social science terms

Simultaneous payment of both the principal and interest of a loan

Automatic yearly wage raise built into labor contracts

Technique devised by Henry Ford involving the division of labor; each assembly line member specialized in one part of the process of manufacturing a good

Time period in which banks do not pay out money in any form

Phenomenon that begins with the failure of one bank; mass panic then prompts the failure of an increasing amount of banks

Academic belief that the development of new technology vital for economic recovery took a long time to occur because they brought about a new kind of economy

System that involves paying a small portion of the total price of a product, borrowing money to pay the rest

Type of loan that lacks a maturity date at which the lender can mandate full payment whenever he wants

Automatic increases in wages built into labor contracts; linked to the price index

Deterioration of older industries as newer ones emerge, rendering the older ones obsolete

Continuously falling price levels

Stock market index; reached its lowest point in July 1932

Connection of paper currency to a gold value

Measurement of manufacturing output; began decreasing in mid-1929 due to the slump in the homebuilding industry

Tax on the estate of a deceased person

Business that sells portfolios of stock market shares managed by professional brokers

School of economic thought that pinpointed underconsumption as the cause of the Great Depression; recommends federal spending to make up for a slump in aggregate demand

Government bonds used to finance World War I from 1917 to 1919; gave 22 million Americans their first experience in the securities market

Situation in which nominal interest rates are low and the rate of saving is high; discourages investment

Idea that the increasingly unequal distribution of wealth caused the Great Depression; contributed to by Simon Kuznets

1930s idea that the economy had already reached its peak and gross domestic product could not grow anymore

School of economic thought that argued that the drop in the money stock caused deflation during the Great Depression

School of economic thought that trusts market forces and supports a free market system; believes that the Federal Reserve’s interference in the economy caused the Great Depression

Market in which the Federal Reserve conducts monetary policy through the sale or purchase of United States Treasury savings bonds

Financial scheme that promises higher returns of investment than it pays out

Plans designed by Wall Street traders to inflate prices artificially; involved selling shares back and forth

Transfer of public services to the private sector; began during Ronald Reagan’s administration, affecting numerous institutions, including hospitals, schools, and prisons

Reagan’s economic belief system, which depended on supply-side economics; involved lowering taxes for the rich in order to promote investment

Term used to describe a prosperous season in industry

Savings and loan institutions that specializes in investment

Market sector that specializes in the sale of debt or equity

Term used to describe a slow season in industry

Term that refers to taxes that take more money from the wealthy

Simultaneous economic stagnation and inflation; demonstrated the shortcomings of Keynesian economics

Measurement of the stock market’s health; peaked on September 7, 1929

Economic theory favored by Ronald Reagan; emphasized that supply creates its own demand

Concept that focuses on low aggregate demand as the source of economic problems rather than overproduction

Contracts in which employees promised not to join a union

One of a variety of ways to classify different parts of the New Deal; acronym for relief, reform, and recovery

See Assistance for Families with Dependent Children

Channel that irrigates the Imperial and Coachella Valleys using the Colorado River

New Deal movement against monopolies, which were suspected to be the root of economic problems

Term that refers to the efforts of Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier to prevent further conflict by allowing Germany to seize the Czech Republic’s Sudetenland region

Part of the Social Security system that helped widows, orphans, and poor southern African Americans, whose families were frequently torn apart by economic difficulties

Willing collaboration between the federal government and businesses in shaping economic policy

Agreement between the United States and Great Britain; freed British and French colonies and established the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

Increase in the birth rate after World War II; caused by post-World War II conservatism that encouraged women to raise families rather than pursue careers

October 28, 1929; on this day, much panic concerning the stock market occurred

October 29, 1929, the date on which the stock market collapsed

Group of academic experts employed by Roosevelt to design New Deal policies

1944 economic forum held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire by the Allies of World War II; decided to fix all exchange rates to the dollar, which would be on the gold standard

Idea that allowed the United States to provide weapons to Great Britain on the grounds that Great Britain would pay cash and provide its own ships for transportation of the weapons

Irrigation plan completed in 1947; provided water to two million acres in California

Ideology that favored competition in the marketplace

Term used by Roosevelt to describe the security that Social Security provided Americans

Protest in which Ford employees participated; police killed four people

Southern Democrats

Term referring to Franklin D. Roosevelt prior to American involvement in World War II

Term referring to Franklin D. Roosevelt after American involvement in World War II

Term used by historians to refer to the United States due to the system that provided white male citizens with benefits to which they were entitled while giving charity to minorities and women who were second-class citizens

Area that suffered severe soil erosion; Southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, northeastern New Mexico, and the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles

Upton Sinclair’s gubernatorial campaign platform, which involved giving industrial plants to jobless workers for them to use to make clothing, food, and shelters

Original name of the Marshall Plan

Harry Truman’s legislative program, which Republican legislators opposed; demonstrated the president’s dedication to civil rights

Part of Federal Project One; began the careers of many writers and artists, creating 2,500 murals and 18,000 sculptures

