unit 8

Valentino

An exotic Italian immigrant, he was the greatest movie star of the 20s. His role in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse made him a star and his role after that in The Sheik made sure he'd keep his fame. Later films just increased his popularity and sex appeal, but he died young. 50,000 people went to the funeral and several women committed suicide.

Townsend

Another critic of FDR, he wanted to give every person over 60 years old a $200 per month pension, as long as all the money was spent each month. It would have been paid for by a 2% national sales tax. Even though he failed, his ideas led directly to the Social Security Act of 1935.

Al Capone

a famous Chicago gangster who became wealthy and powerful by engaging in illegal activities like bootlegging and prostitution. He became a highly visible public figure. He made donations to various charitable endeavors using the money he made from his activities, and was viewed by many to be a "modern-day Robin Hood." He was convicted on federal charges of tax evasion in 1931 and sent to Alcatraz.

Second New Deal

the name given to the 2nd stage of the New Deal taking place after the Democrats' overwhelming victories in the Congressional elections of 1934. During this time, the Democrats passed almost any bill they wanted, and FDR was free to continue to experiment with solutions to the Depression.

Flappers

were a "new breed" of young women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. They were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms.

"Wets" and "drys"

wets were people who supported legalization of alcohol. They tended to be from urban areas and were often immigrants. Drys were people who supported Prohibition, and tended to be whites from rural America.

Roosevelt's Inaugural Address

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." One of the greatest speeches ever. He restored hope to the American people.

Leopold and Loeb

(1924) Both the sons of millionaires, 19-year-old Nathan Leopold Jr. and 18-year-old Richard Loeb kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks because they wanted to commit "the perfect murder" to get a "thrill." Not nearly as smart as they thought they were, the two young men made many blunders and were caught almost immediately. They pleaded guilty and through his eloquence, their lawyer, Clarence Darrow, saved them from the electric chair and they each received life plus 99 years. Loeb was murdered in prison and Leopold was paroled in 1958.

Eleanor

(FDR' s wife) was a very powerful political figure. She held a White House conference to talk about the emergency needs of women, she fought for issues including anti-lynching legislation, compulsory health insurance, child labor reform, and fought against racial discrimination. She had a great deal of influence over her husband.

Causes of the Depression

1. "Black Tuesday," it caused a business depression, and over 4 million people lost their jobs by 1930. Within two years, that number tripled. Over 5,000 banks collapsed within the first three years. 2. Overproduction of food and goods. 3. Not enough money was going into workers' wages, causing less purchasing. 4. More people were far in debt from buying on credit. 5. Europe hadn't recovered from WWI, so they weren't purchasing American products.

Helen Wills

1920s' best women's tennis star. She won seven national singles titles, eight Wimbledon singles titles (the 2nd most ever), and four French titles. People would climb roofs and trees if they couldn't get tickets just to be able to see her matches, and scalpers got $50 per ticket.

Fall

A NM Senator appointed Secretary of the Interior during the Harding presidency. He collected $400,000 in bribes from people who wished to exploit the oil reserves on federal property at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California. This scandal rocked Harding's presidency. He was forced from office after Harding's death and later went to prison.

LaFollette

A Progressive candidate for the 1924 election. The American Federation of Labor endorsed him. He had support from the Socialist Party and price-pinched farmers. His platform called for government controlled railroads, relief for farmers, and lashed out at monopolies and anti-labor injunctions. The Progressives also urged a constitutional amendment to limit the Supreme Court's power to invalidate laws passed by Congress. He lost the election by a landslide in electoral votes. This marked the end of the Progressive Movement.

Creole Jazz Band

A band led by Joe "King" Oliver and including Louis Armstrong, it played before huge audiences in Chicago.

Muscle Shoals Bill

A bill Hoover found socialistic. It wanted to dam the Tennessee River, and use the dam to generate electricity that it would then sell to the people. Hoover opposed this and vetoed the bill because he disagreed with the government selling electricity in competition with its own citizens' private companies. If the bill had passed, it would have provided the same sorts of benefits provided by the construction of the Hoover Dam. During FDR's administration, the Tennessee Valley Authority was created.

Washington Disarmament Conference

A conference held from 1921-1922. Nine nations discussed issues in the Far East, and disarmament of the navies. Harding's Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes, came prepared with a ten-year plan for the navies. The plan decided that the ratio of battleships and aircraft carriers between the US, Britain, and Japan would be upheld at 5:5:3. Japan was not happy about this, calling it the "Rolls-Royce, Rolls-Royce, Ford," ratio. They finally decided on the Five-Power Naval Treaty of 1922. It said the ratio would be put in place, along with compensation for the Japanese, and Britain and American promise to keep from fortifying their Pacific and Far East territories (the other two powers were France and Italy, each with a 1.7 ratio). The Four-Power Treaty kept the status quo in the Pacific between the US, Britain, Japan, and France, and each member agreed to respect the others' territories in the Pacific. The last treaty of the conference was the Nine-Power Treaty, which kept the Open Door Policy in China. Supporters of Harding were very happy with the treaties and conference, but there was a big hole in their plan. The treaties only set ratios on battleships, so smaller warcraft had no restrictions whatsoever. Many nations started to crank out cruisers, destroyers, and submarines - except the US. We didn't want to put money into wartime supplies if there was no chance of war. The conference was a huge success in disarmament, but the 9 Power Treaty angered Japan, who had ambitions in China, and they soon violated the treaty.

Chaplin

A famous comedian and silent film star during the 1920s. He played a character known as the Little Tramp.

Buying on credit (aka buying on installment)

A form of paying for something by paying a down payment and then making monthly payments with low interest. In the '20s, many people were optimistic about the economy, so they rushed to stores to put ten percent down on products and make monthly installments. Before this era, people were often too afraid to be in debt to take the chance of buying on credit. This technique greatly grew the automobile industry - around 2/3 of automobile purchases were made on credit and ½ of appliance purchases were made this way.

Great Steel Strike of 1919

AFL, a conservative union, led the strike, which included most of the Midwest - 350,000 workers. They wanted higher wages, 8-hour day, and union recognition. The company portrayed workers as dangerous radicals who threatened the American way of life (which apparently meant working yourself to death for virtually no pay in wretched working conditions). The strikers got nothing.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

This provided relief (in the form of low electricity rates), recovery (in providing a market for appliances to areas that now had electricity), and reform (in regulating the prices utilities could charge for electricity). The project built dams to provide low-cost electricity to people in parts of seven states on the Tennessee River and its tributaries. It also prevented disastrous floods on the lower parts of the river via dam projects. And, the project improved navigation on the Tennessee River and provided cheap nitrate fertilizer for farmers. The project was spectacularly successful, leading to similar projects on the Columbia and Missouri Rivers.

