Key Terms

• Red Scare


  Motivated by fear of Communism that resulted in the arrest and deportation of many political radicals
• Palmer Raids


  Attempts by the Justice Department to arrest and deport radical leftists and anarchists
• Immigration Act of 1924


  Restrictive legislation of 1924 that reduced the number of newcomers to the United States and targeted immigrants from southern and Eastern Europe
• Sacco and Vanzetti


  Italian anarchists convicted and executed for murder despite scarce evidence against them
• Red Summer


  Outbreak of white supremacist terrorism and racial violence in 1919
• Teapot Dome


  Naval oil reserve in Wyoming that gave its name to one of the major Harding administration scandals
• Ohio Gang


  Poker-playing cronies from Harding’s native state who contributed to the morally loose atmosphere in his administration
• Five Power Treaty 


  Agreement emerging from the Washington Disarmament Conference that reduced naval strength and established a ratio of warships among the major shipbuilding powers
• Kellogg-Briand Pact


  International agreement of 1928 that pledged nations to outlaw war
• Scientific Management


  A system industrial management emphasizing efficiency developed by Frederick W. Taylor
• Model T


  Henry Ford’s cheap, mass-produced automobile
• Jazz


  Originating from African American tradition, characterized by improvisation and rhythm - came to define the 1920s
• Harlem Renaissance 


  Creative expression among African American writers, musicians, and social thinkers celebrating black culture and contributions to the US
• Langston Hughes


  Harlem poet who wrote of African American hope and defiance
• United Negro Improvement Association


  Founded by Marcus Garvey, this organization promoted a vigorous black economy and self-sufficiency in the US
• Flapper


  1920s women who demonstrated a carefree independence from tradition
• Volstead Act


  Legislation that outlawed the possession, consumption, sale and production of alcohol beverages in the United States between 1920 and 1933
• Al Capone


  Controlled speakeasies and bootlegging in Chicago, symbolized the failure of prohibition
• Aimee Semple McPherson


  A noted evangelist preacher and media sensation embracing fundamentalism against the changes brought by modernity
• Scopes Money Trial


  Legal battle over teaching evolution pitted modern science against Fundamentalist religion
• KKK


  Terrorist group that gained national recognition by the 1920s, as it increased its targets to immigrants, Catholics, and Jews
• Hawley-Smoot Tariff


  Sky-high tariff bill of 1930 that deepened the depression and caused international financial chaos
• Hoovervilles


  Depression shantytowns, named after the president whom many blamed for their financial distress
• Reconstruction Finance Corporation 


  Federal agency that provided loans to hard-pressed banks and businesses after 1932
• Bonus Army


  Unemployed veterans who were driven out of Washington by General Douglas MacArthur’s Forces in 1932
• New Deal


  President FDR's plan to end the Great Depression by using government power to provide relief, recovery, and reform
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)


  Guaranteed the safety of bank deposits, restored confidence in US banking
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)


  New Deal agency that produced low-cost electrical power in competition with private utilities
• Works Progress Administration (WPA)


  New Deal employment program that provided jobs in areas from road building to art and music
• Securities and Exchange Commission 


  New Deal agency established to provide a public watchdog against fraud in the Stock Market
• Social Security 


  New Deal program that financed old-age pensions and unemployment insurance
• Keynesian Economics


  Emphasized government spending, including deficit spending, in stimulating the economy
• American Liberty League


  This group attacked FDR's New Deal policies as they emphasized private property and individual liberties
• Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)


  New union group that organized large numbers of unskilled workers
• Frances Perkins


  Appointed Secretary of Labor, she was the first woman ever appointed to the cabinet
• Mary McLeod Bethune


  Organized the "Black Cabinet" advocating that blacks benefit from the New Deal programs along with whites
• Good Neighbor Policy


  FDR's policy to offer cooperation and trade rather than military force to maintain stability in the hemisphere
• Quarantine Speech 


  Roosevelt's 1937 message that proposed economically isolating overseas aggressors
• Lend-Lease Act


  Authorized the president to sell, lend, or rent military hardware to any country seen vital to national security
• Manhattan Project


  Research and development project that produced the first atomic bomb (used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan)