KEY TERMS Key Terms and People to Know for the Regents Exam
Great Depression
A worldwide economic crisis that started in the US. Banks failed, business closed, millions of people lost their jobs and homes. Many people were forced to travel the country looking for work.
Dust Bowl
Overproduction of crops and a severe drought (lack of water) devastated the Great Plains and caused massive dust storms. Many farmers lost everything and moved to California to look for work (Steinbeck wrote about this in The Grapes of Wrath).
Hoover’s Response
Hoover believed in laissez faire economics and refused to give direct aid to the poor because he thought it would make them dependent on the government. Although he eventually took some action to address the depression, it was too little and too late.
Hoovervilles
Shantytowns full of makeshift shacks built by the homeless were called “Hoovervilles” because the people blamed Hoover for not helping the poor. Newspapers, which the homeless sometimes slept under, were called “Hoover Blankets."
Bonus Army
Veterans of WWI gathered in Washington, D.C. and asked Congress for their promised war bonuses earlier than scheduled because they were poor. Hoover told them to leave and even used the Army to force them out and to burn down their “Hooverville.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
FDR was elected in 1932 to replace Hoover because FDR promised to change the government’s approach, to use government power to help the poor, to create jobs, to regulate banks, and to try to fix the economy (the opposite of laissez-faire).