APUSH chapter 23 vocab

Indian Reorganization Act

1934 law that reversed the Dawes Act of 1887. Through the law, Indians won a greater degree of religious freedom, and tribal governments regained their status as semisoverign dependent nations.

Wagner Act

1935 act that upheld the right of industrial workers to join unions and established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency with the authority to protect workers from employer coercion and to guarantee collective bargaining

Social Security Act

1935 act with 3 main provisions: old-age pensions for workers; and a program of payments to widowed mothers and the blind, deaf, and disabled

Glass-Steagall Act

A 1933 law that created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insured deposits up to 2,500 (and now up to 250,000). Also prohibited banks from making risky, unsecured investments with customers' deposits.

Bonus Army

A group of 15,000 unemployed WWI veterans who set up camps near the Capitol building in 1932 to demand immediate payment of pension awards due to be paid in 1945

Smoot-Hawley Tariff

A high tariff enacted in 1930 during the Great Depression. By taxing imported goods, Congress hoped to stimulate American manufacturing, but the tariff triggered retaliatory tariffs in other countries, which further hindered global trade and led to greater economic contraction.

Dust Bowl

A series of dust storms from 1930 to 1941 during which a severe drought afflicted the semiarid states of Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arkansas, and Kansas

fireside chats

A series of informal radio addresses Franklin Roosevelt made to the nation in which he explained New Deal initiatives

Federal Housing Administration

Agency established by the Federal Housing Acf of 1934; refinanced home mortgages for mortgage holders facing possible foreclosure

Rural Electrification Administration

Agency established in 1935 to promote nonprofit farm cooperatives that offered loans to farmers to install power lines

Tennessee Valley Authority

Agency funded by congress in 1933 that integrated flood control, reforestation, electricity generation, and agricultural and industrial development.

National Association of Manufacturers

Association of industrialists and business leaders opposed to government regulation. Group promoted free enterprise and capitalism through a publicity campaign of radio programs, motion pictures, billboards, and direct mail

Federal Writers' Project (FWP)

Employed 15,000 musicians and 5,000 writers, respectively.

Securities and Exchange Commission

Established by Congress in 1934 to regulate the stock market. Had broad powers to determine how stocks and bonds were sold to the public, to set rules for margin (credit) transactions, and to prevent stock sales by those with inside information about corporate plans.

Works Progress Administration

Federal New Deal program established in 1935 that provided government-funded public works jobs to millions of unemployed Americans during the Great Depression in areas ranging from construction to the arts

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

Federal agency established in June 1933 to promote industrial recovery during the Great Depression. Encouraged industrialists to voluntarily adopt codes that defined fair working conditions, set prices, and minimized competition.

Civilian Conservation Corps

Federal relief program that provided jobs to millions of unemployed young men who built bridges, roads, etc

Liberty League

Group of republican business leaders and conservative democratic a who banded together to fight what they called the "reckless spending" and "socialist" reforms of the New Deal

Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)

Harry Hopkins; provided federal funds for state relief programs

Grand Coulée Dam

Largest project in the West; PWA and Bureau of Reclamation built on the Colombia River. Largest electricity-producing structure in the world; providers irrigation for the state's major crops: apples, cherries, pears, potatoes, and wheat.

Hundred days

Legendary session during first few months of Franklin roosevelt's administration in which congress enacted 15 major bills that focused primarily on 4 problems banking failures, agricultural overproduction, the business slump, and soaring unemployment

Public Works Administration

New Deal construction program established by congress in 1933. Designed to put people back to work. Built the Boulder Dam (renamed Hoover Dam) and Grand Coulée Damn.

Agricultural Adjustment Act

New Deal legislation passed in May 1933 that aimed at cutting agricultural production to raise crop prices and thus farmers' income

Emergency Banking Act

Permitted banks to reopen if a Treasury Department inspection showed that they had sufficient cash reserves

Townsend Plan

Plan proposed by Francis Townsend in 1933 that would give $200 a month (about $3,300 today) to citizens over the age of sixty. Townsend Clubs sprang up across the country in support of the plan, mobilizing mass support for the old-age pensions.

Classical Liberalism

Political ideology of individual liberty, private property, a competitive market economy, free trade, and limited government. Idea that being that the less government does, the better, particularly in reference to economic policies such as tariffs and incentives for industrial development. Attacking corruption liberals generally called for elite governance and questioned the advisability of full democratic participation.

Roosevelt Recession

Recession from 1937 to 1938 that occurred after President Roosevelt cut the federal budget

Herbert Hoover

Responses to depression: people's fate was in their own hands, business community could right itself

Welfare state

Term applied to industrial democracies that adopt various government-guaranteed social- welfare programs. The creation of Social Security and other measures of the Second New Deal fundamentally changed American society and established a national welfare state for the first time

Keynesian Ecomonics

Theory developed by John Maynard Keynes in the 1930s. Purposeful government intervention in the economy (through lowering or raising taxes, interest rates, and government spending) can affect the level of overall economic activity and thereby prevent severe depressions and runaway inflation