Young Plan

This was a program for settlement of German reparation debts after WWI. It became apparent that Germany couldn't meet the huge annual payments. This reduced further payments to $8 billion over 59 years, but the Great Depression ended war payments from all countries except Finland. Finland was the only country to repay the US for WWI.

KDKA

the first radio station in the nation, it is in Pittsburgh. Radio became huge in the 1920s, as people would gather around the family radio to listen to news and sports.

Seattle General Strike of 1919

A general citywide strike in the U.S. started in the shipyards. Workers wanted a wage increase after not getting one in two years. They were refused, so they went on strike! The shipyards closed. Most of the city's approximately 130 local unions walked out to support the shipyard workers. 65,000 people stopped working in a city of 315,000 people! Stores closed and streetcars stopped running. Most local and national press, corporate-owned, called the strikers "Bolsheviks." The strike was a revolutionary plot to overthrow the existing capitalist system, they said. Mayor Ole Hanson armed the police force and threatened martial law and the use of federal troops. Cops and vigilantes rounded up "Reds" (i.e. labor leaders). The IWW hall was raided and its leaders arrested. Federal agents shut down the labor-owned newspaper, the Union Record, and its staff was arrested. These unconstitutional acts broke the strike. Seattle had been saved from communism! "Americanism had triumphed over 'Bolshevism,'" said Mayor Hanson.

Hughes

A great poet and playwright of the Harlem Renaissance, he famously wrote about the period, "the negro was in vogue."

Ku Klux Klan

A hate group re-established in 1915 by William J. Simmons. The Klan hired a public relations firm in 1920 - membership exploded. 5 million members by 1923. Anti: foreign, black, Catholic, Jewish, pacifist, Communist, internationalist, evolutionist, birth control, gambling, adultery, and bootlegging. Pro-American! Yeah! Lots of ritual - Imperial Wizards, Grand Goblins, King Kleagles, and other "Kreatures" made up the Klan. They were involved in parades and cross burnings and wore sheets. Their slogan - "Kill the Kikes, Koons, and Katholics." The KKK had chapters in all 48 states. The KKK used vigilante justice against bootleggers, adulterers, and wife beaters! They forced schools to teach creationism and do Bible readings. In 1925, Grand Dragon of Indiana, David Stephenson, was convicted of kidnapping and rape. At that time, 1/3 of all white men in Indiana were Klansmen! The KKK declined very rapidly after the Stephenson scandal and after the leaders were caught embezzling membership money. *The Klan was a manifestation of intolerance and prejudice of the 1920s. And, so, just so we have this straight - in the 1920s, cops and workers were disloyal commies, while violent racists were 100% American.

Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam)

A huge dam in Nevada, it was planned during the Coolidge administration and constructed under Roosevelt. Controversially, it was named in honor of Hoover in 1947. It took thousands of men to build, and over one hundred lives were lost during construction. It created a lake for irrigation, flood control, and electric power. It provided thousands of jobs during the Depression.

Teapot Dome

A huge scandal during the Harding administration. It involved Secretary of the Interior (Fall) and the Secretary of the Navy (Denby). Fall convinced Denby to transfer the properties of Teapot Dome, WY, and Elk Hills, CA to the Interior Department. Those properties sat atop huge oil reserves. Fall then sold the reserves to Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny. He received a $100,000 bribe from Doheny and about three times that from Sinclair. Details about the bribes leaked out around 1923, and in 1929, Fall was found guilty and sentenced to one year in jail.

The Jazz Singer

A mostly silent movie that included some spoken dialogue and some singing by the star, Al Jolsen. The first talkie. It was very popular and doomed the silent film.

Kellogg-Briand Pact

A pact between America and 61 other countries that renounced the use of war as a means of national policy. It didn't ban the use of defensive war, however. So basically, you had to right to go to war if someone attacked you, but you weren't allowed to attack a nation for any other reason. The problem was defining what "defensive" means. For example, Japan bombed their own railroad in Manchuria, China in 1931 and said China did it so they could declare war on China.

Moonshiner

A person who produces alcohol illegally. They use stills to produce their product, and these are sometimes made of old car radiators, full of chemicals and lead. To test for the presence of lead, savvy people would put a small amount on a spoon and light it. If the flame was red, then they knew it contained lead. "Lead burns red and makes you dead."

Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930

A protective tariff to assist farmers and industry. It became the highest protective tariff in the nation's peacetime history since the abominable Tariff of 1828. It raised the average duty from 38.5% to around 60%. Henry Ford and over 1,000 economists begged Hoover to veto the bill, but Hoover caved in to his party and signed it. The rest of the world retaliated with tariffs against American products, helping to worsen the Depression.

Robeson

A very popular black performer who was a former Rutgers football star and a Columbia Law School graduate. He starred in shows like The Emperor Jones, Show Boat, and Porgy and Bess and performed in many concerts; his very deep voice excited audiences.

National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (Wagner Act)

After the NIRA was declared unconstitutional, Senator Robert Wagner introduced legislation to guarantee that workers would have the right to bargain collectively. It: A. created the National Labor Relations Board for collective bargaining rights. B. investigated complaints of unfair labor practices and issued orders that such practices be stopped. Predictably, employers whined that the Wagner Act unfairly benefited the working class over the business class.

Farming Woes

After the war, demand for farming goods decreased substantially and farmers made much less money. Their problems were compounded by overproduction, caused by new technological innovations like the tractor. Farmers wanted relief, so they went to Congress in 1921 and tried to get laws passed to help them. Capper-Volstead Act: exempted farmers from antitrust prosecution. McNary-Haugen Bill: wasn't passed because Coolidge vetoed it twice. It would have kept agricultural prices high via government subsidies, and the government would buy the surplus and sell it abroad.

Election of 1936

Alfred Landon of Kansas (Republican) versus FDR (D). Only Maine and Vermont voted for Landon, who opposed the New Deal, calling it "socialist." The electoral vote was 523 to 8!

