APUSH Chapters 1-41 Key Terms and People

Roanoke Island

(1585) Sir Walter Raleigh's failed colonial settlement off the coast of North Carolina

Glorious (or Bloodless) Revolution

(1688) relatively peaceful overthrow of the unpopular Catholic monarch, James II, replacing him with Dutch-born William III and Mary, daughter of James II; William and Mary accepted increased Parliamentary oversight and new limits on monarchical authority

Freeport question

(1858) raised during one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates by Abraham Lincoln, who asked whether the Court or the people should decide the future of slavery in the territories

Hay-Pauncefote Treaty

(1901) a treaty signed between the United States and Great Britain, giving Americans a free hand to build a canal in Central America; the treaty nullified the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, which prohibited the British or U.S. from acquiring territory in Central America

Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act

(1921) designed to appeal to new women voters, this act provided federally financed instruction in material and infant health care and expanded the role of government in family welfare

McNary-Haugen Bill

(1924-1928) a farm-relief bill that was championed throughout the 1920s and aimed to keep agricultural prices high by authorizing the government to buy up surpluses and sell them abroad; Congress twice passed the bill, but President Coolidge vetoed it in 1927 and 1928

Battle of Midway

(1942) a pivotal naval battle fought near the island of Midway on June 3-6, 1942; the victory halted Japanese advances in the Pacific

D-Day

(1944) a massive military operation led by American forces in Normandy beginning on June 6, 1944; the pivotal battle led to the liberation of France and brought on the final phases of World War II in Europe

Samuel Adams

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Nelson Mandela

11th President of South Africa who spent 27 years in prison after conviction of charges while he helped spearhead the struggle against apartheid; received Nobel Peace Prize in 1993

William Henry Harrison

9th President of the U.S.; was an American military leader, politician, the ninth President of the United States, and the first President to die in office. His death created a brief constitutional crisis, but ultimately resolved many questions about presidential succession left unanswered by the Constitution until passage of the 25th Amendment. Led US forces in the Battle of Tippecanoe.

Samuel Chase

A Supreme Court justice who was so unpopular that Republicans named vicious dogs after him and in 1804, impeachment charges against Chase were voted by the House of Representatives- found not guilty of impeachment, this voting victory demonstrated the power of checks and balances

Phillis Wheately

African American poet who overcame the barriers of slavery to write and publish poetry; lived in Boston at 8, taken to England at 20, where she found someone to publish her work

Anthony Johnson

African slave who purchased his freedom and became a slave holder in Viginia

Ralph Ellison

African-American writer who explored the theme of the lonely individual imprisoned in privacy

containment doctrine

America's strategy against the Soviet Union based on ideas of George Kennan; the doctrine declared that the Soviet Union and communism were inherently expansionist and had to be stopped from spreading through both military and political pressure; containment guided American foreign policy throughout most of the Cold War

Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower

American General who began in North Africa and became the Commander of Allied forces in Europe

James Fenimore Cooper

American novelist who is best remembered for his novels of frontier life, such as The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

John Singleton Copley

American painter who did portraits of Paul Revere and John Hancock before fleeing to England to avoid disruptions of the American Revolution and to satisfy ambition to be a famous painter

Francis E. Townsend

American physician and social reformer whose plan for a government-sponsored old-age pension was a precursor of the Social Security Act of 1935

Salmon Chase

An American politician and jurist in the Civil War era who served as U.S. Senator from Ohio and Governor of Ohio; as U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Abraham Lincoln; and as Chief Justice of the United States.

Huey P. ("Kingfish") Long

As senator in 1932 of Washington, he preached his "Share Our Wealth" programs; it was a 100% tax on all annual incomes over $1 million and appropriation of all fortunes in excess of $5 million; with this money Long proposed to give every American family a comfortable income, etc

John Wilkes Booth

Assassinated Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theater

V-J (Victory in Japan) Day

August 15, 1945 heralded the surrender of Japan and the final end to World War II

Herman Melville

Author of Moby Dick

Lord Sheffield

British writer who argued that Britain would ultimately win back America's trade

George Pickett

Confederate general who led Pickett's charge at Gettysburg

John Trumbull

Connecticut born painter who, like many contemporaries, traveled to Europe (London) to pursue his artistic ambitions; best known for his works on the American Revolution, including the signing of the Declaration of Independence

insurrectos

Cuban insurgents who sought freedom from colonial Spanish rule; their destructive tactics threatened American economic interests in Cuban plantations and railroads

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Democratic senator from New York who, in 2008, became the first highly competitive female candidate for president; a lawyer and political activist, she was First Lady from 1993 to 2001, and then became the first former First Lady to serve in elected office when she was elected to the Senate; she tried unsuccessfully to win the Democratic nomination for president in 2008

Jacobus Arminius

Dutch theologian who rejected predestination, preaching that salvation could be attained through the acceptance of God's grace and was open to all, not just the elect

Royal African Company

English joint-stock company that enjoyed a state-granted monopoly on the colonial slave trade from 1672 until 1698; the supply of slaves to the North American colonies rose sharply once the company lost its monopoly privileges

Virginia Company

English joint-stock company that received a charter from King James I that allowed it to found the Virginia colony

Cordell Hull

FDR's Secretary of State who promoted Reciprocal Trade Agreement, low tariffs, and Good Neighbor policy

Father Junipero Serra

Franciscan friar who established 21 missions along the coast of California

Central Powers

Germany and Austria-Hungary, later joined by Turkey and Bulgaria, made up this alliance against the Allies in World War I

Allies

Great Britain, Russia, and France, later joined by Italy, Japan, and the United States, formed this alliance against the Central Powers in World War I

Herbert Croly

He favored the regulation of trusts and labor unions with a strong national government and inspired the book The Promise of American Life; he argued that the government should use its regulatory and taxation powers to promote the welfare of its citizens

James Buchanan

He tried to maintain a balance between proslavery and antislavery factions, but his moderate views angered radicals in both North and South, and he was unable to forestall the secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860; Lecompton Constitution supporter

Albert Gallatin

He was called the "Watchdog of the Treasury," and proved to be as able as Alexander Hamilton. He agreed with Jefferson that a national debt was a bane rather than a blessing. Using strict controls of the economy, he succeeded in reducing the debt, and he balanced the budget

Powhatan

Indian leader who ruled tribes in the James River area of Viginia

Aaron Burr

Jefferson's first-term vice president who was dropped from the cabinet in Jefferson's second term. He joined with a group of Federalists to plot the secession of New England and New York, plotted to seperate the West from the East, and he was responsible for Hamilton's death

William Seward

Johnson's Secretary of State who engineered the purchase of Alaska from Russia

John C. Frémont

Just "happened" to be in California, with several dozen well-armed men. Helping to overthrow Mexican rule in 1846, he collaborated with American Navel officers and with the local Americans, who had hoisted the banner of the short-lived California Bear Flag Republic

Crispus Attucks

Killed in Boston Massacre, black laborer, only African-American person killed in Boston Massacre. Because a martyr for African-Americans

James I

King of England and Ireland and eventually of Scotland as James VI; grew increasingly hostile to Virginia and in 1624, revoked the charter of the Virginia Company, making Virginia a royal colony directly under his control

Charles II

King of England, Scotland, and Ireland who reigned during the Restoration, a period of expanding trade and colonization and opposing Catholicism; was determined to take active, aggressive hand in managing colonies; punished MBC for defiance

Louis XVI

King of France at the beginning of the French Revolution. He was arrested and then beheaded on the guillotine, ending the reigning monarchy and being replaced with a republic

George III

King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760 to 1820

Maximilian

Man sent into Mexico by emperor of France; puppet of Napoleon III

Charles Summer

Massachusetts Senator in 1856, his strong abolitionist convictions caused him to antagonize the South and the Lecompton Constitution in a speech called "The Crime Against Kansas"

A. E. Burnside

McClellan's successor as general of the Army of the Potomac, and immediately displayed his incompetence in an attack on a well-guarded Confederate position

Joseph Brant

Mohawk Indian leader who led ferocious raids against the American frontier

code talkers

Native American men who served in the military by transmitting radio messages in their native languages, which were undecipherable by German and Japanese spies

John Peter Zenger

New York printer tried for seditious libel against the state's corrupt royal governor; being found not guilty, the trail/verdict set an important precedent for freedom of the press

silent majority

Nixon Administration's term to describe generally content, law-abiding middle-class Americans who supported both the Vietnam War and America's institutions; as a political tool, the concept attempted to make a subtle distinction between believers in "traditional" values and the vocal minority of civil rights agitators, student protesters, counter-culturalists, and other seeming disruptors of the social fabric

Copperheads

Northern Democrats who obstructed the war effort by attacking Abraham Lincoln, the draft and, after 1863, emancipation

Meriwether Lewis

Personal secretary of Jefferson and partnered with William Clark to explore the Louisiana Purchase

Charles Grandison Finney

Preacher who developed the anxious bench (where most likely converts sat) and encouraged women to pray aloud

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America

Lyndon B. Johnson

President of the United States who rose to tremendous power in the Senate during the New Deal; tapped to be JFK's running mate in 1960 and was chosen largely to help solidify support for the Democratic ticket in the anti-Catholic south, he assumed the presidency after Kennedy's assassination in 1963; was responsible for liberal programs such as the Great Society, War on Poverty, and civil rights legislation, as well as the escalation of the Vietnam war

Lord North

Prime Minister of England from 1770 to 1782. Although he repealed the Townshend Acts, he generally went along with King George III's repressive policies towards the colonies even though he personally considered them wrong. He hoped for an early peace during the Revolutionary War and resigned after Cornwallis' surrender in 1781

Popé's Rebellion

Pueblo Indian rebellion that drove Spanish settlers from New Mexico

Benjamin Wade

Radical Republican who opposed slavery. Sponsored the Wade-Davis Bill. Served in the Senate. Opposed Johnson's Reconstruction policies. Would have succeeded Johnson but he was distrusted by moderate Republicans for his favor of high tariffs, cheap labor, and soft-money.

"Self-Reliance"

Ralph Waldo Emerson's popular lecture-essay that reflected the spirit of individualism pervasive in American popular culture during the 1830s and 1840s

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

Reagan administration plan announced in 1983 to create a missile-defense system over American territory to block a nuclear attack; derided as "Star Wars" by critics, the plan typified Reagan's commitment to vigorous defense spending even as he sought to limit the size of government in domestic matters

Robert Dole

Republican Senator from Kansas who ran unsuccessfully against Bill Clinton in 1996; he had previously been the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 1976 and served as senate minority leader during the 1980s and 1990s

Thomas B. Reed

Republican Speaker of the House who dominated Billion Dollar Congress

Newt Gingrich

Republican congressman from Georgia who served as Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999; as the author of the "Contract with America", he led the Republican "revolution" of 1994

John McCain

Republican senator from Arizona who lost the 2008 Presidential election to Democrat Barack Obama; known as a maverick senator, frequently departing from his own party to co-sponsor moderate legislation with Democratic allies; among his most notable legislative achievements were changes in campaign finance and efforts to reform immigration laws

Sarah Palin

Republican vice-presidential candidate with John McCain in the 2008 election; the second woman to run for vice president of a major party and the first Republican; relatively unknown nationally, her social conservatism made her popular among the evangelical wing of the Republican Party, which had been distrustful of McCain

Father Charles Coughlin

Roman Catholic priest and radio show host; a critic of the New Deal; created the National Union for Social Justice; wanted a monetary inflation and the nationalization of the banking system

Lord Dunmore

Royal governor of Virginia who issued a proclamation promising freedom for any enslaved black in Virginia who joined the British army

Napoleon Bonaparte

Ruler of France, sold Louisiana to the Americans after receiving it from the Spanish. He deliberately provoked a war with Britain

Black Hawk

Sauk leader who in 1832 led Fox and Sauk warriors against the United States (1767-1838)

Abraham Lincoln

Sixteenth president of the United States, he promoted equal rights for African Americans in the famed Lincoln-Douglas debates. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation and set in motion the Civil War, but he was determined to preserve the Union. He was assassinated in 1865

Redeemers

Southern Democratic politicians who sought to wrest control from Republican regimes in the South after Reconstruction

Millard Fillmore

Successor of President Zachary Taylor after his death on July 9th 1850. He helped pass the Compromise of 1850 by gaining the support of Northern Whigs for the compromise

Dwight D. ("Ike") Eisenhower

Supreme Commander of the US Forces in Europe during World War II; became president, and during his two terms, presided over the economically prosperous 1950s; he was praised for his dignity and decency, though criticized for not being more assertive on civil rights

John C. Breckinridge

The South's pro-slavery Democratic candidate in the election of 1860. Completed the split of the Democratic Party by being nominated

Thomas Paine

The author of "Common Sense"

James Madison

The fourth President of the United States (1809-1817). A member of the Continental Congress (1780-1783) and the Constitutional Convention (1787), he strongly supported ratification of the Constitution and was a contributor to The Federalist Papers (1787-1788), which argued the effectiveness of the proposed constitution. His presidency was marked by the War of 1812

Andrew Jackson

The seventh President of the United States (1829-1837), who as a general in the War of 1812 defeated the British at New Orleans (1815). As president he opposed the Bank of America, objected to the right of individual states to nullify disagreeable federal laws, and increased the presidential powers.

Hiram Revels

U.S. clergyman, educator, and politician: first black senator

Horace Mann

United States educator from Massachusetts who introduced reforms that significantly altered the system of public education

Calvin Coolidge

Vice President "Silent Cal" Coolidge became the thirtieth president of the United States when Warren G. Harding died in office. A friend of business over labor, he served during the boom years from 1923 to 1929

Ho Chi Minh

Vietnamese revolutionary nationalist leader, he organized Vietnamese opposition to foreign occupation, first against the Japanese and then the French; became leader of North Vietnam; he led the war to unify the country in the face of increased military opposition from the United States

Massasoit

Wampanoag chieftain who signed a treaty with the Plymouth pilgrims in 1621 and helped them celebrate the first Thanksgiving after the autumn harvests that same year

Little Turtle

War chief of the Miami Indian Confederacy. Led his braves in several major victories against the United States army in the early 1790's, especially against Generals Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair

Isaac Brock

Was a British Army officer and administrator. Brock was assigned to Canada in 1802. Despite facing desertions and near-mutinies, he commanded his regiment in Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) successfully for many years. He was promoted to major general, and became responsible for defending Upper Canada against the United States; was also responsible for the capture of the US Fort Michilimackinac

George Canning

Was a British statesman and politician who served as Foreign Secretary and briefly Prime Minister; he approached the US about a joint declaration renouncing any interest in acquiring Latin American territory, and specifically warning the European despots to keep their harsh hands off the Latin American republics

Francis Scott Key

Was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet, from Georgetown, who wrote the lyrics to the United States' national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner".

Oliver Hazard Perry

Was an American naval commander. Perry served in the West Indies during the Quasi War with France, the Mediterranean during the Barbary Wars, the Caribbean fighting piracy and the slave trade, but is most noted for his heroic role in the War of 1812 during the Battle of Lake Erie

Liberia

West-African nation founded in 1822 as a haven for freed blacks, fifteen thousand of whom made their way back across the Atlantic by the 1860s

David Walker

a free African-American abolitionist who wrote/published "An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World"

Henry David Thoreau

a nineteenth-century American author and proponent of transcendentalism. Thoreau was a strong advocate of individual rights and an opponent of social conformity. His best-known works are the book Waldenand the essay "Civil Disobedience."

recall

a progressive ballot procedure allowing voters to remove elected officials from office

Miranda warning

a statement of an arrested person's constitutional rights, which police officers must read during an arrest; the warning came out of the Supreme Court's decision in Miranda v. Arizona in 1966 that accused people have the right to remain silent, consult an attorney, and enjoy other protections; the Court declared that law enforcement officers must make sure suspects understand their constitutional rights, thus creating a safeguard against forced confessions and self-implication

Tweed Ring

a symbol of Gilded Age corruption, "Boss" Tweed and his deputies ran the New York City Democratic party in the 1860s and swindled $200 million from the city through bribery, graft, and vote-buying; Boss Tweed was eventually jailed for his crimes ad died behind bars

three-sister farming

agricultural system employed by North American Indians as early as 1000 AD; maize, beans, and squash were grown together to maximize yields

Horace Greeley

an American newspaper editor and founder of the Republican party. His New York Tribune was America's most influential newspaper 1840-1870. Greeley used it to promote the Whig and Republican parties, as well as antislavery and a host of reforms

William Wilberforce

an English politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade

naturalism

an offshoot of mainstream realism, this late-nineteenth-century literary movement purported to apply detached scientific objectivity to the study of human characters shaped by degenerate hereditary and extreme or sordid social environments

contras

anti-Sandinistas fighters in the Nicaraguan civil war; the Contras were secretly supplied with American military aid, paid for with money the United States clandestinely made selling arms to Iran

J. P. Morgan

banker who bought out Carnegie Steel and renamed it to U.S. Steel; was a philanthropist in a way; he gave all the money needed for WWI and was payed back; was one of the "Robber barons"

Patrick Henry

became an antifederalist; felt the drafted Constitution was destroying all liberty

Margaret Thatcher

became the first female prime minister in 1979

arminianism

belief that salvation is offered to all humans but is conditional on acceptance of God's grace; different from Calvinism, which emphasizes predestination and unconditional election

antinomianism

belief that the elect need not obey the law of either God or man; most notably espoused in the colonies by Anne Hutchinson

Unitarians

believe in a unitary deity, reject the divinity of Christ, and emphasize the inherent goodness of mankind; Unitarianism, inspired in part by Deism, first caught on in New England at the end of the eighteenth century

Robert Owen

believed in Utopias and developed Utopian society New Harmony in Indiana

Social Darwinists

believers in the idea, popular in the late nineteenth century, that people gained wealth by "survival of the fittest."; therefore, the wealthy had simply won a natural competition and owed nothing to the poor, and indeed service to the poor would interfere with this organic process; some Social Darwinists also applied this theory to whole nations and races, explaining that powerful peoples were naturally endowed with gifts that allowed them to gain superiority over others; this theory provided one of the popular justifications for U.S. imperial ventures like the Spanish-American War

W. E. B. Du Bois

black intellectual who challenged Booker T. Washington's ideas on combating Jim Crow; he called for the black community to demand immediate equality and was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Allen Ginsberg

bohemian writer in the Beat Generation

muckrakers

bright young reporters at the turn of the twentieth century who won this unfavorable moniker from Theodore Roosevelt, but boosted the circulations of their magazines by writing exposes of widespread corruption in American society; their subjects included business manipulation of government, white slavers, child labor, and the illegal deeds of the trusts, and helped spur the passage of reform legislation

patriots

colonists who supported the American Revolution; they were also known as 'Whigs'

Guantánamo Detention Camp

controversial prison facility constructed after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001; located on territory occupied by the US military, but not technically part of the United States, the facility serves as an extra-legal holding area for suspected terrorists

Wendell L. Willkie

dark horse Republican Presidential nominee in 1940; lost against FDR & attacked him for the third term attempt

Mary II

daughter of James II who came to the throne and ruled jointly with her husband and first cousin, William III, when James II was deposed in the Glorious Revolution

Proclamation of 1763

decree issued by Parliament in the wake of Pontiac's uprising, prohibiting settlement beyond the Appalachians; contributed to rising resentment of British rule in the American colonies

Yamasee Indians

defeated by the South Carolinans in the war of 1715-1716; the Yamasee defeat devastated the last of the coastal Indian tribes in the Southern colonies

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

democratic candidate who won the 1932 election by a landslide. He refused to uphold any of Hoover's policies with the intent on enacting his own. He pledged a present a "New Deal" (its specific meaning ambiguous at the time to the American people) to the American public. was elected an unprecedented 4 times; this was followed by the 22nd Amendment, which limited a president to two terms

mercantilism

economic theory that closely linked a nation's political and military power to its bullion reserves; mercantilists generally favored protectionism and colonial acquisition as means to increase exports

Benito Mussolini

fascist dictator of Italy; sought to create a new empire, much like the Roman one; became an ally with Adolf Hitler in the Rome-Berlin Axis, and led his forces against the Allied powers in WWII; overthrown and beheaded in 1943, after the fall of Sicily during the war

Harpers Ferry

federal arsenal in Virginia seized by abolitionist John Brown in 1859; though Brown was later captured and executed, his raid alarmed Southerners who believed that Northerners shared in Brown's extremism

