- •1. The land of the us: geography, the face of the land, mountain and rivers, weather and climate.
- •2. The people of the usa: population, the society. Ellis Island - Gateway to America. Contribution of the immigrants to the national identity.
- •"Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,....
- •A new era, a new mission
- •3. The regions of the us: the Northeast, the Central Basin, the Southeast, the Great Plains.
- •The Regions of the United States The Northeast
- •4. Discovery of America. American Indians - the accomplishments of the Iroquois, the Sioux, the Pueblo; great civilizations of the Mayas, Aztecs and Incas.
- •5. The History of the usa: Columbus or Vikings? Exploring and settling the New World: Spanish, Dutch and French territories in North America. Russian discovery of America.
- •French colonization of the Americas
- •6. The voyage of the Mayflower, Pylgrims and Puritans. Virginia Company with the right to colonise the South and the Plymouth Company with the right to colonise the North.
- •Pilgrims' voyage
- •Second Mayflower
- •Virginia Company
- •The Plymouth Company
- •7. Britain and the colonies. Jamestown colony, the dramatic history of Virginia.
- •8. The move to independence: the colonies in their fight to protect their liberties, the Tea Act and Boston Tea Party.
- •First Continental Congress
- •Second Continental Congress
- •10. The Founding Fathers of the nation (g. Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Samuel Adams, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin).
- •Collective biography of the Framers of the Constitution
- •11. Constitution of the us, structure and main principles. Bill of rights.
- •The First Constitution
- •Louisiana Purchase
- •Florida Purchase
- •Republic of Texas
- •Alaska Purchase
- •13. The Civil War - the reasons, the process, the generals, the battles the consequences. The Emancipation Proclamation. The role of a. Lincoln. The Gettysburg address.
- •The reasons of the Civil War.
- •How many Generals were there?
- •List of u.S. Army generals and chief staff officers in early 1861 Line officers
- •Staff Officers
- •Lincoln's role
- •14. Afterwar peiod (Reconstruction), the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the constitution. Carpetbaggers, Ku-Klux-Klan. What did Reconstruction fail?
- •15. America at the turn of the century: Foreign policy - the fight for new colonies: Venezuelan conflict, Cuban crisis, Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, the Panama Isthmus.
- •16. The Manifest Destiny, Monroe's Doctrine, Olney (or Roosevelt) Collorary.
- •17. Economic development: "captains of industry", industrialization. "The Square Deal" of Theodore Roosevelt and "The New Freedom" of w. Wilson. The us - a world leader.
- •List of businessmen who were called robber barons
- •U.S. Industrialization
- •History
- •18. America in the World War I. The League of Nations.
- •19. The roaring twenties. The rush for wealth. The movies. The bootleggers. Prohibition.
- •20. The Great Depression and the New Deal. The difference of the Roosevelt Administration from all previous administrations.
- •21. America before and at the time of the World War II. Hirishima 1945: right or wrong?
- •22. After the wwii: prodperity and problems - presidencies of Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy. "McCarthyism". Cold War with the Soviet Union.
- •23. Korean War, the birth of Nato, the War in Vietnam, crisis over Cuba.
- •24. The American century - the Americanization of the world. Mail Concepts of American Business.
- •27. The symbols of the us: the Statue of Liberty, the White house, the Library of Congress, the American Flag, the national Anthem.
- •28. Churches in the usa. America as a shelter for many people oppressed in their native countries for their religious beliefs. The role of religion in the us.
- •28. The main concepts of American Education.
- •30. The American Character: its origin and development. Values in the american character.
- •30. Cities of the us: Washington - planned city, New York (Big Apple) and its boroughs.
- •Economy
- •State finances
20. The Great Depression and the New Deal. The difference of the Roosevelt Administration from all previous administrations.
The Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement. Although its causes are still uncertain and controversial, the net effect was a sudden and general loss of confidence in the economic future. The usual explanations include numerous factors, especially high consumer debt, ill-regulated markets that permitted overoptimistic loans by banks and investors, the lack of high-growth new industries, and growing wealth inequality, all interacting to create a downward economic spiral of reduced spending, falling confidence, and lowered production.