Palmer

Attorney General for Woodrow Wilson. He is best known for directing the Palmer Raids, attempts by the US Department of Justice to arrest and deport radical leftists, especially anarchists. Raids were conducted in 30 cities and 23 states without warrants (as required by the 4th Amendment). He claimed that the Justice Department had seized bombs, but it soon came out that the raids managed to seize 4 pistols. More than 500 foreign citizens were deported, including a number of prominent leftist leaders. The Justice Department's unlawful activities included arresting suspected radicals, beating suspects, and holding suspects in unlawful incommunicado detention (holding people without granting them their constitutional right to an attorney). He, a Quaker, was nicknamed the "Fighting Quaker" until after alleged anarchists bombed his house. Then, he became known as the "Quaking Fighter."

Amendment 20

Because it took from the first week of November until March 5, 1933 for FDR to be President, the people became impatient for change. The Depression worsened. As a result, the Constitution was changed to reduce the length of this period so that Inauguration now takes place on January 20.

Phillips

Before becoming president, Harding had an affair with her while he was living in Marion, OH. She was his neighbor, and many people in Ohio knew of the relationship. After Harding was nominated for the Presidency, the Republican Party gave her and her husband a trip to Europe. This got them out of the country for the duration of the campaign, allowing Harding to go into office without having to answer questions about a mistress!

Lindbergh

Biggest hero of the 1920s. Known as the Lone Eagle, he was the first to fly across the Atlantic. New York honored him with a huge parade upon his return to the US; businesses made him huge financial offers; street names, schools, and a town in Texas were named after him; and his accomplishment was known by the New York Evening World as "the greatest feat of a solitary man in the records of the human race."

Jazz

the most popular form of music during the 1920s. In fact, the 1920s is often called "The Jazz Age."

Silent Cal

Calvin Coolidge became president after Harding's death (some people think he may have been murdered or committed suicide). Coolidge believed in virtues of honesty, morality, industry, and frugality, which was appealing after Harding's corruption (a lot like Hayes after Grant). He said, "The man who builds a factory builds a temple" and "The man who works there worships there." Very pro-business.

Dawes Plan

Charles Dawes negotiated this agreement as he was about to become Coolidge's running mate. It rescheduled German payments (extended the amount of time Germany had to pay its war reparations) and opened the way to more private American loans to Germany.

Return of the Old Guard

Conservative businessmen controlled the Republican Party before Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency in 1901. They were called the Old Guard. TR and Taft were part of the Progressive wing of the Republican Party, which dominated the party until the 1920 election. Harding's election that year brought back the Old Guard. It was as if the Gilded Age had made a comeback. Republicans followed pro-business policies during the 1920s, like high protective tariffs, busting up unions, deregulation of industry, and cutting taxes for the wealthy.

Boston Police Strike

Cops wanted higher pay. The city Commissioner then fired 19 cops for trying to form a union. Riots broke out in Boston after the strike began, with no cops to stop them! Governor Calvin Coolidge said that the strike was a threat to public safety. He referred to the cops as communists! He called in the National Guard to replace the strikers. Coolidge became a national hero! *Shows the conservative mood of the country.

FDR's Cabinet

Cordell Hull - Secretary of State. Harold Ickes - Secretary of the Interior. Frances Perkins - Secretary of Labor. 1st female Cabinet member in US History. Overall, a great cabinet, testifying to FDR's leadership ability.

National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)

Created the National Recovery Administration (NRA) in June 1933. The NRA supervised the creation of codes of fair competition by employers, employees, and consumers in each industry. After the President approved the codes, they became law. The codes accomplished the abolition of child labor, limiting of production, control of prices, and establishment of minimum wage and maximum hours for workers. Participation in the NRA was voluntary, which was a huge mistake, but the only way Republicans would agree to vote for it. Participating firms displayed the Blue Eagle (symbol of the NRA) and used the motto of the agency, "We do our part." Section 7A of the NIRA was a huge win for labor - it allowed them to bargain collectively. The US Supreme Court in the Schechter Poultry Corp. v. US case (also known as the "sick chicken" case) struck down the NRA. The Court claimed that the NIRA granted the President too much power and that it illegally regulated intrastate trade.

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)

Designed to help farmers increase profits by reducing production (less production meant higher prices). The AAA was authorized to: A. control production of several crops, hogs, and cattle by paying cash subsidies to farmers who voluntarily restricted acreage planted or reduced livestock. B. pay farmers to plant grasses on untilled land to provide cover to topsoil and reduce erosion and dust storms. Farm prices improved almost immediately, but unfortunately the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1936 in United States v. Butler.

Federal Housing Administration (FHA)

Established by the National Housing Act of 1934, it was to insure mortgages made by private lending institutions for the building of new homes and the improvement of existing homes. By 1941, the government had insured $3.5 billion in mortgages.

Public Works Administration (PWA)

Established for the construction of roads, schools, hospitals, dams, bridges, and other projects to stimulate the economy. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes led it, spending about $5 billion on nearly 35,000 construction projects employing 500,000 people between 1933 and 1939.

Bank holiday

FDR declared a 4-day this, when all banks would be closed. The act to make this happen was the Emergency Banking Act of 1933, and it was one of the first acts of the FDR presidency. The Federal Reserve committed to supply unlimited amounts of currency to reopened banks, creating de facto 100 percent deposit insurance. Much to everyone's relief, when the institutions reopened for business on March 13, 1933, depositors stood in line to return their stashed cash to neighborhood banks. Within two weeks, Americans had re-deposited more than half of the currency that they had squirreled away before the bank suspension. The stock market registered its approval as well. On March 15, 1933, the first day of stock trading after the extended closure of Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange recorded the largest one-day percentage increase ever with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 15.34 percent. The nationwide Bank Holiday and the Emergency Banking Act of March 1933 ended the bank runs that had plagued the Great Depression.

Red Grange

Football's greatest player of the time. He turned pro in 1925 and joined the Chicago Bears, and since he was so popular he helped the NFL gain respectability. He put pro football on the map. He was known as the "Galloping Ghost," since he ran fast and was hard to tackle!

Committee for Industrial Organization (Congress of Industrial Organizations) (CIO)

Formed by John L. Lewis, boss of the United Mine Workers, it broke from the AFL in 1936. Using a new technique known as the sit-down strike at the Flint, Michigan, General Motors plant, this was recognized by GM, followed soon by United States Steel.