Berlin Wall

fortified and guarded barrier between East and West Berlin erected on orders from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1961 to stop the flow of people to the West; until its destruction in 1989, the wall was a vivid symbol of the divide between the communist and capitalist worlds

Alamo

fortress in Texas where four hundred American volunteers were slain by Santa Anna in 1836; "Remember the Alamo" became a battle cry in support of Texan independence

American Temperance Society

founded in Boston in 1826 as part of a growing effort of nineteenth-century reformers to limit alcohol consumption

Incas

highly advanced South American civilization that occupied present-day Peru until it was conquered by Spanish forces under Francisco Pizarro in 1532; the Incas developed sophisticated agricultural techniques, such as terrace farming, in order to sustain large, complex societies in the unforgiving Andes Mountains

republican motherhood

ideal of family organization and female behavior after the American Revolution that stressed the role of women in guiding family members toward republican virtue

Dupuy de Lôme

the Spanish minister to the United States who found himself at the center of a scandal when his private letter maligning President McKinley was made public in 1898

Harry S. Truman

vice president during FDR's 4th term and became the 33rd president when Roosevelt died. His administration resulted in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, creation of the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and the "Fair Deal"

Act of Toleration

(1649) passed in Maryland, it guaranteed toleration to all Christians but decreed the death penalty for those, like Jews and atheists, who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ; ensured that Maryland would continue to attract a high proportion of Catholic migrants throughout the colonial period

Second Anglo-Powhatan War

(1644-1646) last-ditch effort by the Indians to dislodge Virginia settlements, the resulting peace treaty formally separated white and Indian areas of settlement

Common Sense

(1776) Thomas Paine's pamphlet urging the colonies to declare independence and establish a republican government; the widely read pamphlet helped convince colonists to support the Revolution

midnight judges

(1801) federal justices appointed by John Adams during the last days of his presidency; their positions were revoked when the newly elected Republican Congress repealed the Judiciary Act

Massachusetts Bay Colony

(founded in 1630) established by non-separating Puritans, it soon grew to be the largest and most influential of the New England colonies

War Production Board (WPB)

established in 1942 by executive order to direct all war production, including procuring and allocating raw materials, to maximize the nation's war machine; the WPB had sweeping powers over the U.S. economy and was abolished in November 1945 soon after Japan's defeat

Lee Harvey Oswald

ex-Marine and communist sympathizer who assassinated John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963; he was murdered two days later as he was being transferred from one jail to another

triangular trade

exchange of rum, slaves, and molasses between the North American colonies, Africa, and the West Indies; a small but immensely profitable subset of the Atlantic trade

black legend

false notion that Spanish conquerors did little but butcher the Indians and steal their gold in the name of Christ

Samuel de Champlain

fearless French soldier and explorer who established Québec, earning the title "Father of New France"; he was friendly with the Hurons and helped them fight the Iroquois, which resulted in The Iroquois trying to prevent French Ohio Valley settlement and them becoming allies to the British frequently

Patent Office

federal government bureau that reviews patent applications; a patent is a legal recognition of a new invention, granting exclusive rights to the inventor for a period of years

Elizabeth Blackwell

A woman who challenged the taboo of professional women. She graduated from medical college, thereby proving that women are able to do what men can

George C. Marshall

former World War II general who became secretary of state under President Truman. He was the originator of the concept of the Marshall Plan to provide aid to reconstruct Western Europe in 1947

Pontiac

Ottawa chief who led an uprising trying to drive the British out of the Ohio Country; although initially doing well, his men were crushed when the British distributed smallpox infected blankets among the Indians; he died at the hands of a rival chieftain in 1769

Manuel Noriega

Panama leader who was overthrown in a 1989 US invasion; tried and imprisoned for drug trafficking

Stephen A. Douglas

Senator from Illinois who ran for president against Abraham Lincoln. Wrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Freeport Doctrine

Joseph McCarthy

Senator from Wisconsin who rose to infamy by accusing the State Department of employing communists, he conducted high-profile red-baiting hearings that damaged countless careers before he finally overreached in 1954 when he went after the US Army; after that he was censured by Senate and died of alcoholism shortly thereafter

Compromise Tariff of 1833

passed as a measure to resolve the nullification crisis, it provided that tariffs be lowered gradually, over a period of ten years, to 1816 levels

encomienda

Spanish government's policy to "commend", or give, Indians to certain colonists in return for the promise to Christianize them; part of a broader Spanish effort to subdue Indian tribes in the West Indies and on the North American mainland

Bartolomé de las Casas

Spanish missionary who supported peaceful conversion of the Native American population; opposed forced labor and advocated Indian rights

Francisco Coronado

Spanish soldier and commander; in 1540-1542, led an expedition north from Mexico in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Gold, but only found Adobe pueblos; did, however, find the Grand Canyon and enormous herds of buffalo

Douglas MacArthur

U.S. general. Commander of U.S. (later Allied) forces in the southwestern Pacific during World War II, he accepted Japan's surrender in 1945 and administered the ensuing Allied occupation

John ("Black Jack") Pershing

US general who chased Villa over 300 miles into Mexico but didn't capture him

John Tyler

Virginian who was a Democrat but ran for Presidency as a Whig following the death of Harrison; hostile to a centralized bank, vetoed many tariffs, and was still highly Democratic despite being a "Whig"

Thomas MacDonough

Was an early-19th-century American naval officer noted for his roles in the first Barbary War and the War of 1812. He was the son of a revolutionary officer, Thomas Macdonough, Sr. who lived near Middletown, Delaware

James Monroe

Was the fifth President of the United States (1817-1825). Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, the third of them to die on Independence Day, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation.

United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)

a black nationalist organization founded in 1914 by the Jamaican-born Marcus Garvey in order to promote resettlement of African Americans to their "African homeland" and to stimulate a vigorous separate black economy within the United States

"Butcher" Weyler

a Spanish general who arrived in Cuba in 1896 to put down the insurrection; he became notorious for herding many civilians into barbed-wire reconcentration camps

Frederick Douglass

a black abolitionist who escaped from slavery, and later became one of the most famous speakers and writers of the abolitionist movement

Half-Way Covenant (1662)

agreement allowing unconverted offspring of church members to baptize their children; it signified a waning of religious zeal among second and third generation Puritans

Convention of 1800

agreement to formally dissolve the United State's treaty with France, originally signed during the Revolutionary War; the difficulties posed by America's peacetime alliance with France contributed to America's longstanding opposition to entangling alliances with foreign powers

Macon's Bill No. 2

aimed at resuming peaceful trade with Britain and France, the act stipulated that if either Britain or France repealed its trade restrictions, the United States would reinstate the embargo against the non-repealing nation; when Napoleon offered to lift his restrictions on British ports, the United States was forced to declare an embargo on Britain, thereby pushing the two nations closer toward war

corrupt bargain

alleged deal between presidential candidates John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay to throw the election, to be decided by the House of Representatives, in Adam's favor; though never proven, the accusation became the rallying cry for supporters of Andrew Jackson, who actually garnered a plurality of the popular vote in 1824

blue laws

also known as sumptuary laws, they are designed to restrict personal behavior in accord with a strict code of mortality; blue laws were passed across the colonies, particularly in Puritan New England and Quaker Pennsylvania

Immigration Act of 1924

also known as the "National Origins Act," this law established quotas for immigration to the United States; immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe were sharply curtailed, while immigrants from Asia were shut out altogether

American Relief and Recovery Act

among the earliest initiatives of the Obama Administration to combat the Great Recession; it was based on the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes that called for increased government spending to offset decreased private spending in times of economic downturn; the Act was controversial from the outset, passing with no Republican votes in the House, and only three in the Senate, and helping to foster the "Tea Party" movement to curb government deficits, even while critics on the Left argued that the Act's $787 billion appropriation was not enough to turn the economy around

Clarence Thomas

an African American jurist and a strict critic of affirmative action; he was nominated by George H. W. Bush to be on the Supreme Court in 1991, and shortly after was accused of sexual harassment by Anita Hill; hearings were reopened, and he became the second African American to hold a seat in the Supreme Court

Nat Turner

an African American slave who led a slave rebellion in Virginia on August 21, 1831 that resulted in 60 white deaths. Whites responded with at least 200 black deaths. He gathered supporters in Southampton County, Virginia

Andy Warhol

an American commercial illustrator and artist famous for his Campbell's soup painting; he was the founder of the pop-art movement, which like all other art movements in history reflected something back on the present society

Alexander Graham Bell

an American inventor who was responsible for developing the telephone; this greatly improved communications in the country

T. S. Eliot

an Anglo-American poet, playwright, and literary critic of the modernist movement; famous for The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock

Sir Walter Raleigh

an English adventurer and writer, who was prominent at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, and became an explorer of the Americas; in 1585, he sponsored the first English colony in America on Roanoke Island in present day North Calonia

Hiawatha

an Indian chief who founded the Iroquois Confederacy who promoted peace and forgiveness

Theodore Dwight Weld

an abolitionist who was a well-known architect and speaker for the cause. He was co -author of "American Slavery as it is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses"

sharecropping

an agricultural system that emerged after the Civil War in which black and white farmers rented land and residences from a plantation owner in exchange for giving him a certain "share" of each year's crop; sharecropping was the dominant form of southern agriculture after the Civil War, and landowners manipulated this system to keep tenants in perpetual debt and unable to leave their plantations

Susan B. Anthony

an early leader of the women's suffrage (right to vote) movement, co-founded the National Women's Suffrage Association with Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1869

Thorstein Veblen

an eccentric Norwegian-American economist who savagely attacked "predatory wealth" and "conspicuous consumption" in his most important book, "The Theory of the Leisure Class" (1899)

Keynesianism

an economic theory based on the thoughts of British economist John Maynard Keynes, holding that central banks should adjust interest rates and governments should use deficit spending and tax policies to increase purchasing power and hence prosperity

William T. Johnson

an emancipated slave in Mississippi who was a well-known barber and is known also for his 16 year diary

Jerry Falwell

an evangelical minister from Lynchburg, Virginia, who founded a political organization called Moral Majority whose rallying cry was "family values," anti-abortion, and favored prayer in schools

abstract expressionism

an experimental style of mid-twentieth-century modern art exemplified by Jackson Pollock's spontaneous "action paintings," created by flinging paint on canvases stretched across the studio floor

William Lloyd Garrison

an extreme abolitionist who wrote/published the newspaper The Liberator

Ku Klux Klan

an extremist, paramilitary, right-wing secret society founded in the mid-nineteenth century and revived during the 1920s; it was anti-foreign, anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-pacifist, anti-communist, anti-internationalist, anti-evolutionist, and anti-bootlegger, but pro-Anglo-Saxon and pro-Protestant; its members, cloaked in sheets to conceal their identities, terrorized freedmen and sympathetic whites throughout the South after the Civil War; by the 1890s, Klan-style violence and Democratic legislation succeeded in virtually disenfranchising all Southern blacks

Ku Klux Klan

an extremist, paramilitary, right-wing secret society founded in the mid-nineteenth century and revived during the 1920s; it was anti-foreign, anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-pacifist, anti-communist, anti-internationalist, anti-evolutionist, anti-and anti-bootlegger, but pro-Anglo-Saxon and pro-Protestant; its members, cloaked in sheets to conceal their identities, terrorized freedmen and sympathetic whites throughout the South after the Civil War; by the 1890s, Klan-style violence and Democratic legislation succeeded in virtually disenfranchising all Southern blacks

Randolph Bourne

an intellectual who championed alternative conceptions of the immigrant role in American society, advocated greater cross-fertilization among immigrants, believed cosmopolitan interchange was destined to make America "not a nationality but a trans-nationality, a weaving back and forth, with the other lands, of many threads of all sizes and colors," US should serve as the vanguard of a more international and multicultural age

Horace Kallen

an intellectual who championed alternative conceptions of the immigrant role in American society, defended newcomer's right to practice their ancestral customs, vision- the US should provide a protective canopy for ethnic and racial groups to preserve their cultural uniqueness, stressed the preservation of identity, believed pluralism

National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

an organization founded in 1890 to demand the vote for women; NAWSA argued that women should be allowed to vote because their responsibilities in the home and family made them indispensable in the public decision-making process; during World War I, NAWSA supported the war effort and lauded women's role in the Allied victory, which helped to finally achieve nationwide woman suffrage in the Nineteenth Amendment

Chester Arthur

appointed customs collector for the port of New York - corrupt and implemented a heavy spoils system. He was chosen as Garfield's running mate. Garfield won but was shot, so Arthur became the 21st president

International Style

archetypal, post-World War II modernist architectural style, best known for its "curtain-wall" designs of steel-and-glass corporate high-rises

Frederick Law Olmsted

designer of New York City's Central Park, who wanted cities that exposed people to the beauties of nature. One of his projects, the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893, gave a rise to the influential "City Beautiful" movement

Joseph Smith

developed the Mormon religion

Black Power

doctrine of militancy and separation that rose in prominence after 1965; Black Power activists rejected Martin Luther King's pacifism and desire for integration; rather, they promoted pride in African heritage and an often militant position in defense of their rights

calvinism

dominant theological credo of the New England Puritans based on the teachings of John Calvin; Calvinists believed in predestination- that only "the elect" were destined for salvation

John J. Audubon

drew pictures of birds and led to the development of the Audubon society

Federal Style

early national style of architecture that borrowed from neoclassical models and emphasized symmetry, balance, and restraint; famous builders associated with this style included Charles Bulfinch and Benjamin Latrobe

romanticism

early-nineteenth-century movement in European and American literature and the arts that, in reaction to the hyper-rational Enlightenment, emphasized imagination over reason, nature over civilization, intuition over calculation, and the self over society

panic of 1837

economic crisis triggered by bank failures, elevated grain prices, and Andrew Jackson's efforts to curb over-speculation on western lands and transportation improvements; in response, President Martin Van Buren propose the "Divorce Bill," which pulled treasury funds out of the banking system altogether, contracting the credit supply

capitalism

economic system characterized by private property, generally free trade, and open and accessible markets; European colonization of the Americas, in particular, the discovery of vast bullion deposits, helped bring about Europe's transition to capitalism

supply-side economics

economic theory that underlay Ronald Reagan's tax and spending cuts; contrary to Keynesianism, supply-side theory declared that government policy should aim to increase the supply of goods and services, rather than the demand for them; it held that lower taxes and decreased regulation would increase productivity by providing increased incentives to work, thus increasing productivity and the tax base

market revolution

eighteenth- and nineteenth-century transformation from a dis-aggregated, subsistence economy to a national commercial and industrial network

Radical Whigs

eighteenth-century British political commentators who agitated against political corruption and emphasized the threat to liberty posed by arbitrary power; their writings shaped American political thought and made colonists especially alert to encroachments on their rights

scalawags

derogatory term for pro-Union Southerners whom Southern Democrats accused of plundering the resources of the South in collusion with Republican governments after the Civil War

Samuel Slater

"Father of the Factory System" in America; escaped Britain with the memorized plans for the textile machinery; put into operation the first spinning cotton thread in 1791

William Pitt

"Great Commoner", "Organizer of Victory"; leader in London government who rose to prominence during the French and Indian War with his battle tactics that helped the British beat the French

Virginia Plan

"Large State" proposal for the new constitution, calling for proportional representation in both houses of a bicameral Congress; the plan favored larger states and thus prompted smaller states to come back with their own plan for appointing representation

rock 'n' roll

"crossover" musical style that rose to dominance in the 1950s, merging black rhythm and blues with white bluegrass and country; featuring a heavy beat and driving rhythm, rock 'n' roll music became a defining feature of the 1950s youth culture

noche triste (June 30, 1520)

"sad night", when the Aztecs attacked Hernán Cortés and his forces in the Aztec capital, Tenochitlán, killing hundreds; Cortés laid siege to the city the following year, precipitating the fall of the Aztec Empire and inaugurating three centuries of Spanish rule

Spanish Armada

(1588) Spanish fleet defeated in the English Channel in 1588; the defeat of the Armada marked the beginning of the decline of the Spanish Empire

Edict of Nantes

(1598) decree issued by the French crown granting limited toleration to French Protestants; ended religious wars in France and inaugurated a period of French preeminence in Europe and across the Atlantic; its repeal in 1685 prompted a fresh migration of Protestant Huguenots to North America

Jamestown

(1607) first permanent English settlement in North America founded by the Virginia Company

First Anglo-Powhatan War

(1614) series of clashes between the Powhatan Confederacy and English settlers in Virginia; English colonists torched and pillaged Indian villages, applying tactics used in England's campaigns against the Irish

Mayflower Compact

(1620) agreement to form a majoritarian government in Plymouth; signed aboard the Mayflower; created a foundation for self-government in the colony

Great Migration

(1630-1642) migration of seventy thousand refugees from England to the North American colonies, primarily New England and the Caribbean; the twenty thousand migrants who came to Massachusetts largely shared a common sense of purpose- to establish a model Christian settlement in the New World

Pequot War

(1636-1638) series of clashes between English settlers and Pequot Indians in the Connecticut River valley; ended in the slaughter of the Pequots by the Puritans and their Narragansett Indian allies

Fundamental Orders

(1639) drafted by settlers in the Connecticut River Valley; document was the first "modern constitution" establishing a democratically controlled government; key features of the document were borrowed for Connecticut's colonial charter and later, its state constitution

English Civil War

(1642-1651) armed conflict between royalists and parliamentarians resulting in the victory of pro-Parliament forces and the execution of Charles I

New England Confederation

(1643) weak union of the colonies in Massachusetts and Connecticut led by Puritans for the purpose of defense and organization, an early attempt at self-government during the benign neglect of the English Civil War

Barbados Slave Code

(1661) first formal statute governing the treatment of slaves, which provided for harsh punishments against offending slaves but lacked penalties for the mistreatment of slaves by masters; similar statues were adopted by Southern plantation societies on the N0rth American mainland in the 17th and 18th centuries

King Phillip's War

(1675-1676) series of assaults by Metacom, King Phillip, on English settlements in New England; the attacks slowed the westward migration of New England settlers for several decades

Bacon's Rebellion

(1676) uprising of Virginia back country farmers and indentured servants led by planter Nathaniel Bacon; initially a response to Governor William Berkeley's refusal to protect back country settlers from Indian attacks, the rebellion eventually grew into a broader conflict between impoverished settlers and the planter elite

Dominion of New England

(1686-1689) administrative union created by royal authority, incorporating all of New England, New York, and East and West Jersey; placed under the rules of Sir Edmund Andros who curved popular assemblies, taxed residents without their consent, and strictly enforced Navigation Laws; its collapse after the Glorious Revolution in England demonstrated colonial opposition to strict royal control

salutary neglect

(1688-1763) unofficial policy of relaxed royal control over colonial trade and only weak enforcement of Navigation Laws; lasted from the Glorious Revolution to the end of the French and Indian War in 1763

Leisler's Rebellion

(1689-1691) armed conflict between aspiring merchants led by Jacob Leisler and the ruling elite of New York; one of many uprisings that erupted across the colonies when wealthy colonists attempted to recreate European social structures in the New World

King William's War

(1689-1697) war fought largely between French trappers, British settlers, and their respective Indian allies from 1689-1697; the colonial theater of the larger War of the League of Augsburg in Europe

Salem Witch Trials

(1692-1693) series of witchcraft trials launched after a group of adolescent girls in Salem, Massachusetts, claimed to have been bewitched by certain older women of the town; twenty individuals were put to death before the trials were put to an end by the Governor of Massachusetts

Protestant Reformation

(16th Century) movement to reform the Catholic Church launched in Germany by Martin Luther; reformers questioned the authority of the Pope, sought to eliminate the selling of indulgences, and encouraged the translation of the Bible from Latin, which few at the time could read; the reformation was launched in England in the 1530's when King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church

Queen Anne's War

(1702-1713) second in a series of conflicts between the European powers for control of North America, fought between the English and French colonists in the North, and the English and Spanish in Florida; under the peace treaty, the French ceded Acadia (Nova Scotia), Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay to Britain

Tuscarora War

(1711-1713) began with an Indian attack on Newbern, North Carolina; after the Tuscaroras were defeated, remaining Indian survivors migrated northward, eventually joining the Iroquois Confederacy as its sixth nation

New York Slave Revolt

(1712) uprising of approximately two dozen slaves that resulted in the deaths of nine whites and the brutal execution of twenty-one participating blacks

Committees of Correspondence

(1722 and after) local committees established across Massachusetts, and later in each of the thirteen colonies, to maintain colonial opposition to British policies through the exchange of letters and pamphlets

