Discussion Questions- Chapter 37

1. The 1950s is sometimes known of as the age of anxiety due to the constant threat that the Cold War poses in terms of a nuclear arms race. The race to develop the biggest, most destructive bomb led each side to be forward, patriotic, and hostile in their approaches towards foreign relations, seen also in the space race  with Sputnik. A subculture of mistrust emerged, and Alger Hist. McCarthy accused George Marshall (Marshall Plan) of being a communist. The U2 Incident was when a spy plane over soviet Russia was shut down and he didn't press the self destruct button, so he and his plane were captured and interrogated. The soviets therefore got a hold of our military technology and any intelligence the pilot might have had.
2. Eisenhower balanced assertiveness with restrain in his foreign policy in Vietnam, the Middle East, and Europe seen in the spirit of Geneva, where when Eisenhower asked Khrushchev for arms reductions, he was open to the suggestion. Eisenhower focused on strategies of deterring the enemy and scaring them into not taking action, showing both assertiveness and restraint. After the French decided to leave South Asia at Dienbeinphu, a void was created where communism could grow, marking America's real interest inVietnam. A conference at Geneva split Vietnam into North and South, north winding up communist. The Eisenhower Doctrine declared that the United States would help the Middle East if threatened by communist, this showed restraint. However, the coup placing Pahlavi as an essential dictator showed assertiveness. Brinkmanship, created by John Foster Dulles, means willing to go the the brink of war to roll back Communism. This is where the Strategic air command and expansion of the nuclear arsenal. With this, you can't fight conventional wars- you have to do all or nothing. Assertiveness is shown in our oration and rhetoric, but restraint has to be shown when the time for action is nye. This can be seen in the rebellion in Hungary, Vietnam, and the Middle East- especially with the Egyptian Crisis.
3. Eisenhower ushered in a time of conservatism and caution with McCarthyism, the rooting out of perceived communists and the formation of the House of Un-American Activities Committee. However, social change was rampant with the development of rock and roll, Marilyn Monroe as the sex icon of the nuclear age, and women's places in the workplace- while job opportunities were increasing, they was a huge pushback against women's rights, and confining their sphere of influence to the home and family matters. Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton explored mental illness in their poetry as some of the first modern female poets, the Beat generation ran gritty with Ginsberg and Kerouac, Ralph Ellison wrote about the struggles of black men, the Civil Rights movement progressed with early leadership from Dr. King, art progressed with the gestural abstraction in Jackson Pollock, Ansleim Keifer used Neo-German Expressionism to express the shame of German citizens, and Judy Chicago expressed feminist notions in her piece "The Dinner Party", America became the center for the avant-garde, rather than Europe.

Chapter 36 Main Idea Log

Thesis: The Cold War had vast impacts on the way that the United States is viewed today, especially in the arms race with the Soviet Union, "American" ideals and culture, economic and political practices, and the forging of America as the dominant world power.