Industries that suffered the most included construction, agriculture as dust-bowl conditions persisted in the agricultural heartland, shipping, mining, and logging as well as durable goods like automobiles and appliances that could be postponed. The economy reached bottom in the winter of 1932–33; then came four years of very rapid growth until 1937, when the Recession of 1937 brought back 1934 levels of unemployment. The depression caused major political changes in America. Three years into the depression, Herbert Hoover lost the 1932 presidential election to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a sweeping landslide. Roosevelt's economic recovery plan, the New Deal, instituted unprecedented programs for relief, recovery and reform, and brought about a major realignment of American politics.
Causes
Current theories may be broadly classified into two main points of view. First, there is orthodox classical economics, monetarist, Keynesian, Austrian Economics and neoclassical economic theory, which focuses on the macroeconomic effects of money supply, including Mass production and consumption. Second, there are structural theories, including those of institutional economics, that point to underconsumption and over-investment (economic bubble), or to malfeasance by bankers and industrialists.
There are multiple originating issues: what factors set off the first downturn in 1929, what structural weaknesses and specific events turned it into a major depression, how the downturn spread from country to country, and why the economic recovery was so prolonged.
In terms of the initial 1931 downturn, historians emphasize structural factors and the stock market crash as well as bank failures, while economists point to Britain's decision to return to the gold standard at pre–World War I parities ($10.98 Pound). The vast economic cost of World War I weakened the ability of the world to respond to a major crisis.
Banks began to fail in October 1930 (one year after the crash) when farmers defaulted on loans. There were no federal deposit insurance during that time as bank failures were considered quite common. This worried depositors that they might have a chance of losing all their savings, therefore, people started to withdraw money and changed it into currency. As deposits taken out from the bank increased, the money multiplier decreased, which means money circulation is slowed down. This led to a decrease in the money supply, and an increase in interest rate and a significant decrease in aggregate investment.
The US government's commitment to the gold standard prevented it from engaging in expansionary monetary policy. High interest rates needed to be maintained, in order to attract international investors who bought foreign assets with gold. However, the high interest also inhibited domestic business borrowing.[citation needed]
Economists dispute how much weight to give the stock market crash of October 1929. According to Milton Friedman, "the stock market in 1929 played a role in the initial depression." It clearly changed sentiment about and expectations of the future, shifting the outlook from very positive to negative, with a dampening effect on investment and entrepreneurship, but some feel that an increase in interest rates by the Federal government could have also caused the slow steps into the downturn towards the Great Depression. Thomas Sowell, on the other hand, notes that the rise in unemployment had peaked at 9% two months after the crash, and had fallen to 6.3% by June – he blames the later unemployment rate on the tariffs that Hoover passed against the advice of economists in that same month, and says that six months after their implementation unemployment rose to the double digit figures that characterized that decade.
The US interest rates were also affected by France's decision to raise their interest rates to attract gold. In order to attract gold to their vaults, France increased their interest rates. In theory, the US would have two potential responses to that: Allow the exchange rate to adjust, or increase their own interest rates to maintain the gold standard. In those days, the US was pegged to the gold standard. So, people converted all their dollars into franks to buy more French assets, the demand for the US dollar fell, and the exchange rate increases. So the only thing the US could do to get back into equilibrium was increase their interest rates.
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": relief, recovery, and reform. That is, Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression. The New Deal produced a political realignment, making the Democratic Party the majority (as well as the party which held the White House for seven out of nine Presidential terms from 1933 to 1969), with its base in liberal ideas, big city machines, and newly empowered labor unions, ethnic minorities, and the white South. The Republicans were split, either opposing the entire New Deal as an enemy of business and growth, or accepting some of it and promising to make it more efficient. The realignment crystallized into the New Deal Coalition that dominated most American elections into the 1960s, while the opposition Conservative Coalition largely controlled Congress from 1938 to 1964.
Historians distinguish a "First New Deal" (1933) and a "Second New Deal" (1934–36). Some programs were declared unconstitutional, and others were repealed during World War II. The "First New Deal" (1933) dealt with groups; from banking and railroads to industry and farming, all of which demanded help for economic recovery. A "Second New Deal" in 1934-36 included the Wagner Act to promote labor unions, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief program, the Social Security Act, and new programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers. The final major items of New Deal legislation were the creation of the United States Housing Authority and Farm Security Administration, both in 1937, then the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which set maximum hours and minimum wages for most categories of workers[1] and the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938.