Great Awakening

(1730's and 1740's) religious revival that swept the colonies; participating ministers, most notably Jonathon Edwards and George Whitfield, placed an emphasis on direct, emotive spirituality; a Second Great Awakening arose in the nineteenth century

Poor Richard's Almanack

(1732-1758) widely read annual pamphlet edited by Benjamin Franklin; best known for its proverbs and aphorisms emphasizing thrift, industry, morality, and common sense

Zenger Trial

(1734-1735) New York libel case against John Peter Zenger; established the principle that truthful statements about public officials could not be prosecuted as libel

Molasses Act

(1737) tax on imported molasses passed by Parliament in an effort to squelch the North American trade with the French West Indies; it proved largely ineffective due to widespread smuggling

South Carolina Slave Revolt (Stono River)

(1739) uprising, also known as the Stono Rebellion, of more that fifty South Carolina blacks along the Stono River; the slaves attempted to reach Spanish Florida but were stopped by the South Carolina militia

First Continental Congress

(1744) convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies that convened in Philadelphia to craft a response to the Intolerable Acts; delegates established the Association, which called for a complete boycott of British goods

"Intolerable Acts"

(1744) series of punitive measures passed in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, closing the Port of Boston, revoking a number of rights in the Massachusetts colonial charter, and expanding the Quartering Act to allow for the lodging of soldiers in private homes; in response, colonists convened the First Continental Congress and called for a complete boycott of British goods

King George's War

(1744-1748) North American theater of Europe's War of Austrian Succession that once again pitted British colonists against their French counterparts in the North; the peace settlement did not involve any territorial realignment, leading to conflict between New England settlers and the British government

Albany Congress

(1754) inter colonial congress summoned by the British government to foster greater colonial unity and assure Iroquois support in the escalating war against the French

French and Indian War (Seven Years' War)

(1754-1763) nine-year war between the British and the French in North America; it resulted in the expulsion of the French from the North American mainland and helped spark the Seven Years' War in Europe

Second Continental Congress

(1755-1781) representative body of delegates from all thirteen colonies; drafted the Declaration of Independence and managed colonial war effort

Battle of Québec

(1759) Historic British victory over French forces on the outskirts of Québec; the surrender of Québec marked the beginning of the end of French rule in North America

Pontiac's uprising

(1763) bloody campaign waged by Ottawa chief Pontiac to drive the British out of Ohio Country; it was brutally crushed by British troops, who resorted to distributing blankets infected with smallpox as a means to put down the rebellion

Quebec Act

(1774) allowed the French residents of Quebec to retain their traditional political and religious institutions, and extended the boundaries of the province southward to the Ohio River; mistakenly perceived by the colonists to be part of Parliament's response to the Boston Tea Party

Paxton Boys

(1764) armed march on Philadelphia by Scotts-Irish frontiersmen in protest against the Quaker establishment's lenient policies toward Native Americans

Sugar Act

(1764) duty on imported sugar from the West Indies; it was the first tax levied on the colonists by the crown and was lowered substantially in response to widespread protests

nonimportation agreements

(1765 and after) boycotts against British goods adopted in response to the Stamp Act, and later, the Townshend and Intolerable Acts; the agreements were the most effective form of protest against British policies in the colonies

Stamp Act Congress

(1765) assembly of delegates from nine colonies who met in New York City to draft a petition for the repeal of the Stamp Act; helped ease sectional suspicions and promote intercolonial unity

Quartering Act

(1765) required colonies to provide food and quarters for British troops; many colonists resented the act, which they perceived as an encroachment on their rights

Stamp Tax

(1765) widely unpopular tax on an array of paper goods, repealed in 1766 after mass protests erupted across the colonies; colonists developed the principle of "no taxation without representation" that questioned Parliaments authority over the colonies and laid the foundation for future revolutionary claims

Declaratory Act

(1766) passed alongside the repeal of the Stamp Act, it reaffirmed Parliament's unqualified sovereignty over the North American colonies

Townshend Acts

(1767) external, or indirect, levies on glass, white lead, paper, paint, and tea; the proceeds of which were used to pay colonial governors, who had previously been payed directly by colonial assemblies; sparked another round of protests in the colonies

regulator movement

(1768-1771) eventually violent uprising of backcountry settlers in North Carolina against unfair taxation and the control of colonial affairs by the seaboard elite

Boston Massacre

(1770) clash between unruly Bostonian protesters and locally stationed British redcoats, who fired on the jeering crowd, killing or wounding eleven citizens

Boston Tea Party

(1773) rowdy protest against the British East India Company's newly acquired monopoly on the tea trade; colonists, disguised as Indians, dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston harbor, prompting harsh sanctions from the British Parliament

The Association

(1774) non-importation agreement crafted during the First Continental Congress calling for the complete boycott of British goods

Model Treaty

(1776) sample treaty drafted by the Continental Congress as a guide for American diplomats; reflected the American's desire to foster commercial partnerships than political or military entanglements

Valley Forge

(1777-1778) encampment where George Washington's poorly equipped army spent a wretched, freezing winter; hundreds of men died and more than a thousand deserted; the plight of starving, shivering soldiers reflected the main weakness of the American army--a lake of stable supplies and munitions

Armed Neutrality

(1780) loose alliance of nonbelligerent naval powers, organized by Russia's Catherine the Great, to protect neutral trading rights during the war for American Independence

Articles of Confederation

(1781) First American constitution that established the United States as a loose confederation of states under a weak national Congress, which was not granted the power to regulate commerce or collect taxes; The Articles were replaced by a more efficient Constitution in 1789

Treaty of Paris

(1783) peace treaty signed by Britain and the United States ending the Revolutionary War; the British formally recognized American Independence and ceded territory east of the Mississippi while the Americans, in turn, promised to restore Loyalist property and repay debts to British creditors

Treaty of Fort Stanwix

(1784) treaty signed by the United States and the pro-British Iroquois granting Ohio Country to the Americans

Shay's Rebellion

(1786) armed uprising of Western Massachusetts debtors seeking lower taxes and an end to property foreclosures; though quickly put down, the insurrection inspired fears of "mob role" among leading Revolutionaries

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

(1786) measure enacted by the Virginia legislature prohibiting state support for religious institutions and recognizing freedom of worship; served as a model for the religion clause of the first amendment to the Constitution

New Jersey Plan

(1787) "Small State" plan put forth at the Philadelphia convention, proposing equal representation by state, regardless of population, in a unicameral legislature; small states feared that the more populous states would dominate the agenda under a proportional system

Northwest Ordinance

(1787) created a policy for administering the Northwest Territories; it included a path to statehood and forbade the expansion of slavery into the territories

Three-Fifths compromise

(1787) determined that each slave would be counted as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of apportioning taxes and representation; the compromise granted disproportionate political power to Southern slave states

Great Compromise

(1787) popular term for the measure which reconciled the New Jersey and Virginia plans at the constitutional convention, giving states proportional representation in the House and equal representation in the Senate; the compromise broke the stalemate at the convention and paved the way for subsequent compromises over slavery and the Electoral College

Whiskey Rebellion

(1794) popular uprising of whiskey distillers in Southwestern Pennsylvania in opposition to an excise tax on whiskey; in a show of strength and resolve by the new central government, Washington put down the rebellion with militia drawn from several states

The Federalist

(1788) collection of essays written by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton and published during the ratification debate in New York to lay out the Federalists' arguments in favor of the new Constitution; since their publication, these influential essays have served as an important source for constitutional interpretation

Declaration of the Rights of Man

(1789) declaration of rights adopted during the French Revolution; modeled after American Declaration of Independence

Bank of the United States

(1791) chartered by Congress as part of Alexander Hamilton's financial program, the bank printed paper money and served as a depository for Treasury funds; it drew opposition from Jeffersonian Republicans, who argued that the bank was unconstitutional

Bill of Rights

(1791) popular term for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution; the amendments secure key rights for individuals and reserve to the states all powers not explicitly delegated or prohibited by the Constitution

Haitian Revolution

(1791-1804) war incited by a slave uprising in French-controlled Saint Domingue, resulting in the creation of the first independent black republic in the Americas

cotton gin

(1793) Eli Whitney's invention that sped up the process of harvesting cotton; the gin made cotton cultivation more profitable, revitalizing the Southern economy and increasing the importance of slavery in the South

Neutrality Proclamation

(1793) issued by George Washington , it proclaimed America's formal neutrality in the escalating conflict between England and France, a statement that enraged pro-French Jeffersonians

Reign of Terror

(1793-1794) ten-month period of brutal repression when some 40,000 individuals were executes as enemies of the French Revolution; while many Jeffersonians maintained their faith to the French republic, Federalists withdrew their already lukewarm support once the Reign of Terror commenced

The Age of Reason

(1794) Thomas Paine's anticlerical treatise that accused churches of seeking to acquire "power and profit" and to "enslave mankind"

Battle of Fallen Timbers

(1794) decisive battle between the Miami Confederacy and the United States army; British forces refused to shelter the routed Indians, forcing the latter to obtain a peace settlement with the United States

Jay's Treaty

(1794) negotiated by Chief Justice John Jay in an effort to avoid war with Britain, the treaty included a British promise to evacuate outposts on United States soil and pay damages for seized American vessels, in exchange for which Jay bound the United States to repay pre-Revolutionary war debts and abide by Britain's restrictive trading policies toward France

Pinckney's Treaty

(1795) signed with Spain which, fearing an Anglo-American alliance, granted Americans free navigation of the Mississippi and the disputed territory of Florida

Treaty of Grenville

(1795) under the terms of the treaty, the Miami Confederacy agreed to cede territory in the Old Northwest to the United States in exchange for cash payment, hunting rights, and formal recognition of their sovereign status

Farewell Address

(1796) George Washington's address at the end of his presidency, warning against "permanent alliances" with other nations; Washington did not oppose all alliances, but believed that the young, fledgling nation should forge alliances only on a temporary basis, in extraordinary circumstances

XYZ Affair

(1797) diplomatic conflict between France and the United States when American envoys to France were asked to pay a hefty bribe for the privilege of meeting with the French foreign minister; many in the United States called for war against France, while American sailors and privateers waged an undeclared war against French merchants in the Caribbean

Alien Laws

(1798) acts passed by a Federalist Congress raising the residency requirement for citizenship to fourteen years and granting the president the power to deport dangerous foreigners in times of peace

Sedition Act

(1798) enacted by the Federalist Congress in an effort to clamp down on Jeffersonian opposition, the law made anyone convicted of defaming government officials or interfering with government policies liable to imprisonment and a heavy fine; the act drew heavy criticism from Republicans, who let the act expire in 1801

Virginia & Kentucky Resolutions

(1798-1799) statements secretly drafted by Jefferson and Madison for the legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia; argued that states were the final arbiters of whether the federal government overstepped its boundaries and could therefore nullify, or refuse to accept, national legislation they deemed unconstitutional

Tripolitan War

(1801-1805) four-year conflict between the American Navy and the North African nation of Tripoli over piracy in the Mediterranean; Jefferson, a staunch non-interventionist, reluctantly deployed American forces, eventually securing a peace treaty with Tripoli

Marbury v. Madison

(1803) Supreme Court case that established the principle of "judicial review"- the idea that the Supreme Court had final authority to determine constitutionality

Louisiana Purchase

(1803) acquisition of Louisiana territory from France; the purchase more than doubled the territory of the United States, opening vast tracts for settlement

Corps of Discovery

(1804-1806) team of adventurers, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, sent by Thomas Jefferson to explore Louisiana territory and find a water route to the Pacific; Louis and Clark brought back detailed accounts of the West's flora, fauna, and native populations and their voyage demonstrated the viability of overland travel to the West

Orders in Council

(1806-1807) edicts issued by the British crown closing French-owned European ports to foreign shipping; the French responded by ordering the seizure of all vessels entering British ports, thereby cutting off American merchants from trade with both parties

Chesapeake Affair

(1807) conflict between Britain and the United States that precipitated the 1807 embargo; the conflict developed when a British ship, in search of deserters, fired on the American Chesapeake off of the coast of Virginia

Embargo Act

(1807) enacted in response to British and French mistreatment of American merchants, the Act banned the export of all goods from the United States to any foreign part; the embargo placed great strains on the American economy while only marginally affecting its European targets, and was therefore repealed in 1809

Nat Turner's rebellion

(1831) Virginia slave revolt that resulted in the deaths of sixty whites and raised fears among white Southerners of further uprisings

Non-Intercourse Act

(1809) passed alongside the repeal of the Embargo Act, it reopened trade with all but two of the belligerent nations, Britain and France; the Act continued Jefferson's policy of economic coercion, still with little effect

Fletcher v. Peck

(1810) established firmer protection for private property and asserted the right of the Supreme Court to invalidate state laws in conflict with the federal Constitution

Battle of Tippecanoe

(1811) resulted in the defeat of Shawnee chief Tenskwatawa, "The Prophet" at the hands of William Henry Harrison in the Indiana wilderness; after the battle, the Prophet's brother, Tecumseh, forged an alliance with the British against the United States

war hawks

(1811-1812) Democratic-Republican Congressmen who pressed James Madison to declare war on Britain; largely drawn from the South and West, the war hawks resented British constraints on American trade and accused the British of supporting Indian attacks against American settlements on the frontier

War of 1812

(1812-1815) fought between Britain and the United States largely over the issues of trade and impressment; though the war ended in a relative draw, it demonstrated America's willingness to defend its interests militarily, earning the young nation new-found respect from European powers

Hartford Convention

(1814-1815) convention of Federalists from five New England states who opposed the War of 1812 and resented the strength of Southern and Western interests in Congress and in the White House

Congress of Vienna

(1814-1815) convention of major European powers to redraw the boundaries of continental Europe after the defeat of Napoleonic France

Treaty of Ghent

(1815) ended the War of 1812 in a virtual draw, restoring prewar borders but failing to address any of the grievances that first brought America into the war

Era of Good Feelings

(1816-1824) popular name for the period of one-party, Republican, rule during James Monroe's presidency; the term obscures bitter conflicts over internal improvements, slavery, and the national bank

Rush-Bagot Agreement

(1817) signed by Britain and the United States, it established strict limits on naval armaments in the Great Lakes, a first step in the full demilitarization of the US-Canadian border completed in the 1870's

Anglo-American Convention

(1818) signed by Britain and the United States, the pact allowed New England fisherman access to Newfoundland fisheries, established the northern border of the Louisiana territory, and provided for the joint occupation of the Oregon Country for ten years

McCulloch v. Maryland

(1819) Supreme Court case that strengthened federal authority and upheld the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States by establishing the State of Maryland did not have the power to tax the bank

Dartmouth College v. Woodward

(1819) Supreme Court case that sustained Dartmouth University's original charter against changes proposed by the New Hampshire state legislature, thereby protecting corporation from domination by state governments

Tallmadge amendment

(1819) failed proposal to prohibit the importation of slaves into Missouri territory and pave the way for gradual emancipation; Southerners vehemently opposed the amendment, which they perceived as a threat to the sectional balance between North and South

Florida Purchase Treaty (Adams-Onis Treaty)

(1819) under the agreement, Spain ceded Florida to the United States, which, in exchange, abandoned its claims to Texas

American System

(1820's) Henry Clay's three-pronged system to promote American industry; Clay advocated a strong banking system, a protective tariff, and a federally funded transportation network

Missouri Compromise

(1820) allowed Missouri to enter as a slave state but preserved the balance between North and South by carving free-soil Maine out of Massachusetts and prohibiting slavery from territories acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, north of the line 36*30'

Cohens v. Virginia

(1821) case that reinforced federal supremacy by establishing the right of the Supreme Court to review decisions of state supreme courts in questions involving the powers of the federal government

"The American Scholar"

(1837) Ralph Waldo Emerson's address at Harvard College, in which he declared an intellectual independence from Europe, urging American scholars to develop their own traditions

Monroe Doctrine

(1823) statement delivered by President James Monroe, warning European powers to refrain from seeking any new territories in the Americas; the United States largely lacked the power to back up the pronouncement, which was actually enforced by the British, who sought unfettered access to Latin American markets

Russo-American Treaty

(1824) fixed the line of 54*40' as the southernmost boundary of Russian holdings in North America

Gibbons v. Ogden

(1824) suit over whether New York States could grant a monopoly to ferry operating on interstate waters; the ruling reasserted that Congress had the sole power to regulate interstate commerce

New Harmony

(1825-1827) communal society of around one thousand members, established in New Harmony, Indiana by Robert Owen; the community attracted a hodgepodge of individuals, from scholars to crooks, and fell apart due to infighting and confusion after just two years

Tariff of Abominations

(1828) noteworthy for its unprecedentedly high duties on imports; Southerners vehemently opposed the Tariff, arguing that it hurt Southern farmers, who did not enjoy the protection of tariffs, but were forced to pay higher prices for manufacturers

Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World

(1829) incendiary abolitionist track advocating the violent overthrow of slavery; published by David Walker, a Southern-born free black

Indian Removal Act

(1830) ordered the removal of Indian Tribes still residing east of the Mississippi to newly established Indian territory west of Arkansas and Missouri; tribes resisting eviction were forcibly removed by American forces, often after prolonged legal or military battles

McCormick reaper

(1831) mechanized the harvest of grains, such as wheat, allowing farmers to cultivate larger plots; the introduction of the reaper in the 1830s fueled the establishment of large-scale commercial agriculture in the Midwest

The Liberator

(1831-1865) antislavery newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison, who called for the immediate emancipation of all slaves

Bank War

(1832) battle between President Andrew Jackson and Congressional supporters of the Bank of the United States over the bank's renewal in 1832; Jackson vetoed the Bank Bill, arguing the bank favored moneyed interests at the expense of the western farmers

Black Hawk War

(1832) series of clashes in Illinois and Wisconsin between American forces and Indian chief Black Hawk of the Sauk and Fox tribes, who unsuccessfully tried to reclaim territory lost under the 1830 Indian Removal Act

Nullification Crisis

(1832-1833) showdown between President Andrew Jackson and the South Carolina legislature, which declared the 1832 tariff null and void in the state and threatened secession if the federal government tried to collect duties; it was resolved by a compromise negotiated by Henry Clay in 1833

Force Bill

(1833) passed by Congress alongside the Compromise Tariff, it authorized the president to use the military to collect federal tariff duties

American Anti-Slavery Society

(1833-1870) abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison, who advocated the immediate abolition of slavery; by 1838, the organization had more than 250,000 members across 1,350 chapters

Awful Disclosures

(1836) Maria Monk's sensational expose of alleged horrors in Catholic convents; its popularity reflected nativist fears of Catholic influence

Specie Circular

(1836) US Treasury decree requiring that all public lands be purchased with "hard," or metallic, currency; issued after small state banks flooded the market with unreliable paper currency, fueling land speculation in the West

Battle of San Jacinto

(1836) resulted in the capture of Mexican dictator Santa Anna, who was forced to withdraw his troops from Texas and recognize the Rio Grande as Texas's Southwestern border

Caroline

(1837) diplomatic row between the United States and Britain; developed after British troops set fire to an American steamer carrying supplies across the Niagara River to Canadian insurgents, during Canada's short-lived insurrection

Trail of Tears

(1838-1839) forced march of 15,000 Cherokee Indians from their Georgia and Alabama homes to Indian Territory; some 4,000 Cherokee died on the arduous journey

Amistad

(1839) Spanish slave ship dramatically seized off the coast of Cuba by the enslaved Africans aboard; the ship was driven ashore in Long Island and the slaves were put on trial; former president John Quincy Adams argued their case before the Supreme Court, securing their eventual release

Opium War

(1839-1842) war between Britain and China over trading rights, particularly Britain's desire to continue selling opium to Chinese traders; the resulting trade agreement prompted Americans to seek similar concessions from the Chinese

The Impending Crisis of the South

(1857) antislavery tract, written by white Southerner Hinton R. Helper, arguing that non-slaveholding whites actually suffered most in a slave economy

Liberty Party

(1840-1848) antislavery party that ran candidates in the 1840 and 1844 elections before merging with the Free Soil party; supporters of the Liberty Party sought the eventual abolition of slavery, but in the short-term hoped to halt the expansion of slavery into the territories and abolish the domestic slave trade

Conscience Whigs

(1840s and 1850s) Northern Whigs who opposed slavery on moral grounds; they sought to prevent the annexation of Texas as a slave state, fearing that the new slave territory would only serve to buttress the Southern "slave power"

