APUSH Vocab 1890-1945

In 1920 these Italian immigrants were accused of participating in a robbery. Although they were anarchists and saw violence as an appropriate weapon of class warfare, little evidence linked them to the crime. It exposed some of the fault lines below US society in the 1920s, like how long the Red Scare lasted and how it undermined basic US freedoms. Also it reflected the intense cultural battles in communities.

This time was recalled as the Jazz Age or Roaring Twenties. It was a time of revolt against the 19th century moral rules (flappers, speakeasies). In reality, Americans didn’t welcome the new commercial culture. They feared the lax moral standards of urban life and ethnic and racial diversity in cities. Known as a “decade of social tensions” bw rural and urban, traditional and modern Christianity, those who participated in the new consumer culture and those who did not.

New industries like chemicals, aviation, and electronics arose and old industries became more productive and output rose dramatically bc of Fords moving assembly line. The backbone of this growth was the automobile.

Additionally, during this decade Americans spent money on new consumer goods like telephones, vacuums, washing machines, refrigerators, Coca-Cola, radio and leisure activities such as vacations, movies, and sporting events.

• Corporate profits doubled while rent wages for industrial workers (accounts for inflation) only rose by 25%.

• A handful of firms dominated many sectors of the economy.

• 1929: national income of top % surpassed that of bottom 60%.

• 40% of the population was in poverty.

American farming had reached its peak dring WWI. Mechanization + the increase in use of fertilizer and pesticides caused agriculture production to rise as gov subsidies ended and world demand stagnated. This caused farm product prices to fall, farm incomes to decline, and banks closed farms of those who weren’t able to meet mortgage payments. GO BACK AND CORRECT SLIDE

During the 1920s, this attracted more investors as the steadily increasing price of stocks was circulated in the news. The Pujo investigation reinforced the view that the stock market was a place where insides deceived small investors.

In the 1920s, a new system arose in corporations that provided employees with private pensions, insurance plans, job security, job safety, and programs to occupy their leisure time. “Welfare Capitalism”. At the sime time employees embraced the “American Plan”, a workplace free of both gov regulatin and unions. “Prosperity depends on giving the busness complete freedom of action"

It lost 2 million members, and unions cooperated with employees in order to avoid complete elimination.

The amendment would eliminate all legal distinctions “on account of sex.” Alice Paul, the leader of the National Women’s Party, believed that after winning political equality (vote), women needed access to employment and other citizen opportunities. Every other major female org. opposed this amendment. It would bLaNk laws limiting women’s labor hours and mother pensions. The campaign failed.

This consisted of short skirts, a bobbed hair cut, smoking and drinking in public, unapologetically using birth control, going to dance halls, clubs, and attending sexually charged films. This changed sexual freedom to mean individual autonomy or personal rebellion. However the new freedom was only until marriage, for then a women was expected to seek freedom inside the house.

Reasons for BLANK

• New leisure activities and an emphases on consumption replaced politics as the focus of public concerned.

• Strengthening of one party politics in South.

• Long period of Republican dominance in national elections

• Shift from public to private corners “Americas’ citizens first importance is no longer of a citizen but of a consumer”

• Apathy - my vote doesn’t matter (partly due to the entrenchment of one party)

In the 1920s, policies reflected a BLANK

• Business lobbyists dominated republican national conventions. (businesses called on Reps to maintain high tariffs, lower income + business profit taxes, support campaign against unions)

• Warren G Harding + Calvin Coolidge administrations appointed many pro-business members

At BLANK, Wyoming, Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall accepted $500,000 from private businessmen to whom he leased gov. oil reserves. Fall became the first cabinet member to be convicted of a felony. This occurred during Harding’s presidency, whose admin was one of them ost corrupt in history .”Get rich quick.” He had little regard for government issues or dignity of presidency. His admin used offices for private gain.

• People were disappointed in Wilsons military and diplomatic pursuit of freedom and democracy abroad results.

