What single event precipitated the start of the Depression?

stock market crash (loses ½ its value) due to over-inflated prices

What were the two sources of bad debts that caused so many banks

to fail at the start of the Depression?

Loans to farmers and investments in the Stock Market

What President was blamed for the start of the Great Depression?

Herbert Hoover

What was Hoover’s basic approach to solving the problems

of the Great Depression?

Staying hands off, “rugged individualism”

Why was Hoover opposed to direct relief?

He thought it would create a large gov’t, hurt America’s pride, and

make people dependent

What were Hoover’s two attempts at direct gov’t action? What did

they try to do?

Federal Farm Board (loans and cooperatives) and the

Reconstruction Finance Corporation (loans to banks and

businesses)

Name two religious/charitable organizations that tried to provide

relief during the Depression.

Red Cross, Salvation Army, mutualistas

What were some common themes in popular culture during the

Depression?

Fighting to the top, beating the odds, escaping to paradise

What were “Hoovervilles”?

settlement camps for the homeless

What photographer is famous for capturing the face of the

Depression?

Dorothea Lange

What was the Dust Bowl?

destruction of millions of acres of farmland in OK & TX because of

drought and wind

How did the Dust Bowl affect life in the U.S.?

Many people lost farms & were forced to relocate

What was the Bonus Army? How did the gov’t deal with them?

WWI vets who wanted their bonus early, dispersed by force (US

Army troops)

Where did unemployment peak during the Great Depression?

25%

How much did GNP fall during the Great Depression?

25%

Who defeated Hoover in the election of 1932? How much

support did he enjoy in the election?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, won in a landslide which gave him a

mandate

What was his plan to solve the Great Depression called? What did he call his big start toward

recovery?

the New Deal, the First Hundred Days

What were his three areas of focus in this plan?

relief, recovery, and reform

What was the Agricultural Adjustment Administration

responsible for?

Regulating crop prices & productions with subsidies & by

paying people not to farm

How did conservatives view the New Deal?

1st step towards socialism (too much gov’t involvement)

What was the most controversial part of the New Deal? What did it

ask people to do?

NRA (nat’l recovery administration), comply with voluntary min. wage

& other regulations

What org. brought electricity to rural areas?

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Who employed young men to work at road construction at forest

preservation?

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

What was the intended effect of big public works programs

(TVA, WPA, etc.)?

Government spending employs people and stimulates aggregate

demand

What did FDR try to do when the Supreme Court rejected parts of

the New Deal?

Pack the court (add six justices who agreed with his ideas)

Who was the charismatic senator from Louisiana that promised to

“Share Our Wealth”? What happened to him?

Huey Long (promised $5,000 to every family, shot by a political

rival

Who was Father Coughlin? Who did he blame the GD on?

RC priest in Detroit, Jewish bankers and capitalists

What group represented the far right response to the

Depression? What country did they think the U.S. should

emulate?

Fascists, Nazi Germany (Hitler solved the GD by preparing for WWII before everybody else)

What group did you join to be a part of the radical response to the

Great Depression? Why was it popular?

Communist party, many believed the Soviets’ command economy was successfully handling the problems of the Depression

What law allowed major industrial unions to make gains during the Depression? What

union used this to organize entire industries?

Wagner Act (NLRA), Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

What were the major provisions of the Wagner Act?

Businesses had to negotiate with workers who successfully formed

a union, unions could take grievances to the NLRB

How did FDR respond to pressure from these critics and groups like

the Communist Party?

The Second New Deal

What were the two biggest parts of the “2nd New Deal”?

Social Security and the Works Progress Administration

What did Social Security provide? How did it impact the workforce?

Benefits for the elderly and disabled, shrunk it by inventing

the concept of retirement

What are three significant long term changes brought about by

the New Deal?

Government takes responsibility for Agriculture, the elderly and

disabled, and takes a much more hands on approach to the

economy

What major event eventually pulled our country out of the GD?

World War II