Ford

Founding the Ford Motor Company in 1903, Ford was responsible for bringing the automobile into an affordable price range by utilizing the assembly line to cut the cost of making his Model T. He sold his Model T in only black, but he ended up cracking under public pressure and produced an updated car, the Model A, in 1927, and that came in many colors. Alas, he was an anti-Semite (hater of the Jewish people), published The International Jew to attack them, and won the Grand Cross of the Iron Eagle from Nazi Germany.

Election of 1932

Franklin D. Roosevelt of NY (D) versus Herbert Hoover of IA (R). Republicans praised Hoover's anti-Depression policies and made weak promises to end Prohibition (people wanted to drink their sorrows away and Prohibition had become quite unpopular). FDR was governor of NY, former nominee for VP, and served as asst. secretary of the Navy during WWI. Hoover's slogans were "The Worst Is Past, "It Might Have Been Worse," and "Prosperity Is Just Around the Corner." He blamed the fear of a Roosevelt presidency as a reason for the depth of the Depression. FDR promised a balanced budget (which he soon broke), promised a New Deal for the "forgotten man," which he did do, and inspired optimism and hope ("Happy Days Are Here Again" was his theme). He also promised to get rid of Prohibition, which he did do after becoming President with the 21st Amendment. The election was a blowout; FDR won 472-59 and Hoover won only 6 states. Blacks voted for Democrats for the first time in US History.

Babe Ruth

His powerful hitting helped people forget all about the Black Sox. In the 1910s, he was one of the best left-handed pitchers in the major leagues, set a record for scoreless innings, and could hit home runs as well. When he was sold from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees after the 1919 season, his hitting started the Yankee dynasty. In 1927, he broke his own record for home runs by hitting 60. He lived the life of an athlete, eating, drinking, and womanizing, and he constantly fascinated the public. He still holds the all-time record for slugging percentage and on base percentage.

Hoover

He had been director of the Food Administration during WWI and Commerce Secretary for Coolidge. He was very popular with the press, which printed many pro-him articles. In 1928, both candidates were pro-business, and each promised to improve conditions for farmers, reform immigration laws, and maintain America's isolationist foreign policy. They differed on Prohibition, and he appealed to racism in the South to win white votes. He was the first Republican ever to win Texas. Southern whites began voting Republican and blacks started to switch to the Democratic Party.

Jesse Smith

He was a close friend from Ohio of Attorney General Harry Daugherty's. Although he held no official government position, he used his access to Daugherty to meddle in the business of the Justice Department. He became very rich through illegal means. He shot and killed himself in Daugherty's Washington apartment in 1923.

Barton

He was an advertising executive who wrote, The Man Nobody Knows in 1925. He called Jesus Christ the "best adman of all time," depicting him as a salesman and model for a businessman. He is in this unit because, for the first time, mass consumerism became part of American life during the 1920s.

Forbes

He was chosen by Harding to head the Veterans Administration and was a decorated World War I veteran. He robbed the VA by receiving bribes from contractors and selling off government assets at low prices. He was forced out of office when Harding found out and later went to prison.

Big Bill Tilden

He was the first American to win the men's singles at Wimbledon (and he won it twice more), won six straight U.S. singles titles (7 overall), and led every Davis Cup team from 1920-1926 to victory. He's probably the 2nd greatest male tennis player ever, behind Roger Federer. He had an attraction to young boys later in life, and his reputation deservedly died.

Faulkner

He wrote The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, and Absalom! Absalom!, among other works. Modern Library lists all four of these novels in the top 100 best English language novels of the 20th century. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature twice!

Stimson Doctrine

Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of State, protested Japanese expansion by proclaiming this. The Doctrine said that the US wouldn't recognize any territorial gains achieved by force. This was put forward after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

McKay

His 1922 poetry collection, Harlem Shadows, was among the first books published during the Harlem Renaissance. He was a great novelist and poet.

Dreiser

His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code. For example, in An American Tragedy, the main character sleeps with several women and convinces one of them to have an abortion because he loves someone else! He is most famous for An American Tragedy and Sister Carrie. Both novels are in the top 100 English language novels of the 20th century.

Glass-Steagall Banking Act

It increased the authority of the Federal Reserve Board to prevent member banks from engaging in excessive speculation and it created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to guarantee bank deposits up to $5,000.

Fordney-McCumber Tariff

It raised tax rates on imported products from 27% to 38.5%, reversing Wilson's efforts to lower tariffs.

Hoover's Steps to Fight the Depression

Hoover acted more vigorously than any President before him, yet still woefully inadequately. His philosophy was that it wasn't the government's job to relieve suffering of the people. He also felt that the Depression would be short-lived - "Prosperity is just around the corner" was a favorite saying of his to justify doing little to help the people. He believed that the cause of the Depression was international debts owed by nations from WWI, so the problem could not be fixed here at home. He did the following: A. Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932) - to lend money to banks, insurance companies, railroads, and other large corporations to prevent bankruptcy and to help create jobs. The RFC lent over $1 billion to corporations, which led critics to label it "the millionaires' dole." In other words, people weren't happy that Hoover was willing to give huge loans to corporations and nothing to starving individuals. The program was too little too late, though some banks, railroads, and insurance companies probably did manage to stay in business because of the program. B. Home Loan Bank Act of 1932 - established Home Loan Banks to refinance home mortgages for people in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure. C. Declared a 1-year moratorium on paying international debts in 1931. But, he made the huge mistake of signing the Smoot-Hawley Act, which deepened the Depression.

"Rugged Individualism" and Hoover

Hoover believed that our country shouldn't hand out relief money to poor people that lose their jobs. He thought that countries that did give handouts made their people lazy. He said that the people were there to help the government; the government wasn't there to help the people.

Hoover Blankets

Hoover was blamed for the failing economy and people losing their homes. The homeless slept under newspapers during the Hoover Administration.

Good Neighbor Policy

Hoover was interested in troubled nations south of the Rio Grande. Shortly after his election in 1928, he went on a goodwill tour of Latin America. He eventually formulated the Good Neighbor Policy. This replaced the Big Stick diplomacy under TR, Dollar diplomacy under Taft, and Bad Neighbor policies of Harding and Coolidge. He supported non-intervention in the domestic affairs of Latin America. However, the Hoover administration is often not given credit for the GNP because the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, passed during Hoover's administration, was very unpopular in the Americas. Many historians instead credit Franklin D. Roosevelt with actually starting the GNP.