1. Postwar Economic Anxieties: After WWII when Americans were nervous about another Great Depression arising, laws and tariffs were passed to try to ease the mind of the public.
• Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act. It banned "closed shops" (closed to anyone not joining the union). It also made unions liable for certain damages and that union leaders take a non-communist oath. Opposite of the Wagner Act of the New Deal, Taft-Hartley weakened labor unions
• The Employment Act (1946) got the government to "promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power." The Council of Economic Advisors were to give the president solid data to make solid decisions.
• The Servicemen's Readjustment Act (1944) was better known at the GI Bill of Rights. It sent 8 million former soldiers to vocational schools and colleges.
2. The Long Economic Boom, 1950-1970: As the economy remained stable through the 1940's and began to shoot up in the 1950's, America had reached a level of prosperity that broke all previous records, shown in the expansion of the middle class and push for more rights.
• The economy held its ground through the late 40's. By 1950, the economy began to skyrocket. America pushed toward, and reached, a new age of prosperity.
• Women benefited from the good times as well. Many women found jobs in new offices and shops. Women were 25% of the workforce at war's end, about 50% five years later.
• The middle class was the big winner during these years. The class doubled in size and they expanded their ambitions: two cars in the garage, and a pool out back, and whatever else can be thrown in.
3. The Roots of Postwar Prosperity: The postwar economic boom resulted from multiple sources, including military projects (providing thousands of jobs), cheap energy, and increased standards of living.
• Post-war military projects kept the "military-industrial complex" in business. There were tons of jobs in military-related areas, such as aerospace, plastics, electronics, and "R and D" (research and development).
• Energy was cheap and plentiful. High car sales reflected the cheap gas. A strong infrastructure of power lines, gas lines helped feed homes and businesses. 
• Worker production increased. More Americans went to and stayed in school. Increased education meant increased standard of living.
4. The Smiling Sunbelt: The Sunbelt, from California to Florida, began to form a new, unprecedented role in shaping American politics and the regional power dynamic.
• There was a shift-of-power from the old Northeast and Midwest to the new South and West—from the Frostbelt and Rustbelt to the Sunbelt. Symbolizing this shift, California became the most populous state in the 50's, passing New York.
• Many of the government's new military facilities were built in the Sunbelt. Good-paying jobs came with them.
• A political battle was shaping up. By 1990, the Sunbelt received $125 billion more federal money than the northern areas. And, with their populations increased, more Congressional and presidential votes had moved down to the Sunbelt states.
5. The Rush to the Suburbs: After the war, whites abandoned the inner-cities and moved out to the grass and trees of the suburbs.
• Cheap home loans offered by the FHA and the Veteran's Administration made buying a home more sensible than renting an apartment in town. 25% of Americans lived in the suburbs by 1960.
• The Levitt brothers perfected the "cookie cutter" house. They were identical but also very affordable. Despite their monotony, many in the 50's actually preferred the standardization, conformity, and comfort-factor the houses gave. It was like the McDonald's theory (which also started and boomed at the time)—no matter which McDonald's you go in, you always get the same burger.
• This so-called "white flight" left blacks in the inner-cities, and left the cities poor. 
• Blacks often had a hard time getting loans, even from government agencies, due to the "risk" involved. Thus, whites were able to move to the suburbs, blacks were not.
6. The Postwar Baby Boom:  When the soldiers returned from war, the baby boom began. The birthrate peaked in 1957. It then slowed and started a "birth dearth."
• While they grew up, entire industries rode their wave. For example in clothing, Levi's jeans went from work pants to standard teenage wear; burger joints boomed; music changed (rock 'n' roll).
• The baby boom, and later birth dearth, created a swell and then a narrowing, in the population of generations. Simply put, the baby boomers far outnumber other generations.
• By 2020, when most baby boomers are retired, it is projected that the Social Security system will go broke.
7. Truman: the "Gutty" Man from Missouri: Harry S Truman was at the helm just after WWII. He had a big smile, was a sharp dresser, and a small but very spunky fellow. He was the first president in many years without a college education.
• Truman was called "The Man from Independence" (Missouri). His cabinet was made of the "Missouri gang", and like Harding of the 20's, Truman was prone to stick by his boys when they got caught in some wrong-doings.
