The Great Depression: Glossary

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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The Great Depression Glossary
Wall Street the location of the US Stock
Exchange. Stock Exchange where shares in
companies are bought and sold. Wall Street
Crash massive fall in the value of shares in
October 1929. Depression factories close, buying
and selling slow down, mass unemployment. Republic
an American political party, supports traditional
values. Democratic American political party, more
prepared to support change. Laissez-faire the
government should not interfere in peoples
lives. Tariff tax on imported goods, to force
the price up. Bonus Army unemployed WW1 veterans
who campaigned to get their retirement bonus
paid in 1932. Hooverville huts built by the
homeless unemployed in every US town. New
Deal name given to a collection of ways in which
Roosevelt tried to end the Great Depression.
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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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The Great Depression Whos Who?
Herbert Hoover Republican President in 1929.
Didnt believe that the Depression would last
very long. He did too little too late and ordered
to forced removal of the Bonus Army. Hoovervilles
were named after him.
Franklin Roosevelt Democrat President 1932 to
1945. Introduced the New Deal to try to end the
Depression.
President Herbert Hoover (1929-33) poses with his
dog, King Tut.
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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• Page 237 Question 1
• What were the causes and effects of the Wall
  Street Crash?
• Causes of the Wall Street Crash
• American industry made lots of new consumer
  goods like cars, radios and other
• electrical items in the 1920s.
• The new goods sold well and US industry boomed.
  There were lots of jobs and
• investors got good dividends on their shares
  in these companies.
• On Wall Street people began to speculate in
  buying shares and waiting until they
• had risen in value, before selling them for a
  profit.
• By 1929, many shares were hugely over- valued.
• Not every American could afford to buy the new
  consumer goods.
• By 1929 every American who could afford a car or
  a radio had one.
• By 1929 American industry was producing too many
  goods, workers began to be
• laid-off. Investors lost confidence in the
  value of their shares and rushed to sell.

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• Page 237 Question 1
• What were the causes and effects of the Wall
  Street Crash?
• Effects of the Wall Street Crash
• Massive fall in the value of shares on Wall
  Street.
• Banks went bankrupt. They ran out of money as
  people rushed to withdraw their
• savings, while the banks had lent money to
  people to buy now worthless shares.
• Millions of people lost their savings
• Many had huge debts and worthless shares.
• Millions lost their jobs as factories closed.
• As more people lost their jobs, even more
  factories were closed.
• 25 of the US workforce were without jobs.
• People lost their homes when they could not pay
  their mortgages (loans).
• There was no unemployment benefit and people had
  to queue at soup kitchens.
• Hoovervilles sprang up and Herbert Hoover lost
  the 1932 presidential election.

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• Page 237 Question 2
• What were the main features of the New Deal?
• (main features is exam speak for describe the
  main points)
• To give people hope the New Deal succeeded in
  doing this.
• To end the Great Depression - the New Deal did
  not succeeded in doing this.
• Give the unemployed immediate cash help.
• Increase spending by the Federal Government in
  Washington.
• The federal government would create jobs to give
  people money and hope.
• People with money would spend it, creating jobs
  on farms and in factories.
• Help farmers by improving the prices they got
  for their produce.
• Improve living and working conditions by
  spending money on schemes that
• created jobs, building things like schools and
  roads.
• Introduce social welfare schemes and give
  workers better rights.

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• What did the New Deal do?
• There were two New Deals
• The first New Deal aimed to help people to
  recover from the effects of the Depression.
• The second New Deal aimed to improve working
  conditions.
• The work of the New Deal was carried out by
  Alphabet Agencies because they were known
  by their initial letters.
• Copy the chart from page 236 and 237, or copy
  these notes.
• First New Deal FERA (cash help for the
  unemployed), CCC (jobs for young men),AAA (help
  for farmers), TVA (jobs, irrigation and
  electricity for the Tennessee Valley), NRA
  (improve working conditions) and PWA (jobs in
  construction projects).
• Second New Deal WPA (created jobs building
  roads, schools, airports etc.), Wager Act
  (workers could join Trade Unions) and the Social
  Security Act (provided unemployment benefit and
  federal pensions).