Emergency Quota Act of 1921

Immigrants from Europe were restricted to a quota of 3% of the persons of their nationality who had been living in the US in 1910. This was still relatively favorable to SE Europeans, since many of them had already come by 1910. Based on that formula, the number of new immigrants admitted fell from 805,228 in 1920 to 309,556 in 1921-22. The 1910 formula was used instead of 1920 because 1910 was before the Jews arrived from Eastern Europe. The practical effect was to ban Jewish immigration. this law was the one that kept many Jewish people from escaping to America during the Holocaust.

Lindbergh kidnapping

In 1932, Charles Lindbergh, Jr., 20-month old son of the famous aviator, was abducted from the family home. It was one of the most highly publicized crimes of the 20th century. Baby Lindbergh's body was found 2 months later.

New Deal Philosophy

Instead of choosing the rightist policies of the fascists (like Italy, Germany, Henry Ford, and Charles Lindbergh) or the leftist policies of the extreme socialists and communists (like the USSR), FDR took a middle course of preserving both private enterprise and democratic institutions. It has been said by many historians that Roosevelt saved capitalism because he kept it from destroying itself or because another man might have ended it for socialism. Instead of the old "trickle-down" (supply-side) economics, FDR went with Keynesian economics. John Maynard Keynes - economist who advocated that depression-ridden governments should spend their way back to prosperity. He argued that public works projects would increase employment, which would increase consumer spending. This, in turn, would create more demand for products, and more hiring of workers to make those products. FDR and the Democrats argued that the New Deal philosophy operated so that money made its way into the hands of the "forgotten man," and they criticized the old trickle-down approach by saying that it was a giveaway to the rich and a failure because very little of the money filtered down to the masses.

Sacco-Vanzetti Trial

In S. Braintree, MA. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were a shoe factory worker and a fish peddler. They were Italians, atheists, anarchists, and draft dodgers. They were convicted of murdering a guard and paymaster during a robbery. Both men were carrying pistols when they were arrested, and Sacco's gun was of the same caliber as the murder weapon used to kill one of the murder victims. But, several witnesses claimed that Vanzetti was working at the fish market during the time of the robbery. The prosecution questioned the men about their political beliefs again and again during the trial, outraging people around the world that this was a political, not criminal, trial. Demonstrations took place throughout Europe! Albert Einstein, H.G. Wells, and even the Vatican spoke out on behalf of Sacco and Vanzetti. Future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter accused prosecutor Frederick Katzmann of exploiting the public's fear of communism and prejudice against immigrants to prosecute Sacco and Vanzetti, and criticized Judge William Thayer for allowing it to happen. Judge Thayer, openly biased against the views of both men, formally sentenced Sacco and Vanzetti to death on April 9, 1927. The battle to save Sacco and Vanzetti ended when they were executed in the electric chair on August 23, 1927. Today, many historians believe that Sacco may have been guilty, and Vanzetti was almost certainly innocent. Nearly everyone agrees, however, that the evidence was insufficient to convict the men. In 1977, Governor Michael Dukakis signed a proclamation that recognized the faults of the trial and cleared the names of Sacco and Vanzetti.

Black Sox Scandal

In September 1920 rumors got out that the 1919 World Series had been fixed. The rumors were that the White Sox players had been bribed to play to lose so that the Cincinnati Reds would win. White Sox stars confessed to participating. Baseball stars had become idolized, and young fans especially lost heroes that they wanted to believe in. The White Sox players went to trial and were acquitted - many believe that the jury was bribed. The public became more fed up with baseball when the confessions of the players were stolen from the state attorney's office. Team owners knew they needed to do something so they created the position of baseball commissioner to help people believe in the sport again.

Daugherty

In one of Harding's biggest lacks of judgment, he chose this guy as his Attorney General. It was clear that he was not chosen for his mind, but rather for his friendship with Harding. He was involved in multiple scandals during the Harding presidency, such as the one involving Jesse Smith. He was forced from the office after Harding's death, but refused to testify on self-incrimination grounds and was acquitted of criminal charges.

Social Security Act of 1935

It allowed American retirees to have a pension like every other industrialized nation! It gave us the system we have today.

Fair Labor Standards Act

It established a minimum wage (.25, to be raised to .40 by 1945), and established the 40-hour workweek. It also required time and a half overtime after 40 hours, prohibited labor by anyone under 16, and restricted the labor of those under 18 to non-hazardous jobs.

Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC)

It helped non-farm homeowners refinance their mortgages so they wouldn't lose their homes (which also helped out the banks who would have lost a lot of money when they would have seized homes they couldn't have sold).

Invasion of Manchuria

Japanese imperialists rapidly overran the Chinese region of Manchuria, thereby violating the Open Door policy and the League of Nations Covenant. In the Mukden Incident, the Japanese bombed a section of a Japanese-owned railroad in Manchuria. Japan then blamed the Chinese for attacking the railroad, and claimed that war was necessary for self-defense. This stunned Americans and urged us to use measures such as boycotts and blockades to protest Japanese militarism. We refused to use force to help the Chinese, which only encouraged the Japanese to continue their aggression toward China.

Long

Known as the "Kingfish," He was a popular politician from Louisiana. He said that FDR wasn't doing enough to relieve the suffering of the people. His program was known as the "Share Our Wealth" program, which promised to make "Every Man a King." According to Long, every man would receive $5,000, which would be collected by taxing the wealthy. He was criticized for his dictatorial tendencies and for his hatred of Jews. Soon after announcing his intention to run against FDR for the Democratic nomination for President, he was assassinated in Sept. 1935.

Russian Revolution (aka Bolshevik Revolution)

Lenin, leader of the new Soviet Union (USSR), as Russia was now called, made peace with Germany in early 1918 - Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. This withdrew Russia from the war. Wilson refused to recognize the USSR; instead, he sent troops to Russia to support the White Army, and he blockaded Russia. The Soviet Union's Red Army defeated the White Army by 1921.

