| Term | Definition |
| New Deal | Term used to describe President Franklin Roosevelt's relief, recovery, and reform programs designed to combat the Great Depression |
| Hundred Days | Period at the start of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency in 1933, when many New Deal programs were passed by Congress |
| Public works program | Government-funded projects to build public facilities |
| Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) | Established by Congress in 1933, this program put more than 2.5 million young men to work restoring and maintaining forests, beaches, and parks |
| Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) | Established in 1933 to raise farm prices through government financial assistance |
| Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) | Federal project to provide inexpensive electric power, flood control, and recreational opportunities to the Tennessee River valley |
| Second New Deal | Period of legislative activity launched by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935 |
| Wagner Act | Law passed in 1935 that aided unions by legalizing collective bargaining and closed shops, and by establishing the National Labor Relations Board |
| Closed shop | Workplace open only to union members |
| Social Security system | System established by the 1935 Social Security Act to provide financial security, in the form of regular payments, to people who cannot support themselves |
| American Liberty League | Organization founded in 1934 to oppose the New Deal |
| Demagogue | A leader who manipulates people with half-truths, deceptive promises and scare tactics |
| Nationalization | Government takeover and ownership of banks, and the redistribution of their wealth |
| Deficit spending | Paying out more money from the annual federal budget than the government receives in revenues |
| Recession | A period of slow business activity |
| National debt | Total amount of money that the federal government borrows and has to pay back |
| Revenue | Income |
| Coalition | Alliance of groups with similar goals |
| Sit-down strike | Labor protest in which laborers stop working but refuse to leave the workplace |