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• Page 237 Question 3
• How successful was the New Deal? Explain your
  answer.
• (in exam speak you are expected to make a
  judgement and to provide reasons)
• Successes of the New Deal have to be judged
  against its aims, which were to help people who
  were in need because of the Depression and to end
  the Depression.
• It gave people hope, but it did not end the
  Depression the outbreak of war did this.
• It doubled the income of farmers, but it paid
  farmers to destroy food and didnt help
• 
  Sharecroppers or victims of the Dustbowl.
• 2.5 million people employed by the CCC, but
  these were temporary jobs.
• 4 million people employed by the PWA and WPA,
  but these were only short term solutions.
• Workers protected by codes of practice and trade
  unions allowed by the Wagner Act, but
• some people said that the unions were
  un-American.
• It prevented the collapse of democracy in the
  USA.
• The New Deal was both a success and a failure. It
  had two aims. These were to give hope to the
  millions of victims of the Depression. It
  succeeded in doing this. It also tried to end the
  Depression, but it was the outbreak of war in
  1939 that did this. Overall I think it was

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• How did the Second World War affect American
  Society?
• The Second World War lasted from 1939 until
  1945.
• The USA joined the war in December 1941, after
  the Japanese attack on the naval base at
  Pearl Harbor.
• Conscription was introduced for men aged 18 to
  45.
• The war ended the Depression.
• Many more women had jobs, many did jobs only men
  had done before the war.
• 15 million workers were employed in munitions
  factories.
• Americans dug victory gardens to grow their own
  vegetables.
• Farmers did well as they supplied the US forces
  and war torn Europe.
• 27 million Americans moved for better jobs, many
  to California.
• Japanese Americans were placed in POW camps and
  lost their property.
• FDR was President until the end of the war, when
  he died Truman took his place.
• The USA was caught out by the Japanese. After the
  war it became very active in world affairs,
  helping to found the United Nations and NATO.

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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How did the Second World War affect American
Society?
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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
change?
How did the Second World War affect American
Society?
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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
change?
How did the Second World War affect American
Society?
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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
change?
How did the Second World War affect American
Society?
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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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How did the Second World War affect American
Society?
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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• The Affluent Society
• When the Second World War ended in 1945,
  Americans had the best standard of
• living in the world.
• This affluence or wealth saw the rapid growth
  of suburbs and Americans buying more cars,
  fridges and TVs than ever before.
• The 1950s also saw America becoming very
  anti-communist, with McCarthyism
• and the start of a Cold War against the USSR
  that lasted until 1989.
• The 1950s saw the emergence of the teenager as
  an entity, with unique fashions, rock and roll
  music and rebellion.
• Not everyone shared in the affluence. Black
  Americans did not share in the
• affluent 50s. This decade saw the start of
  the Civil Rights movement.

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• The Affluent Society
• Use Page 238 to copy and complete these revision
  notes.
• Harry Truman became President in April . .
• He was a Democrat.
• He introduced the F Deal, which carried on the
  ideas of
• the New Deal.
• There was low unemployment and rising ws.
• Truman raised the minimum wage from 40 to ..
  cents.
• He had 1 million low cost built.
• Dwight Eisenhower (also known as Ike) became
  President in 19.. .
• He was a Republican.
• He encouraged economic expansion and by 1959/1599
  the USA was producing half of the worlds
  manufactured goods.
• Many Americans saw big/small improvements in
  their living standards in the 1950s.

President Truman
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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• The Affluent Society
• Use Page 238 to copy and complete these revision
  notes.
• Harry Truman became President in April 1945.
• He was a Democrat.
• He introduced the Fair Deal, which carried on the
  ideas of
• the New Deal.
• There was low unemployment and rising wages.
• Truman raised the minimum wage from 40 to 75
  cents.
• He had 1 million low cost houses built.
• Dwight Eisenhower (also known as Ike) became
  President in 1952.
• He was a Republican.
• He encouraged economic expansion and by 1959 the
  USA was producing half of the worlds
  manufactured goods.
• Many Americans saw big improvements in their
  living standards in the 1950s.

President Eisenhower
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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• The Affluent Society
• Use Page 238-239 to copy and complete these
  revision notes.
• Life in Suburbia.
• More/fewer Americans owned cars by the end of the
  1950s.
• Car ownership increased from .. million in 1945
  to .. million by 1957.
• These were large cars like Cadillacs and .. .
• 19 million Americans moved from the cities to the
  suburbs.
• By 1960, 25/52 of Americans lived in the
  suburbs.
• TV sets, record players, .. pools and a new car
  became status symbols (ways of showing how
  well-off you were).
• These c. goods were bought on cheap credit.