Manifest Destiny

(1840s and 1850s) belief that the United States was destined by God to spread its "empire of liberty" across North America; served as a justification for mid-nineteenth-century expansion

clipper ships

(1840s-1850s) small, swift vessels that gave American shippers an advantage in the carrying trade; clipper ships were made largely obsolete by the advent of sturdier, roomier iron steamers on the eve of Civil War

Creole

(1841) American ship captured by a group of rebelling Virginia slaves; the slaves successfully sought asylum in the Bahamas, raising fears among Southern planters that the British West Indies would become a safe haven for runaway slaves

Brook Farm

(1841-1846) transcendentalist commune founded by a group of intellectuals, who emphasized living plainly while pursuing the life of the mind; the community fell into debt and dissolved when their communal home burned to the ground in 1846

Commonwealth v. Hunt

(1842) Massachusetts Supreme Court decision that strengthened the labor movement by upholding the legality of unions

Treaty of Wanghia

(1844) signed by the U.S. and China, it assured the United States the same trading concessions granted to other powers, greatly expanding America's trade with the Chinese

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

(1845) vivid autobiography of the escaped slave and renowned abolitionist Frederick Douglass

Wilmot Proviso

(1846) amendment that sought to prohibit slavery from territories acquired from Mexico; introduced by Pennsylvania congressman David Wilmot, the failed amendment ratcheted up tensions between North and South over the issue of slavery

spot resolutions

(1846) measures introduced by Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln, questioning President James K. Polk's justification for war with Mexico; Lincoln requested that Polk clarify precisely where Mexican forces had attacked American troops

Walker Tariff

(1846) revenue-enhancing measure that lowered tariffs from 1842 levels thereby fueling trade and increasing Treasury receipts

California Bear Republic

(1846) short-lived California republic, established by local American settlers who revolted against Mexico; once news of the war with Mexico reached the Americans, they abandoned the Republic in favor of joining the United States

"fifty-four forty or fight"

(1846) slogan adopted by mid-nineteenth-century expansionists who advocated the occupation of Oregon territory, jointly held by Britain and the United States; though President Polk had pledged to seize all of Oregon, to 54 degrees 40', he settled on the forty-ninth parallel as a compromise with the British

Battle of Buena Vista

(1847) key American victory against Mexican forces in the Mexican-American War; elevated General Zachary Taylor to national prominence and helped secure his success in the 1848 presidential election

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

(1848) ended the war with Mexico; Mexico agreed to cede territory reaching north-west from Texas to Oregon in exchange for $18.25 million in cash and assumed debts

Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls

(1848) gathering of feminist activists in Seneca Falls, New York, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton read her "Declaration of Sentiments" stating that, "all men and women are created equal"

Free Soil Party

(1848-1854) antislavery party in the 1848 and 1852 elections that opposed the extension of slavery into the territories, arguing that the presence of slavery would limit opportunities for free laborers

Fugitive Slave Law

(1850) passed as a part of the Compromise of 1850, it set high penalties for anyone who aided escaped slaves and compelled all law enforcement officers to participate in retrieving runaways; strengthened the antislavery cause in the North

Lecompton Constitution

(1857) proposed Kansas constitution, whose ratification was unfairly rigged so as to guarantee slavery in the territory; initially ratified by proslavery forces, it was later voted down when Congress required that the entire constitution be put up for a vote

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty

(1850) signed by Great Britain and the United States, it provided that the two nations would jointly protect the neutrality of Central America and that neither power would seek to fortify or exclusively control any future isthmian waterway; later revoked by the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901, which gave the United States control of the Panama Canal

Know-Nothing Party

(1850s) nativist politial party, also known as the American party, which emerged in response to an influx of immigrants, particularly Irish Catholics

Uncle Tom's Cabin

(1852) Harriet Beecher Stowe's widely read novel that dramatized the horrors of slavery; it heightened Northern support for abolition and escalated the sectional conflict

Gadsden Purchase

(1853) acquired additional land from Mexico for $10 million to facilitate the construction of a southern transcontinental railroad

Treaty of Kanagawa

(1854) ended Japan's two-hundred year period of economic isolation, establishing an American consulate in Japan and securing American coaling rights in Japanese ports

Kansas-Nebraska Act

(1854) proposed that the issue of slavery be decided by popular sovereignty in the Kansas and Nebraska territories, thus revoking the 1820 Missouri Compromise; introduced by Stephen Douglass in an effort to bring Nebraska into the Union and pave the way for a northern transcontinental railroad

Ostend Manifesto

(1854) secret Franklin Pierce administration proposal to purchase or, that failing, to wrest militarily Cuba from Spain; once leaked, it was quickly abandoned due to vehement opposition from the North

Bleeding Kansas

(1856-1861) civil war in Kansas over the issue of slavery in the territory, fought intermittently until 1861, when it merged with the national Civil War

Dred Scott v. Stanford

(1857) Supreme Court decision that extended federal protection to slavery by ruling that Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in any territory; also declared that slaves, as property, were not citizens of the United States

Freeport Doctrine

(1858) declared that since slavery could not exist without laws to protect it, territorial legislatures, not the Supreme Court, would have the final say on the slavery question; first argued by Stephen Douglass in 1858 in response to Abraham Lincoln's "Freeport Question"

Lincoln-Douglas debates

(1858) series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during the U.S. Senate race in Illinois; Douglas won the election but Lincoln gained national prominence and emerged as the leading candidate for the 1860 Republican nomination

Constitutional Union party

(1860) formed by moderate Whigs and Know-Nothings in an effort to elect a compromise candidate and avert a sectional crisis

Crittenden amendments

(1860) proposed in an attempt to appease the South, the failed Constitutional amendments would have given federal protection for slavery in all territories south of 36 degrees 30' where slavery was supported by popular sovereignty

Pony Express

(1860-1861) short-lived, speedy mail service between Missouri and California that relied on light weight riders galloping between closely placed outposts

Molly Maguires

(1860s-1870s) secret organization of Irish miners that campaigned, at times violently, against poor working conditions in Pennsylvania mines

Trent affair

(1861) diplomatic view that threatened to bring the British into the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy, after a Union warship stopped a British steamer and arrested two Confederate diplomats on board

Morrill Tariff Act

(1861) increased duties back up to 1846 levels to raise revenue for the Civil War

Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War

(1861-1865) established by Congress during the Civil War to oversee military affairs; largely under the control of Radical Republicans, the committee agitated for a more vigorous war effort and actively pressed Lincoln on the issue of emancipation

Confederate States of America

(1861-1865) government established after seven Southern states seceded from the Union; later joined by four more states from the Upper South

Freedmen's Bureau

(1865-1872) created to aid newly emancipated slaves by providing food, clothing, medical care, education, and legal support; its achievements were uneven and depended largely on the quality of local administrators

Merrimack and Monitor

(1862) Confederate and Union ironclads, respectively, whose successes against wooden ships signaled an end to wooden warships; they fought an historic, though inconsequential battle in 1862

Peninsula Campaign

(1862) Union General George B. McClellan's failed effort to seize Richmond, the Confederate Capital; had McClellan taken Richmond and toppled the Confederacy, slavery would have most likely survived in the South for some time

Homestead Act

(1862) a federal law that gave settlers 160 acres of land for about $30 if they lived on it for five years and improved it by, for instance, building a house on it; the act helped make land accessible to hundreds of thousands of westward-moving settlers, but many people also found disappointment when their land was infertile or they saw speculators grabbing up the best land

Homestead Act

(1862) a federal law that gave settlers 160 acres of land for about $30 if they lived on it for five years and improved it by, for instance, building a house on it; the at helped make land accessible to hundreds of thousands of westward-moving settlers, but many people also found disappointment when their land was infertile or they saw speculators grabbing up the best land

Pacific Railroad Act

(1862) helped fund the construction of the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad with the use of land grants and government bonds

Alabama

(1862-1864) British-built and manned Confederate warship that raided Union shipping during the Civil War; one of many built by the British for the Confederacy, despite Union protests

Gettysburg Address

(1863) Abraham Lincoln's oft-quoted speech, delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg battlefield; in the address, Lincoln framed the war as a means to uphold the values of liberty

The Man Without a Country

(1863) Edward Everett Hale's fictional account of a treasonous soldier's journeys in exile; the book was widely read in the North, inspiring greater devotion to the Union

Emancipation Proclamation

(1863) declared all slaves in rebelling states to be free but did not affect slavery in non-rebelling Border States; the Proclamation closed the door on possible compromise with the South and encouraged thousands of Southern slaves to flee to Union lines

"10 Percent" Reconstruction Plan

(1863) introduced by President Lincoln, it proposed that a state be readmitted to the Union once 10 percent of its voters had pledged loyalty to the United States and promised to honor emancipation

National Banking System

(1863) network of member banks that could issue currency against purchased government bonds; created during the Civil War to establish a stable national currency and stimulate the sale of war bonds

Laird rams

(1863) two well-armed ironclad warships constructed for the Confederacy by a British firm; seeking to avoid war with the United States, the British government purchased the two ships for its Royal Navy instead

Siege of Vicksburg

(1863) two-and-a-half month siege of a Confederate fort on the Mississippi River in Tennessee; Vicksburg finally fell to Ulysses S. Grant in July of 1863, giving the Union Army control of the Mississippi River and splitting the South in two

New York draft riots

(1863) uprising, mostly of working-class Irish-Americans, in protest of the draft; rioters were particularly incensed by the ability of the rich to hire substitutes or purchase exemptions

Woman's Loyal League

(1863-1865) women's organization formed to help bring about an end to the Civil War and encourage Congress to pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery

Union Party

(1864) a coalition party of pro-war Democrats and Republicans formed during the 1864 election to defeat anti-war Northern Democrats

Sherman's March

(1864-1865) Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's destructive march through Georgia; an early instance of "total war," purposely targeting infrastructure and civilian property to diminish morale and undercut the Confederate war effort

Wilderness Campaign

(1864-1865) a series of brutal clashes between Ulysses S. Grant's and Robert E. Lee's armies in Virginia, leading up to Grant's capture of Richmond in April of 1865; having lost Richmond, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse

Thirteenth Amendment

(1865) constitutional amendment prohibiting all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude; former Confederate States were required to ratify the amendment prior to gaining reentry into the Union

Black Codes

(1865-1866) laws passed throughout the South to restrict the rights of emancipated blacks, particularly with respect to negotiating labor contracts; increased Northerners' criticisms of President Andrew Johnson's lenient Reconstruction policies

Ex parte Milligan

(1866) Civil War Era case in which the Supreme Court ruled that military tribunals could not be used to try civilians if civil courts were open

Civil Rights Bill

(1866) passed over Andrew Johnson's veto, the bill aimed to counteract the Black Codes by conferring citizenship on African Americans and making it a crime to deprive blacks of their rights to sue, testify in court, or hold property

National Labor Union

(1866-1872) this first national labor organization in U.S. history was founded in 1866 and gained 600,000 members from many parts of the workforce, although it limited the participation of Chinese, women, and blacks; the organization devoted much of its energy to fighting for an eight-hour workday before it dissolved in 1872

Reconstruction Act

(1867) passed by the newly elected Republican Congress, it divided the South into five military districts, disenfranchised former confederates, and required that Southern states both ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and write state constitutions guaranteeing freedmen the franchise before gaining readmission to the Union

Seward's Folly

(1867) popular term for Secretary of State William Seward's purchase of Alaska from Russia; the derisive term reflected the anti-expansionist sentiments of most Americans immediately after the Civil War

Tenure of Office Act

(1867) required the President to seek approval from the Senate before removing appointees; when Andrew Johnson removed his secretary of war in violation of the act, he was impeached by the house but remained in office when the Senate fell one vote short of removing him

Force Acts

(1870-1871) passed by Congress following a wave of Ku Klux Klan violence, the acts banned clan membership, prohibited the use of intimidation to prevent blacks from voting, and gave the U.S. military the authority to enforce the acts

Standard Oil Company

(1870-1911) John D. Rockefeller's company, formed in 1870, which came to symbolize the trusts and monopolies of the Gilded Age; by 1877 Standard Oil controlled 95% of the oil refineries in the U.S.; it was also one of the first multinational corporations, and at times distributed more than half of the company's kerosene production outside the U.S.; by the turn of the century it had become a target for trust-busting reformers, and in 1911 the Supreme Court ordered it to break up into several dozen smaller companies

Crédit Mobilier scandal

(1872) a construction company was formed by owners of the Union Pacific Railroad for the purpose of receiving government contracts to build the railroad at highly inflated prices--and profits; in 1872 a scandal erupted when journalists discovered that the Crédit Mobilier Company had bribed congressmen and even the Vice President in order to allow the ruse to continue

Battle of the Little Bighorn

(1876) a particularly violent example of the warfare between whites and Native Americans in the late nineteenth century, also know as "Custer's Last Stand"; in two days, June 25 and 26, 1876, the combined forces of over 2,000 Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians defeated and killed more than 250 U.S. soldiers, including Colonel George Custer; the battle came as the U.S. government tried to compel Native Americans to remain on the reservations and Native Americans tried to defend territory from white gold-seekers; this Indian advantage did not last long, however, as the union of these Indian fighters proved tenuous and the United States Army soon exacted retribution

Gilded Age

(1877-1896) a term given o the period 1865-1896 by Mark Twain, indicating both the fabulous wealth and the widespread corruption of the era

Big Sister policy

(1880s) a foreign policy of Secretary of State James G. Blaine aimed at rallying Latin American nations behind American leadership and opening Latin American markets to Yankee traders; the policy bore fruit in 1889, when Blaine presided over the First International Conference of American States

Chinese Exclusion Act

(1882) federal legislation that prohibited most further Chinese immigration to the United States; this was the first major legal restriction on immigration in U.S. history

Pendleton Act

(1883) congressional legislation that established the Civil Service Commission, which granted federal government jobs on the basis of examination instead of political patronage, thus reigning in the spoils system

Haymarket Square

(1886) a May Day rally that turned violent when someone threw a bomb into the middle of the meeting, killing several dozen people; eight anarchists were arrested for conspiracy contributing to the disorder, although evidence linking them to the bombing was thin; four were executed, one committed suicide, and three were pardoned in 1893

Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company v. Illinois

(1886) a Supreme Court decision that prohibited states from regulating the railroads because the Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce; as a result, reformers turned their attention to the federal government, which now held sole power to regulate the railroad industry

Dawes Severalty Act

(1887) an act that broke up Indian reservations and distributed land to individual households; leftover land was sold for money to fund U.S. government efforts to "civilize" Native Americans; of 130 million acres held in Native American reservations before the Act, 90 million were sold to non-Native buyers

Interstate Commerce Act

(1887) congressional legislation that established the Interstate Commerce Commission, compelled railroads to publish standard rates, and prohibited rebates and pools; railroads quickly became adept at using the Act to achieve their own ends, but the Act gave the government an important means to regulate big buisness

Battle of Wounded Knee

(1890) a battle between the U.S. Army and the Dakota Sioux, in which several hundred Native Americans and 29 U.S. soldiers died; tensions erupted violently over two major issues; the Sioux practice of the "Ghost Dance," which the U.S. government had outlawed, and the dispute over whether Sioux reservation land would be broken up because of the Dawes Act

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

(1890) a law that forbade trusts or combinations in business, this was landmark legislation because it was one of the first Congressional attempts to regulate big business for the public good; at first the law was mostly used to restrain trade unions as the courts tended to side with companies in legal cases; in 1914 the Act was revised so it could more effectively be used against monopolistic corporations

McKinley Tariff

(1890) shepherded through Congress by President William McKinley, this tariff raised duties on Hawaiian sugar and set off renewed efforts to secure the annexation of Hawaii to the United States

Homestead Strike

(1892) a strike at a Carnegie steel plant in Homestead, P.A., that ended in an armed battle between the strikers, three hundred armed "Pinkerton" detectives hired by Carnegie, and federal troops, which killed ten people and wounded more than sixty; the strike was part of a nationwide wave of labor unrest in the summer of 1892 that helped the Populists gain some support from industrial workers

World's Columbian Exposition

(1893) held in Chicago, Americans saw this World's Fair as their opportunity to claim a place among the world's most "civilized" societies, by which they meant the countries of western Europe; the Fair honored art, architecture, and science, and its promoters built a mini-city in which to host the fair that reflected all the ideals of city planning popular at the time; for many, this was the high point of the "City Beautiful" movement

Pullman Strike (term)

(1894) an 1894 strike by railroad workers upset by drastic wage cuts; the strike was led by socialist Eugene Debs but not supported by the American Federation of Labor; eventually President Grover Cleveland intervened and federal troops forced an end to the strike; the strike highlighted both divisions within labor and the government's new willingness to use armed force to combat work stoppages

Plessy v. Ferguson

(1896) an 1896 Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of segregation laws, saying that as long as blacks were provided with "separate but equal" facilities, these laws did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment; this decision provided legal justification for the Jim Crow system until the 1950s

fourth party system

(1896-1932) a term scholars have used to describe national politics from 1896-1932, when Republicans had a tight group on the White House and issues such as industrial regulation and labor concerns became paramount, replacing older concerns such as civil service reform and monetary policy

Maine

(1898) American battleship dispatched to keep a "friendly" watch over Cuba in early 1898; it mysteriously blew up in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, the explosion was accidental, resulting from combustion in one of the ship's internal coal bunkers; but many Americans, eager for war, insisted that it was the fault of a Spanish submarine mine

Teller Amendment

(1898) a proviso to President William McKinley's war plans that proclaimed to the world that when the United States had overthrown Spanish misrule, it would give Cuba its freedom; the amendment testified to the ostensibly "anti-imperialist" designs of the initial war plans

Rough Riders

(1898) organized by Theodore Roosevelt, this was a colorful, motley regiment of Cuban war volunteers consisting of western cowboys, ex-convicts, and effete Ivy Leaguers; Roosevelt emphasized his experience with the regiment in subsequent campaigns for Governor of New York and Vice-President under William McKinley

Anti-Imperiaist League

(1898-1921) a diverse group formed in order to protest American colonial oversight in the Philippines; it included university presidents, industrialists, clergymen, and labor leaders; strongest in the Northeast, the Anti-imperialist League was the largest lobbying organization on a U.S. foreign-policy issue until the end of the nineteenth century; it declined in strength after the United States signed the Treaty of Paris (which approved the annexation of the Philippines), and especially after hostilities broke out between Filipino nationalists and American forces

Open Door note

(1899-1900) a set of diplomatic letters in which Secretary of State John Hay urged the great powers to respect Chinese rights and free and open competition within their spheres of influence; the notes established the "Open Door Policy," which sought to ensure access to the Chinese market for the United States, despite the fact that the U.S. did not have a formal sphere of influence in China

Gold Standard Act

(1900) an act that guaranteed that paper currency would be redeemed freely in gold, putting an end to the already dying "free silver" campaign

Boxer Rebellion

(1900) an uprising in China directed against foreign influence; it was suppressed by an international force of some eighteen thousand soldiers, including several thousand Americans; the Boxer Rebellion paved the way for the revolution of 1911, which led to the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912

Foraker Act

(1900) sponsored by Senator Joseph B. Foraker, a Republican from Ohio, this accorded Puerto Ricans a limited degree of popular government; it was the first comprehensive congressional effort to provide for governance of territories acquired after the Spanish American War, and served as a model for a similar act adopted for the Philippines in 1902

Platt Amendment

(1901) following its military occupation, the United States successfully pressured the Cuban government to write this amendment into its constitution; it limited Cuba's treaty-making abilities, controlled its debt, and stipulated that the United States could intervene militarily to restore order when it saw fit

Insular Cases

(1901-1904) beginning in 1901, a badly divided Supreme Court decreed in these cases that the Constitution did not follow the flag; in other words, Puerto Ricans and Filipinos would not necessarily enjoy all American rights

Elkins Act

(1903) law passed by Congress to impose penalties on railroads that offered rebates and customers who accepted them; the law strengthened the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887; the Hepburn Act of 1906 added free passes to the list of railroad no-no's

Roosevelt Corollary

(1904) a brazen policy of "preventive intervention" advocated by Theodore Roosevelt in his Annual Message to Congress in 1904; adding ballast to the Monroe Doctrine, his corollary stipulated that the United States would retain a right to intervene in the domestic affairs of Latin American nations in order to restore military and financial order

Lochner v. New York

(1905) a setback for labor reformers, this 1905 Supreme Court decision invalidated a state law establishing a ten-hour day for bakers; it held that the "right to free contract" was implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment

Industrial Workers of the World

(1905) the IWW, also known as the "Wobblies," was a radical organization that sought to build "one big union" and advocated industrial sabotage in defense of that goal; at its peak in 1923, it could claim 100,000 members and could gain the support of 300,000; the IWW particularly appealed to migratory workers in agriculture and lumbering and to miners, all of whom suffered from horrific working conditions

Pure Food and Drug Act

(1906) a law passed by Congress to inspect and regulate the labeling of all foods and pharmaceuticals intended for human consumption; this legislation, and additional provisions passed in 1911 to strengthen it, aimed particularly at the patent medicine industry; the more comprehensive Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 largely replaced this legislation

Meat Inspection Act

(1906) a law passed by Congress to subject meat shipped over state lines to federal inspection; the publication of Upton Sinclair's novel, The Jungle, earlier that year so disgusted American consumers with its description of conditions in slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants that it mobilized public support for government action

Muller v. Oregon

(1908) a landmark Supreme Court case in which crusading attorney (and future Supreme Court Justice) Louis D. Brandeis persuaded the Supreme Court to accept the constitutionality of limiting the hours of women workers; coming on the heels of Lochner v. New York, it established a different standard for male and female workers

Root-Takahira agreement

(1908) signed on November 30, 1908, the United States and Japan agreed to respect each other's territorial possessions in the Pacific and to uphold the Open Door in China; the Agreement was credited with easing tensions between the two nations, but it also resulted in a weakened American influence over further Japanese hegemony in China

Payne-Aldrich Bill

(1909) while intended to lower tariff rates, this bill was eventually revised beyond all recognition, retaining high rates on most imports; President Taft angered the progressive wing of his party when he declared it "the best bill that the Republican party ever passed"

New Freedom

(1912) platform of reforms advocated by Woodrow Wilson in his first presidential campaign, including stronger antitrust legislation to protect small business enterprises from monopolies, banking reform, and tariff reductions; Wilson's strategy involved taking action to increase opportunities for capitalist competition rather than increasing government regulation of large trusts

New Nationalism

(1912) state-interventionist reform program devised by journalist Herbert Croly and advocated by Theodore Roosevelt during his Bull Moose presidential campaign; Roosevelt did not object to continued consolidation of trusts and labor unions; rather, he sought to create stronger regulatory agencies to insure that they operated to serve the public interest, not just private gain

Federal Reserve Act

(1913) an act establishing twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks and a Federal Reserve Board, appointed by the president, to regulate banking and create stability on a national scale in the volatile banking sector; the law carried the nation through the financial crises of the First World War of 1914-1918

Underwood Tariff

(1913) this tariff provided for a substantial reduction of rates and enacted an unprecedented, graduated federal income tax; by 1917, revenue from the income tax surpassed receipts from the tariff, a gap that has since been vastly widened

Federal Trade Commission Act

(1914) a banner accomplishment of Woodrow Wilson's administration, this law empowered a standing, presidentially appointed commission to investigate illegal business practices in interstate commerce like unlawful competition, false advertising, and mislabeling of goods

Tampico Incident

(1914) an arrest of American sailors by the Mexican government that spurred Woodrow Wilson to dispatch the American navy to seize the port of Veracruz in April 1914; although war was avoided, tensions grew between the United States and Mexico

Clayton Anti-Trust Act

(1914) law extending the anti-trust protections of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and exempting labor unions and agricultural organizations from antimonopoly constraints; the act conferred long-overdue benefits on labor

Jones Act

(1916) law according territorial status to the Philippines and promising independence as soon as a "stable government" could be established; the United States did not grant the Philippines independence until July 4, 1946

Adamson Act

(1916) this law established an eight-hour day for all employees on trains involved in interstate commerce, with extra pay for overtime; it was the first federal law regulating the hours of workers in private companies, and was upheld by the Supreme Court Case Wilson V. New (1917)

Zimmermann note

(1917) German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman had secretly proposed a German-Mexican alliance against the United States; when the note was intercepted and published in March 1917, it caused an uproar that made some Americans more willing to enter the war

Committee on Public Information

(1917) a government office during World War I known popularly as the Creel Committee for its chairman George Creel; it was dedicated to winning everyday Americans' support for the war effort; it regularly distributed prowar propaganda and sent out an army of "four-minute men" to rally crowds and deliver "patriotic pep"

Espionage Act

(1917) a law prohibiting interference with the draft and other acts of national "disloyalty"; together with the Sedition Act of 1918, which added penalties for abusing the government in writing, it created a climate that was unfriendly to civil liberties

War Industries Board

(1917) headed by Bernard Baruch, this federal agency coordinated industrial production during World War I, setting production quotas, allocating raw materials, and pushing companies to increase and eliminate waste; under the economic mobilization of the War Industries Board, industrial production in the United States increased 20 percent during the war

Bolshevik Revolution

(1917) the second stage of the Russian Revolution in November 1917 when Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik party seized power and established a communist state; the first stage had occurred the previous February when more moderate revolutionaries overthrew the Russian Czar

Meuse-Argonne offensive

(1918) General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing led American troops in this effort to cut the German railroad lines supplying the western front; it was one of the few major battles that Americans participated in during the entire war, and was still underway when the war ended

Fourteen Points

(1918) Woodrow Wilson's proposal to ensure peace after World War I, calling for an end to secret treaties, widespread arms reduction, national self-determination, and a new league of nations

Battle of Château-Thierry

(1918) the first significant engagement of American troops in World War I--and indeed, in any European war; to weary French soldiers, the American doughboys were an image of fresh and gleaming youth

National War Labor Board

(1918) this wartime agency was chaired by former President Taft and aimed to prevent labor disputes by encouraging high wages and an eight-hour day; while granting some concessions to labor, it stopped short of supporting labor's most important demand: a government guarantee of the right to organize into unions

Treaty of Versailles

(1919) World War I concluded with his vengeful document, which secured peace but imposed sharp terms on Germany and created a territorial mandate system to manage former colonies of the world powers; to Woodrow Wilson's chagrin, it incorporated very few of his original Fourteen Points, although it did include the League of Nations that Wilson had long sought; Isolationists in the United States, deeply opposed to the League, led the opposition to the Treaty, which was never ratified by the Senate

Schenck v. United States

(1919) a Supreme Court decision that upheld the Espionage and Sedition Acts, reasoning that freedom of speech could be curtailed when it posed a "clear and present danger" to the nation

Volstead Act

(1919) a federal act enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages

League of Nations

(1919) a world organization of national governments proposed by President Woodrow Wilson and established by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919; it worked to facilitate peaceful international cooperation; despite emotional appeals by Wison, isolationists' objections to the League created the major obstacle to American signing of the Treaty of Versailles

Eighteenth Amendment

(1919) ratified in 1919, this Constitutional amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages; it ushered in the era known as the Prohibition

red scare

(1919-1920) a period of intense anti-communism lasting from 1919 to 1920; the "Palmer raids" of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer resulted in about six thousand deportations of people suspected of "subversive activities"

criminal syndicalism laws

(1919-1920) passed by many states during the Red Scare of 1919-1920, these nefarious laws outlawed the mere advocacy of violence to secure social change; stump speakers for the International Workers of the World, or IWW, were special targets

Nineteenth Amendment

(1920) this Constitutional amendment, finally passed by Congress in 1919 and ratified in 1920, gave women the right to vote over seventy years after the first organized calls for women's suffrage in Seneca Falls, New York

Teapot Dome scandal

(1921) a tawdry affair involving the illegal lease of priceless naval oil reserves in Teapot Dome, Wyoming and Elk Hills, California; the scandal, which implicated President Harding's Secretary of the Interior, was one of several that gave his administration a reputation for corruption

Fordney-McCumber Tariff Law

(1922) a comprehensive bill passed to protect domestic production from foreign competitors; as a direct result, many European nations were spurred to increase their own trade barriers

Nine-Power Treaty

(1922) agreement coming out of the Washington "Disarmament" Conference of 1921-1922 that pledged Britain, France, Italy, Japan, the United States, China, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Belgium to abide by the Open Door Policy in China; the Five-Power Naval Treaty on ship ratios and the Four-Power Treaty to preserve the status quo in the Pacific also came out of the conference

Adkins v. Children's Hospital

(1923) a landmark Supreme Court decision reversing the ruling in Muller v. Oregon, which declared women to be deserving of special protection in the workplace

Dawes Plan

(1924) an arrangement negotiated in 1924 to reschedule German reparations payments; it stabilized the German currency and opened the way for further American private loans to Germany

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

(1933) one of the most revolutionary of the New Deal public works projects, the TVA brought cheap electric power, full employment, low-cost housing, and environmental improvements to Americans in the Tennessee Valley

Kellogg-Briand Pact

(1928) a sentimental triumph of the 1920's peace movement, this 1928 pact linked sixty-two nations in the supposed "outlawry of war"

Black Tuesday

(1929) the dark, panicky day of October 29, 1929 when over 16,410,000 shares of stock were sold on Wall Street; it was a trigger that helped bring on the Great Depression

Agricultural Marketing Act

(1929) this act established the Federal Farm Board, a lending bureau for hard-pressed farmers; the act also aimed to help farmers help themselves through new producers' cooperatives; as the depression worsened in 1930, the Board tried to bolster falling prices by buying up surpluses, but it was unable to cope with the flood of farm produce to market

Hawley-Smoot Tariff

(1930) the highest protective tariff in the peacetime history of the United States, passed as a result of good old-fashioned horse trading; to the outside world, it smacked of ugly economic warfare

Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)

(1932) a government lending agency established under the Hoover administration in order to assist insurance companies, banks, agricultural organizations, railroads, and local governments; it was a precursor to later agencies that grew out of the New Deal and symbolized a recognition by the Republicans that some federal action was required to address the Great Depression

Bonus Army

(1932) officially known as the Bonus Expeditionary Force (BEF), this rag-tag group of 20,000 veterans marched on Washington to demand immediate payment of bonuses earned during World War I; General Douglas MacArthur dispersed the veterans with tear gas and bayonets

Norris-La Guardia Anti-Injunction Act

(1932) this law banned "yellow-dog," or anti-union, work contracts and forbade federal courts from issuing injunctions to quash strikes and boycotts; it was an early piece of labor-friendly federal legislation

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)

(1933) a New Deal program designed to raise agricultural prices by paying farmers not to farm; it was based on the assumption that higher prices would increase farmers' purchasing power and thereby help alleviate the Great Depression

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

(1933) a government program created by Congress to hire young unemployed men to improve the rural, out-of-doors environment with such work as planting trees, fighting fires, draining swamps, and maintaining National Parks; the CCC proved to be an important foundation for the post-World War II environmental movement

Glass-Steagall Banking Reform At

(1933) a law creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insured individual bank deposits and ended a century-long tradition of unstable banking that had reached a crisis in the Great Depression

London Economic Conference

(1933) a sixty-six-nation economic conference organized to stabilize international currency rates; Franklin Roosevelt's decision to revoke American participation contributed to a deepening world economic crisis

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

(1933) known by its critics as the "National Run Around," the NRA was an early New Deal program designed to assist industry, labor, and the unemployed through centralized planning mechanisms that monitored workers' earning and working hours to distribute work and established codes for "fair competition" to ensure that similar procedures were followed by all firms in any particular industrial sector

Hundred Days

(1933) the first hundred days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, stretching from March 9 to June 16, 1933, when an unprecedented number of reform bills were passed by a Democratic Congress to launch the New Deal

Johnson Debt Default Act

(1934) steeped in ugly memories of World War I, this spiteful act prevented debt-ridden nations from borrowing further from the United States

Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act

(1934) this act reversed traditional high-protective-tariff policies by allowing the president to negotiate lower tariffs with trade partners, without Senate approval; its chief architect was Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who believed that tariff barriers choked off foreign trade

Social Security Act

(1935) a flagship accomplishment of the New Deal, this law provided for unemployment and old-age insurance financed by a payroll tax on employers and employees; it has long remained a pillar of the "New Deal Order"

Wagner Act

(1935) also known as the National Labor Relations Act, this law protected the right of labor to organize in unions and bargain collectively with employers, and established the National Labor Relations Board to monitor unfair labor practices on the part of employers; its passage marked the culmination of decades of labor protest

Rome-Berlin Axis

(1936) Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, and Fascist Italy, led by Benito Mussolini, allied themselves together under this nefarious treaty; the pact was signed after both countries had intervened on behalf of the fascist leader Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War

Court-Packing plan

(1937) Franklin Roosevelt's politically motivated and ill-fated scheme to add a new justice to the Supreme Court for every member over seventy who would not retire; his objective was to overcome the Court's objections to New Deal reforms

Quarantine Speech

(1937) an important speech delivered by Franklin Roosevelt in which he called for "positive endeavors" to "quarantine" land-hungry dictators, presumably through economic embargos; the speech flew in the face of isolationist politicians

Fair Labor Standards Act

(1938) important New Deal labor legislation that regulated minimum wages and maximum hours for workers involved in interstate commerce; the law also outlawed labor by children under sixteen; the exclusion of agricultural, service, and domestic workers meant that many blacks, Mexican Americans, and women--who were concentrated in these sectors--did not benefit from the act's protection

Appeasement

(1938) the policy followed by leaders of Britain and France at the 1938 conference in Munich; their purpose was to avoid war, but they allowed Germany to take the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia

Hitler-Stalin pact

(1939) treaty signed on August 23, 1939 in which Germany and the Soviet Union agreed not to fight each other; the fateful agreement paved the way for German aggression against Poland and the Western democracies

Pearl Harbor

(1941) an American naval base in Hawaii where Japanese warplanes destroyed numerous ships and caused 3,000 casualties on December 7, 1941--a day that, in President Roosevelt's words, was to "live in infamy," the attack brought the United States into World War II

ABC-1 agreement

(1941) an agreement between Britain and the United States developed at a conference in Washington, D.C., between January 29-March 27, 1941, that should the United States enter World War II, the two nations and their allies would coordinate their military planning, making a priority of protecting the British Commonwealth; that would mean "getting Germany first" in the Atlantic and the European theater and fighting more defensively on other military fronts

Lend-Lease Bill

(1941) based on the motto, "Send guns, not sons," this law abandoned former pretenses of neutrality by allowing Americans to sell unlimited supplies of arms to any nation defending itself against the Axis Powers; patriotically numbered 1776, the bill was praised as a device for keeping the nation out of World War II

Atlantic Charter

(1941) meeting on a warship off the coast of Newfoundland in August 1941, Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed this covenant outlining the future path toward disarmament peace, and a permanent system of general security; its spirit would animate the founding of the United Nations and raise awareness of the human rights of individuals after World War II

Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC)

(1941) threatened with a massive "Negro March on Washington" to demand equal job opportunities in war jobs and in the military, Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration issued an executive order forbidding racial discrimination in all defense plants operating under contract with the federal government; the FEPC was intended to monitor compliance with the Executive Order

Office of Price Administration (OPA)

(1941-1947) a critically important wartime agency charged with regulating the consumer economy through rationing scarce supplies, such as automobiles, tires, fuel, nylon, and sugar, and by curbing inflation by setting ceilings on the price of goods; rents were controlled as well in parts of the country overwhelmed by war workers; the OPA was extended after World War II ended to continue the fight against inflation, but was abolished in 1947

Manhattan Project

(1942) code name for the American commission established in 1942 to develop the atomic bomb; the first experimental bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the desert of New Mexico; atomic bombs were then dropped on two cities in Japan in hopes of bringing the war to an end: Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

(1942) nonviolent civil rights organization founded in 1942 and committed to the "Double V"--victory over fascism abroad and racism at home; after WWII, this program would become a major force in the civil rights movement

Executive Order No. 9066

(1942) order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizing the War Department to remove Japanese "enemy aliens" to isolated internment camps; immigrants and citizens alike were sent away from their homes, neighbors, schools, and businesses; the Japanese internment policy was held to be constitutional by the United States Supreme Court in Korematsu v. U.S.

Bracero program

(1942) program established by agreement with the Mexican government to recruit temporary Mexican agricultural workers to the United States to make up for wartime labor shortages in the Far West; the program persisted until 1964, by when it had sponsored 4.5 million border crossings

Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act

(1943) passed amidst worries about the effects that labor strikes would have on war production, this law allowed the federal government to seize and operate plants threatened by labor disputes; it also criminalized strike action against government-run companies

War Refugee Board

(1944) a United States agency formed to help rescue Jews from German-occupied territories and to provide relief to inmates of Nazi concentration camps; the agency performed noble work, but it did not begin operations until very late in the war, after millions had already been murdered

GI Bill

(1944) known officially as the Servicemen's Readjustment Act and more informally as the GI Bill of Rights, this law helped returning World War II soldiers reintegrate into civilian life by securing loans to buy homes and farms and set up small businesses and by making tuition and stipends available for them to attend college and job training programs; The Act was also intended to cushion the blow of 15 million returning servicemen on the employment market and to nurture the postwar economy

Bretton Woods Conference

(1944) meeting of Western allies to establish a postwar international economic order to avoid crises like the one that spawned World War II; led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, designed to regulate currency levels and provide aid to underdeveloped countries

Contract with America

(1944) multi-point program offered by Republican candidates and sitting politicians in the 1994 midterm election; the platform proposed smaller government, Congressional ethics reform, term limits, great emphasis on personal responsibility, and a general repudiation of the Democratic party; this articulation of dissent was a significant blow to the Clinton Administration and led to the Republican party's takeover of both houses of Congress for the first time in half a century

Potsdam conference

(1945) from July 17 to August 2, 1945, President Harry S. Truman met with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and British leaders Winston Churchill and later Clement Attlee (when the labour party defeated Churchill's Conservative party) near Berlin to deliver an ultimatum to Japan: surrender or be destroyed

Yalta conference

(1945) meeting of Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, in February 1945 at an old Tsarist resort on the Black Sea, where the Big Three leaders laid the foundations for the postwar division of power in Europe, including a divided Germany and territorial concessions to the Soviet Union

Nuremberg war crimes trial

(1946) highly publicized proceedings against former Nazi leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity as part of the Allies denazification program in postwar Germany; the trials led to several executions and long prison sentences

baby boom

(1946-1964) demographic explosion from births to returning soldiers and others who had put off starting families during the war; this large generation of new Americans forced the expansion of many institutions such as schools and universities

Cold War

(1946-1991) the 45-year-long diplomatic tension between the United States and the Soviet Union that divided much of the world into polarized camps, capitalist against communist; most of the international conflicts during that period, particularly in the developing world, can be traced to the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union

Truman Doctrine

(1947) President Truman's universal pledge of support for any people fighting any communist or communist-inspired threat; Truman presented the doctrine to Congress in 1947 in support of his request for $400 million to defend Greece and Turkey against Soviet-backed insurgencies

Taft-Hartley Act

(1947) Republican-promoted, anti-union legislation passed over President Truman's vigorous veto that weakened many of labor's New Deal gains by banning the closed shop and other strategies that helped unions organize; it also required union leaders to take a noncommunist oath, which purged the union movement of many of its most committed and active organizers

Operation Dixie

(1948) failed effort by the CIO after World War II to unionize southern workers, especially in textile factories

Marshall Plan

(1948) massive transfer of aid money to help rebuild post-war Western Europe, intended to bolster capitalist and democratic governments and prevent domestic communist groups from riding poverty and misery to power; the plan was first announced by Secretary of State George Marshall at Harvard's commencement in June 1947

Berlin airlift

(1948) year-long mission of flying food and supplies to blockaded West Berliners, whom the Soviet Union cut off from access to the West in the first major crises of the Cold War

National Security Council Memorandum Number 68 (NSC-68)

(1950) National Security Council recommendation to quadruple defense spending and rapidly expand peacetime armed forces to address Cold War tensions; it reflected a new militarization of American foreign policy but the huge costs of rearmament were not expected to interfere with what seemed like the limitless possibilities of postwar prosperity

Korean War

(1950-1953) first "hot war" of the Cold War; the Korean War began in 1950 when the Soviet-backed North Koreans invaded South Korea before meeting a counter-offensive by UN forces, dominated by the United States; the war ended in stalemate in 1953

Checkers Speech

(1952) nationally televised address by vice-presidential candidate Richard Nixon; using the new mass medium of television shortly before the 1952 election, the vice presidential candidate saved his place on the ticket by defending himself against accusations of corruption

Operation Wetback

(1954) a government program to round-up and deport as many as one million illegal Mexican migrant workers in the United States; the program was promoted in part by the Mexican government and reflected burgeoning concerns about non-European immigration to America