• Truman gained confidence as he went along. He also earned the nickname of "Give 'em Hell Harry." He also a bit prone to making hot-headed or rash decisions, or sticking with a bad decision out of stubbornness.
• Despite little drawbacks, Truman was decisive, "real", responsible, had moxie. He loved the sayings "The buck stops here," and "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."
8. Yalta: Bargain or Betrayal? The Big Three (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) had met at the Yalta Conference in Feb. 1945 (their last meeting). That meeting shaped the Cold War to come. It was highlighted by distrust between the U.S./Britain and the Soviet Union.
• Russia promised to enter the war against Japan. In return, Russia would get land—1/2 of Sakhalin Island, Japan's Kurile Islands, railroads in Manchuria, and Port Arthur on the Pacific.
• This promise was kept. However, by the time Russia entered, the U.S. had all but won. It appeared Russia entered to just look good and accept the spoils of victory.
• Russia pledged free elections for Poland and a representative government; also elections in Bulgaria and Romania. These promises were flatly broken. The Soviets set up puppet communist governments.
9. The United States and the Soviet Union:  The post-war world had two superpowers: the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). Distrust was high.
• The Soviet Union felt put-out by the Americans because: (1) the U.S. had waited until 1933 to officially recognize the U.S.S.R., (2) the Allies had been slow to start a second front, (3) America withdrew the lend-lease program to Russia in 1945, and (4) America rejected Russia's request for a $6 billion reconstruction loan, but gave one for Germany for $3.75 billion.
• Russia had been attacked from the west twice within about 25 years, so, Stalin wanted a protective buffer from Western Europe. To create that protection, Russia set up puppet communist governments in Eastern Europe. These "satellite nations" would serve as a buffer zone to the Soviet Union.
• Both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. had now been thrown into the international spotlight. They'd both been isolationist, but now had to drive international policies. Both had a history of "missionary" diplomacy—of trying to press their ways onto others. The U.S. and U.S.S.R. had opposing economic-political systems (capitalism and democracy vs. communism) and they didn't trust the other side. The "Cold War" had begun. Their actions and policies would dominate international affairs for the next 40 years.
10. Shaping the Postwar World: After the turmoil of WWII, measures were taken internationally to clean up the global mess and reorganize attempts at peace and negotiations.
• A meeting was held at Bretton Woods, NH (1944). There, the Allies set up the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to propell world trade and regulate currency exchange rates. It also started the World Bank to give loans to needy nations (ravaged by war or just poor).
• Days after FDR died, a charter was drawn up for the United Nations in April 1945 in San Francisco. 50 nations participated. It's headquarters would be in New York City. The U.N. was like the League in concept, the U.N.'s structure was different. It had three main categories… The General Assembly—the main meeting place where each nation got 2 votes. The Security Council dealing with conflict and war. It had 11 member nations, 5 were permanent with total veto power (U.S., Britain, France, U.S.S.R. and China). The Security Council would prove to be the most influential and active in world affairs. Other relief-based agencies, such as UNESCO (U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Org.), the FAO (Food and Agricultural Org.) and WHO (World Health Org.).
• The pressing issue was atomic weaponry. America was the only nation with an atomic bomb at the time—though Russia was getting very close. The Soviets proposed a total ban on atomic weapons. Neither proposal was accepted and thus regulation of atomic weapons did not happen. The nations were to go at it on their own.
11. The Problem of Germany: There was disagreement with what to do about Germany. The U.S. wanted Germany to rebuild as that's good for Europe's economy. Russia wanted reparations.
• Nazi leaders were tried at the Nuremberg Trials just after the war for crimes against humanity. Everyone's rationale was that they'd just been following their orders. Twelve hanged, seven were given long sentences. Hermann Goering killed himself with cyanide.
• To avoid Germany rearming, the country was divided into four zones. The U.S., France, Britain, and Russia would oversee one zone. The idea was to reunite Germany, but Russia balked at the idea. Germany was going to remain split.
• West Germany would be a democracy, East Germany was a puppet communist nation. Berlin was located in East Germany (Russia's section) and it was also split into four zones. The end result was a free West Berlin located inside Russian-controlled East Germany, like an island.

