Repeal
legal cancellation or reversal of a law.
18th Amendment
ushered in a period of time known as "Prohibition," during which the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages was illegal.
21st Amendment
repealed Prohibition laws in the United States.
Speculation
investing money at great risk with the anticipation that the price of stocks will rise.
Distribution of Income
refers to the way total output or income is distributed among individuals or among the factors of production including labor, land and capital.
Buying on Margin
buying stocks and securities with cash borrowed from a broker and using other stocks and securities as collateral.
Bear Market
a steady drop in stock market prices over a period of time
Bull Market
a steady rise in stock market prices, which increases investor confidence, motivating investors to buy in anticipation of future price increases and future capital gains.
Dust Bowl
area in the Great Plains that was ravaged by severe drought and wind storms during the Great Depression.
Hoovervilles
popular name for shantytowns built by homeless people during the Great Depression.
Black Tuesday
the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the U.S.; took place in October of 1929.
Bonus Army
thousands of World War I veterans who marched to Washington, D.C., to demand that their bonuses be paid early, during the spring and summer of 1932.
Pension
financial support for people who are no longer earning a regular income from employment.
Herbert Hoover
elected to the presidency in 1928, he was largely (and mistakenly) blamed for the Great Depression.
Hawley-Smoot Tariff
Passed in 1930 at the beginning of the Great Depression this act hurt export sales by raising the average tariff to the highest level in American history.
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Created in 1932, agency that gave $2 billion in aid to state and local governments, and made loans to banks, railroads, farm mortgage associations, and other businesses.
Hoover Dam
dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border of the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada. When completed in 1936, it was both the world's largest electric-power generating station and the world's largest concrete structure.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
elected in 1932, his New Deal policy is largely credited with alleviating the pressures of the Great Depression.
New Deal
FDR's economic programs during the Great Depression that intended to provide relief to the unemployed, reform business and financial practices, and promote recovery of the economy during The Great Depression.
Bank Holiday
emergency bank closures mandated by Congress to remedy the financial crises during the Great Depression.
Fireside Chats
series of thirty evening radio speeches given by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944.
Keynesian Economics
theory by John Maynard Keynes that advocated "deficit spending" during economic downturns to reach full employment.
Deficit Spending
government practice of spending borrowed money rather than raising taxes, usually in an attempt to boost the economy.
FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)
provides deposit insurance, which guarantees the safety of deposits in member banks, currently up to $250,000 per depositor per bank.
SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission)
holds primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws and regulating the securities industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other electronic securities markets.
TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)
dam-building project to control floods, conserve forestlands, and bring electricity to rural area in a seven-state region.
WPA (Works Progress Administration)
federal program headed by Harry Hopkins that employed 8.5 million workers to constrict highways, roads, streets, public buildings, parks, bridges, and airports.
Federal Number One
controversial program of the Works Progress Administration that offered work to artists, musicians, theater workers, and writers.
CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)
one of the most highly praised New Deal work relief programs, it employed young men 18 to 25 years of age in the national forestry service planting trees, fighting forest fires, and building reservoirs.
Social Security Act
one of the most important pieces of legislation in U. S. history, 1935 act that provided financial security to workers, by establishing a pension for retirement, disability, and dependents.
National Labor Relations Act
(a.k.a. the Wagner Act) 1935 act that guaranteed workers the right to organize unions and to bargain collectively; set up a process of grievances called "binding arbitration.
Fair Labor Standards Act
1938 law that provided more protection for workers, abolished child labor, and established a 40-hour workweek for many workers.
Black Cabinet
an informal group of African American public policy advisors to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Francis Perkins
U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet.
Mary Bethune
an American educator and civil rights leader best known for starting a school for the children of African American railroad workers; close friends with Eleanor Roosevelt, she was appointed director of the Negro Division of the National Youth Administration, which provided job training for young people.
Eleanor Roosevelt
as First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, she supported the New Deal policies of her husband, and assumed a role as an advocate for civil rights.
Huey P. Long
known as the Kingfish, began his career as a senator from Louisiana and went on to become governor; championed the downtrodden, improved schools, colleges, and hospitals, as well as built roads and bridges; organized "Share Our Wealth" programs across the country and posed a threat to FDR in the election of 1936 before his assassination.
Frances Townsend
American physician best known for his revolving old-age pension proposal during the Great Depression, known as the "Townsend Plan.
Father Coughlin
a challenger of Roosevelt, he used his popular radio program originally to promote the New Deal, and, later, to criticize it for being too moderate.
Court Packing" Plan
Roosevelt's frustration with the "nine old men" of the Supreme Court led him to issue a proposal to increase the number of justices by appointing a justice for each justice over the age of 70; FDR's first serious political mistake as president.
American Liberty League
business leaders and anti-New Deal politicians who organized opposition and claimed to "defend and uphold the Constitution" and to "foster the right to work, earn, save and acquire property.
CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations)
created on the heels of the Wagner Act, John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers set out to organize workers in industries where unions did not yet exist; began by focusing on the automobile and steel industries.
New Deal Coalition
the alignment of interest groups and voting blocs that supported the New Deal and voted for Democratic presidential candidates; included farmers, laborers, African Americans, new immigrants, ethnic minorities, women, progressives, and intellectuals.