Army-McCarthy hearings

(1954) congressional hearings called by Senator Joseph McCarthy to accuse members of the army of communist ties; in this widely televised spectacle, McCarthy finally went too far for public approval; the hearings exposed the Senator's extremism and led to his eventual disgrace

policy of boldness

(1954) foreign policy objective of Dwight Eisenhower's Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who believed in changing the containment strategy to one that more directly engaged the Soviet Union and attempted to roll back communist influence around the world; this policy led to a build-up of America's nuclear arsenal to threaten "massive retaliation" against communist enemies, launching the Cold War's arms race

Battle of Dien Bien Phu

(1954) military engagement in French colonial Vietnam in which French forces were defeated by Viet Minh nationalists loyal to Ho Chi Minh; with this loss, the French ended their colonial involvement in Indochina, pacing the way for America's entry

Montgomery bus boycott

(1955) protest, sparked by Rosa Park's defiant refusal to move to the back of the bus, by black Alabamians against segregated seating on city buses; the bus boycott lasted from December 1, 1955, until December 26, 1956, and became one of the foundational moments of the Civil Rights Movement; it led to the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr. and ultimately to a Supreme Court decision opposing segregated busing

Suez crisis

(1956) international crisis launched when Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, which had been owned mostly by French and British stockholders; the crisis led to a British and French attack on Egypt, which failed without aid from the United States; the Suez crisis marked an important turning point in the post-colonial Middle East and highlighted the rising importance of oil in world affairs

Hungarian uprising

(1956) series of demonstrations in Hungary against the Soviet Union; Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev violently suppressed this pro-Western uprising, highlighting the limitations of America's power in Eastern Europe

Sputnik

(1957) Soviet satellite first launched into Earth orbit on October 4, 1957; this scientific achievement marked the first time human beings had put a man-made object into orbit and pushed the USSR noticeably ahead of the United States in the Space Race; a month later, the Soviet Union sent a larger satellite, Sputnik II, into space, prompting the United States to redouble its space exploration efforts and raising American fears of Soviet superiority

kitchen debate

(1959) televised exchange in 1959 between Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and American Vice President Richard Nixon; meeting at the American National Exhibition in Moscow, the two leaders sparred over the relative merits of capitalist consumer culture versus Soviet state planning; Nixon won applause for his staunch defense of American capitalism, helping lead him to the Republican nomination for president in 1960

Bay of Pigs invasion

(1961) CIA plot in 1961 to overthrow Fidel Castro by training Cuban exiles to invade and supporting them with American air power; the mission failed and became a public relations disaster early in John F. Kennedy's presidency

Freedom Riders

(1961) organized mixed-race groups who rode interstate buses deep into the South to draw attention to and protest racial segregation, beginning in 1961; this effort by northern young people to challenge racism proved a political and public relations success for the Civil Rights Movement

New Frontier

(1961-1963) President Kennedy's nickname for his domestic policy agenda; buoyed by youthful optimism, the program included proposals for the Peace Corps and efforts to improve education and health care

Apollo

(1961-1975) program of manned space flights run by America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); the project's highest achievement was the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon on July 20, 1969

Cuban missile crisis

(1962) standoff between John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in October 1962 over Soviet plans to install nuclear weapons in Cuba; although the crisis was ultimately settled in America's favor and represented a foreign policy triumph for Kennedy, it brought the world's superpowers perilously close to the brink of nuclear confrontation

Voter Education Project

(1962-1968) effort by SNCC and other civil rights groups to register the South's historically disenfranchised black population; the project typified a common strategy of the civil rights movement, which sought to counter racial discrimination by empowering people at grassroots levels to exercise their civic rights through voting

The Feminine Mystique

(1963) best-selling book by feminist thinker Betty Friedan; this work challenged women to move beyond the drudgery of suburban housewifery and helped launch what would become second-wave feminism

March on Washington

(1963) massive civil rights demonstration in August 1963 in support of Kennedy-backed legislation to secure legal protections for American blacks; one of the most visually impressive manifestations of the Civil Rights Movement, the march was the occasion of Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech

Freedom Summer

(1964) a voter registration drive in Mississippi spearheaded by a coalition of civil rights groups; the campaign drew the activism of thousands of black and white civil rights workers, many of whom were students from the north, and was marred by the abduction and murder of three such workers at the hands of white racists

Mississippi Freedom Democratic party

(1964) political party organized by civil rights activists to challenge Mississippi's delegation to the Democratic National party's platform; claiming a mandate to represent the true voice of Mississippi, where almost no black citizens could vote, the MFDP demanded to be seated at the convention but were denied by party bosses; the effort was both a setback to civil rights activism in the south and a motivation to continue to struggle for black voting rights

Great Society

(1964-1968) President Lyndon Johnson's term for his democratic policy agenda; billed as a successor to the New Deal, the Great Society aimed to extend the postwar prosperity to all people in American society by promoting civil rights and fighting poverty; Great Society programs included the War on Poverty, which expanded the Social Security system by creating Medicare and Medicaid to provide health care for the aged and the poor; Johnson also signed laws protecting consumers and empowering community organizations to combat poverty at grassroot levels

Six-Day War

(1967) military conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors, including Syria, Egypt, and Jordan; the war ended with an Israeli victory and territorial expansion into the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank; the 1967 war was a humiliation for several Arab states, and the territorial disputes it created formed the basis for continued conflict in the region

My Lai Massacre

(1968) military assault in a small Vietnamese village on March 16, 1968, in which American soldiers under the command of 2nd Lieutenant William Calley murdered hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children; the atrocity produced outrage and reduced support for the war in America and around the world when details of the massacre and an attempted cover-up were revealed in 1971

Battle of Bull Run (Manassas Junction)

(July 1861) first major battle of the Civil War and a victory for the South, it dispelled Northern illusions of swift victory

Philadelphia Plan

(1969) program established by Richard Nixon to require construction trade unions to work toward hiring more black apprentices; the plan altered Lyndon Johnson's concept of "affirmative action" to focus on groups rather than individuals

Stonewall Rebellion

(1969) uprising in support of equal rights for gay people sparked by an assault by off-duty police officers at a gay bar in New York; the rebellion led to a rise in activism and militancy within the gay community and furthered the sexual revolution of the late 1960s

Earth Day

(1970) international day of celebration and awareness of global environmental issues launched by conservationists on April 22, 1970

southern strategy

(1972) Nixon reelection campaign strategy designed to appeal to conservative whites in the historically Democratic south; the President stressed law and order issues and remained noncommittal on civil rights; this strategy typified the regional split between the two parties as white Southerners became increasingly attracted to the Republican party in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement

Roe v. Wade

(1973) landmark Supreme Court decision that forbade states from barring abortion by citing a woman's constitutional right to privacy; seen as a victory for feminism and civil liberties by some, the decision provoked a strong counter-reaction by opponents to abortion, galvanizing the Pro-Life movement

War Powers Act

(1973) law passed by Congress in 1973 limiting the President's ability to wage war without Congressional approval; the act required the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing troops to a foreign conflict; an important consequence of the Vietnam War, this piece of legislation sought to reduce the President's unilateral authority in military matters

Proposition 13

(1978) successful California state ballot initiative that capped the state's real estate tax at 1 percent of assessed value; the proposition radically reduced average property tax levels, decreasing revenue for the state government and signaling the political power of the "tax revolt," increasingly aligned with conservative politics

malaise speech

(1979) national address by Jimmy Carter in July 1979 in which the President chided American materialism and urged a communal spirit in the face of economic hardships; although Carter intended the speech to improve both public morale and his standings as a leader, it had the opposite effect and was widely perceived as a political disaster for the embattled president

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Fores (INF) Treaty

(1987) arms limitation agreement settled by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev after several attempts; the treaty banned all intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe and marked a significant thaw in the Cold War

Iran-Contra affair

(1987) major political scandal of Ronald Reagan's second term; an illicit arrangement of selling "arms for hostages" with Iran and using money to support the contras in Nicaragua, the scandal deeply damaged Reagan's credibility

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

(1990) landmark law signed by President George H. W. Bush that prohibited discrimination against people with physical or mental handicaps; it represented a legislative triumph for champions of equal protection to all

Operation Desert Storm

(1991) US-led multi-country military engagement in January and February of 1991 that drove Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army out of neighboring Kuwait; in addition to presaging the longer and more protracted Iraq War of the 2000s, the 1991 war helped undo what some called the "Vietnam Syndrome," a feeling of military uncertainty that plagued many Americans

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

(1993) free trade zone encompassing Mexico, Canada, and the United States; a symbol of the increased reality of a globalized market place, the treaty passed despite opposition from protectionists and labor leaders

World Trade Organization (WTO)

(1995) an international body to promote and supervise liberal trade among nations; the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, it marked a key world trade policy achievement of the Clinton Administration

Oklahoma City bombing

(1995) truck-bomb explosion that killed 168 people in a federal office building on April 19, 1995; the attack was perpetrated by right-wing and anti-government militant Timothy McVeigh, later executed by the US government for the crime

Welfare Reform Bill

(1996) legislation that made deep cuts in welfare grants and required able-bodied welfare recipients to find employment; part of Bill Clinton's campaign platform in 1992, the reforms were widely seen by liberals as an abandonment of key New Deal/Great Society provisions to care for the impoverished

Lewinsky affair

(1998-1999) political sex scandal that resulted in Bill Clinton's impeachment and trial by Congress; in 1988, Clinton gave sworn testimony in a sexual harassment case that he had never engaged in sexual activity with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky; when prosecutors discovered evidence that the President had lied under oath about the affair, to which Clinton admitted, Republicans in Congress began impeachment proceedings; although Clinton was ultimately not convicted by the Senate, the scandal put a lasting blemish on his presidential legacy

No Child Left Behind Act

(2001) an education bill created and signed by the George W. Bush administration; designed to increase accountability standards for primary and secondary schools, the law authorized several federal programs to monitor those standards and increased choices for parents in selecting schools for their children; the program was highly controversial, in large part because it linked results on standardized to federal funding for schools and school districts

Battle of Gettysburg

(July 1863) Civil War battle in Pennsylvania that ended in Union victory, spelling doom for the Confederacy, which never again managed to invade the North; site of General George Pickett's daring but doomed charge on the Northern lines

9/11

(2001) common shorthand for the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, in which nineteen militant Islamist men hijacked and crashed four commercial aircraft; two planes hit the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing them to collapse; one plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the fourth, overtaken by passengers, crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania; nearly 3,000 people were killed in the worst case of domestic terrorism in American history

USA Patriot Act

(2001) legislation passed shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that granted broad surveillance and detention authority to the government

Hurricane Katrina

(2005) the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States, killing nearly 2000 Americans; the storm ravaged the Gulf Coast, especially the city of New Orleans, in late August of 2005; in New Orleans, high winds and rain caused the city's levees to break, leading to catastrophic flooding, particularly centered on the city's most impoverished wards; a tardy and feeble response by local and federal authorities exacerbated the damage and led to widespread criticism of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

(2010) also known as the Dodd-Frank Act, after its Democratic sponsors, Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd and Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank; in an effort to avoid another financial crisis like the Great Recession, the Act updated many federal regulations affecting the financial and banking systems, and created some new agencies such as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

(2010) also known, somewhat derisively, as "Obamacare," the Act extended health care insurance to some 30 million Americans, marking a major step toward achieving the century-old goal of universal health care coverage for all citizens

Battle of Lexington & Concord

(April 1775) first battles of the Revolutionary War, fought outside of Boston; the colonial militia successfully defended their stores of munitions, forcing the British to retreat to Boston

Battle of Shiloh

(April 1862) bloody Civil War battle on the Tennessee-Mississippi border that resulted in the deaths of more than 23,000 soldiers and ended in a marginal Union victory

Battle of Long Island

(August 1776) battle for the control of New York; British troops overwhelmed the colonial militias and retained control of the city for most of the war

Second Battle of Bull Run

(August 1862) Civil War battle that ended in a decisive victory for Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was emboldened to push further into the North

Battle of Trenton

(December 1776) George Washington surprised and captured a garrison of sleeping German Hessians, raising the moral of his crestfallen army and setting stage for victory at Princeton a week later

Battle of Fredericksburg

(December 1862) decisive victory in Virginia for Confederate Robert E. Lee, who successfully repelled a Union attack on his lines

Battle of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson

(February 1862) key victory for Union General Ulysses S. Grant, it secured the North's hold on Kentucky and paved the way for Grant's attacks deeper into Tennessee

Battle of New Orleans

(January 1815) resounding victory of American forces against the British, restoring American confidence and fueling an outpouring of nationalism; final battle of the War of 1812

Olive Branch Petition

(July 1775) conciliatory measure adopted by the Continental Congress, professing American loyalty and seeking an end to the hostilities; King George rejected the petition and proclaimed the colonies in rebellion

Declaration of Independence

(July 4, 1776) formal pronouncement of independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson and approved by Congress; the declaration allowed Americans to appeal for foreign aid and served as an inspiration for later revolutionary movements worldwide

Battle of Bunker Hill

(June 1775) fought on the outskirts of Boston, on Breed's Hill, the battle ended in the colonial militia's retreat, though at a heavy cost to the British

Battle of Saratoga

(October 1777) decisive colonial victory in upstate New York, which helped secure French support for the Revolutionary War

Battle Of Yorktown

(October 1781) George Washington, with the aid of the French army, besieged Cornwallis at Yorktown, while the French naval fleet prevented British reinforcements from coming ashore; Cornwallis surrendered, dealing a heavy blow to the British war effort and paving the way for an eventual peace

Battle of Antietam

(September 1862) landmark battle in the Civil War that essentially ended in a draw but demonstrated the prowess of the Union army, forestalling foreign intervention and giving Lincoln the "victory" he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation

United Nations (U.N.)

(U.N.) international body formed in 1945 to bring nations into dialogue in hopes of preventing further world wars; much like the former League of Nations in ambition, the UN was more realistic in recognizing the authority of the Big Five Powers in keeping peace in the world; thus, it guaranteed veto power to all permanent members of its Security Council--Britain, China, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States

West Virginia

(admitted to the Union 1863) mountainous region that broke away from Virginia in 1861 to form its own state after Virginia seceded from the Union

Aroostook War

(began 1839) series of clashes between American and Canadian lumberjacks in the disputed territory of northern Maine, resolved when a permanent boundary was agreed upon in 1842

War of Jenkin's Ear

(began in 1739) small-scale clash between Britain and Spain in the Caribbean and in the buffer colony, Georgia; it merged with the much larger War of Austrian Succession in 1742

California Gold Rush

(beginning in 1849) inflow of thousands of miners to Northern California after news reports of the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in January of 1848 had spread around the world by the end of that year; the onslaught of migrants prompted Californians to organize a government and apply for statehood in 1849

New England Emigrant Aid Company

(founded 1854) organization created to facilitate the migration of free laborers to Kansas in order to prevent the establishment of slavery in the territory

Erie Canal

(completed 1825) New York state canal that linked Lake Erie to the Hudson River; it dramatically lowered shipping costs, fueling an economic boom in upstate New York and increasing the profitability

Second Great Awakening

(early nineteenth century) religious revival characterized by emotional mass "camp meetings" and widespread conversion; brought about a democratization of religion as a multiplicity of denominations vied for members

Society of the Cincinnati

(established 1783) exclusive, hereditary organization of former officers in the Continental Army; many resented the pretentiousness of the order, viewing it as a vestige of pre-Revolutionary traditions

Tammany Hall

(established 1789) powerful New York political machine that primarily drew support from the city's immigrants, who depended on Tammany Hall patronage, particularly social services

West Africa Squadron

(established 1808) British Royal Navy force formed to enforce the abolition of the slave trade in 1807; it intercepted hundreds of slave ships and freed thousands of Africans

Anti-Masonic party

(established 1826) first founded in New York, it gained considerable influence in New England and the mid-Atlantic during the 1832 election, campaigning against the politically influential Masonic order, a secret society; anti-masons opposed Andrew Jackson, a Mason, and drew much of their support from evangelical Protestants

U.S. Sanitary Commission

(established 1861) founded with the help of Elizabeth Blackwell, the government agency trained nurses, collected medical supplies, and equipped hospitals in an effort to help the Union Army; the commission helped professionals nursing and gave many women the confidence and organizational skills to propel the women's movement in the postwar years

Dominion of Canada

(established 1867) United Canadian government created by Britain to bolster Canadians against potential attacks or overtures from the United States

Shakers

(established c. 1770s) called "Shakers" for their lively dance worship, they emphasized simple, communal living and were all expected to practice celibacy; first transplanted to America from England by Mother Ann Lee, the Shakers counted six thousand members by 1840, though by the 1940s the movement largely died out

lyceum

(from the Greek nae for the ancient Athenian school where Aristotle taught) public lecture hall that hosted speakers on topics ranging from science to moral philosophy; part of a broader flourishing of higher education in the mid-nineteenth century

popular sovereignty

(in the context of the slavery debate) notion that the sovereign people of a given territory should decide whether to allow slavery; seemingly a compromise, it was largely opposed by Northern abolitionists who feared it would promote the spread of slavery to the territories

Iroquois Confederacy

(late 1500's) bound together five tribes- the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas- in the Mohawk Valley of what is now New York State

Hudson River school

(mid-nineteenth century) American artistic movement that produced romantic renditions of local landscapes

Ancient Order of Hibernians

(mid-nineteenth century) Irish semi-secret society that served as a benevolent organization for downtrodden Irish immigrants in the United States

transcendentalism

(mid-nineteenth century) literary and intellectual movement that emphasized individualism and self-reliance, predicated upon a belief that each person possesses an "inner-light" that can point the way to truth and direct contact with God

Fourteenth Amendment

(ratified 1868) constitutional amendment that extended civil rights to freedom and prohibited states from taking away such rights without due process

Fifteenth Amendment

(ratified 1870) prohibited states from denying citizens the franchise on account of race; it disappointed feminists who wanted the Amendment to include guarantees for women's suffrage

Kent State University

(shooting 1970) massacre of four college students by National Guardsmen on May 4, 1970, in Ohio; in response to Nixon's announcement that he had expanded the Vietnam War into Cambodia, college campuses across the country exploded in violence; on May 14 and 15, students at historically black Jackson State College in Mississippi were protesting the war as well as the Kent State shooting when highway patrolmen fired into a student dormitory, killing two students

Rutherford B. Hayes

19th president of the United States, was famous for being part of the Hayes-Tilden election in which electoral votes were contested in 4 states, most corrupt election in US history

James A. Garfield

20th president, Republican, assassinated by Charles Julius Guiteau after a few months in office due to lack of patronage; revealed problems with spoils system

Grover Cleveland

22nd and 24th president, Democrat; vetoed hundreds of wasteful bills, achieved the Interstate Commerce Commission and civil service reform

William McKinley

25th president responsible for Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, the Annexation of Hawaii, and imperialism; he was assassinated by an anarchist

Herbert C. Hoover

31st President who was a Quaker humanitarian, head of the Food Administration, and who helped forge a war economy by "voluntary conservation" with patriotism

Robert R. Livingston

A French minister who joined forces with James Monroe to buy New Orleans and as much land to its east as they could get for a maximum of $10 million. They were instructed by Jefferson to do this

Robert E. Lee

A General for the confederates, fought many battles. One of his main plans towards the end of the civil war was to wait for a new president to come into office to make peace with. Fought Peninsular Campaign, 2nd battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville (with Jackson), and Gettysburg.

John Jordan Crittenden

A Senator of Kentucky, that fathered two sons: one became a general in the Union Army, the other a general in the Confederate Army. He is responsible for the Crittenden Compromise. This augments the fact that the war was often between families, and its absurdity. Kentucky and other states were split up between the Union and Confederacy, and both in the North and South sent people to the other side. This makes it clear that the war is primarily over slavery

Dred Scott

A black slave, had lived with his master for 5 years in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory. Backed by interested abolitionists, he sued for freedom on the basis of his long residence on free soil. The ruling on the case was that he was a black slave and not a citizen, so he had no rights

Lucy Stone

American suffragist who founded the American Women Suffrage Association

Tecumseh

A famous Shawnee Indian who tried to unite Indian tribes against the increasing white settlement; he was a gifted organizer and leader as well as a noted warrior

Richard Montgomery

A former British officer who defected to the Americans. He is most well-known for his failed invasion of Canada in 1775. He was killed in the battle for Quebec

George Rogers Clark

A frontiersman in 1778, he captured the British forts in Illinois (Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes). Some argue that it was because of his actions that the British ceded this area to the United States at the Treaty of Paris

George B. McClellan

A general for northern command of the Army of the Potomac in 1861; nicknamed "Tardy George" because of his failure to move troops to Richmond; lost battle vs. General Lee near the Chesapeake Bay; Lincoln fired him twice.

