The Effectiveness of the New Deal Flashcards
All 20 cards in this deck
What were the three aims of Roosevelt's New Deal?
Relief, recovery and reform.
What were the 'Alphabet Agencies'?
Government-funded organisations set up under the New Deal, known by their initials, which provided relief and created jobs.
What did the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) do?
Gave work to about 2.5 million unemployed young men on environmental projects such as planting trees.
What did the TVA and PWA do for employment?
They began public building projects that created jobs for a wide range of people – architects and researchers as well as builders.
Give one limitation of the New Deal for African Americans.
They still suffered racial discrimination, including from some Alphabet Agencies, so white Americans benefited more widely.
On what grounds did the Supreme Court rule some Alphabet Agencies illegal?
That the federal government was infringing on the rights of individual states.
Give one reason Republicans and businessmen opposed the New Deal.
They believed in laissez-faire and resented higher taxes, trade unions, minimum wages and maximum hours that cut company profits.
What were Roosevelt's 'fireside chats'?
Radio broadcasts in which Roosevelt spoke directly to the whole nation, creating a sense of hope and confidence.
What happened to unemployment when Roosevelt cut New Deal spending in 1937?
It rose again in the 1937–38 recession, showing recovery still depended on government spending.
What did the Emergency Banking Act (1933) do?
Roosevelt closed all banks for inspection; only sound ones reopened, with government support, which restored people's confidence in the banking system.
What did the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) do?
It paid farmers to grow and raise less so that prices and farm incomes rose; critics attacked it for ploughing up crops and slaughtering animals while many Americans were hungry.
What was the National Recovery Administration (NRA)?
A 1933 agency under which industries drew up codes on fair prices, wages and hours, with workers given the right to join unions. Taking part was voluntary, and the Supreme Court struck it down in 1935.
What did the Social Security Act (1935) do?
It created America's first national welfare system: old-age pensions and unemployment insurance funded by taxes on workers and employers, plus help for the disabled and for poor families with children.
What did the Wagner Act (1935) do?
It gave workers the legal right to join a trade union and bargain with employers, replacing the union rights lost when the Supreme Court struck down the NRA.
Who was Huey Long?
A Louisiana senator who said the New Deal did too little for the poor and proposed 'Share Our Wealth': heavily taxing the richest to guarantee every family a basic income and a home. He was assassinated in 1935.
How did the Works Progress Administration (WPA) affect 1930s culture?
Its arts projects paid unemployed painters, writers, actors and musicians, producing public murals, theatre, concerts and writing about American life; critics called it a waste of taxpayers' money.
Why was the cinema so popular in 1930s America?
It was cheap escapism from the Depression: tens of millions went every week to see musicals, comedies, horror films and Disney cartoons, with hits such as Snow White (1937) and Gone with the Wind (1939).
Give one limitation of the New Deal for women.
Many NRA codes allowed women to be paid lower wage rates than men, and relief jobs went mainly to men as family breadwinners; very few schemes were aimed at women.
What did the Indian Reorganization Act (1934) do for American Indians?
It let tribes run more of their own affairs and provided loans to buy land and equipment, though most American Indians stayed very poor.
What was Roosevelt's 'court-packing' plan (1937)?
After the Supreme Court struck down key New Deal laws, Roosevelt proposed adding up to six new judges who would support him. Congress rejected it and critics accused him of acting like a dictator, though the Court then began upholding New Deal laws.