Chapter 23: New Deal America, 1929–1939
CORE OBJECTIVES
1. Identify the major causes of the Great Depression.
TRUE/FALSE
1. In the 1920s many investors bought stocks on margin—that is, with borrowed funds.
2. Economists to this day debate the various factors that caused the Great Depression, but most
stress that the factors were interrelated.
3. During the Great Depression, a thousand Americans per day lost their homes to foreclosure.
4. At one point during the Great Depression, states passed laws prohibiting the employment of
married women.
5. The Dust Bowl was a terrible drought across southern Arizona and New Mexico.
6. Herbert Hoover refused to involve the government in efforts to relieve the effects of
economic depression.
7. Early in his presidency, Roosevelt ended Prohibition.
8. The CCC addressed the problem of overcharging by doctors and others in the medical and
health professions.
9. By 1935 the NRA had become unpopular.
10. The AAA required farmers to donate surplus crops and livestock to feed the poor.
11. Eleanor Roosevelt was a shy person who shunned attention, but she did much work behind
the scenes to raise support for her husband’s New Deal.
12. FDR made black civil rights a major priority, ordering that New Deal programs not practice
racial discrimination.
13. Whereas the New Deal dramatically improved the lives of African Americans across the
United States, it made life worse for Native Americans.
14. By the end of 1936, the Supreme Court had proven itself an enemy of Roosevelt’s New
Deal.
15. FDR called the Social Security Act the most significant achievement of the New Deal.
16. The Wagner Act helped dramatically boost union membership.
17. Despite the New Deal, full recovery from the Depression did not come until the crisis of
World War II.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. An excellent example of the reckless speculation of the late 1920s was
a. avoiding investing in the stock market.
b. buying stock on margin.
c. saving money.
d. paying broker fees.
e. requiring that stockholders be licensed.
2. Economists call a marked slowdown in economic growth a
a. recession.
b. decline.
c. slump.
d. collapse.
e. boom.
3. Which of the following statements regarding the American economy at the end of the 1920s
in the years leading into the Great Depression is correct?
a. Hourly workers’ wages had risen along with increased productivity.
b. Employers and business owners did not see any large profits.
c. Consumer spending increased too much.
d. Fewer workers were joining unions.
e. Factories and mills were not producing enough goods.
4. As farm productivity __________, farmers earned __________ from their crops.
a. increased; less
b. decreased; more
c. increased; more
d. stagnated; more
e. stalled; more
5. Why did more than 1,000 economists warn against the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930, which
Hoover went on to sign anyway?
a. It would raise prices on most products and raw materials by impeding imports.
b. It was too low of a tariff and thereby would not have an effect on the economy.
c. It would allow international trade to flourish but destroy the American economy.
d. It would repair the German economy, leading to animosity from other European nations.
e. It would drastically raise the GDP and make it easier for European nations to afford
American goods.
6. Because of the actions of the Federal Reserve, the American money supply __________ in
the period from 1929 to 1932.
a. doubled
b. tripled
c. quadrupled
d. stayed the same
e. shrank
7. Which of the following statements regarding Europe’s role in the Great Depression is
accurate?
a. The Great Depression was a strictly American event.
b. Many European nations had not recovered from World War I and had high debts.
c. The United States had to borrow money from Germany after World War I.
d. Germany was in a strong financial position after World War I.
e. America owed many European nations money in the aftermath of World War I.
8. Which of the following statements about the extent of who the Great Depression affected is
accurate?
a. Only the poor experienced a declining quality of life.
b. Only the rich experienced a declining quality of life.
c. The middle class was untouched by the Great Depression.
d. Business owners were the only people affected.
e. The Great Depression affected people of all classes and backgrounds.
9. Which of the following statements regarding the effects of the Great Depression is accurate?
a. Hunger was widespread during the Great Depression.
b. Malnutrition was not a serious concern during the Great Depression.
c. Homelessness decreased during the Great Depression.
d. Despite lowered wages, unemployment levels remained relatively low.
e. By 1933, nearly all homeless Americans lived inside poorhouses.
10. Which of the following statements regarding married women during the Great Depression is
correct?
a. Married women often held the high-paying jobs of the period.
b. At the beginning of the Depression, married women were the first to be targeted by
employers in layoffs.
c. As the Depression intensified, working married women came to be the primary targets
of layoffs.
d. Married women luckily always had employed husbands to take care of them.
e. If laid off, married women could relax and take care of their families.
