Causes of the Depression
October 29, 1929, the day the stock market suffered its most devastating drop, is famously known by this two-word name.
Black Tuesday
In his 1933 inaugural address, FDR sought to calm the nation with the famous phrase: "The only thing we have to fear is..."
"fear itself"
Created to restore trust in the banking system, this corporation insured individual bank deposits up to $5,000.
FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)
Makeshift shantytowns built by the homeless on the outskirts of cities were sarcastically named after this President.
Hoovervilles
The primary goals of the New Deal were famously categorized into three "R"s: Relief, Recovery, and this.
Reform
This severe ecological disaster in the Great Plains destroyed crops and exacerbated the economic crisis for farmers.
Dust Bowl
FDR used this medium to deliver his reassuring "fireside chats" directly to the American public in their living rooms.
Radio
This popular relief program put young, unmarried men to work planting trees, building state parks, and fighting soil erosion.
CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)
Unemployed men and teenage boys who wandered the country illegally riding freight trains looking for work were commonly known by this term.
Hobos
Immediately upon taking office, FDR declared a four-day "holiday" for these institutions to stop mass panics and customer withdrawals.
Banks
The risky practice of buying stock with borrowed money, which artificially inflated the market, is called buying on this.
Margin
This term refers to the group of academic advisers that Roosevelt gathered to help him formulate the policies of the New Deal.
Brain Trust
This agency built a series of dams to control flooding and provide cheap hydroelectric power to an impoverished region of the South.
TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)
This John Steinbeck novel famously depicted the fictional Joad family's tragic migration from the Dust Bowl to California.
The Grapes of Wrath
This group of World War I veterans marched on Washington D.C. in 1932 to demand the early payment of their military certificates.
Bonus Army
This 1930 tariff act, meant to protect U.S. farmers and industries, caused international trade to plummet and worsened the global depression.
Smoot-Hawley Tariff
She was a highly active and influential First Lady, frequently traveling the country to advocate for the poor, women, and minorities.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Passed in 1935, this sweeping act provided pensions for the elderly, unemployment insurance, and aid to families with dependent children.
Social Security Act
During the worst years of the Depression, these lines formed outside charities and churches to provide basic meals to the starving unemployed.
breadlines (or soup kitchens)
This pivotal 1938 law finally established a federal minimum wage, mandated overtime pay, and strictly regulated child labor.
Fair Labor Standards Act
President Herbert Hoover believed in this concept, arguing that individuals should rely on themselves rather than the federal government for help.
"Rugged individualism"
Frustrated by rulings against his New Deal programs, FDR proposed this controversial 1937 plan to add up to six more justices to the Supreme Court.
Court-packing plan
The largest New Deal agency, it employed millions of unskilled men to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings, bridges, and roads, while also funding the arts.
WPA (Works Progress Administration)
Desperate migrants fleeing the ruined farms of the Great Plains for California were often given this derogatory nickname.
Okies
Also known as the Wagner Act, this 1935 law guaranteed the right of private-sector employees to organize into trade unions and engage in collective bargaining.
National Labor Relations Act