Andrew Mellon's policies

Mellon was the Secretary of the Treasury for all three Republican presidents of the 1920s: Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover. Mellon came into office with a goal of reducing the huge federal debt from World War I. To do this, he needed to increase revenue and cut spending. He believed that if tax rates were too high, then people would try to avoid paying them. If tax rates were more reasonable, taxpayers would have less incentive to avoid paying. His theory was that by lowering tax rates across the board, he could increase overall tax revenue. He thought that the top income earners would only willingly pay their taxes if rates were 25% or lower. Mellon proposed tax rate cuts, which Congress enacted in the Revenue Acts of 1921, 1924, and 1926. The top marginal tax rate was cut from 73% to 58% in 1922, 50% in 1923, 46% in 1924, 25% in 1925, and 24% in 1929. Rates in lower brackets were also cut substantially, relieving burdens on the middle-class, working-class, and poor households. His policies are known as supply-side economics or "trickle-down" economics. The basic idea is that cutting taxes for the very wealthy will allow them to have more money to invest in building factories or buying products that the lower classes produce. The basic criticism of Mellon is that his premise - we need to cut taxes on the wealthy because they otherwise won't pay them - is flawed. Clearly, if the government wanted to force the wealthy to pay taxes, it could do so by eliminating loopholes in the tax code. But, at least Mellon cut spending, which allowed for deficit reduction, unlike Reagan during the 1980s, Bush during the 2000s, and probably Trump of the late 2010s.

Civil Works Administration (CWA)

Millions of Americans were provided jobs doing raking and other make-work tasks. It was a branch of the FERA and headed by Hopkins, who was criticized by conservatives for having people dig holes and fill them back in. They did do park improvements and road repair, though, so it wasn't completely useless work. Most importantly, it gave people jobs and an income.

Murderers' Row

Nickname for the New York Yankees for their power-hitting lineups after 1921. The lineup included Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

St. Valentine's Day Massacre

On Feb. 14, 1929, Al Capone's men from the South Side of Chicago dressed up like police officers and lured Bugs Moran's North Siders into a garage, where they executed seven of them. Although Capone was not on the scene, his public relations took a hit because it was obvious that it was his organization that had committed the murders.

Cotton Club

One of Harlem's most famous nightclubs that opened in 1923, it was a center of African American culture's growth in the 1920s. Radio broadcasts of Duke Ellington's performances helped increase its popularity. Unfortunately, the club was whites-only, even though it featured the greatest black entertainers of the time. It closed in 1940, but reopened in 1977.

Hemingway

One of the greatest American writers, he established a literary style (narrative prose) that influenced many authors after him. His most famous works include The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. He made popular the phrase "the Lost Generation" to refer to the people who came of age during WWI.

Duke Ellington

One of the most famous black jazz musicians, he was a pianist-composer-bandleader who started his own band in Washington in 1918 and was successful by 1923. Radio broadcasts of his performances helped increase the Cotton Club's popularity.

Armstrong

One of the most famous jazz musicians, he was a trumpet player who grew up in New Orleans and joined King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band.

Bessie Smith

One of the most famous jazz musicians, she was a singer who had a background in poverty and then became known as the Empress of the Blues. Her first recording sold over 2 million copies.

Securities Exchange Act

Passed in 1934, it created the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC registers and supervises the sale of new issues of stocks and bonds. It also authorized the Federal Reserve Board to control the practice of buying on margin.

O'Neill

Playwright who introduced a serious side to Broadway in the 1920s with shows like Beyond the Horizon, Anna Christie, and Strange Interlude. His drama The Emperor Jones starred a lead black character, which opened the door for other black performers on Broadway.

Farm Credit Administration (FCA)

Provided loans for farmers for production and marketing. The goal was to enable farmers to refinance farm mortgages that were in jeopardy of being lost to foreclosure. From 1933-1935, this helped refinance about 20% of the farm mortgages in the nation.

Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)

Provided relief funds for food, clothing, and shelter to the unemployed until they could find work. Harry Hopkins, who authorized spending over $3 billion in this program to try to get people back on their feet, headed the administration.

Effect of Republican Policies on Tariffs

Republicans wanted higher tariffs. Higher tariffs in the 1920s were hard on European nations, just recovering from WWI. Since the rate was so high, Americans had to pay much more for foreign goods than for homemade ones. This slowed trade with European countries to a trickle. In response, European nations built up their own tariffs. This became a vicious circle, and contributed to the international economic distress of the postwar period.

Bonus Army

Soldiers from WWI were promised a bonus for their services in a law passed in 1924 by Congress. The deferred bonus, according to the law, was to be paid in 1945. Veterans wanted their money immediately, since they were suffering like everyone else in the Depression. Hoover opposed giving the veterans their bonuses. About 15,000-20,000 of the veterans marched to Washington, and they became known as the "Bonus Expeditionary Force." The BEF arrived in Washington during the summer of 1932. They built shacks on vacant lots. Hoover convinced most of them to go home, but between 1,000-2,000 stayed. Hoover declared the soldiers a danger to public health, referred to them as communists, and ordered General Douglas MacArthur to evict them. In the "Battle of Anacostia Flats," MacArthur tear-gassed, bayoneted, and burned the shacks of the former soldiers. Hoover had ordered MacArthur to stop once the veterans had crossed the river, but MacArthur ignored the order. Later on, during the Truman administration, MacArthur was again insubordinate. This time, though, Truman fired him. Hoover didn't, and the public blamed him for the disaster. This event, added to the misery of the Depression, handouts to corporations, and refusal to help common people, led to the complete collapse of Hoover's popularity.

Chain stores

Stores such as Piggly Wiggly and J. C. Penney (both big in the 1920s and still around today) that have many stores across the nation and are popular due to the ability to sell products for lower prices than locally owned stores could. Chains sell goods for lower prices because they buy in bulk and then store those large amounts, both things that smaller stores couldn't do. In the 1920s, chain stores grew rapidly. They used techniques like advertising and buying on credit to make purchases easier for their consumers.

Red Scare

The American government shifted from labeling dissenters as "pro-German" to "pro-Bolshevik." Wilson's administration quickly labeled political enemies as "Reds," "Communists," and "Bolsheviks."

Al Smith

The Democratic nominee in 1928, running against Republican Herbert Hoover. He was a liberal four-time governor of New York, and he drank during Prohibition. He was Roman Catholic, so he wasn't popular with Protestants. Republican opponents asserted that if he won election, the Pope would move into the White House.

Immigration Act of 1924

The quota was reduced to 2%, and the census year was moved from 1910 to 1890 - before most New Immigrants had come to America. Great Britain and Ireland, for example, could send 65,000 immigrants per year, while Italy was only allowed 5,800. The act was a triumph for those who believed that blond-haired, blue-eyed people were of better blood. The Act also completely stopped immigration from Japan. Mass "Hate America" rallies erupted in Japan!

Lewis

The author who critically portrayed the faults of the middle class and critiqued life in small town America. He won the Nobel Prize in 1930 for novels such as Main Street, Babbitt, and Elmer Gantry.