A Tale of Three Cities: How the United States Won WWII

1. The author pursues several questions at the beginning of the lecture. On what premise does he aim to “establish a position?”

The author aims to establish a position on the premise that World War II "constituted a massively transformative event, for both the United States and the world”. This is supported by by the choice America made in the type of war it would fight and the lasting legacy of American belligerence.

2. Professor Kennedy states that in order “to understand the full scope of the war’s transformative agency”, one needs to look at the tears 1940 to 1945. What did he bring up about 1940 to set the scene?

To set the scene, Kennedy brought up that in 1940, America was in its last full peacetime year, and still mostly entrenched in an atmosphere of isolationism, shown by the passing of the Neutrality Acts in 1935, 1936, and 1937, among other prominent examples. 1940 was also the eleventh year of the Great Depression, and more than 40% of all white households and 95% of all African American households lived in poverty.

3. Read the statement by the imaginary street corner speaker. What seemed most farfetched to you?

Of the statements professed by the imaginary street corner speaker, the most far fetched seeming to me, based in the perspective of America, 1940, were claims such as the doubling of the middle class (doubtful-seeming due to the increase in the wage gap between the lavishly rich and desolately poor), the promises of racial equality, and the magnitude of the United States’ future intervention with Europe, including the winning of the war with Germany and Japan, the United Nations, the Marshall Plan, and the World Trade Organization.

4. When the US got involved in the war in 1941, what were some differing opinions about how the war would turn out?

The attack of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 prompted US entry into the war. Hitler, hearing the news from Hawaii, boasted that “now it is impossible for us to lose the war. We now have an ally [Japan] that has not been vanquished in three thousand years.”. However, Winston Churchill responded to America’s entry into the war with a contradictory conclusion, quoted as  saying later, “I could not foretell the course of events… but now at this very moment I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all! England would live… I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful.”.

5. Professor Kennedy calls this a “tale of three cities.” To which three cities does he refer?

In the title “A Tale of Three Cities”, Professor Kennedy is referring to Rouen, a French city on the Seine, Washington DC, on the Potomac, and Volgograd, formerly known as both Tsaritsyn and Stalingrad.

6. What happened at Rouen and what were its implications for the war?

A squadron of one dozen B-17 bombers lifted off their airfield in the South of England, and transited the Channel accompanied by a swarm of British Spitfire fighters. They dropped their bomb load on a railroad marshaling yard, just a few hundred meters from Rouen’s historic Gothic cathedral and not far from the site where Joan of Arc had been burned at the stake some five centuries earlier. The planes returned to base without any loss of aircraft or crew meaning it was a successful raid. This marked the first assault on Nazi-occupied Europe by heavy bombers of the US Army Air Forces. This was a revolution in American war-fighting doctrine. It created a new doctrine for strategic aerial bombing and deliver a blow to the domestic heartland rather to the troops. This would deprive the enemy of his capacity to support a force in the field and to break the people’s will to continue fighting. It signaled a brief war and fewer casualties as well as minimum disruption of one’s own social and economic structure.

7. Who was Paul Tibbets?

Paul Tibbets was the lead pilot for the Rouen raid in 1942. Almost three years later he served as the pilot on the flight of the Enola Gay from Tinian, in the Mariana Islands, to drop history’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

8. What decision was made in Washington D.C. and how did it affect the outcome of the war?

On October 6, 1942 the civilian head of the American War Production Board, Donald Nelson, met in in his office with Army Undersecretary Robert Patterson and Lieutenant General Brehon B. Somervell , head of the Army Service forces. The were to resolve the “Feasibility Dispute” which plagued America’s mobilization program through 1942, and generated antagonisms between military officials like Patterson and Somervell and civilian mobilization administrators like Nelson. The terms for this would all but complete the pattern of america’s peculiar war. The chaotic mobilization effort in early 1942 would be slowed down and its prospectively gigantic military manpower drafts would be drastically downsized.

9. What two “fateful” consequences followed this decision?

First, the target date for the Cross-Channel amphibious invasion of northwestern France, D-Day, was postponed to May 1, 1944. Second the Victory Program’s goal of conscripting, out-fitting, training, transporting, and deploying 215 ground divisions was put down to just 90 divisions. The dimensions of this were immense: millions of men who had originally been destined to don uniforms and shoulder weapons on the battlefield would now be left in overalls to wield tools on the nation’s production lines.

