HISTORY 124B Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - New Deal, World War I, United States Congress
HISTORY 124B
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
The Great Depression
Argument: The Great Crash of 1929 and its social and economic repercussions
revealed the shortcomings of the state.
Quick Overview:
• Lasted from 1929 until 1939
• Worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized West
• By 1931, 6 million job seeking Americans were out of work
• President Herbert Hoover relied on “voluntarism”
-He believed that the federal government ought to collaborate with the state
governments and local relief organizations
The Great Depression
• Even before the Depression, key sectors of the economy were not doing well
• Car sales and construction had been in decline for 2 years
• Wages for “less-skilled” positions and agriculture were stagnate
• High concentration of wealth
• BUT the stock market was booming…
The Depression and workers
• How did the Depression impact workers:
• Women are the first to lose their jobs
• Employers enforced pre-existing racial hierarchies
• Major employers began laying off workers
- Ford had 128,000 workers in early 1929. By August 1931, that number shrank to
37,000
• Middle class Americans saw pay cuts
Our response to limited federal action
• The Bonus Army: 20K WWI vets and their families camped in DC in the summer
of 1932
• Demanded the payment of their bonuses legally due in 1945
Responses to the Great Depression and the New Deal from Above
Argument: The Great Crash of 1929 and its social and economic repercussion
revealed the shortcoming of the state. While the New Deal provided economic
recovery and security for Americans, it also formalized economic exclusions and
others
Hoover and Voluntarism
• Hoover initially relied on voluntarism
• Thousands on Americans became homeless by the early 1930s
• Many set up shantytowns or “Hoovervilles” on the edges of cities/towns
Hoover and the limits of voluntarism…
• Hoover lost faith in voluntarism and began supporting limited federal initiatives
• One example: The Emergency Committee for Employment (1930)
• By early 1932, Congress began pushing relief laws through
• Emergency Relief Act authorized the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to
extend loans to struggling states
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
The Bonus Army
• 20K WWI vets and their families camped in DC in the summer of 1932
• Demanded the payment of their bonuses for serving in WWI, legally due 1945
• Expelled from the city by military force
Three ways to understand the New Deal: as ethos, as a political coalition, as a set of
programs and policies
• As an ethos
- Solidarity, togetherness: A unified people that looked after one another,
with a government trying to figure out how to help
• As a political coalition
- Progressive intellectuals (though not all)
- Northers urbanites, especially 2nd generation ethnics (children of
immigrants)
- Labor unions
- The South (very few African Americans voting)
- Northern blacks
• As a set of programs and policies
- Five basic areas 1) public works, 2) rural relief 3) welfare 4) arts and culture
5) labor
The New Deal
The new deal was about two things:
• Economic recovery (The First New Deal, 1933-1934) AND Economic security
(The Second New Deal, 1935-1938)
The First New Deal
• When FDR took office in 1933, he had to deal with three crises:
• The collapse of the banking industry
• Widespread unemployment
• The farming crisis
Addressing these things would be key to economic recovery
How the New Deal helped to provide recovery:
• Created public work projects
• Funded banks on the verge of collapsing
- The Banking Act
• Provided low interest loans to homeowners at risk of defaulting on their loans
• Guaranteed deposits people made into their bank accounts
• Addressed farming crisis by offering crop subsidies
- The Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933)
The Second New Deal
Security:
• National labor relations act (Wagner Act 1935)
• Fair Labor Standards Act (1938)
• Social Security Act (1935)
A New Deal for Whom?
• Excluded agriculture and domestic sectors from protective legislation of the
New Deal
- African Americans
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Argument: the great crash of 1929 and its social and economic repercussions revealed the shortcomings of the state. Quick overview: lasted from 1929 until 1939, worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized west, by 1931, 6 million job seeking americans were out of work, president herbert hoover relied on voluntarism . He believed that the federal government ought to collaborate with the state governments and local relief organizations. The depression and workers: how did the depression impact workers, women are the first to lose their jobs, employers enforced pre-existing racial hierarchies, major employers began laying off workers. Ford had 128,000 workers in early 1929. 37,000: middle class americans saw pay cuts. The bonus army: 20k wwi vets and their families camped in dc in the summer of 1932: demanded the payment of their bonuses legally due in 1945. Responses to the great depression and the new deal from above.