Despite Roosevelt campaigning heavily against anti-New Deal Republicans and anti-New Deal Democrats, Republicans gained many seats in Congress in the 1938 midterm elections and the Democrats opponents of the New Deal retained their seats,[2] resulting in the WPA, CCC and other relief programs being shut down during World War II by the Conservative Coalition (i.e., the opponents of the New Deal in Congress); they argued the return of full employment made them superfluous. As a Republican President in the 1950s, Dwight D. Eisenhower left the New Deal largely intact. In the 1960s, Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society took New Deal policies further. After 1974, laissez faire views grew in support, calling for deregulation of the economy and ending New Deal regulation of transportation, banking and communications in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[3] Several New Deal programs remain active, with some still operating under the original names, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The largest programs still in existence today are the Social Security System and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The New Deal O n a cold, grt'y Saturday in Much 1933. Frank lin D.
Roosevelt roo k the oar h as President of the United
States. For J hun dred days. from March 8 to June 16
he scm Congress a flood ofpro posa ls for new laws.
The Amcr rcan people had asked for action. In the
"Hundred Days" Roosevelt g;tvc it [0 them.
Manv ofrhe new laws set up govctn rncnr
orgJ.llizJrlons called "agencies' to hel p the na tion to
recover from th e: Dep ression . Th e C ivilian
Conservati on Corps (CCe ) fou nd work (or man y
thousands ofyo un g men. The f ederal Emergency
Relief Administration (FERA) gave individual states
government money to help their unemployed and ho meles s. 'I'hc Ag ricu ltural Adjustment
Administratio n (AAA) set out to raise crop prices by
pay ing farm er s (0 produce less. T he Tennessee
Valley Authority (TVA) buil t a network of darn s to
make electricity and Stop flood s in a poor
southeastern rcg ron oftilt' United States. And the
Nation allk covcry Administration (N HA) worked
to make sure that businesses paid fair wages and
d lJ rgt-d fair prices. The Amer ican people knew both these an d lat er New
Deal organizat ions by thei r initials. Let us look more
closel y at the work o f some ofthese "alphabet
agencies.
Roose vel t belie ved that his most urgent task was to
find people work. He was especially an xious ab ou t
the young. Thousands were stealing rides 011 fre ight
trains and wandering abour the country sea rching for
j obs. Roosev elt set up th e CCC to hel p them. By
August 1933, the CCC had already placed 250,000
yo ung men III camps all over the count ry . They were
hard at work cutting fire- lanes through forest s,
st rengthening river banks aga inst floo ding, planting
trees III places where the soil was being blown J\va y.
The government gave th e CC C workers food and
she lter and a wage ofa dollar a day. Many sent this
wage home to help their less fort unate rela tives.
A later alphabet agency was the Wo rks Pro gress
Administranon (WPA). Roosevelt set up the WI'A in
1<)35. Like the CCc, it aimed to set people to work
on j obs that were useful to th e community. 13y 1937
its worker s had built thousands ofmiles of new roads
and thousands ofschools and hospitals. The WPA
even foun d work for unem ployed w riters an d artists.
T he write rs produced guidebooks to states and cities.
The art ists painted pictures on the walls of po st
offices and other pu blic buildi ngs.
Alphabet agencies like the C:CC and the WPA pur
mi llions ofpeople to work. Between 1935 and 1941
the WPA alone pro vided eight million j obs. T his
meant tha t people were able to support themselves
on ce more. T he y regained their independence and
self respect . This was not all. The money they were
paid helped to bring trade back to life . Shops had
customers agam. Factories became busy once more.
Farmers had someone to buy th eir produce.
This w as what Roosevelt had hoped for . l ie believed
tha t putting money IIH O people's pockets was lik e
pour ing fue l into an engmc that had stopped to ma ke
it start aga lll. T he engllle co uld th en once more drive
the economic machinery th at earned the country it s
living.
Roosevelt help ed industrial workers in orhc r ways.