Edgar Allan Poe

A nineteenth-century American author known for his poems and horror stories; "The Raven"

Benjamin Franklin

A skilled inventor, artisan, and founding father. He was well respected in Europe & a diplomat

Sally Hemings

A slave owned by Thomas Jefferson, who according to some historians, bore Jefferson's children

Ethan Allen

A soldier during the American Revolution who commanded a small force of American troops, captured the British garrisons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point in 1775. This secured a large amount of gunpowder and artillery for the siege of Boston.

William Clark

A young army officer who was sent by Jefferson to explore the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase with Meriwether Lewis. Their two and a half year expedition resulted in scientific observations, maps, and new knowledge

John Brown

Abolitionist who was hanged after leading an unsuccessful raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia

Harriet Tubman

American abolitionist. Born a slave on a Maryland plantation, she escaped to the North in 1849 and became the most renowned conductor on the Underground Railroad, leading more than 300 slaves to freedom

Samuel F.B. Morse

American artist and inventor; he applied scientists' discoveries of electricity and magnetism to develop the telegraph

Harriet Beecher Stowe

American author and daughter of Lyman Beecher, she was an abolitionist and author of the famous antislavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin

Nathaniel Hawthorne

American author who wrote The Scarlet Letter

John Deere

American blacksmith that was responsible for inventing the steel plow. This new plow was much stronger than the old iron version; therefore, it made plowing farmland in the west easier, making expansion faster

Cyrus Field

American businessman who laid the first telegraph wire across the Atlantic. This cut down the time it took for a message to be sent from Europe to American and vice-versa

Henry Ford

American businessman, founder of Ford Motor Company, father of modern assembly lines, and inventor credited with 161 patents

loyalists

American colonists who opposed the Revolution and maintained their loyalty to the King; sometimes referred to as 'Tories'

George F. Kennan

American diplomat who authored the "containment doctrine" in 1947, arguing that the Soviet Union was inherently expansionist and had to be stopped, via political and military force, from spreading throughout the world

Caleb Cushing

American diplomat who negotiated the Treaty of Wanghia with China in 1844

John Jacob Astor

American fur trader and financier, he founded the fur-trading post of Astoria and the American fur company

Stephen W. Kearny

American general who in 1846 led troops from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe, which he easily won

Frederick Jackson Turner

American historian who said that humanity would continue to progress as long as there was new land to move into. The frontier provided a place for homeless and solved social problems; although he is now criticized for, among other things, entirely ignoring the role of Native Americans in the West, his argument remains a keystone of thought about the West in American history

Robert Fulton

American inventor who designed the first commercially successful steamboat and the first steam warship

Elias Howe

American inventor whose sewing machine helped revolutionize garment manufacture in the factory and in the home

Isaac Singer

American inventor; he patented an improved sewing machine and by 1860, was the largest manufacturer of sewing machines in the country

William Randolph Hearst

American journalist; he was famous for sensational news stories known as yellow journalism that stirred feelings of nationalism; formed public opinion for the Spanish - American War

Alfred Thayer Mahan

American naval officer and author whose book of 1890, "The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783," impressed a generation of imperialists around the world with its argument that control of the sea was the key to world dominance

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

American poet that was influenced somewhat by the transcendentalism occurring at the time. He was important in building the status of American literature--The Song of Hiawatha and "Paul Revere's Ride."

John Foster Dulles

American politician principally known for serving as Eisenhower's Secretary of State; drafted the "policy of boldness" designed to confront Soviet aggression with the threat of "massive retaliation" via thermonuclear weapons

John Kerry

American politician who is the 68th and current United States Secretary of State; he has served in the United States Senate, and was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; he was the candidate of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election but lost to George W. Bush.

John Hancock

American revolutionary patriot who was president of the Continental Congress

James G. Blaine

American statesman who served in the House thirteen years (1863-1876), followed by a little over four years in the Senate (1876-1881). He served as Speaker of the House from 1869 to 1875. As secretary of state under James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, he advocated a "Big Sister" policy of United States domination in Latin America

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American transcendentalist who was against slavery and stressed self-reliance, optimism, self-improvement, self-confidence, and freedom. He was a prime example of a transcendentalist and helped further the movement; published Self Reliance and gave The American Scholar address to Harvard College

Nathanael Greene

American-born General who used guerrilla warfare against the British

Benedict Arnold

An American General who prevented the British from taking Ticonderoga. He later defected to the British army and was named a traitor

Charles Francis Adams

An American diplomat who, as ambassador during the Civil War, helped to keep the British from recognizing the Confederacy. In the Trent affair, he was instrumental in averting hostilities between the two nations

Eli Whitney

An American inventor who developed the cotton gin. Also contributed to the concept of interchangeable parts that were exactly alike and easily assembled or exchanged

Al Qaeda

Arabic for "The Base," an international alliance of anti-Western Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organizations founded in the late 1980s; founded by veterans of the Afghan struggle against the Soviet Union, the group was headed by Osama Bin Laden and has taken responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks, especially after the late 1990s; Al Qaeda organized the attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States, from its headquarters in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan; since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the launch of the "Global War on Terror," the group has been weakened, but still poses significant threats around the world

Roger B. Taney

As chief justice, he wrote the important decision in the Dred Scott case, upholding police power of states and asserting the principle of social responsibility of private property. He was Southern and upheld the fugitive slave laws

Moctezuma

Aztec emperor defeated and killed by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés

George Grenville

Became prime minister of Britain in 1763 he persuaded the Parliament to pass a law allowing smugglers to be sent to vice-admiralty courts which were run by British officers and had no jury. He did this to end smuggling

David Lloyd George

Britain's prime minister at the end of World War I whose goal was to make the Germans pay for the other countries' staggering war losses

William Howe

British General who was in command at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He did not like the "rigors" of winter warfare and made several tactical errors

John ("Gentleman Johnny") Burgoyne

British General who worked his way down from Canada and was defeated at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777

Edward Braddock

British major-general in America during the French & Indian War; he overestimated his British regulars and underestimated the value of Indian alliances in the Ohio River Valley; his troops were defeated and caused to retreat by French and Indian troops in the expedition against Fort Duquense, where he was mortally wounded

Lusitania

British passenger liner torpedoed and sank by Germany on May 7, 1915; it ended the lives of 1,198 people, including 128 Americans, and pushed the United States closer to war

Tenskwatawa ("the Prophet")

Brother of Tecumseh; together, he and his brother created a confederacy of all the tribes east of the Mississippi

predestination

Calvinist doctrine that God has foreordained some people to be saved and some to be damned; though their fate was irreversible, Calvinists, particularly those who believed they were destined for salvation, sought to lead sanctified lives in order to demonstrate to others that they were in fact members of "the elect"

John Marshall

Chief Justice, whom Adams had appointed to the Supreme Court and was also the cousin of Jefferson. He profoundly shaped the American legal system by being the judge in the Marbury v. Madison case and establishing judicial review. He served at Valley Forge during the Revolution and was a dedicated Federalist

Nicholas P. Trist

Chief clerk in the State Department, was sent to negotiate a peace treaty with a defeated Mexico in 1847. Before he could open negotiations he was summoned to return, but he ignored the order and stayed to negotiate the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Alexander Hamilton

Chief-of-Staff under Washington, and Secretary of the Treasury during Washington's administration. Drew up an economic plan to recuperate the economy and bolster the national credit. He also created the Bank of the United States

"Mad Anthony" Wayne

Commanded an army as a General against the Miami Confederacy. He routed the Miamis at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, that resulted in the Indians offering a peace settlement

George G. Meade

Commanded the Union Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg

Norman ("Stormin' Norman") Schwarzkopf

Commander of US Central Command in the Gulf War; Commander of the coalition forces

George Washington

Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, Founding Father of the United States, and first elected President under the new Constitution. Established the Cabinet and promoted the idea of isolationism through his Neutrality Proclamation and Farewell Address

Fidel Castro

Cuban revolutionary who overthrew Batista dictatorship in 1958 and assumed control of the island country; his connections with the Soviet Union led to a cessation of diplomatic relations with the United States in such international affairs as the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis; oversaw his country through the end of the Cold War and through nearly a half-century of trade embargo with the US

Seventh of March Speech

Daniel Webster's impassioned address urging the North to support the Compromise of 1850; Webster argued that topography and climate would keep slavery from becoming entrenched in Mexican Cession territory and urged Northerners to make all reasonable concessions to prevent disunion

Jacob A. Riis

Danish-born police reporter and pioneering photographer who exposed the ills of tenement living in his 1890 book illustrated with powerful photographs, How the Other Half Lives. His work led to the establishment of "model tenements" in New York City

Richard Henry Lee

Delegate to the Continental Congress who was among the first to call out for independence.

Henry VIII

English King that left the Catholic Church and started the Church of England; launched Protestant Reformation

Franklin Pierce

Democratic candidate for President in 1852 and the fourteenth president of the US. He made the Gadsden Purchase, which opened the Northwest for settlement, and passed the unpopular Kansas-Nebraska Act

Nancy Pelosi

Democratic congresswoman from California who became, in 2007, the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives; representing a left-wing district, she as Speaker sought to strike a very liberal, Democratic, tone

James K. Polk

Democratic nominee for presidency in 1844 & who was sponsored by Andrew Jackson; His presidency is known for settling the Oregon dispute, granting Texas statehood, and winning the Mexican-American War

Henry Clay

Distinguished senator from Kentucky, who ran for president five times until his death in 1852. He was a strong supporter of the American System, a war hawk for the War of 1812, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and known as "The Great Compromiser." (responsible for the Missouri Compromise). Outlined the Compromise of 1850 with five main points. However, he died before it was passed.

Napoleon III

Emperor of France who tried to take advantage of America's disorganized state by sending an attempt at expansion into Mexico

Charles Darwin

English Naturalists who wrote the Origin of the Species in 1859. His theory stated that in nature the strongest of a species survive, the weaker animals died out leaving only the stronger of the species--through this process of natural selection the entire species improved

Puritans

English Protestant reformers who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic rituals and creeds; some of the most devout Puritans believed that only "visible saints" should be admitted into church membership

Captain John Smith

English army captain whose strict discipline helped the Jamestown settlement to survive

Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot)

English explorer sent to northeastern coast of North America in 1497 and 1498

Henry Hudson

English explorer who disregarded orders to sail northeast and instead discovered the Hudson River and made a Dutch claim to a nicely wooded and watered area

Sir Francis Drake

English explorer, admiral, and non-first-born son who was the first Englishmen to circumnavigate the globe; was financially backed and knighted by Elizabeth I; helped defeat the Spanish armada; looted Spanish ships

Oliver Cromwell

English military and political leader who led the Parliamentarian victory in the English Civil War; called for the execution of Charles I; ruled England for nearly a decade as Lord Protector

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

Equal Rights Amendment, which declared full constitutional equality for women; although it passed both houses of Congress in 1972, a concerted grassroots campaign by anti-feminists led by Phyllis Schlafly persuaded enough state legislatures to vote against ratification; the amendment failed to become part of the Constitution

Sally Tompkins

Established an infirmary for wounded Confederate soldiers in Richmond, Virginia. When Confederate hospitals were brought under military control, Jefferson Davis commissioned her as an officer with the rank of captain, making her the first female military officer in American history

Eleanor Roosevelt

FDR's Wife and New Deal supporter who was a great supporter of civil rights and opposed the Jim Crow laws; she also worked for birth control and better conditions for working women

Daniel Webster

Famous American politician and orator. He advocated renewal and opposed the financial policy of Jackson. Many of the principles of finance he spoke about were later incorporated in the Federal Reserve System. Would later push for a strong union.

Lewis Cass

Father of Popular Sovereignty; Democratic senator who proposed Popular Sovereignty to settle the slavery question in the territories; he lost the presidential election in 1848 against Zachary Taylor but continued to advocate his solution to the slavery issue throughout the 1850s

John Jay

First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and served during Washington's administration. He negotiated a highly unpopular treaty with Great Britain to avert war, known as Jay's Treaty

Samuel Adams

Founder of the Sons of Liberty and one of the most vocal patriots for independence; signed the Declaration of Independence

Comte de Rochambeau

French General who assisted the Americans at the Battle of Yorktown on the land battle

Admiral de Grasse

French General who attacked from the sea in the Battle of Yorktown

Huguenots

French Protestant dissenters, the Huguenots were granted limited toleration under the Edict of Nantes; after King Louis XIV outlawed Protestantism in 1685, many Huguenots fled elsewhere, including to British North America

Edmond Genet

French ambassador to the United States at the beginning of the French Revolution. Landed at Charleston, South Carolina and attempted to recruit privateers to assist France and invade Spanish Florida and British Canada. Eventually replaced when Washington ordered his withdrawal

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

French foreign minister in 1797. President Adam's envoys hoped to meet with him, but ended up secretly meeting with three go-betweeners, resulting in the XYZ Affair

voyageurs

French fur-trappers, also known as "coureurs de bois" or "runners of the woods"

Acadians

French residents of Nova Scotia, many of whom were uprooted by the British in 1755 and scattered as far south as Louisiana, where their descendants became known as "Cajuns"

Michel-Guillaume Jean De Crèvecoeur

French settler who thought and wrote about the new American identity; he described the population as diverse, with many cultures and ethnicities intertwined, asked "What then is the American, this new man?"

Robert de la Salle

Frenchman who followed the Mississippi River all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, claiming the region for France and naming it Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV

Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson

General Robert E. Lee's chief lieutenant for much of the war. A gifted tactical theorist and a master of speed and deception.

Lord Charles Cornwallis

General in charge of the British forces during the Battle of Yorktown

Zachary Taylor

General that was a military leader in Mexican-American War and 12th president of the United States & was a Whig; he was sent by President Polk to lead the American Army against Mexico at Rio Grande, but was defeated; he died in 1850

Kristallnacht

German for "night of broken glass," it refers to the murderous pogrom that destroyed Jewish businesses and synagogues and sent thousands to concentration camps on the night of November 9, 1938; thousands more attempted to find refuge in the United States, but were ultimately turned away due to restrictive immigration laws

Martin Luther

German friar who wrote and posted 95 theses attacking the Catholic Church and denounced the authority of priests and popes, declaring the bible alone was the source of God's word; in doing so, he ignited the Protestant Reformation, which impacted Europe and eventually the founding of America

Arthur Zimmermann

German minister whose famous telegram was largely responsible for drawing the US into WWI

U-boats

German submarines, named for the German Underseeboot or "undersea boat," proved deadly for Allied ships in the war zone; U-boat attacks played an important role in drawing the United States into the First World War

Hessians

German troops hired from their princes by George III to aid in putting down the colonial insurrection; this hardened the resolve of American colonists, who resented the use of paid foreign fighters

Thomas Hutchinson

Governor of Boston who ordered cargo of tea to be unloaded in Boston despite colonial objection

Dewitt Clinton

Governor of New York who started the Erie Canal project. His leadership helped complete the canal, which boosted the economy greatly by cutting time traveled from west New York to the Hudson

Marquis de Lafayette

He was very rich and noble when he arrived in America at the age of 19 years old. He believed in the liberty that the Americans were fighting for and asked to help. He became a general on Washington's staff and fought hard. He was known as "the soldier's friend," and is buried in france but his grave is covered with earth from Bunker Hill

Francis Parkman

Historian with defective eyes that forced him to write in darkness with the aid of a guiding machine; chronicled the struggle between France and England in colonial times for mastery of North America

ecological imperialism

Historians' term for the spoliation of western natural resources through excessive hunting, logging, mining, and grazing

Matthew C. Perry

In 1853 presented the Japanese with a letter from the President calling for Japan to grant trading rights to Americans; they signed a treaty opening Japan for trade in 1854

William Walker

Installed himself as the President of Nicaragua in July 1856. He legalized slavery, but was overthrown by surrounding Central American countries and killed in 1860. Central American nations formed an alliance to overthrow him

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator who discovered the New World in service of Spain while looking for a route to China

Clara Barton

Launched the American Red Cross in 1881. An "angel" in the Civil War, she treated the wounded in the field

Thomas Jefferson

Leader of the Democratic-Republicans who ran for presidency in 1800 against John Adams, a Federalist, and was inaugurated on March 4, 1801. Became the victim of America's earliest "whispering campaigns". Considered his election a "return to the original spirit of Revolution" made the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and sent out the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore it (1743-1826)

Toussaint L'Ouverture

Led ex-slaves in a resistance. He was a military genius and did much to set up the sale of Louisiana to the U.S.

Preston S. Brooks

Legislator who attacked another legislator, leaving his seat empty

Metacom (King Phillip)

Massasoit's son who forged an Indian alliance that attacked 52 Puritan towns that slowed westward movement of English settlement in New England for several decades, but drastically decreased Indian population; eventually captured and beheaded

David Wilmot

Member of Congress best known for the "Wilmot Proviso" (1846). This was a plan to not allow slavery in any of the land annexed from Mexico after the Mexican-American War. It did not pass, but was considered the first event in a long slide towards the Civil War

Elvis Presley

Memphis-born singer whose youth, voice, and sex appeal helped popularize rock 'n' roll in the mid-1950s; commonly known using only his first name, he was an icon of popular culture, in both music and film

Santa Anna

Mexican general/dictator who tried to crush the Texas revolt and who lost battles to Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War (1795-1876)

Henry Ward Beecher

Minister who worked against slavery in Kansas Border War, promoted civil service reform

Cahokia

Mississippian settlement near present-day East St. Louis, home to as many as 25,000 Native Americans

Rosa Parks

NAACP leader in Montgomery, Alabama, who inaugurated the city's famous bus boycott in 1955 by refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger; she became a leading symbol of the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement and the cause of racial equality throughout her long life

Aztecs

Native American empire that controlled present-day Mexico until 1521, when they were conquered by Spanish Hernán Cortés; the Aztecs maintained control over their vast empire through a system of trade and tribute, and came to be known for their advances in mathematics and writing, and their use of human sacrifices in religious ceremonies

Sacajawea

Native American who helped Lewis and Clark navigate on their journey of the Louisiana Territory

Jonathon Edwards

New England minister whose fiery sermons helped ignite the First Great Awakening; talked of hell and claimed salvation could be attained through God's grace alone

Stephen Austin

Original settler of Texas, granted land from Mexico on condition of no slaves, convert to Roman Catholic, and learn Spanish

Black Monday

October 19, 1987; date of the largest single-day decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average until September 2001; the downturn indicated instability in the booming business culture of the 1980s but did not lead to a serious economic recession

Ulysses S. Grant

Ohio born Union general and 18th president of the U.S. During the war, he won Lincoln's confidence for his boldness and his ability to stomach the steep casualties that victory required. First assigned to the West, he attained union victories at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Vicksburg, seizing control of the Mississippi River and splitting the South in two. After taking command of the Union Army, he fought Lee in a series of bloody battles in Virginia, resulting in Lee's surrender at Appomattox. As president, he took a hard line against the South, but economic turmoil and waning support for Reconstruction undermined his efforts

John Adams

One of the Founding Fathers, and second President of the United States. He inherited a violent quarrel with France, but later negotiated peace with the country in 1800

Thaddeus Stevens

Pennsylvania congressman who led the Radical Republican faction in the House of Representatives during and after the Civil War, advocating for abolition and later, the extension of civil rights to freed blacks. He also called for land redistribution as a means to break the power of the planter elite and provide African Americans with the economic means to sustain their new-found independence

Nikita Khrushchev

Premier of the Soviet Union from 1958-1964, he was a communist party official who emerged from the power struggle after Stalin's death in 1953 to lead the USSR. He crushed a pro-Western uprising of Hungary in 1956, and, in 1958, issued an ultimatum for Western evacuation of Berlin; defended Soviet-style economic planning in the Kitchen Debate with Richard Nixon in 1959, and attempted to send missiles to Cuba in 1962 but backed down when confronted by JFK

Nixon Doctrine

President Nixon's plan for "peace with honor" in Vietnam; the doctrine stated that the United States would honor its existing defense commitments but, in the future, countries would have to fight their own wars

Fair Deal

President Truman's extensive social program introduced in his 1949 message to Congress; Republicans and Southern Democrats kept much of his vision from being enacted, except for raising the minimum wage, providing for more public housing, and extending old-age insurance to many more beneficiaries under the Social Security Act

Gamal Abdel Nasser

President of Egypt from 1956-1970; was known for his pan-Arab nationalism and opposition to colonialism, specifically in his decision to nationalize the Suez Canal in 1956; although his reputation was somewhat tarnished by his country's military failure against Israel in the 6 Days War of 1967, he remained a popular leader in Egypt and throughout the Arab world

Nicholas Biddle

President of the Second Bank of the United States; he struggled to keep the bank functioning when President Jackson tried to destroy it; He was an American financier who was also president of the Bank of the United States. He was also known for his bribes. He was in charge during the bank war, where Jackson refused to deposit federal funds, which bled the bank dry. He also showed the corruption of the bank.

