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 1933-45 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