Part of the Works Progress Administration; provided artists, writers, and actors with jobs

Part of Federal Project One; ended due to suspicion of it being the source of communist propaganda

Part of Federal Project One; employed 40,000 artists

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s radio broadcasts during which the president casually explained his policies, endearing himself to the American public

Measure of political ability for governors and presidents; born out of the sheer amount of legislation that Roosevelt and his supporters pushed through Congress during his first 100 days as president

Term used by Roosevelt to describe the goal of World War II

Supreme Court Justices Sutherland, Butler, McReynolds, and Van Devanter; known for staunchly defending economic freedom, even at the cost of civil rights

One of the Four Freedoms

One of the Four Freedoms

Constitutional right; one of the Four Freedoms

Constitutional right; one of the Four Freedoms

Economic agreement created as part of a new international economic system

Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution; can be interpreted to give Congress the power to set up a federal Social Security program

Forum dedicated to disarmament; asked the United States to cooperate in a ban of arms shipments to aggressor nations

Term used by historians to refer to the 1920s because of the demand for American agricultural products that World War I generated

Hoover and Roosevelt’s policy of not intervening in Latin American affairs

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents; restored the government’s role as the maintainer of order

Farm interest movement that wanted inflation, price parity, and agricultural mortgage relief

Lyndon Johnson’s legislative program; relevant initiatives included Medicare and Medicaid

Newspapers that homeless Americans used to cover themselves when sleeping in doorways and on benches

Bare pockets pulled out of an individual’s pants

Communities of basic shelters created from packing crates and scraps

Communist hymn sung by 6,000 Detroit protesters

Section of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce

Belief that the United States should not involve itself in foreign affairs

Aggressive patriotism that leads to imperialistic foreign policy

Belief of Supreme Court Justices Brandeis, Stone, and Cardozo that the Supreme Court should not interfere with federal economic reforms

Third party that ironically lost strength as labor unions gained strength

19th-century economic idea that prioritized economic freedom from government intervention

Individual who believed that state and local authorities should maintain a significant degree of control over the distribution of welfare

Forum held in 1933 and attended by the United States and major European nations; had the goals of lowering trade barriers and stabilizing exchange rates

Form of protest with which Asa Philip Randolph threatened Franklin D. Roosevelt until the president established the Fair Employment Practices Commission

First known as the European Recovery Program; distributed over $13 billion to Western and Southern European countries, fostering loyalty to the United States rather than to socialism

Medical care program for the poor; paid for by general tax revenues

Medical care program for Americans that were 65 years old or older; paid for by a specific Medicare tax

Incident in which Chicago police killed 10 union members and injured more than 80 during a Memorial Day picnic

Term used to refer to Alfred Landon’s 1936 presidential campaign platform; implied that his ideas were just a watered-down version of the New Deal

Natural disaster in which the Mississippi River flowed over levees and flooded thousands of square miles; infamous for national guardsmen’s poor treatment of African Americans during relief efforts

Provision introduced by the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act of 1933; provided for a decrease in import duties for any country that reduced trade barriers for American products

Country with a ready army; concept on which the freedom from fear depended

Individual who favored the establishment nationwide standards and procedures for the distribution of welfare

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s legislative program; established the precedence of federal involvement in the economy, making the government a pervasive part of ordinary Americans’ everyday lives

Term referring to the optimistic 1920s belief that the United States had entered a time period of everlasting prosperity

Migrants from Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas

American gunboat attacked by Japanese planes on December 12, 1937; indicated hostility toward American involvement in the Sino-Japanese War

Campaign in which the Communist Party tried to recruit members by reaching out to labor and civil rights advocates; encouraged many Communist Party members to join the Congress of Industrial Organizations

Concept that compared belligerent nations to diseased patients that should be isolated from the rest of the world; argued for American involvement in foreign affairs

Organized rape of Chinese women by Japanese troops in May 1937

Declaration by the National Labor Board that mandated the rehiring of strikers and use of secret ballots for determining labor representatives; went unenforced

One of the 3Rs; focused on long-term economic restoration

Fear of communists during the Cold War in the 1950s

Individual who accuses someone else of being a communist

One of the 3Rs; focused on legislation to prevent future problems

One of the 3Rs; focused on short-term aid and welfare

Term for the 1920s in the United States; refers to economic prosperity

Economic downturn that began on October 19, 1937; primarily caused by Roosevelt’s effort to balance the budget after it appeared to him that the economy had recovered

Series of revolutions in 1917, including the Bolshevik Revolution led by Vladimir Lenin

Northeastern industrial states

Hamburg America Line ship, the Jewish passengers of which were denied asylum in the United States

1934 mass strike started by Harry Bridges and the International Longshoremen’s Association; paralyzed San Francisco

Catastrophe that lasted from 1986 to 1989; caused by a decrease in regulation of S&Ls

Term used by Huey Long, Charles Coughlin, and Upton Sinclair to accuse Franklin D. Roosevelt of favoring big business

