Behavioral Objectives (Test Items)

Here are the specific tasks you will be called upon to perform on the Unit IV Exam. The information required for mastery of the reading objectives is contained in Chapters 13-15 of The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941. The information required for mastery of the lecture objectives is contained in the lectures for this unit - "Democratic Dysfunction and Republican Emergence in Texas", "World War II Ends the Great Depression", and "The Historical Impact of the New Deal".

READING OBJECTIVES

"The CIO and the Latter New Deal"

1. Be familiar with John L. Lewisí conversion to liberal politics and militant unionism in the 1930s.
2. Describe the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations from within the ranks of the American Federation of Labor and evaluate its performance in its first real test - strikes against Firestone, Goodyear, and Goodrich.
3. Identify and describe in detail the advantages of the "sit down" strike technique to unskilled industrial laborers on assembly lines across the country during the Great Depression.
4. Describe why the "sit down" technique struck such fear into the hearts of management, investors, and wealthy financiers.
5. Be familiar with each of the following aspects of the "sit down" strike the United Auto Workers waged with the support of the CIO against the General Motors corporation in 1937: (a.) the attitude and actions of Governor Frank Murphey, (b.) the economic pressure the strike put on General Motors, (c.) the support the strikeís success gave the CIO recruitment of other workers and unions with the management of other corporations.
6. Be familiar with the particulars of the Memorial Day violence involving the strike against Republic Steel in South Chicago.
7. Describe the attitude of middle-class Americans, President Roosevelt, and the Supreme Court to the CIOís use of the "sit down" strike technique.
8. Describe in detail Robert McElvaineís contention that John L. Lewis and the CIO actually moderated worker discontent and channeled it into acceptable relations with management.
9. Identify those factors/actions which resulted in the Recession of 1937-38, evaluate how much Roosevelt himself was to blame, and be familiar with how he tried to correct the situation with legislative requests in 1938.
10. Identify the objective of the Farm Security Administration and be familiar with its public information efforts involving the work of Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Russell Lee, and Arthur Rothstein.
11. Be familiar with each of the following aspects of the so-called Purge of 1938: (a.) FDRís desire to pay back Democrats who had abandoned him during the Court fight of 1937, (b.) the desire of some to see party realignment along ideological lines, (c.) the method by which the Democratic party would be "purged", (d.) the electoral success of pro-New Deal incumbents, (e.) the electoral success of the five conservative Democratic incumbents the Roosevelt administration targeted for defeat, (f.) the success of targeted incumbents in stressing their overall support for the New Deal, (g.) the belief after the attempted "purge" that Roosevelt could be defeated, (h.) the effect upon the future of the New Deal.
12. Describe in detail the results of the 1938 congressional elections being sure to identify examples of Republican resurgence and examples of the Democratic partyís enduring dominancy.

1. Be familiar with the reduction in relief efforts instituted by the Relief Act of 1939 and demonstrate how this reflected the growing belief that the worst of the Great Depression was over.
2. Identify the fate of programs "affecting more powerful interests" - such as large farmers and Social Security recipients - in 1939.
3. Identify and describe in detail the reasons Robert McElvaine argues were responsible for growing congressional opposition to Roosevelt during his second term.
4. Describe how the deteriorating situation in foreign affairs effected Rooseveltís dealings with the Depression in the United States.
5. Evaluate McElvaineís contention that "the most important cause of the decline of the New Deal" was that Roosevelt had run out of things to do "without making fundamental changes".
6. Describe how and why Wendell Wilkie became the Republican nominee for the presidency in 1940.
7. Be familiar with the manner in which Roosevelt engineered his renomination in 1940 and how he was able to overcome fears about breaking the two-term tradition.
8. Be familiar with the argument that Adolf Hitler forced the country to do what it had heretofore refused to do to end the Great Depression - massive federal spending beyond anything the New Deal had ever envisioned.