• Americans wanted to increase exports and investment opportunities overseas.

These are the rights an individual may assert even against democratic majorities. WWI and the 1920s showed Progressives that an active federal gov. didn’t embody the national purpose or enhance the enjoyment of freedom. This was demonstrated by Prohibition, wartime, postwar recession, and pro-business policies of the 1920s. This opened the door for a new appreciation of BLANK.

Examples of BLANK

• Lynchings in Alabama, Arkansas, and Florida

• Arrest of Union leader and 400 IWW members

• Refusal to allow a socialist to speak in Pennsylvania

• The beating of a college student for writing a letter defending free speech and press

• Sexually themed art was censored

• Hollywood industry adopted the Hay Code (guidelines prohibiting nudity, long kisses, adultery, etc. in movies.)

Inspired by the Espionage and Sedition Acts and originally called the Civil Liberties Bureau, this group meant to give meaning to traditional civil liberties like freedom of speech while inventing new ones, like the right to privacy. This group took part in most landmark cases that helped instigate a “rights revolution”.

There was the risk of inspiring illegal actions. “Free speech wouldn’t protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic”. People believed the amendment applied only when it didn’t cause a clear and present danger.

Holmes declared that the only meaning of free speech was that advocates of every set of beliefs should have the right to convert the public to their view s in the great “marketplace of ideas” (consumer society). Brandeis argued freedom of speech was essential to active citizenship in a democracy.

He was a professional baseball player who became a revivalist preacher. He was part of the fundamentalist campaign to rid protestant denominations of modernism to combat the new industrial freedoms (thought they contradicted traditional morality). He preached to 100 million people (more than anyone in history) renouncing sins like alcohol and darwinism.

This was a protestant movement that was grounded in the literal interpretation of the bible. This was an national phenomenon and it strongly supported prohibition. It was an important part of politics and culture in the 1920s.

1925: John Scopes, a teacher in a Tennessee PUblic school, was arrested after violating a stale law prohibiting the teaching of Darwin’s theory of evolution. The trial reflected the enduring tensions b/w 2 American definitions of freedom. Fundamentalist Christians believed in the traditional “moral” liberty, and the theory of evolution contradicted the bibles account of creation. Scopes defenders (ACLU) believed freedom meant the right to independent thought and individual self-expression. The jury found scopes guilty, although it was later overturned. The movement for anti-evolution laws died and Fundamentalists began making their own schools instead of battling over public education.

This group reappeared in the 1920s after the lynching of a Jewish factory manager (Leo Frank) was accused of killing a teenage girl. It had 5 million members, nearly all white, native-born protestants. Unlike the group of the reconstruction, the organization now had roots in the North + West. The new group insisted that American civilization was endangered by blacks, immigrants, and “forces that endangered individual liberty” (feminism, unions, giant corps). Basically the group enlarged the scope of people they hated.

This policy was fundamentally altered in the 1920s. In 1921 a temporary measure restricted European immigrants to 1/3 of their annual average had been before the war. IN 1924, Congress permanently limited ti to 150k EU immigrants (Johnson REed Act/Immigration Act of 1924). It also barred entry of all those ineligible for naturalized citizenship (Asians). A new category came into existence: illegal alien. It originally meant for southern and eastern Europeans who tried sneaking across the border from Mexico or Canada. Border patrol became the new enforcement mechanism.

President Coolidge said the policy meant “America must be kept American.” It meant that the immigration policy now rested on the biological definition of the ideal pop. instead of on the need for labor or the notion of the US as an asylum of liberty. Cultural pluralism challenged this, it was a society that gloried in ethnic diversity rather than suppressed it. Many immigrants believed they could assimilate, challenging the race policy. Many saw it as not as much of a loss of culture as a loosening of patriarchal bonds and an expansion of freedom. Immigrant groups promoted tolerance by asserting the validity of cultural diversity, and supporting the toleration of differences like religion, culture, and individual. (People also used counterarguments to Eugenics).