10. What happened at Stalingrad that contributed the outcome of the war?

This event slaughtered tens of thousands of German and Soviet troops. The German capitulation at Stalingrad in February 1943 broke the back of the Wehrmacht’s 18 month old Russian offensive. The Red Army now seized the initiative and began pushing the invader out of the Soviet homeland, through Poland, and eventually into the streets of Berlin in 1942. This Soviet victory ended the Anglo-American leaders fear that the Russians could not withstand the shock of heavily-armored, fast-moving Blitzkrieg warfare.It also laid to rest the fear that their Soviet partner might be so badly battered and bloded by the fighting that Stalin would be compelled to seek political exit from the war. The Soviets turning from defensive to offensive warfare turned the war around by committing to pursuing the battle until the extinguishment of the Nazy Regime.

11. How did Joseph Stalin describe the American way of war?

Joseph Stalin had his own description for the American way of war: the United States, he commented bitterly, seemed to have decided to fight with American money, and American machines, and with Russian men. That was a characteristically cynical and tactless formulation; it was also indisputably accurate.

12. Describe how the author contends that the United States was the only “true victor” from the war.

The war-fighting pattern had far-reaching and lasting consequences. Among other things, it made the US the only true victor in the war, if by victory we mean emerging at the war’s end in a position superior to that occupied at the war’s onset. Ironically, but not unrelatedly, the US paid the smallest price in both blood and treasure for the victory that it so singularly achieved. If one asks, “Who made the weightiest contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany?” the answer is unarguably the Soviet Union. But the Soviets were not the only ones who reaped the richest rewards from their own effort. Franklin Roosevelt’s “arsenal of democracy” strategy, in short, with its implications for the scale, configuration, and timing of the American war effort, amounted to a shrewdly calculated “least-cost” pathway to victory for the United States.

13. Why does the profit made by Macy’s on December 7th, 1944 seem incredible to Professor Kennedy?

Macy’s marketing team hit upon the poignantly symbolic date of December 7th, 1944 to promote a chain-wide sale. Only in America, it might be remarked, would a vendor choose to seek commercial advantage by commemorating the date of the nation’s most humiliating military defeat. But more to the point, only in wartime America could Macy’s results have been achieved. On that day Americans were engaged in the most ferocious fighting of the war, yet Macy’s cash registers rang up a higher volume of sales than on any previous day in the giant retailer’s history. There was no other country engaged in WWII where such a thing could have happened.

14. Compare the United States war and civilian dead to that of other countries. Why was this an important factor in postwar growth?

There was another implication of the US’s war-fighting strategy that has often been overlooked: the war’s toll in human life. Great Britain, America’s first partner nation in what became the Grand Alliance, lost some 350,000 people to enemy action, of whom about 100,000 were civilians. China may have lost as many as 10 million people, about 6 million of them civilians. Yugoslavia lost 2 million people, most of them civilians. Poles perished in the war, 6 million of them civilians (of whom perhaps 4 million were Jews). Six and a half million Germans died, about 1 million of them civilians. Japan lost some 3 million souls, 1 million of them civilian. In the Soviet Union, estimates are that the war took some 24 million lives, including 16 million civilians. And as for the United States: official records list 405,399 military dead in all branches of service, and 6 civilians died.

15. How does the author use the story about the Japanese balloon offensive to conclude his lecture?

Comparing the instrumentalities and results of the respective Japanese and American strategic bombing campaigns provides a summary illustration of the unique means by which America waged and won WWII. While Japan in the first half of 1945 adapted a primitive wind-driven technology in a last pathetic effort to strike at the Americans in their heartland, huge B-29 bomber streams flew nightly to Japan from the Marianas. The B-29s eventually razed 66 of Japan’s principal cities, de-housed some 8 million souls, and killed more than 800,000 people. Just two of those B-29s effectively ended the Japanese-American war, compared to Japan’s futile balloon bombs.