Dempsey

The boxing equivalent of Babe Ruth. He fought in the first million-dollar gate against Georges Carpentier, a French veteran of WWI. He won in the fourth round and the New York Times used its first thirteen pages to cover it! He won another million dollars against Argentine Luis Firpo, after being knocked out of the ring and into the press section! After this he didn't fight for three years, and then he faced Gene Tunney. Tunney defeated him because he was out of shape. They battled again at the first $2 million gate with over 100,000 fans in the stadium and 60 million listening on the radio. The fight was long and tough, with Tunney being knocked down but rising and then ultimately defeating him. He retired. He fought from 1914-1927.

Fitzgerald

The famous novelist who wrote The Great Gatsby, which chronicled the lives of the rich during the 20s. Gatsby was about how the ideal of the self-made man was an illusion, and that powerful people with established wealth and social standing really ran America.

The Hundred Days

The first 100 days of FDR's presidency, it was when 15 major bills were passed by Congress to provide relief, reform, and recovery to the nation. Trust me, for Congress to pass any bill in 100 days is amazing. 15 major bills in 100 days shows just how much of an emergency the Great Depression was and how hard FDR was fighting it.

Kenesaw Mountain Landis

The first baseball commissioner, he was a federal judge known for honesty and toughness. He said that no player who even thought about throwing a game would ever be able to play pro baseball. He banned several White Sox players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, from ever being inducted into the Hall of Fame. His words and tough actions led to people having confidence in their heroes once again. He and Babe Ruth together brought back baseball's popularity.

Ohio Gang

The group of people who came with Warren G. Harding to the White House in 1921, they were his friends and supporters. They were not qualified to serve in the offices to which he appointed them. It is hard to imagine, but Harding chose people who didn't have a clue what they were doing just because they were friends and relatives. The O.G. included Harry Daugherty, Albert Fall, Charles Forbes, and Jessie Smith.

Relief, Recovery, and Reform

The mission of the New Deal was to provide relief to persons in need by providing them with money, loans to make mortgage payments, or jobs; recovery to the nation as a whole by passing laws to assist business, labor, and agriculture to reestablish their strength; and reform of institutions, such as banking and the stock market, to regulate to protect from abuses and make for economic stability.

The Roosevelt Recession

The nation's economy had significantly improved by 1937. The Secretary of the Treasury called for a reduction in the nation's deficit. FDR was very uneasy about a growing national debt, so he called for large reductions in federal spending, particularly in the WPA and farm programs. The reduction caused the stock market to collapse in 1937, and industrial output and farm prices plummeted. FDR began to blame the new depression on a "strike of capital," which he said meant that businessmen didn't want to invest because they wanted to hurt him, but in actuality it was because of the federal spending cuts. In 1938, Republicans gained more power during the congressional election, making it harder for FDR once again. Luckily for the economy, WWII broke out in 1939, creating a need for increased production, thereby ending the Depression.

Scottsboro Boys

They were 9 black teenage boys accused of rape in Alabama in 1931. On March 25, 1931, several people were hoboing on a freight train. Several white boys jumped off the train and reported to the sheriff they had been attacked by a group of black boys. The sheriff deputized a posse, stopped and searched the train, arrested the black boys, and found two white girls who accused the boys of rape. The boys were tried by an all-white jury and found guilty. All but one of them served prison time. The Alabama legislature pardoned the boys posthumously...in November 2013!

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

This agency provided work for men between the ages of 18 and 25. They were employed in such projects as reforestation, soil conservation, flood control, and road construction. Over 2 million men worked for this between 1933 and 1941, and most of their wages were sent home to support their families.

"noble experiment"

This is the nickname given to Prohibition. National Prohibition not only failed to prevent the consumption of alcohol, but led to the extensive production of dangerous unregulated and untaxed alcohol, the development of organized crime, increased violence, and massive political corruption. Amazingly, some people today insist that Prohibition was a success! By the time Prohibition was repealed, nearly 800 gangsters in the City of Chicago alone had been killed in bootleg-related shootings. And, of course, thousands of citizens were killed, blinded, or paralyzed as a result of drinking contaminated bootleg alcohol.

"Black Tuesday"

This was the day (October 29, 1929) when the stock market crashed. It had crashed on the 24th (Black Thursday), but rallied on Friday and Monday. It did not rally again for a long time after Tuesday. This caused "Wall Street to become a wailing wall of gloom, and doom replaced boom, and suicides increased alarmingly.

Federal Farm Board

To appease unhappy farmers and to head off more radical legislation that might've actually helped the farmers, Hoover called Congress into special session to pass the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929. This act established this to: A. loan money to farmers' cooperatives to promote the orderly marketing of farm goods. B. discourage production of crops that had depressed prices. C. purchase surpluses of cotton and wheat to prevent price declines. It was a total failure - after two years, it gave up and wheat and cotton prices fell to below what it cost to plant them.

"Hooverville"

Towns made by homeless people during the Depression. Homes were shacks and made up of whatever they could find. They sprang up all over the country. People blamed Hoover for the Depression, which is how these shantytowns got their name.

Republican policies toward business

Under the Harding administration, the policies made it so corporations could prosper. The antitrust laws set by previous administrations were often ignored and poorly enforced. Republican presidents appointed men who sympathized with the managers of the railroads to the Interstate Commerce Commission. They basically believed in laissez-faire.

Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924

When WWI ended, the veterans were one of the only groups of public employees to receive government benefits. The veterans had created the American Legion, known for its tenacious lobbying for veterans' benefits. Their argument was that they deserved compensation for fighting because they lost "dough" when they became "doughboys." This led to Congress passing a bonus bill; however, Harding vetoed it. This bill guaranteed that the veterans would get a bonus 20 years after the law went into effect. This added 3.5 billion dollars to the cost of the war. Congress passed the bill again in 1924. The conservative Calvin Coolidge vetoed the bill when he took office, however, Congress overrode his veto.

Britton

When she was just 14, she and Harding began an affair that would continue while Harding was president. She had his daughter in 1919, nine years after they first started seeing each other. The facts of this scandal came out after Britton published her book The President's Daughter after the president's death.

Gertrude Ederle

Winner of three gold medals at the Paris Olympics, she swam the English Channel in 1926. She broke the men's record by an hour and fifty-nine minutes. She was paid $2,000 per week by swimming in special appearances in a time when the average worker made less than $1000 per year.