This continued in the 1920s by:

• nearly 1 million blacks left S in the 1920s, and population of New York and Chicago doubled

• Harlem, NY, became the “capital of black America.” Blacks came from South and West INdies. From the South were agricultural workers while those from the West Indies were educated professionals and white-collared workers.

The “Capital of Black America”, to the white imagination, Harlem was a place of primitive passions, free from puritanical restraints of American culture (speakeasies, jazz clubs, dance halls). But in reality it was a place of poverty, confinement to low-wage jobs, and racial discrimination.

This was the quest black writers took to the roots of black experience (from Africa, to the rural South, to the Urban ghetto). The writings also contained protest.

He was born in Iowa in 1874, the son of a blacksmith and school teacher. He worked as a mining engineer for firms in Asia, Africa, and Europe. During and after WWI, he gained fame by coordinating overseas food relief. He published “American Individualism”, which condemned gov. regulation as the interference to economic opportunities of common Americans.

HIs platform: promised poverty would soon be “banished from this earth” 🤔

On October 29th, 1929, the stock market crashed. $10 million vanished after 5 hours as panic selling set in.

• Unequal distribution of income and depression in farm regions reduced US purchasing abilities

• Sale of autos and household goods stagnated after 1929

• European deamand for US goods declined (bc their industry recovered from wartime destruction)

• Global gold financial system couldn’t deal with it, so Germany defaulted on reparation payments to France + Britain, who in return stopped paying debts to American banks.

• Lack of confidence in the market and distrust of banks due to bank runs/collapses

• High tariffs

• Lots of purchases using loans

• Millions of families lost their life savings

• Thousands evicted from their homes

• 25% of labor force couldn’t find work

• Suicide rate became highest in history

• Those who had jobs feared reduced hours and lower wages

• Hungry people lined the streets of major cities

• Birthrates became lowest in history.

In Spring of 1932, 20k unemployed WWI veterans descended on Washington to demand early payment of a bonus due in 1945. They were driven away by army’s chief of state Douglas MacArthur and the federal army

He was opposed to direct federal intervention in the economy. He simply put his faith in businesses to voluntarily maintain investment and employment (which few did). He tried to restore public confidence, but it made him appear out of touch w/ reality.

Made worse: Smoot Hawley Tariff of 1930: it raised the already high taxes on imported goods, causing similar increases abroad. He increased taxes to balance federal budget, but this reduced Americans purchasing power. He approved funds to feed livestock.

Eventually he took action w/ the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932), loaning money to failing banks, railroads, and businesses. But he still opposed direct relief to the unemployed.

Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

WWII strengthened the idea that American security was global in scope and could only be protected by the worldwide triumph of American values. It gave The US a new + lasting international role.

WWII changed the US since the gov now recognized the “new immigrants” and their children as loyal Americans and black Americans status now held a prominent place on the natives political agenda. Yet the US removed 110k Japanese-Americans and placed them in internment camps.

1933 - US repudiated the right to intervene militarily in the affairs of Latin American countries. US withdrew troops from Haiti and Nicaragua and accepted Cuba’s repeal of the Platt Amendment. Roosevelt recognized the sovereignty of these countries, but he felt comfortable to ally w/ undemocratic govs friendly to American business. The US supported dictators like Somoza, Rafael Trujillo, and Fulgencio Batiste.

China: in 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria, China (massacred 300k Chinese)

Germany: Hitler started his campaign to control the entire continent, violated the Treaty of Versailles by arming Germany.

Ethiopia: Italian leader and founder of fascism Benito Mussolini invaded and conquered Ethiopia

Spain: General Francisco Franco led an uprising against the elected gov. of spain, 3 yrs later in 1939 Francisco established a fascist gov there.

In Latin America: by mid 1930s the rule of law was disintegrating, war was on the horizon.