In 1935 he persuaded Congress to pass a law to
proteJ:t their right tojoin labor unions. He hoped this
would give worke rs J bcrrer chance to ba rgain with
employers.
But some big cmplovc rs c-Hcnry Ford was onehated
labor unio ns. They dis missed any worke r who
joined one. St rikcs and figb ring bro ke om in
indust rial areas o f the cou ntry as uruons struggled to
win recognition . To stOp the trouble another union
law was passed . This was called the Wagner Act.
afte r the man who guided it throu gh Congress. The
Wagner Act gave every worker the right to j oin a
union, and it set up a body called the Nation al Labor
Board to protect this right.
Bur despite New Deal reforms like these, millions of
Am ericans stil llived in fear. What if their job s
disappeared again? Would only a breadline stand
between them and starva tion on ce more? " No, ,.
Roosevelt told them. In 1935 he brought in a law
called the Social Security Act . One part ga\T
government pen sions to peo ple unable to provide for
rhcmsclves c- old people, widows and the blind. for
example. Anot her part gave the United States its first
system ofunemploymcnt insur ance . The money to
pay fo r these benefits came from special taxes paid by
bot h workers and employe rs. T he unemployment
scheme did not cover all workers at first. But in later
years more and more were pro tected by it.
Not all American s suppo rted Roosevelt 's New Deal
poli cies. Some said rhar the count ry could not afford
the money that he was spending. Others said that
much of rhc mon cy was being wasted anyway. They
feared. roo, that Roosevelt's policies would make
people idle and sto p them standing on their own feet.
" You can' t make the world all planned and soft ."
complained o ne businessman . "The strongest and
best survive - tha t's the law o f nature after all."
But such cr itic ism s made lit tle differ ence to
Roosevelt' s populari ty with the vo ters . To millions
ofAmericans he was the man who had given them
Jobs and saved their homes and farms. In 1936 they
re-elected him President by the largest maj ority of
votes in the couu erv's history. As one wit pm it .
" Everyone was aga inst the New Deal but the
voters." Thirty years later a New York taxi dri ver
still remembered how many Americans felt about
Roosevelt III those years. " Roosevelt?" he said III a
24 H U U5lV EI.-I \ N EW DEAl.-
television intcrvicvv , " l ie was God in this country."
Even so. it was not Roosevelt' s New Deal that ended
unempl oyment in the United States. The German
dictator, Adolfllitler , did that.
Hy 1939, despite the New Deal. ten million
American workers aga in had no jobs . Then. in
September 1939. Hi tler 's armies marched into
Poland. The Second World War bega n. The United
Stat es quickly became the main supplier o f \·veapons
to the countries fight ing Hitler - what Roosevelt
descri bed as " the arsenal o f democracy." American
factories began working all day and all night. The
number ofpeop le without jobs fell. In 1941 the
United States joined the war itselfand
unemployment disappeared. President Roosevelt
was now tOO busy to give atte nt ion to further
reforms at home. " Old Dr. New Deal has to be
replaced by Dr. Win- thc-War." he said. His New
Deal was ov er.
Roosevelt's effo rts as " Dr. Will-the-War" wore him
out. By 1945 he was a sick man. A few weeks befo re
the end o f the war, Oil the morning of April 12, he
suffered a stroke. Within hour s he was dead. His Vice
President. Har ry T ruman . took ove r as President of
the United Scares.
By this time nearly all Ameri cans were bet ter off than
they had been in the da rk days ofthe Depression.
Some argued that this was due mainly to the coming
ofwa r. ti nt many thought the main cause was the
New Deal. Peo ple stillarg ue about th is. But there is
no argu ment abou t the importance of the Nl'\V Deal
in ot her ways.
The New Deal altered Americans' ideas about the
righ t ful work of their national govcnunenr. Before
the New Deal most thou gh t of the gove rnment as a
kind of policema n. It was there j ust to keep order,
while factor y owners and businessmen got 011 with
making the count ry richer . The Depression
weak ened this belie f Roosevelt taught Amer icans to
look to th e gO'it"rnmellt to sec that eve ryone had a
fair chance to obtain what he called " the good tlungs
oflife." Many Ameri cans still remember him with
respect and affection.
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