The Great Slump
This term refers to the practice of paying a small percentage of a stock's price as a down payment and borrowing the rest.
Buying on Margin
Identify two major causes of the Dust Bowl environmental disaster.
Severe drought
Overfarming/removal of prairie grasses
High winds
Lack of crop rotation
Identify two reasons why the Treaty of Versailles failed to prevent a second World War.
Harsh reparations on Germany
The "War Guilt" clause/humiliation
Failure of the League of Nations
Ignored territorial claims
Why would the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and pull the United States into World War II?
To break the U.S. oil and steel embargo.
To destroy the American Pacific Fleet’s power.
To seize natural resources in Southeast Asia.
This term describes the civilian population and activities of a nation whose armed forces are at war abroad.
Home Front
What was one reason why American farmers struggled throughout the 1920s, even before the Depression hit.
Falling crop prices
High debt from WWI expansion,
Overproduction
Foreign competition/tariffs
What were the '3 Rs' of Roosevelts recovery plan?
Relief, recovery, and reform
This term describes the policy of making concessions to aggressive powers like Hitler to avoid a larger conflict.
Appeasement
This German strategy used tanks and airpower to cause "strategic paralysis" in the enemy.
Blitzkrieg
A government-mandated system that restricts the purchase and consumption of essential goods—such as food, fuel, and materials—to prioritize supplies for the military
Rationing
Identify two reasons why stock prices rose so unnaturally high during the 1920s before the crash.
Easy credit/margin buying
Unchecked speculation
Over-optimism
Lack of government regulation
How did FDR communicate his "New Deal" goals and restore public confidence?
Fireside Chats
This term describes the American desire to remain neutral and avoid foreign entanglements during the 1930s.
Isolationism
This strategy involved seizing strategic Pacific islands with airfields while bypassing others.
Island Hopping
Identify three groups who filled the labor vacuum in America during WWII.
Women (Rosie the Riveter)
African Americans (Great Migration)
Mexican guest workers (Bracero Program)
Identify two core beliefs of Herbert Hoover's "Rugged Individualism" philosophy regarding the economy.
Opposition to direct federal relief
Belief in local/private charity
Faith in the "self-correcting" market
Focus on individual initiative?
This iconic New Deal program was designed to provide a "safety net" for the elderly, unemployed, and disabled.
Social Security
Identify two specific rights included in FDR’s "Four Freedoms" speech.
Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Worship
Freedom from Want
Freedom from Fear
This system was used during "Total War" to manage essential resources like rubber, fuel, and food.
Rationing
Identify two major goals of the Tuskegee Airmen’s "Double V" campaign.
Victory over fascism abroad
Victory over racism at home
Identify two ways the Hoover Administration eventually tried to intervene in the economy
Lending to banks/railroads
Funding public works
Encouraging business-labor cooperation
Raising tariffs (Hawley-Smoot)
What did Roosevelt do in his "First 100 Days" to stop the banking collapse?
Declared a Bank Holiday
Passed the Emergency Banking Act
Why was the League of Nations was unable to enforce global peace?
U.S. refusal to join
No military force to back up decisions
Identify two primary reasons President Truman gave for using the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Avoiding a high-casualty mainland invasion / saving American lives
Forcing the scrappy Japanese into an unconditional surrender / ending the war quickly
Demonstrating strength to the Soviet Union
What was the name of the Executive Order that authorized the military to remove and incarcerate over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry—most of whom were U.S. citizens—from the West Coast.
Executive Order 9066