Strikebreaker; an individual who works during a strike

Nine young African Americans who boarded a train in March 1931; fought with white vagrants and were blamed entirely for the dispute

Part of the National Industrial Recovery Act; provided for labor representation and collective bargaining

Forum held in Montevideo, Uruguay and attended by the United States and Latin American countries

Society created by Huey Long in February 1934; promised each family a $5,000 allowance and minimum yearly income of $2,500

Term referring to the involvement of many Americans in various investment opportunities

Nixon’s term for the majority of Americans, who believed that special interest groups were stealing their educational and vocational opportunities

War between China and Japan in the late 1930s; Roosevelt refused to identify it as a war, allowing the United States to continue arms shipments to China

Country with a welfare system; concept on which the freedom from want depended

American Medical Association’s term for national healthcare

Forum at which Eleanor Roosevelt insisted on sitting in the African American section

Conflict between Francisco Franco and the Spanish republican government; ended in April 1939 with 500,000 war casualties and 200,000 post-war executions

Economic disaster in October 1929 that involved the mass sale of stock market shares at continuously dropping prices

Concept that identified industries organized on a national scale as subject to congressional regulation

Term used by some historians to describe the New Deal

1950 agreement between the United Automobile Workers and General Motors; included a company pension

Third party in the 1936 presidential election; its candidate was William Lemke, a radical populist

Willingness of an individual to work diligently

Lyndon Johnson’s welfare program established by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964

Conflict that prompted the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to raise prices

Program that allows for each worker to choose from varying levels of investment risk

High standard of living that represented middle class status

Criminals who specialized in stealing cars, carrying out other crimes, and then fleeing via the highway

Criminals who specialized in stealing from banks

Second best rank in the Home Owners Loan Corporation’s system to rate neighborhoods

System of consumer credit in which buyers could make a small down payment and complete the rest of the payment later

Rule of “buyer beware” that dominated the economy prior to the establishment of the Securities and Exchange Commission

Concept of regulating low quality or potentially harmful goods and services for the good of the buyer

Technique used by the Soil Conservation Service to reduce erosion; involves forming grooves perpendicular to a slope rather than parallel, making water run more slowly

Technique used by the Soil Conservation Service to reduce erosion; rotations benefit soil by changing the type of crop planted in one area during different seasons

Term used by a political scientist to refer to the Social Security system’s discrimination against agricultural and domestic workers, who were frequently African Americans

Concept of every man earning enough money to support his family so that women did not have to work for wages

Name of Charles Coughlin’s nationally syndicated radio show; broadcasted on Sunday evenings and listened to by 30 to 40 million Americans weekly

Best rank in the Home Owners Loan Corporation’s system to rate neighborhoods

Court ruling that forbade boycotts and picket-lines

Nickname given to Huey Long because of his intense control of Louisiana

German idea of “living space”; argued for the eradication of natives and resettlement of their land by Germans

Organized crime organization

Evaluation of an individual’s need for welfare and whether he is being too dependent on aid

Technique that employs political influence to dissuade margin buying

Movie directed by Frank Capra in which wholesome protagonists square off against the corrupt political and economic elite

Movie directed by Frank Capra in which wholesome protagonists square off against the corrupt political and economic elite

Collection of federal documents; holds thousands of letters written to Franklin D. Roosevelt

State of self-sufficiency, in which a country does not rely on international trade

Idea that the upper class should use their fortune and power to assist the community

Merrill Lynch’s slogan for the promotion of people’s capitalism

Income that was unnecessary and an extra that families did not need to survive

Viral nervous system disease that causes different amounts of paralysis; disabled Franklin D. Roosevelt’s legs

Term used by Roosevelt to describe members of the Republican Party during his 1936 presidential nomination acceptance speech

Technique used by the Soil Conservation Service to reduce erosion; involve preparing in advance for rainfall in order to conserve the water

Worst rank in the Home Owners Loan Corporation’s system to rate neighborhoods

Area marked by the Home Owners Loan Corporation as the least desirable living space; given expensive loans or no loans at all

Social gatherings during which musicians performed in apartments, guests contributed donations, and tenants shared the money with the band

Theory that focused on the inborn differences between races, justifying discrimination and inequality; related to the concept of social Darwinism

Tenant who pays for the land that he farms with a portion of the grown crop

Female hobos

Type of protest in which employees stop working but stay in the manufacturing plant

Cute, furry animals; lived happily on the Kodiak Islands after the Civil Works Administration hired 94 Native Americans to place them there

Business that illegally sold alcohol during the Prohibition Era

Slogan used by councils of urban housewives to protest high prices in butcher shops

Song performed by Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday in 1939

Drug that caused an increase in birth defects; prompted the Kefauver-Harris Amendment to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1962

Group established by Eleanor Roosevelt, holding women-only press conferences; forced publishers to hire female reporters

Third best rank in the Home Owners Loan Corporation’s system to rate neighborhoods