Chapter 34 Reading Questions

1. Examples of isolationism include America's lack of participation in the London Conference of 1933, which solidified both the United State's isolationist policies in war and economics alike, America's lack of response to Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, the passing of the Neutrality Acts in 1935, '36, and '37, which set restrictions that Americans could not sail on a belligerent ship, sell or haul munitions, or make loans to belligerents, the lack of involvement in the Spanish Civil War, the Panay incident, where the Japanese sunk the American gunboat the Panay, and the creation of the America First Committee, with notable members such as Charles Lindbergh and e.e. cummings.

2. Moves away from isolationism include the 1937 Quarantine Speech, where FDR asked America to quarantine the aggressors (Italy and Japan) and morally condemn them, the Neutrality Act of 1939, where Congress said they could sell arms to Britain and France on a cash and carry basis, the passing of a peacetime draft law to build up the armed forces, the creation of the Committee to Defend the Allies, the Destroyer Deal, where the US transferred 50 old destroyers from WWI days to Great Britain, the passing of the Lend-Lease Bill, which said that the US could loan ships and weapons to the British, the Atlantic Conference of 1941, which saw the meeting of Churchill and FDR to set up goals for after the Allies would win the war (even though the US was still not even in the war), and finally the bombing of Peal Harbor, which destroyed any isolationist ideas.

3. The United States put an oil embargo on Japan in order to protest their actions in China, where they were beating the Chinese to forge an empire of the rising sun. Japan needed this oil to fuel the attacks and the empire, and planned to attack. American code breakers knew that the Japanese were planning to attack- however, the expected target was British Malaya or the Philippines in a secret-sabotage manner. Despite these predictions, Japan launched an all-out attack on Hawaii on December 7, 1941, making this one of the most surprising moves in history.

Hard Travelin'

1930's Lecture Notes

Recording 34
Leading up to the Great Depression: the US was in a recession after WWI- industry was reeling from cancellation of war contracts, shortage of consumer goods, high inflation
Wanted to put the war behind us ASAP- felt a booming business sector was the right approach
Led to the un-hampering of business activity, leading to thirty six hundred worker strikes viewed as socialist plots aimed to plunge the American economy, dealt with very harshly- "Red Scare"
Reverses all of the pro-labor strides
"Return to Normalcy" with Harding means return to labor in early 19th century
Viewed as being to burdensome on economy
Voters reject progressive reformers in favor of Republican presidents embracing laissez-faire
America returns to idea of no foreign entanglements- isolationist policies
Americans further this isolationism by economic isolationism in high tariffs- Hawley Smoot tariff, etc.
Business interests: given special consideration by all institutions of government

Recording 36
Election of 1928
Coolidge becomes president after Harding dies,  wins again in 24, declines to run in 28
Hoover was in charge of dep. of commerce, running against democrat Al Smith
educated as a mining engineer, became wealthy by his own merits
Supporting associationalism- individual initiative within a corporative framework, likes government and private sector to work together while still per suing laissez-faire policies
This approach served him well in business methods and as secretary of commerce
Al Smith: was Catholic, so faced prejudice. Tammany Hall democrat, associated with corruption and political machines and bosses. He's a "wet"- wants to end prohibition
This makes Hoover into an easy winner. Voters show approval of republican policies by electing Hoover by a landslide and instituting an overwhelmingly Republican congress.
No one thinks that the economic depression is coming.
Lack of diversification, income gap, overproduction, buying on margin, easy credit, breakdown of world trade (partly due to high tariffs), and trouble of older industries - railroad, steel, etc.- are all leading up to the collapse of the economy, all accelerating the impact of the GMC
Great Market Crash begins when investors get nervous and sell stocks, then volume of selling increases, one day the market took a huge plunge but they closed early, halting it for now- the next tuesday, it crashed again. Value of stocks went down as selling increased.
Hoover tries to assure them that the economy is sound, but to no avail- causes banks and businesses to fail
There's no insurance at the banks, so banks run out of money and close their doors.
Hoover hated the idea of direct relief due to "Rugged Individualism" idea of self-dependence.
Tent cities pop up- "Hoovervilles"- and thousands lose their jobs, malnutrition and disease increase, etc.
1932: 95 people die of starvation in New York City

