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What was Andrew Carnegie’s philosophy regarding passing on inherited wealth?  Why?
Should not be done, passed on to charity instead
Which class of people enjoyed the greatest material wealth in the Gilded Age?
The most wealthy (entrepreneurs)
How did these people demonstrate their wealth?
Extremely conspicuous consumption (parties, houses, etc.)
The Jungle, Grapes of Wrath, and Unsafe at Any Speed were books that had what effect on American society?
Helped bring about reform
What 1898 policy was deigned to force open trade with China?
The Open Door Policy
How did the United States respond to the perceived need for new markets and new sources of raw materials in the late 1800’s?
Pursued a more imperialistic foreign policy
What did the United States do in order to eliminate foreign influence in Cuba and gain access to the Philippines in the late 1800’s?
Fight the Spanish-American War
What presidential policy asserted the right of the United States to intervene in Latin America whenever it deemed it necessary?
Roosevelt Corollary (to the Monroe Doctrine)
What did Theodore Roosevelt do in order to gain control of the Panama Canal zone?
Supported a revolution in Panama
What is the name for Taft’s foreign policy designed to protect American investments?
Dollar Diplomacy
What is the major similarity between Wilson’s (14 Points) and Carter’s (Camp David) foreign policy?
Based on moral principles and a concern for human rights
Which two decades of the 20th century are most well known as times when traditional social values were challenged?
1920’s and 1960’s
Which union took a more responsible course and tried to achieve economic gains for its members?
The AFL (led by Samuel Gompers)
What period was marked by mainstream purchases of radios, automobiles and household appliances? What new technology pushed this?
The 1920’s, electricity in the home
Identify two new techniques used to increase consumerism in the 1920’s.
Mail order catalogs, new marketing techniques, extension of consumer credit (buying on installment plans)
What single event precipitated the start of the Depression?
stock market crash (loses ½ its value) due to over-inflated prices
What were the two sources of bad debts that caused so many banks to fail at the start of the Depression?
Loans to farmers and investments in the Stock Market
Why were farms failing during the 1920’s?
Overproduction after WWI
What was Hoover’s basic approach to solving the problems of the Great Depression?
Staying hands off, “rugged individualism”
Why was Hoover opposed to direct relief?
He thought it would create a large gov’t, hurt America’s pride, and make people dependent
What were Hoover’s two attempts at direct gov’t action? What did they try to do?
Federal Farm Board (loans and cooperatives) and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (loans to banks and businesses)
What were “Hoovervilles”?
settlement camps for the homeless
What was the Dust Bowl?
destruction of millions of acres of farmland in OK & TX because of drought and wind
Where did unemployment peak during the Great Depression? How much did GNP fall during the Great Depression?
25% and 25%
What was FDR’s plan to solve the Great Depression called? What did his election demonstrate?
the New Deal, voters wanted active government involvement in the economy
What was the Agricultural Adjustment Administration responsible for?
Regulating crop prices & productions with subsidies & by paying people not to farm
What New Deal organization brought electricity to rural areas?
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
What was the primary purpose of the formation of the SEC and the FDIC?
Restore faith in the stock markets and the banks
Who employed young men to work at road construction at forest preservation?
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
What did FDR try to do when the Supreme Court rejected parts of the New Deal? Why was this criticized?
Pack the court (add six justices who agreed with his ideas), violated system of checks and balances
What 1935 law guaranteed unions’ right to organize and bargain collectively?  What 1947 law took many of these rights away?
Wagner Act, Taft Hartley Act
Why did many conservatives criticize the New Deal?
They felt it was interfering with Free Enterprise system
Who was the charismatic senator from Louisiana that promised to “Share Our Wealth”?  What happened to him?
Huey Long, shot by a political rival
Who was Father Coughlin?  Who did he blame the Great Depression on?
Catholic “radio priest” in Detroit, Jewish bankers and capitalists
Identify two programs that helped vets get ahead in the years following WWII.
GI Bill and VA Loans
The GI Bill and increased college education allowed for what major change in the workforce during the 1950’s?
A shift from blue collar to white collar jobs
What program allowed employers from California to hire large numbers of Mexican workers after WWII?
The Bracero Program
Which President found himself conflicted over labor policy because he wanted to support workers but was afraid of slowing the economy?
Truman (after WWII)
LBJ’s Great Society programs were designed to eliminate what? How were they similar to the New Deal?
Poverty, massive government involvement
What kinds of communities began to grow after WWII that really helped spur on materialism?  What ethnic/socioeconomic group moved there?
Suburbs, middle class whites
What new infrastructure piece made suburbs possible?
Interstate highway system
Who did marketers start to seriously target in the 1950’s?
women who were homemakers
What crisis brought about stagflation and creation of the Rust Belt?
the Energy crisis of the mid 1970’s
What is stagflation?  What President was blamed for this in the late 1970’s?
a combination of a stagnant economy and high inflation, Carter
What was Reaganomics?
trickle down economics, tax cuts for the wealthy in the hopes that their spending & investment would boost the economy
What were two examples of corporate scandal in the late 1980’s?
the S&L scandal and insider trading scandals
Recent critics of Affirmative Action complain that it leads to what?
Reverse discrimination (and quotas in hiring and college admissions)
Over the last twenty years the immigration debate in the United States has focused on what key area?
Cutting down on illegal immigration