1935: these acts banned travel on belligerents’ (foreign countries at war) ships and the sale of arms to countries at war. Congress hoped it would allow the US to avoid conflicts about freedom overseas that had contributed to their involvmenet in WWI.

This marked another version of isolationism of the 1930s, in which Americans wanted to avoid foreign entanglements.

In 1938 France and Britain submitted to German aggression. In 1939 the USSR had originally wanted to oppose further German demand, signed a non-aggression with Hitler. Immediately after the signing, Hitler invaded Poland, and Britain and France declared war. Germany overran Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and much of Scandinavia, North Africa, and nearly all of Europe. Germany, Italy, and Japan formed the Axis powers.

Roosevelt declared the US neutral in WWII at first. However, at the same time Congress allowed the sale of arms to Britain. FDR also announced that the US would supply Britain and China with military supplies. Britain was basically bankrupt, so congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, which allowed military aid as long as countries promised to pay it back after the war.

The attack on Pearl Harbor was what FDR needed to ask Congress for a declaration of war against Japan. Germany declared war on the US a day later and America joined WWII.

The first few months were disastrous for the US. In 1942, Japan took Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Guam, the Philippines, and other pacific islands. German submarines sunk many Allied vessels during the battle of the Atlantic. However, the tide turned in 1942 with the Battle of Midway Island, where Japan suffered heavy naval losses.

US troops weren’t immediately involved on the European continent until June 6th, 1944, D-Day, when 200k American, British, and Canadian soldiers landed in France and drove German armies westwards, liberating Paris. Crucial fighting occurred on the east front, bw the Soviet Union and Germany. The German surrender at Stalingrad marked a turning point in the war (1943).

FDR created the War Production Board, the War Manpower Commission, and the Office of Price Administration. The # of federal workers rose from 1 million to 4 million. The unemployment rate went from 14% in 1940 to 2% in 1943.

Also, Roosevelt spurred output for war production by offering incentives like low-interest loans, tax concessions, and contracts with guaranteed profits. Most of the federal spending went to the largest corporations, continuing the trend toward economic concentration.

This changed during WWII because it entered an arrangement with the government and business that allowed union membership to rise drastically. The gov. forced reluctant workers to recognize unions in order to secure industrial peace and stabilize production.

It was created in 1943 to mobilize public opinion and it illustrates how the political division created by the New deal affected efforts to promote the 4 freedoms. Liberal Dems dominated this groups writings and tried to make the conflict a “Peoples War” for Freedom. they were afraid Americans only had a vague understanding of the purpose of the war and worried that they were more interested in revenge on Japan than ridding the world of fascism.

Free Enterprise

• mobilization of women to industrial jobs vacated by men in the war.

• Hollywood films glorified the independent woman, private investors glorified Rosie the Riveter (self-reliant female industrial worker on Norman Rockwell’s famous magazine cover)

• New opportunities opened for women in industry, professional, and government positions.

• Yet the gov., employees, and unions viewed this as a temporary change, not as an expansion of womens freedoms.

• When the war ended, many women lost their jobs.

• The “American Way of life” still viewed a woman as the person to greet her husband at the door every night.

Since the OG Bill of Rights restricted the power of the gov in the name of liberty, this new bill of rights created by FDR expanded the gov.s power in order to ensure adequate income, full employment, education, medical care, and a decent home for all Americans. Congress didn’t end up enacting it, but extended many of its benefits to millions of returning veterans in 1944.

Aka the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act, this was one of the most far-reaching parts of social legislation in US history. It aimed to reward members of the armed forces and prevent widespread unemployment and economic disruption following WWI.

1945 - it tried to do what the GI Bill of Rights did for veterans, but for the entire economy. It established a “right to employment” for all Americans and required the gov. to increase spending and create enough jobs if the economy failed to do so. It only passed in 1946 due to it being the target of a lobbying campaign, however, parts of it had been thrown out.