Recording 37:
Hoover refused Muscle Shoals Bill that would have provided electricity to the Tennessee River area- rejected on grounds that it would compete with private businesses.
Urged state and local authorities to take hold of situation
Hoover met with business and labor leaders to avoid layoffs and strikes, signed the Anti-Injunction Act outlawing anti-union/yellow dog contracts, prevented federal courts from issuing injunctions
Financed Boulder, Hoover, and Grand Coulee Dams
1932: Reconstruction Finance Corp. This makes half a billion dollars in pump-priming loans- went all to corporations to "trickle down" - it never actually trickled down
This is prototype to New Deal
Hawley Smoot Tariff of 1930: tries to get farmers tariff relief, but legislature allowed special interest groups to manipulate taxes to be higher than lower
Hampered in his attempts to alleviate distress by increasingly hostile congress that tried to shift all blame on Hoover.
Midterm elections: liberals are everywhere
Final straw: 1932 Bonus Army. Thousands of veterans camped out in shanty town to lobby for bonus promised to get to them by the 1930's
Hoover left with responsibility of disbanding the veterans- some refused to move and Hoover brought in the army, who used bayonets, tear gas, burning down of tents, etc. Infants were victimized and injured because of it
1932 election: Hoover runs for reelection, but obviously didn't do well at all
Hoover: "The Worst is Past", "Prosperity is Just Around the Corner"
FDR: "New Deal for the Forgotten Man", "Happy Days are Here Again"
Beginning of the New Deal Coalition

Recording 38
1933 Inaugural Address: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
FDR's first action: Bank Holiday
The Three R's: Relief, Recovery, and Reform
First 100 days: major pieces of legislation passed with Democratic Congress
Gained popularity with Fireside Chats on the radio- outstanding orator.
Eleanor Roosevelt: Kicked butt
FDR characterized as bold, energetic, optimistic, tenacious
"Broad Executive Power" made many weary of how much power Roosevelt wanted to have
Banks get a break and relief during holiday, but this sets public on edge- passage of Emergency Banking Relief Act to reassure the people that these reforms will be good for them
Goals of New Deal Legislation from 1933 to 1935: Relief, Recovery, Reform
Congress gives President power unparalleled in US history
This flurry of activity was physiologically what the US needed, and things began moving again
Lasting legacy: reinstate a progressive stamp of national progress and to tamper with laissez-faire enough to control the booms and busts of free market capitalism

Recording 39
FDR manages all the money
Glass-Steagall Act created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to help trust the banks again
Creating jobs: "priming the pump".
 Civilian Conservation Corp. employed 3 million young men, gave men hope and dignity, and helped conserve forests
Federal Emergency Relief Act gave 3 billion dollars to states to be used as welfare- has CWA as a sub-organization of strictly temporary jobs- designed solely just for relief
Federal Relief Administration had relief and recovery aim
AAA: to benefit famers, created to maintain farm income by reducing supply in the market to reduce overproduction by paying farmers to decrease their acreage. Government bought surpluses and destroyed them so prices could come up. Payed for by food taxes on slaughterhouses, etc.
Butler v. US ruled this unconstitutional
Home Owners' Loan Corp helped end foreclosure and closing of banks
Civil Works Administration helped too