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• The Affluent Society
• Use Page 238-239 to copy and complete these
  revision notes.
• Life in Suburbia.
• More Americans owned cars by the end of the
  1950s.
• Car ownership increased from 25 million in 1945
  to 62 million by 1957.
• These were large cars like Cadillacs and
  Pontiacs.
• 19 million Americans moved from the cities to the
  suburbs.
• By 1960, 25 of Americans lived in the suburbs.
• TV sets, record players, swimming pools and a new
  car became status symbols (ways of showing how
  well-off you were).
• These consumer goods were bought on cheap credit.

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• The Affluent Society Elvis Presleys Pink
  Cadillac

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• The Affluent Society Cadillac La Salle II
  (1955)

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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The Affluent Society
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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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McCarthyism
Robert Kennedy with Joseph McCarthy
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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• McCarthyism (copy out the red and green as notes)
• By 1950 the spread of world communism was seen as
  a real threat to the American way of life. The
  USSR had occupied Eastern Europe and put
  communist governments into power there. Russia
  had developed the atomic bomb, China had just
  become communist and the USA was fighting
  communist expansion in the Korean War. At home
  the US was rocked by two sensational spy
  scandals, the Hiss and Rosenberg cases involved
  US citizens who were alleged to have spied for
  the Soviet Union.
• McCarthyism takes its name from Senator Joseph
  McCarthy, who claimed to have a list of names of
  members of the communist party who worked for the
  US Government. He never produced the list, but it
  was enough to rocket him to fame, to ensure the
  election of the first Republican President since
  Hoover and to lead to an end of the traditional
  political tolerance of the USA.
• Anyone accused of being a communist would be
  ruined. Anyone criticising McCarthy and his
  methods was considered suspicious.
• McCarthyism ended when it was revealed that his
  claims were baseless and when people saw his
  bully-boy tactics revealed on TV. The final straw
  was when he claimed that President Eisenhower was
  a communist and that the Army was under their
  influence.
• McCarthyism held back civil rights and social
  reform. It made Cold War tensions worse and led
  to the communist party being banned in the USA.

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• Causes of McCarthyism
• Fear of communism dating back to 1920s and made
  worse by WW2
• Post-WW2 communist expansion into eastern Europe
• 1949 Soviet atomic bomb
• 1949 China becomes communist
• 1950 Korean War
• Republicans want to win the 1952 presidential
  elections
• Personal advancement for McCarthy and Nixon
• Results of McCarthyism
• Fear
• Loss of jobs
• End of traditional tolerance in the USA
• Fuelled Cold War tensions and the Arms Race
• USA became less than a true democracy
  communists not free
• Held up Civil Rights reforms
• Any reformer considered a pinko
• Communist Part banned in the USA.

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• Affluence for All?
• Copy out these notes.
• Use pages 239 to 240 of GCSE History to fill in
  the missing words.
• By 1960 the average America had a standard of
  living that as .. times higher than the average
  Briton.
• 30, or .. million Americans did not share in the
  affluence. This group included Hill-billies,
  H.. and B. Americans.
• In the 1960s,President . and President .
  tried to help all of these groups.
• Glossary
• Hill-billies very poor people who lived in
  backward and isolated communities
• Hispanic Americans from Spanish speaking areas,
  like Cuba and Puerto Rica
• Ghetto an area of very poor housing

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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• Affluence for All?
• Copy out these notes.
• Use pages 239 to 240 of GCSE History to fill in
  the missing words.
• By 1960 the average America had a standard of
  living that as three times higher than the
  average Briton.
• 30, or 50 million Americans did not share in the
  affluence. This group included Hill-billies,
  Hispanics and Black Americans.
• In the 1960s,President Kennedy and President
  Johnson tried to help all of these groups.
• Now answer the questions from page 240.
• The next screen will give you some help with
  them.

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The USA 1929 to 1990In what ways did America
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Now answer the questions from page 240. 1. What
were the main features of life in
suburbia? Start by explaining what suburbia was
(page 238 living in newly built estates of
houses out of the city centres Write about the
sort of lives people led (women tended to stay at
home, the new consumer goods that people bought
TV sets, fridges, washing machines, freezers and
motor cars) Write about how this was the highest
standard of living in the world at the time. 2.
Did all Americans experience prosperity in this
period? Explain your answer. No they didnt! You
will need to list which groups did not share in
the prosperity and why. The groups were the poor
and disadvantaged, who did not have the same
social and educational and employment
opportunities. Dont forget the native Americans!