11. Which of the following groups had the highest rate of joblessness in the early years of the
Great Depression?
a. African Americans
b. Mexicans
c. Asians
d. whites
e. married women
12. In response to the crises of the Great Depression, states deported hundreds of thousands of
__________ and __________.
a. Filipino Americans; Chinese Americans
b. Japanese Americans; Chinese Americans
c. Filipino Americans; Mexican Americans
d. Mexican Americans; Chinese Americans
e. Mexican Americans; their American-born children
13. Which of the following states was among those hardest hit by the Dust Bowl?
a. Indiana
b. Colorado
c. Idaho
d. California
e. Arizona
14. The majority of Dust Bowl refugees came from
a. the deep South, including Georgia and South Carolina.
b. southern Arizona and the valleys of central California.
c. dry, arid areas in Midwestern states such as Ohio and Illinois.
d. cotton belt communities in Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma
e. industrial areas such as New York and Pennsylvania
15. According to your textbook, what was the initial response of the Hoover administration to
the Great Depression?
a. The Hoover administration lowered taxes.
b. The Hoover administration lowered tariffs.
c. The Hoover administration provided food to the starving.
d. The Hoover administration sought foreign aid.
e. The Hoover administration denied the problem.
16. President Hoover tried to balance the federal budget by passing the __________, but the
plan was shortsighted and accelerated the economic slowdown.
a. Banking Act of 1933
b. Revenue Act of 1932
c. Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930
d. Emergency Banking Relief Act
e. Wagner Act
17. When the Great Depression broke out, the American federal government had __________
programs in place to deal with homelessness and joblessness.
a. no
b. a few funded
c. only some specialized
d. many broad
e. thousands of
18. President Hoover believed the best ways to help the needy during the Great Depression
were __________ and __________.
a. lower taxes; lower interest rates
b. lower taxes; lower tariffs
c. socialism; Communism
d. self-reliance; voluntarism
e. Federal programs; higher taxes
19. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was created to do what?
a. Buy houses that had been foreclosed on
b. Loan money to struggling banks, life-insurance companies, and railroads
c. Aid the hungry and organize subsidized lunch programs for schools
d. Provide shelter to the homeless and decrease the need for shantytowns
e. Provide jobs to the unemployed and control wages
20. Who made up the so-called Bonus Expeditionary Force?
a. Big Business leaders
b. Members of state militias
c. World War I veterans
d. Out-of-work women
e. People left homeless by the Dust Bowl
21. What did Franklin Delano Roosevelt do throughout the presidential campaign of 1932?
a. He defended Herbert Hoover and other Republicans regarding their role in the
Depression.
b. He stated he was unwilling to create any short-term deficits, even in the name of
reviving the economy.
c. He promised to stick with traditions within government rather than experimentation.
d. He refused to convey hope to the American public due to the gravity of the times.
e. He repeatedly promised a bold new deal for the American people.
22. Roosevelt could identify with the poor and the suffering because
a. he was born into poverty and knew what financial hardship was like.
b. his wife Eleanor came from a poor background.
c. he had contracted polio and been left disabled.
d. the Great Depression had caused him to abandon his energetic, visionary nature.
e. he did not have political or public relations experience before becoming President.
23. Which of the following actions was part of President Roosevelt’s three-pronged strategy
during his first hundred days in office?
a. Waiting to offer relief to the unemployed until most of his reforms had gone into effect
b. Forbidding unions from playing a part in economic recovery
c. Paying farmers “subsidies” to raise commodity prices
d. Aiding European governments abroad
e. Reforming the global economy to prevent another Great Depression
24. The purpose of the Emergency Banking Relief Act was to
a. restore confidence in American banks.
b. provide money to those who lost it in the stock market collapse.
c. save money by shutting down the federal government.
d. lend federal money to banks in trouble.
e. give the Treasury time to print more paper currency.
25. The __________ guaranteed customer savings accounts in banks up to $2,500 and thereby
made future panics less likely.
a. Emergency Banking Act
b. Securities and Exchange Commission
c. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
d. Tennessee Valley Authority
e. Economy Act