Text of the Materialism Review

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What type of economic activity spurred westward settlement?
Jeffersonian agriculture
What kind of labor did growing industrialization create a huge demand for?
The cheap immigrant kind
Identify two commodities involved in triangular trade.
Slaves, manufactured goods from NE, cash crops from South
Vhat 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.)
Which union took a more responsible course and tried to achieve economic gains for its members?
The AFL
Which union tried to mold the working class into one big union for revolutionary change?
The IWW
What group felt the solution was for the working class to take control of the means of production?
Socialists
What period was marked by mainstream purchases of radios, automobiles and household appliances?
The 1920’s
Identify two new techniques used to increase consumerism in the 1920’s.
Mail order catalogs, new marketing techniques, extension of consumer credit
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
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
What was the Bonus Army? How did the gov’t deal with them?
WWI vets who wanted their bonus early, dispersed by force (US Army troops)
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?
the New Deal
What was the Agricultural Adjustment Administration responsible for?
Regulating crop prices & productions with subsidies & by paying people not to farm
What was the most controversial part of the New Deal? What did it ask people to do?
NRA (nat’l recovery administration), comply with voluntary min. wage & other regulations
What org. brought electricity to rural areas?
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
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?
Pack the court (add six justices who agreed with his ideas)
Who was the charismatic senator from Louisiana that promised to “Share Our Wealth”? What happens to him?
Huey Long, shot by a political rival
Who was Father Coughlin? Who did he blame the GD on?
RC priest in Detroit, Jewish bankers and capitalists
How did FDR respond to pressure from these critics and groups like the Communist Party?
The Second New Deal
What were the two biggest parts of the “2nd New Deal”?
Social Security and the Works Progress Administration
Identify two programs that helped vets get ahead in the years following WWII.
GI Bill and VA Loans
What kinds of communities began to grow after WWII that really helped spur on materialism?
suburbs
Who did marketers start to seriously target in the 1950’s?
women who were homemakers
How did WWII home front conditions spur postwar economic growth?
wartime savings got spent in the 1950’s
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?
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 would boost the economy
What were two examples of corporate scandal in the late 1980’s?
the S&L scandal and insider trading scandals
What portion of the economy created a boom economy in the late 1990’s?
technology