Court Packing Plan

With his overwhelming victory, FDR felt that he had a mandate from the American people, yet the conservative Supreme Court kept striking down his legislation. In February 1937, FDR asked Congress to pass legislation that would expand the Supreme Court from 9 justices to a maximum of 15 justices. If an incumbent judge failed to retire when he reached 70, FDR could add another justice (the old guy would stay, but there'd be another justice added), arguing that a justice's age made it harder for them to keep up with their workload. The American people and the media saw through this attempt to swing the balance of the Supreme Court in favor of FDR. FDR faced much scrutiny and eventually backed off of the "court-packing bill" and compromised for reform of lower court procedures, leaving the Supreme Court untouched. The Court controversy weakened FDR's relations with the Congress, and gave more conservative Democrats the courage to stand up to some of his New Deal measures.

Coughlin

a Catholic priest and radio celebrity who reached 40 million listeners, he was a vocal critic of FDR's relief efforts. He felt that the New Deal was communist, and communism and Wall Street were the "twin faces of Satan!" He was a fascist, who frequently praised Mussolini and Hitler during his broadcasts. FDR saw him as a serious threat and even tried to get the Pope to shut him down. His slogan was "Social Justice."

Effects of the automobile

the auto had a huge effect on American mobility, culture, and the economy. It was responsible for the booming glass, rubber, refining, and steel industries of the 1920s, in addition to directly employing millions of people in its plants.

Buying on margin

a form of credit purchase to buy shares of stock. Often, the requirement was a 10 percent down payment to open an investment account. Eager brokers borrowed money from banks to loan to clients for the rest of their margin purchases. The stock itself became the collateral, making the practice very risky. If the market stood still or went down, the broker wouldn't be able to pay back his loans and would then demand the money from the investor. Often the money would not be there and the buyer would be ruined financially. This left the market itself subject to collapse; too many investors could go broke at the same time, which would lead to disaster. High interest rates also proved to be a risk to investors buying on margin; those who were surprised by a drop often could not pay back the interest and principal amount.

The Brain Trust

a group of unofficial advisors on matters of economic and social reform. Newspaper reporters referred to them as the Brain Trust because its members were academics. Columbia University professors Raymond Moley, Adolph A. Berle Jr., and Rexford Tugwell were the most influential.

Dewey

a major educational reformer, he believed that students thrive in an environment where they are allowed to experience and interact with the curriculum, and all students should have the opportunity to take part in their own learning. He advocated for an educational structure that strikes a balance between delivering knowledge while also taking into account the interests and experiences of the student.

Taylor

a mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency. He is regarded as the father of scientific management, which deemed work deserving of systematic observation and study. By applying his methods, companies were able to get more productivity out of their workers. He believed in transferring control from workers to management. He set out to increase the distinction between mental (planning work) and manual labor (executing work). Management formulated detailed plans specifying the job, and how it was to be done, and they communicated the plans to the workers. He regarded workers as too stupid to plan how the work was supposed to be done.

Bootlegger

a person who smuggled alcohol into the US. It usually is used to describe people who brought alcohol into the US across land.

Rumrunner

a person who smuggled alcohol into the US. It usually is used to describe people who brought alcohol into the US across the water.

Perry Race Riot

a racially motivated conflict in December 1922 in Perry, Florida. Charles Wright, a 21-year-old escaped convict, was arrested and jailed for murder. A mob, several thousand strong, made up of local and out-of-state whites, seized the accused man from the sheriff, and extracted a confession from Wright by means of torture. Wright claimed to have acted alone and was subsequently burned at the stake and the crowd collected souvenirs! Following this, two more black men were shot and hanged; whites then burned the town's black school, Masonic lodge, church, amusement hall, and several families' homes.

Buford

a ship used to deport aliens to Russia. 249 alleged alien radicals were sent into exile on the so-called "Soviet Ark" to Russia.

Rosewood massacre

a violent, racially motivated conflict that took place during the first week of January 1923 in rural Levy County, Florida. At least six blacks and two whites were killed, and the town of Rosewood was abandoned and destroyed in what contemporary news reports characterized as a race riot. The whole thing started when a white woman, discovered bleeding on her floor, claimed that a black man had assaulted her.

Speakeasy

an illegal bar during Prohibition. It got its name because one had to whisper a code word or name through a slot in a locked door to gain admittance.

Rural Electrification Administration

created a national program to bring electricity to areas bypassed by private utilities (because rural areas weren't profitable enough). It led to nearly 100% of the US having electricity by 1950.

Dust Bowl

drought in the Great Plains added to high winds and led to a period of tremendous topsoil wind erosion during the 1930s. Hundreds of thousands of people from OK and AK fled their homes, many to CA. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is the most famous telling of this time.

Wright

he was an architect who designed more than 1,000 structures. He believed in designing structures in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was best exemplified by his design for Fallingwater (1935), which the Smithsonian said is one of the top 28 places "to visit before you die."

Scopes Trial (aka the "monkey trial")

involved the teaching of evolution in TN. Tennessee's Butler Act prohibited public school teachers from denying the Biblical account of man's origin. John T. Scopes, a substitute teacher, was tried for violating the Butler Act. His defense attorney was Clarence Darrow and the prosecution included William Jennings Bryan. During the trial, Darrow called Bryan to the stand and asked him questions from the Bible, including asking him where Cain's wife came from. Bryan, gauging the effect the session was having, snapped that the purpose of Darrow's questioning was "to cast ridicule on everybody who believes in the Bible." Darrow, with equal vehemence, retorted, "We have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the education of the United States." Scopes was convicted, but the decision was overturned on a technicality. The trial split religious groups into fundamentalists and modernists, people who think that evolution and science is consistent with the Bible.

Harlem Renaissance

it was a cultural movement in Harlem, New York following WWI and lasting into the Great Depression. During the 1920s, it was called the "New Negro Movement." Civil rights leader and NAACP president James Weldon Johnson referred to the period as a "flowering of Negro literature." Langston Hughes and Claude McKay were among its greatest figures.

Norris-Laguardia Anti-Injunction Act of 1932

outlawed "yellow-dog" (anti-union) contracts and forbade the federal courts from issuing injunctions to restrain strikes, picketing, and boycotts.

Fundamentalists

people who interpret the Bible literally. This group of religious conservatives rose in the 1910s as a reaction to the increasing influence of scientific thought that seems to contradict the Bible. One issue that really angers them is evolution.