WWII and the fight against Nazi tyranny discredited ethnic and racial and inequality and led to a new understanding for Americans of themselves as people. Now the pluralist vision of society became the norm. By the end of the war, the new immigrants had been fully accepted as loyal, ethnic Americans instead of members of distinct race.

Unlike during the force Americanization during WWI where the Wilson admin had established the Anglo-Saxon culture as the norm, the new assimilation under FDR promoted pluralism as a source of harmony in a diverse society.

During WWII, the US gov didn’t allow more than a handful of Jewish refugees from Europe into the US. This was due to the US government being partly anti-semitic, as well as people thinking the early descriptions of the Holocaust were too terrible to be true. FDR learned about Hitler’s “Final Solution” (to eliminate Europe’s Jewish population), yet he didn’t authorize air strikes that could have destroyed German death camps.

Agreed bw the Mexican and American govs, this allowed tens of thousands of contract laborers to cross in to the US to take up jobs as domestic and agricultural workers. It reinforced the status of Mexican immigrants as an unskilled labor force, but it also opened new opportunities for second gen Mexican - American immigrants. For Mexican-American women, it allowed new opportunities for public participation and higher incomes.

1943 - These were riots in which sailors and policemen attacked Mexican-American youth wearing “flamboyant” clothing on the streets of LA. It demonstrated the limits of wartime tolerance. The reality of continued racial discrimination despite the wars rhetoric of freedom and pluralism inspired a heightened conscious of civil rights.

1942 - the military persuaded FDR to issue this, inspired by fears of Japanese invasion o the west and pressure by whites who wanted to gain possession of Japanese-American property. This order allowed the relocation of persons of Japanese-american descent from the west coast.

• They were subjected to a quasi military discipline in camps.

• living in former horse stables, barracks with barbed wire fences.

• Awaken for roll call at 6:45, ate in giant mess halls.

• Armed guards patrolled

• No medical facilities

• No privacy

In 1988, Congress apologized for the internment and provided $20k for each surviving victim.

700,000 blacks left the South on “liberty trains” to the northern cities and the west, seeking jobs in the industrial heartland. They still sometimes encountered violent hostility. Lynching continued.

Black leader A. Philip Randolph called for a march on Washington, angered by the exclusion of African Americans from jobs in the war industries. He demanded an end to segregation, access to equal defense employment, and a national anti-lynching law. RAndolph declared racial discrimination “undemocratic, un-American, and pro-Hitler”. Roosevelt issued exec order 8802 to pressure RAndolph to call off the march. the order banned discrimination in defense jobs and established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC). Although the FEPC lacked enforcement powers, it marked a change in public policy. It revealed patterns of racial exclusion and helped black workers obtain jobs in shipyards and industrial plants.

A Swedish scientist, this man wrote “An American Dilemma”, which was an account of the countries racial past, present, and future. It described how deeply racism was entrenched in laws, politics, and social behavior. But he also admired “American Creed” (their belief in equality, justice, equal opportunities, and freedom). He argued that the war made Americans more aware of the contrast bw this creed and the truth of racial equality.

Black internationalists concluded that racism originated not in irrational hatred, but in the slave trade and slavery. They believed that in the modern age, slavery was perpetuated colonialism, and therefore freeing Africa from colonial rule would encourage greater equality at home.

In March 1945, American troops crossed the Rhine River into the industrial center of Germany. Hitler killed himself and soon USSR forces occupied Berlin. The war officially ended on May 8th, 1945 (V-E Day for Victory in Europe). US forces moved closer to Japan in the Pacific and unconquered Guam.

Having fled to the US from Hitlers Germany in 1939, Einstein warned Roosevelt that Nazi scientists were developing an atomic weapon and urged him to do the same. FDR than authorized the BLANK, a top-secret program where scientists developed the atomic bomb during WWII.

US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima + Nagasaki, and ton the same day the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria. Japan surrendered within a week.