1. Be familiar with each of the following enduring contributions of the Roosevelt presidency: (a.) his centralization of governmental power in the presidency and the executive branch, (b.) his blending of Hamiltonian means with Jeffersonian ends, (c.) his employment and use of intellectuals to achieve the goals of the "common man".
2. Describe in detail Rooseveltís understanding and limited use of "Keynesian" economics during the 1930s - that the government could spend its way out of the Great Depression.
3. Be familiar with Rooseveltís creation of the modern Democratic party/the "Roosevelt coalition", identifying problems with this coalition, and evaluate its endurance in the years since the 1930s.
4. Describe in detail McElvaineís argument that the "New Deal performed a marvelous job of conservation: it saved American capitalism at the time of that economic systemís worst crisis to date".
5. Be familiar with the argument that while Roosevelt created the welfare state which survives to this day, the New Deal gave only limited help to the poorest and neediest elements of American society.

"Democratic Dysfunction and Republican Emergence in Texas" (HIS2613.HUP.22645x)

1. Explain those factors which had historically prevented the Republican party from being viable in the states of the Deep South.
2. Describe the relationship conservative Southern Democrats had with Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal from 1932 to 1936: (a.) Why did Southern Democrats, despite their inherently conservative ideology, support Roosevelt and the New Deal?, (b.) What attitudes and events signaled growing tensions between conservative Democrats in the South and the New Deal by 1936?
3. Be familiar with the breach between many conservative Southern Democrats and Roosevelt and the New Deal following 1936 being sure to describe each of the following: (a.) the "Court Packing" Fight, (b.) the "sit down" strike against General Motors, (c.) the recession of 1937-38, (d.) the attempted purge of the Democratic party in 1938, (e.) the 3rd Term issue.
4. Trace the growth of the Republican party in Texas and the South stemming from the alienation of many conservative Democrats familiarizing yourself with each of the following: (a.) the Texas Regulars movement, (b.) the Dixiecrat campaign of 1948, (c.) Democrats for Eisenhower, (d.) the 1964 Goldwater victories in Dixie, (e.) the southern strategy of the modern Republican party.

1. Identify and describe in detail each of the following economic impacts of World War II: (a.) the magnitude of government spending, (b.) the magnitude of government borrowing/deficit financing, (c.) the effect upon unemployment levels, (d.) scarcity of certain products and commodities, (e.) inflation, (f.) wage and price controls, (g.) individual savings/pent-up purchasing power.
2. Describe in detail how the war experience proved the Keynesian argument that governments could spend their way out of the Great Depression.

1. Identify and describe in detail the enduring impact of the New Deal in each of the following areas: (a.) the quality of life in rural agricultural areas, (b.) the respectability and power - economic and political - of organized labor unions, (c.) the racial attitudes of Americans and the possibility of future progress in the area of civil rights, (d.) the distribution of power between the federal and state/local governments, (e.) the distribution of power between the various branches of the federal government, (f.) the death of laissez faire capitalism in its purest form, (g.) the creation of the modern welfare state, (h.) the preservation of capitalism and democracy in the United States during the Great Depression.

	Franklin Roosevelt Excerpt of Fireside Chat Announcing Purge June 24, 1938
	Franklin Roosevelt Denunciation of Senator Walter George (D.,Ga.) during 1938 Primaries
	Franklin Roosevelt Grilled Millionaire Speech December, 1938 Length::37 Location:www.pbs.org
	Harold Ickes and Marian Anderson Lincoln Memorial Concert April 9, 1939 Length: 5:18 Location: www.historychannel.com
	Franklin Roosevelt Radio Address to Democratic Nominating Convention July 19, 1940
	Franklin Roosevelt Excerpt from Fireside Chat calling for Lend-Lease legislation March 15, 1941 Length: 2:22 Location: www.historychannel.com
	Wendell Wilkie Speech calling for an end to Isolationism July 23, 1941 Length: 3:40 Location: www.historychannel.com
	Franklin Roosevelt "Day of Infamy" Speech requesting Declaration of War against Japan December 8, 1941 Length: 7:45 Location: www.historychannel.com
	Harry S. Truman Announcement of Franklin Roosevelt's Death April 17, 1945 Length: 3:34 Location: www.historychannel.com

© L. Patrick Hughes, 1999