings
Neutrality Acts prohibited American businesses from selling war materials to nations at war and prevented Americans from
traveling on ships belonging to belligerents
Nuremberg Laws series of German laws in the mid-1930s that severely discriminated against that nation's Jews
Munich Pact of 1938 Britain and France agreed to Hitler's demand that the Czechoslovakian region known as the Sudetenland
be added to Germany
Plessy v. Ferguson infamous Supreme Court decision from 1896 that justified segregation of facilities between black and white
Americans as long as those facilities were "separate but equal."
Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States invalidated the National Industrial Recovery Act
Five Themes of Geography
Location Scottsboro (AL), Berlin, Mount Rushmore, San Francisco
Place USSR, Louisiana, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland
Human/Environment Interaction Impact of New Deal projects on Environment (CCC, WPA, TVA, dams)
Movement Flight of the Hindenburg, flights of Amelia Earhart
Region Black Hills, Rhineland, Sudetenland
Key Economic Points
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8.
The New Deal brought large regulation of American industry
Despite dozens of new government work programs, unemployment remained high during the 1930s
New Deal pro-labor practices meant wages and product prices remained higher than would be expected which kept both
consumption low and unemployment high; a free market in recession (or depression) sees wages (and hence prices) drop until
consumers begin to buy again—at that point recovery begins
Some New Deal programs further developed America’s energy and transportation infrastructure
Roosevelt policies to save banks (FDIC and increasing money supply) helped stabilize economy (at the same time other New
Deal policies hampered its growth)
Despite the 1930s terrible economic performance, the entertainment industry (movies, music, and radio) saw continued
growth
Counter-productive New Deal economic policies led to a “recession within a depression” in 1938 as unemployment quickly
rose again
The United States would not fully recover from the Great Depression until mobilization for World War II began in 1940-41