It was a conference bw allied leaders (Truman, Churchill, Stalin), where they established a military admin for Germany and agreed to place top Nazi leaders on trial for war crimes.

At this conference, Churchill and Truman protested against Soviet plans to maintain control over the Baltic states and most of eastern Poland.

This re-established the link between the US dollar and gold. It set the dollar value at $35 per oz of gold and gave other currencies a fixed relationship based on the dollar. The conference also created the World Bank (which helped provide money to developing countries and rebuild Europe) and the International Monetary Fund (prevents countries from devaluing their currencies to get an advantage in international trade). <occurred a lot during great depression.

Successor to the League of Nations, this would include a general assembly (forum for discussion where members each had an equal voice) and a security council responsible for maintaining world peace. The council would have 10 rotating members and 5 permanent ones (US, France, Britain, China, and Britain).

These were intended to highlight the differences bw Anglo-American ideals and Nazis. Although the allies saved humankind from a worldwide system of dictatorial rule and slave labor, disputes over the freedom of colonial people overseas and non-whites in the US foretold wars and social upheavals to come.

1923 - The Court declared the Nebraska law unconstitutional, reasoning it violated the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Nebraska law had prohibited the use of minority languages as the medium of instruction in the schools.

This was the transformation of the American economy and landscape during the 1930s, when the Roosevelt admin spent more money on building roads, dams, airports, bridges, and housing than other things.

During the 1930s, Roosevelt transformed the democratic party into a coalition of farmers, industrial workers, reform minded urban class, liberal intellectuals, northern African Americans, and the white supremacist South, all united in the belief that the gov. must provide protection against dislocations caused by modern capitalism.

This expanded the meaning of liberalism and freedom to mean efforts by the national gov. to modernize and regulate the market economy and uplift less fortunate members of society. Depression discredited ideas that social programs rested on unrestrained pursuit of wealth and that poverty is self inflicted. The program brought economic security to the American discussions of freedom.

• it included the Social Security Act, Fair Labor Standards Act

• raised in privilege on a New York county estate

• sixth cousin of Theo Roosevelt

• Graduated from Harvard and became part of New York legislature

• Was under secretary of Navy and ran for VP in 1920

• Lost use of his legs due to polio (he concealed that he was in a wheelchair)

• Believed it was the govs. responsibility to ensure every man a right to make a comfortable living. (but he also wanted a balanced fed spending and didn’t want excessive spending like Hoover)

1933 - The banking system was on the verge of collapse (bc bank funds lost value and depositors withdrew). This act provided funds to shore up threatened institutions.

• Banned commerce at banks from becoming involved in buying and selling of stocks. This prevented lots of irresponsible practices that had contributed to the stock market crash.

This was a system that insured the accounts of individual investors (helps people trust the banks bc now they are government backed). Accompanying this act was Roosevelt’s removal of the gold standard. These measures rescued the financial system and increased the govs. control over it. No single bank failed in 1936, compared to 1/3 of banks bw 1929-1933.

1933 - It allowed Congress to authorize the president to regulate industry for fair wages and prices that would stimulate economic recovery. It also established the NRA (National Recovery Administration). Roosevelt called it the most important and far-reaching legislation ever enacted by US Congress. It was meant to combat the depression, and it built a stronger gov.

It worked with groups of business leaders to establish industry codes that set standards for output, prices, and working conditions. It ended cutthroat competition. Soon it became very controversial as large companies dominated the code writing process and an inquiry concluded that the admin actually drove up prices, limited production, laid off workers, and divided markets at the expense of smaller competitors.

This set unemployed young men to work on projects like forest preservation, flood control, and the improvement of national parks and wildlife preserves. The program ended in 1942, but 3 million people passed through their camps, and it was a major benefit to the American environment.

