Chapter 33 Terms and Definitions

New Deal: Franklin D. Roosevelt's program of relief, recovery, and reform aimed at combating the Great Depression.
Brain Trust: The group of academic advisers who helped Roosevelt design New Deal legislation and policy.
Bank Holiday: Roosevelt's March 1933 order closing every bank in the country to halt panicked withdrawals and stabilize the financial system.
Emergency Banking Relief Act: 1933 law allowing only financially sound banks to reopen under federal supervision after the bank holiday.
Fireside Chats: Roosevelt's informal radio addresses to the nation, used to explain policies and restore public confidence.
Glass-Steagall Banking Act: 1933 law separating commercial from investment banking and creating the FDIC to insure bank deposits.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): Agency created in 1933 that insures individual bank deposits, ending the era of catastrophic bank runs.
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA): 1933 law paying farmers to reduce production of staple crops and livestock in order to raise depressed prices.
National Recovery Administration (NRA): Agency created by the National Industrial Recovery Act to set industry-wide codes on wages, hours, and prices; struck down by the Supreme Court in 1935.
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): New Deal program employing young men on conservation projects such as reforestation and trail-building.
Public Works Administration (PWA): New Deal agency that funded large-scale infrastructure projects like dams, bridges, and schools.
Works Progress Administration (WPA): 1935 agency under Harry Hopkins that employed millions on public projects, including construction, art, theater, and writing.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA): 1933 agency that built dams along the Tennessee River for flood control, cheap electricity, and regional development.
Social Security Act: 1935 law creating federal old-age pensions and unemployment insurance, funded by payroll taxes.
Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act): 1935 law guaranteeing workers the right to unionize and bargain collectively, enforced by the National Labor Relations Board.
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO): Labor federation that organized unskilled industrial workers across entire industries, growing rapidly after the Wagner Act.
American Liberty League: Conservative organization of business leaders who condemned the New Deal as an attack on free enterprise and the Constitution.
Huey Long: Louisiana senator and New Deal critic whose "Share Our Wealth" plan proposed guaranteed incomes funded by taxing the rich; assassinated in 1935.
Court-Packing Plan: Roosevelt's failed 1937 proposal to add up to six new Supreme Court justices, intended to overcome a Court hostile to New Deal legislation.
Recession of 1937–38: A sharp economic downturn, partly caused by reduced government spending, that showed the New Deal had not fully cured the Depression.