Recording 40
Critics of the New Deal: Father Charles Coughlin, Huey Long, and Dr. Francis Townsend
Coughlin: priest from Michigan, began broadcasting his views on the radio in 1930, critical because he believed that the NRA and AAA benefitted only industry and well-off farmers, charged that Roosevelt was a liar due to not nationalizing the banks. Had the largest radio audience in history thus far- resorted to fascist rhetoric, eventually canceling his show in 1942
Huey Long promoted an idea of wealth redistribution "to make every man a king". Assassinated in 1935.
Townsend organized supporters in a plan to give $200 a month to senior citizens each month (more than the average worker's monthly wages) to stimulate the economy. He quiets down after the Social Security Act is passed in 1935.
Women and the New Deal: Eleanor Roosevelt, Francis Perkins, Mary Bethune
Eleanor: inspired and related to the American population
Francis Perkins: First female cabinet member
Mary Bethune: highest ranking black woman in government
Industry and labor: National Recovery Administration: was the most complex of the New Deal programs. 1933- correlate business and labor, called for self-restraint on both end.Expensive for industries, workers who already had a job found their income decrease- each group felt it was asked too much of
Goals: help labor, industry, and the unemployed- later declared unconstitutional in the Chicken case
Public Works Administration: headed  by Herald Icks, pursued thousands of public work projects; success proved government was better as a contractor for labor rather than a mediator between business and labor- included hiring artists, actors, tree planting, ditch digging, etc.
21rst Amendment passed: end of prohibition in 1933.
Mood of the country was still desperate, and that programs had not gone far enough

Recording 41
2nd New Deal: Problems: strikes and dead NRA in 1934. Solution: Wagner Act (1935) that will create a national labor relations board to foster unions and protect the right of collective bargaining; Fair Labor Standards Act 1938: requires all industries involved in interstate commerce to establish max hours for weeks  (40 hour week) and minimum wage.
Congress of Industrial Organization set up by John Lewis to bring in skilled and unskilled workers
Tennessee Valley Authority: electricity project to stop price gauge that companies have been exhibiting and wanted to bring electricity to rural areas; more than 20 dams were built to prevent flooding and provide power, as well as employing thousands of workers, eliminate erosion, etc. Notable success, despite companies attempts to discredit the achievement
Federal Housing Admin, 1934: make small loads to home owners for improvements or finishing construction, supplemented by US Housing Authority. Many families got out of shanty towns.
Social Security Act, 1935: funded by mandated contributions, from 10 to 85$ per month
SEC put all investors on a level playing field and dismantled insider trading
FDR got mad at supreme court, devised Court Packing Scheme- asked congress to add a judge of this choosing for every judge over 70 years old.
He hugely overreached- perceived as attempt to disrupt checks and balances
Twilight of the New Deal
Roosevelt backs of federal employment programs, leading to the Roosevelt Recession, wiping out most gains since 1933.
Begins employing deficit spending/Keynesian Economics: spend money you don't have to help economy, then regain this later through higher taxes
Leads to counter-faction to New Deal Coalition- Conservative Conservation that can successfully block New Deal legislation
New Deal or Raw Deal?

1930's Warmup- April 6, 2015

1920 to 1929 Terms:
Immigration Act of 1924, nativism, Scopes trial, fundamentalists, Sacco and Vanzetti, laissez faire, gangsterism, KKK, expatriates, mass consumption, American Plan/Yellow Dog Contracts, Adkins v. Children's Hospital, automobiles/Fordism, radio, flappers, New v. Old Money, tariffs, GOP presidents, farmers, black Tuesday, Washington Disarmament Conference, Dawes Plan
1930 to 1939 Terms:
Hawley Smoot Tariff, Great Depression, three r's, New Deal, Emergency Congress, Democratic control of the Congress, bonus army, Herbert Hoover, FDR, Civilian Conservation Corps., start of WWII, dustbowl, farmers, "oakies", John Steinbeck, Social Security Act, AAA, Indian Reorganization Act, FERA, 21 Amendment, Tennessee Valley Authority, Francis Perkins, Black Cabinet, Eleanor Roosevelt, Glass Diegel Act, Wagner Act/sit down strike, fireside chats, bank holiday, National Recovery Administration, unemployment, Work Progress Administration
Continuity; 
Women's advancement, weaknesses in the economy, income gap, urban v. rural, the plight of the farmers, economic isolation
Change:
Reintroduction of Labor Unions, large government involvement in the economy, expansion of the presidency, social climate, consumer spending