This was part of the nat. industrial recovery act. This contracted w private construction companies to build roads, schools, hospitals, and other public facilities. Another agency was launched, CWA, which directly hired workers for construction projects and had over 4 million workers. But it was dissolved due to complaints that it was creating a class of Americans dependent on gov. jobs.

This built a series of dams to prevent floods and deforestation along the Tennessee River and to provide cheap electric power for homes and factories in a region where many still lived in isolated log cabins. It put the fed gov in competition with private companies in selling electricity. it improved the lives of many southerners and offered a preview of the planning system that would spur economic development in the West.

In order to raise farm prices, this authorized the federal gov, to set production quotas for major crops and pay farmers to plant less. It succeeded in raising farm prices and incomes, but it didn’t benefit all farmers. Money flowed to property-owning farmers, not the large amount who worked on land owned by others. The act encouraged the eviction of poor tenants and sharecroppers.

This was meant to relocate rural and urban families suffering from the depression to communities planned by the gov. It set up relief camps for migrant works in CA and built new communities.

This insured millions of long-term mortgages issued by private banks while the federal gov. units of low-rent housing. ??? Impact: homeownership became possible for tens of millions of Americans, and it became cheaper for most Americans to buy homes then to rent apartments.

This was the area of Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, and Colorado where mechanized agriculture had pulverized the top soil and killed native grasses that had prevented erosion in the midst of a severe drought/ Wind blew much of the soil away.

This was the mobilization of millions of workers in the 1930s of mass production industries that had successfully resisted unionization. It was called this because the era of unprecedented militancy was a big surprise. Unlike previously, the gov. seemed to be on the side of labor.

This set out to create unions in the main bastions of American economy, aiming to secure economic freedom and industrial democracy for workers.

An effective striking tactic, it meant workers halted production but remained in the building instead of walking out. The United Auto Workers (UAW) successfully used this tactic and GM Motors agreed to negotiate with them.

During the 1930s:

• Unions helped stabilize the chaotic employment situation and offered members a sense of dignity and freedom. A 1937 agreement bw UAW (United Auto Workers) and GM spoke of a rate of pay equal to an American standard of living. People began to agree w/ the unions claim that the depression was caused by an imbalance of wealth.

He was governor of LA and then their senator. He used his power to build roads, schools, and hospitals to increase the burden of LA’s oil companies. Referred to as the King Fish in 1934, he launched the “Share our Wealth” mvt, which called for the confiscation of most of the wealth of the richest Americans to give a 5k grant and guaranteed a job and annual income for all citizens. He was about to run for president when he was assassinated by the son of a political rival.

This hired 3 million Americans per year from 1934-1943. It constructed buildings, bridges, roads, airports, stadiums, etc. It employed out-of-work white-collar workers like dentists and doctors. They even hired artists, writers, musicians, poets, etc.

“Labors Magna Carta” - this brought democracy to the workplace by empowering the National Labor Relations Board to supervise elections where employees voted on union representation. It would also outlaw unfair labor practices like firing and black listing union workers.

1935 - Created a system of unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, aid to the poor elderly, disabled, and families w/ dependent children. It launched the American version of the “welfare state” referring to the system of income assistance, health coverage, and social services for all citizens. It was a radical change from the previous system for the US but it involved less gov spending and reached less citizens than the same European programs.

These were radio messages from FDR that communicated to American homes. He conveyed a new definition of liberalism to not mean a limited government and a free economy, but a large, active, socially conscious state. He made “freedom” a word supportive of the New Deal. He defined liberty as “greater security for the average man” instead of the older version of liberty in which the interests of only the privileged few were served. He linked freedom w/ economic security.

After winning his re-election in 1936, FDR proposed to reorganize the federal judiciary by adding a new justice every time a justice reached 70 yrs old and didn’t retire. He did this bc he feared the court would invalidate the SS Act, the Wagner Act, and other parts of the 2nd New Deal. People thought he was becoming a dictator and congress rejected it. But his plan worked bc suddenly the court was willing to support economic regulation by the gov.