Warren G. Harding

President of the United States from 1921 to 1923. This Republican man, though good-natured himself, surrounded himself with a few shady characters who tainted his presidency. Believed in a quasi-laissez-faire economic policy. Died of illness in 1923

Richard M. Nixon

President of the United States from 1969-1974, he rose to national prominence as a "communist hunter" and member of HUAC in the 1950s; was vice president under Eisenhower from 1953-1961 and defended American capitalism in the 1959 Kitchen Debate with Khrushchev; he ran unsuccessfully for president against JFK in 1960 but was elected in 1968, resigning amid the Watergate scandal in 1974

John F. Kennedy

President of the United States who narrowly defeated the incumbent vice-president Nixon in 1960 to become the youngest person ever elected president; launched New Frontier programs and urged legislation to improve civil rights; assumed the blame for the Bay of Pigs invasion and was credited as well for the superb handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis; he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald

Clement L. Vallandigham

Prominent Copperhead who was an ex-congressman from Ohio, demanded an end to the war, and was banished to the Confederacy

William III

Protestant Dutch-born who became King of England after James II was dethroned in the Glorious Revolution; joint ruled with Mary II; under their rule, Bill of Rights made England a constitutional monarchy

Union League

Reconstruction-Era African American organization that worked to educate Southern blacks about civic life, built black schools and churches, and represented African American interests before government and employers; it also campaigned on behalf of Republican candidates and recruited local militias to protect blacks from white intimidation

John Quincy Adams

Secretary of State under Monroe. He served as sixth president. In 1819, he drew up the Adams-Onis Treaty in which Spain gave the United States Florida in exchange for the United States dropping its claims to Texas. The Monroe Doctrine was mostly Adams' work.

Edwin M. Stanton

Secretary of war under Presidents Lincoln and Johnson, he advocated for stronger measures against the South during Reconstruction, particularly after widespread violence against African Americans erupted in the region. In 1868, Johnson removed him in violation of the 1867 Tenure of Office Act, giving pretense for Radical Republicans in the House to impeach him

Martin Van Buren

Served as secretary of state during Andrew Jackson's first term, vice president during Jackson's second term, and won the presidency in 1836; 8th President of the U.S.

John C. Calhoun

South Carolina Senator - advocate for state's rights, limited government, and nullification; (1830s-40s) Leader of the Fugitive Slave Law, which forced the cooperation of Northern states in returning escaped slaves to the south. He also argued on the floor of the senate that slavery was needed in the south. He argued on the grounds that society is supposed to have an upper ruling class that enjoys the profit of a working lower class.

Fort Sumter

South Carolina location where Confederate forces fired the first shots of the Civil War in April of 1861, after Union forces attempted to provision the fort

George C. Wallace

Southern populist and segregationist; as governor of Alabama, he famously defended his state's policies of racial segregation; he ran for president several times as a Democrat, but achieved his greatest influence when he ran as a third-party candidate in 1968, winning five states

Joseph Stalin

Soviet dictator from Lenin's death in 1922 until his own death in 1953. He led the Soviet Union through World War II and shaped Soviet policies in the early years of the Cold War and secured protective "satellite states" in Eastern Europe at Yalta Conference while pushing Soviet scientists to develop atomic weapons, escalating an arms race with the United States

Leonid Brezhnev

Soviet leader who helped oust and then replace Khrushchev

Hernán Cortés

Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the conquest of Aztec Mexico in 1519-1521 for Spain; helped create mestizos culture by intermarrying with Indians

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish explorer who conquered the Incas in what is now Peru, added a great amount of money/valuables to Spanish coffers, and founded the city of Lima

SALT II

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty agreement between Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and American president Jimmy Carter; despite an accord to limit weapons between the two leaders, the agreement was ultimately scuttled in the U.S. Senate following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979

Goliad

Texas outpost where American volunteers, having laid down their arms and surrendered, were massacred by Mexican forces in 1836; the incident, along with the slaughter at the Alamo, fueled American support for Texan independence

William Tecumseh Sherman

Union General who destroyed the South during "march to the sea" from Atlanta to Savannah, example of total war

Oliver O. Howard

Union general known as the "Christian general" because he tried to base his policy decisions on his deep religious piety. He was given charge of the Freedmen's Bureau in 1865, with the mission of integrating the freed slaves into Southern society and politics during the second phase of the Reconstruction Era

Joseph ("Fighting Joe") Hooker

Union general who was dismissed before the Battle of Gettysburg by President Lincoln after he failed to attack the broken up Confederate forces and allowed them to assemble in Pennsylvania; defeated at Chancellorsville, Virginia by Stonewall Jackson

John Pope

Union general with brief but successful career in the Western Theater, but he is best known for his defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run in the East.

James Meredith

United States civil rights leader whose college registration caused riots in traditionally segregated Mississippi; the result was forced government action, showing that segregation was no longer government policy

Henry A. Kissinger

United States diplomat who served under President Nixon and Ford; awarded Nobel Peace Prize for helping to end Vietnam War and withdrawing American forces

Jay Gould

United States financier who gained control of the Erie Canal and who caused a financial panic in 1869 when he attempted to corner the gold market

Denmark Vesey

United States freed slave and insurrectionist in South Carolina who was involved in planning an uprising of slaves and was hanged (1767-1822); A mulatto who inspired a group of slaves to seize Charleston, South Carolina in 1822, but one of them betrayed him and he and his thirty-seven followers were hanged before the revolt started.

Cyrus McCormick

United States inventor and manufacturer of a mechanical harvester

Louisa May Alcott

United States novelist noted for children's books; "Little Women"

Emily Dickinson

United States poet noted for her mystical and unrhymed poems

Sam Houston

United States politician and military leader who fought to gain independence for Texas from Mexico and to make it a part of the United States (1793-1863)

Joseph R. ("Joe") Biden

United States senator from Delaware since 1973 and selected by Barack Obama in 2008 as the Democratic candidate for vice president; he had unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1988 and 2008; as a longtime senator, former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and current chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he brought experience and maturity to the Democratic ticket in 2008

Monica Lewinsky

White House intern with whom President Bill Clinton had an extra-marital affair in the late 1990s; she was the center of a protracted scandal during the second Clinton term

James Wilkinson

Wilkinson had been an officer in the Continental Army, and later held several positions relating to the Army, such as secretary of the board of war and clothier general to the army. He was one of the Commissioners appointed to receive the Purchase Louisiana from the French, and served as Governor of Louisiana from 1805-1806. He informed President Jefferson of Burr's conspiracy to take over Louisiana, and was the primary witness against Burr at his treason trial, even though Wilkinson was himself implicated in the plot

James Wolfe

Young British commander who was appointed by William Pitt to command in the Battle of Québec; although fatally wounded, his skillful strategies resulted in British victory

Robert F. Wagner

a Democratic senator from New York State from 1927-1949, he was responsible for the passage of some of the most important legislation enacted through the New Deal; the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was popularly known as the Wagner Act in honor of the senator; he also played a major role in the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 and the Wagner-Steagall Housing Act of 1937

Albert Einstein

a German-born scientist who encouraged Roosevelt and America to build the first atomic bomb

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

a New Deal-era labor organization that broke away from the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in order to organize unskilled industrial workers regardless of their particular economic sector or craft; the CIO gave a great boost to labor organizing in the midst of the Great Depression and during World War II; in 1955, the CIO merged with the AFL

Harry L. Hopkins

a New York social worker who headed the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and Civil Works Administration; he helped grant over 3 billion dollars to the states wages for work projects, and granted thousands of jobs for jobless Americans

Fundamentalism

a Protestant Christian movement emphasizing the literal truth of the Bible and opposing religious modernism, which sought to reconcile religion and science; it was especially strong in the Baptist Church and the Church of Christ, first organized in 1906

William Penn

a Quaker that founded Pennsylvania to establish a place where his people and others could live in peace and be free from persecution

Lucretia Mott

a Quaker who attended an anti-slavery convention in 1840 and her party of women was not recognized. She and Stanton called the first women's right convention in New York in 1848

Henry Cabot Lodge

a Republican who disagreed with the Versailles Treaty, and who was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; he mostly disagreed with the section that called for the League to protect a member who was being threatened

Theodore ("Teddy") Roosevelt

a Rough Rider, he was a cowboy-hero of the Cuban campaign who rode his popularity into the governorship of New York state and then into the vice-president's office. He became president when McKinley was assassinated in 1901. He won reelection as a Republican in 1904 and then lost to Democrat Woodrow Wilson in 1912, when he tried for another term as the Progressive Party candidate

McCarthyism

a brand of vitriolic, fear-mongering anti-communism associated with the career of Senator Joseph McCarthy; in the early 1950s, Senator McCarthy used his position in Congress to baselessly accuse high-ranking government officials and other Americans of conspiracy with communism; the term named after him refers to the dangerous forces of unfairness and fear wrought by anti-communist paranoia

American plan

a business-oriented approach to worker relations popular among firms in the 1920s to defeat unionization; managers sought to strengthen their communications with workers and to offer benefits like pensions and insurance; they insisted on an "open shop" in contrast to the mandatory union membership through the "closed shop" that many labor activities had demanded in the strike wave after World War I

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

a campus-based political organization founded in 1961 by Tom Hayden that became an iconic representation of the New Left; originally geared toward the intellectual promise of "participatory democracy," SDS emerged at the forefront of the civil rights, antipoverty, and antiwar movements during the 1960s

holding companies

a company that owns part or all of the other companies' stock in order to extend monopoly control; often, a holding company does not produce goods or services of its own but only exists to control other companies; the Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914 sought to clamp down on these companies when they obstructed competition

"Lost Generation"

a creative circle of expatriate American artists and writers, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein, who found shelter and inspiration in post-World War I

Harlem Renaissance

a creative outpouring among African-American writers, jazz musicians, and social thinkers, centered around Harlem in the 1920s, that celebrated black culture and advocated for a "New Negro" in American social, political, and intellectual life

Good Neighbor policy

a departure from the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, the Good Neighbor Policy stressed nonintervention in Latin America; it was begun by Herbert Hoover but associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt

Abu Ghraib prison

a detention facility near Baghdad, Iraq; under Saddam Hussein, the prison was the site of infamous torturing and execution of political dissidents; in 2004, during the US occupation of Iraq, the prison became the focal point of a prisoner-abuse and torture scandal after photographs surfaced of American soldiers mistreating, torturing, and degrading Iraqi war prisoners and suspected terrorists; the scandal was one of the several dark spots on the public image of the Iraq War and led to increased criticism of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

pragmatism

a distinctive American philosophy that emerged in the late nineteenth century around the theory that the true value of an idea lay in its ability to solve problems; the pragmatists thus embraced the provisional, uncertain nature of experimental knowledge; among the most well-known purveyors of pragmatism were John Dewey, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and William James

Al Capone

a famous Chicago gangster who made a fortune ($60 million in one year) off of bootlegging, and "murdered" his way to the top of the crime network, buying off public officials, the police, and judges; he was not convicted of any wrongdoing, however, until a judge in a federal court convicted him of income-tax evasion and sent him to jail in 1931

Peace Corps

a federal agency created by President Kennedy in 1961 to promote voluntary service by Americans in foreign countries; the Peace Corps provides labor power to help developing countries improve their infrastructure, health care, educational systems, and other aspects of their societies; part of Kennedy's New Frontier vision, the organization represented an effort by postwar liberals to promote American values and influence through productive exchanges across the world

nation-states

a form of political organization in which a group of people who share the same history, traditions, or language live in a particular area under one government

Martin Delany

a free black abolitionist who was a military officer, was educated at Harvard Medical School, and was arguably the first proponent of American black nationalism

Sojourner Truth

a freed slave whose real name is Isabella Baumfree, she was an abolitionist and advocated for the equality of women

Gifford Pinchot

a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, he was the head of the federal Division of Forestry and a noted conservationist who wanted to protect, but also use, the nation's natural resources, like forests and rivers. In 1922 he won election to the Pennsylvania governor's mansion, on the Republican ticket

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

a governmental organization signed into law by Richard Nixon in 1970 designed to regulate pollution, emissions, and other factors that negatively influence the natural environment; the creation of the EPA marked a newfound commitment by the federal government to actively combat environmental risks and was a significant triumph for the environmentalist movement

John Winthrop

a governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who served for nineteen years; he helped make industries such as fish and ships prosper, which led to the colony becoming big and very influential in New England; he believed that the MBC would serve as a holy society that would be a model for humankind

Chester Nimitz

a high-grade naval strategist who fought in the Battle of Midway under Admiral Raymond A. Spruance. All of the fighting was done by aircraft and victory ensued; he successfully took Japanese island strongholds in the Pacific by utilizing naval, air, and ground units

George Creel

a journalist who was the head of the Committee of Public Information; he helped the anti-German movement as well as inspired patriotism in America during the war

Jack Kerouac

a key author of the Beat movement whose best selling novel, "On the Road," helped define the movement with it's featured frenzied prose and plotless ramblings

Louis D. Brandeis

a lawyer and later justice of the Supreme Court who spoke and wrote widely (especially in Other People's Money [1913]) about the "curse of bigness." He insisted that government must regulate competition in such a way as to ensure that large combinations did not emerge

William D. ("Big Bill") Haywood

a leader of the Industrial workers of the World, the Western Federation of Miners, and the Socialist Party of America; he was one of the most feared of American labor radicals and during WWI, he became a special target of anti-leftist legislation

Southern Renaissance

a literary outpouring among mid-twentieth century southern writers, begun by William Faulkner and marked by a new critical appreciation of the region's burdens of history, racism, and conservatism

John D. Rockefeller

a man who started from meager beginnings and eventually created an oil empire. In Ohio in 1870 he organized the Standard Oil Company. By 1877 he controlled 95% of all of the refineries in the United States. It achieved important economies both home and abroad by its large scale methods of production and distribution. He also organized the trust and started the Horizontal Merger

trust

a mechanism by which one company grants control over its operations, through ownership of its stock, to another company; the Standard Oil Company became known for this practice in the 1870s as it eliminated its competition by taking control of smaller oil companies

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

a member of the women's right's movement in 1840. She was a mother of seven, and she shocked other feminists by advocating suffrage for women at the first Women's Right's Convention in Seneca, New York 1848. Stanton read a "Declaration of Sentiments" which declared "all men and women are created equal."

Henry Demarest Lloyd

a muckraking journalist and reform leader whose book, "Wealth Against Commonwealth" (1894), excoriated the sins of the Standard Oil Company; he became one of the leading intellectuals behind the progressive movement, influencing such figures as Clarence Darrow, Florence Kelley, and John Dewey

American Federation of Labor

a national federation of trade unions that included only skilled workers, founded in 1886; led by Samuel Gompers for nearly four decades, the AFL sought to negotiate with employers for a better kind of capitalism that rewarded workers fairly with better wages, hours, and conditions; the AFL's membership was almost entirely white and male until the middle of the twentieth century

Walt Whitman

a nineteenth-century American poet. His principal work is Leaves of Grass, a collection of poems that celebrates nature, democracy, and individualism

Tuskegee Institute

a normal and industrial school led by Booker T. Washington in Tuskegee, Alabama; it focused on training young black students in agriculture and the trades to help them achieve economic independence; Washington justified segregated, vocational training as a necessary first step on the road to racial equality, although critics accused him of being too "accomodationist"

William Bradford

a pilgrim who was chosen thirty times as governor of Plymouth; as governor, he worked hard to maintain friendly relations with Native Americans and was largely responsible for keeping Plymouth Colony independent from Massachusetts Bay Colony; also, signed the Mayflower Compact

Arthur Miller

a playwright of the postwar period who reinforced David Riesman's image of modern American society as a "lonely crowd" of individuals without internal values, hollow at the core, groping for a sense of belonging and affection

Andrew Johnson

a political leader of the nineteenth century. He was elected vice president in 1864 and became president when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. He is one of two presidents to have been impeached; the House of Representatives charged him with illegally dismissing a government official. The Senate tried him, and he was acquitted by only one vote

initiative

a progressive reform measure allowing voters to petition to have a law placed on the general ballot; like the referendum and recall, it brought democracy directly "to the people," and helped foster a shift toward interest-group politics and away from old political "machines"

referendum

a progressive reform procedure allowing voters to place a bill on the ballot for final approval, even after being passed by the legislature

Henry James

a pseudo-realist, he was an author who wrote books about the rich and expatriates

regionalism

a recurring artistic movement that, in the context of the late nineteenth century, aspired to capture the peculiarities, or "local color," of America's various regions in the face of modernization and nation standardization

social gospel

a reform movement led by Protestant ministers who used religious doctrine to demand better housing and living conditions for the urban poor; popular at the turn of the twentieth century; it was closely linked to the settlement house movement, which brought middle-class, Anglo-American service volunteers into contact with immigrants and working people

Charles Evans Hughes

a reformist Republican governor of New York, who had gained fame as an investigator of malpractices by gas and insurance companies and by the coal trust. He later ran against Wilson in the 1916 election but the Democrats said that if he won then the country would end up going to war; he lost a very close race for the position to Wilson

grandfather clause

a regulation established in many southern states in the 1890s that exempted from voting requirements (such as literacy tests and poll taxes) anyone who could prove that their ancestors ("grandfathers") had been able to vote in 1860; since slaves could not vote before the Civil War, these clauses guaranteed the right to vote to many whites while denying it to blacks

Langston Hughes

a renown poet in Harlem who graduated from Lincoln University in 1929; he wrote "The Crisis", "Mother to Son", and many others & he emphasized the black experience

yellow journalism

a scandal-mongering practice of journalism that emerged in New York during the Gilded Age out of the circulation battles between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal; the expression has remained a pejorative term referring to sensationalist journalism practiced with unethical, unprofessional standards

George McGovern

a senator from South Dakota who ran for President in 1972 on the Democratic ticket; his promise was to pull the remaining American troops out of Vietnam in ninety days which earned him the support of the Anti-war party, and the working-class supported him, also; lost to Nixon

Whitewater

a series of scandals during the Clinton Administration that stemmed from a failed real estate investment from which the Clintons were alleged to have illicitly profited; the accusations prompted the appointment of a special federal prosecutor, though no indictments

Beat Generation

a small coterie of mid-twentieth-century bohemian writers and personalities, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, who bemoaned bourgeois conformity and advocated free-form experimentation in life and literature

Fordism

a system of assembly-line manufacturing and mass production named after Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company and developer of the Model T car

Scientific Management

a system of industrial management created and promoted in the early twentieth century by Frederick W. Taylor, emphasizing stopwatch efficiency to improve factory performance; the system gained immense popularity across the United States and Europe

Australian ballot

a system that allows voters privacy in marking their ballot choices; developed in Australia in the 1850s, it was introduced to the United States during the progressive era to help counteract boss rule

patronage

a system, prevalent during the Gilded Age, in which political parties granted jobs and favors to party regulars who delivered votes on election day; patronage was both an essential wellspring of support for both parties and a source of conflict within the Republican party

Florence Kelley

a tireless crusader for women's and labor rights, she was Illinois's first chief factory inspector and a leader of the National Consumer's League, an organization dedicated to improving working conditions for women and children; she also went on to help found the NAACP

City Beautiful movement

a turn-of-the-century movement among progressive architects and city planners, who aimed to promote order, harmony, and virtue while beautifying the nation's new urban spaces with grand boulevards, welcoming parks, and monumental public buildings

Jackson Pollock

a twentieth-century American painter, famous for creating abstract paintings by dripping or pouring paint on a canvas in complex swirls and spatters

H. Ross Perot

a twentieth-century businessman and politician; extremely wealthy, and in 1992 ran for president of the United States as an independent--ran again in 1996 as the candidate of the Reform party, although his strongest showing was in 1992, when he received nineteen percent of the popular vote

closed shop

a union-organizing term that refers to the practice of allowing only unionized employees to work for a particular company; the AFL became known for negotiating closed-shop agreements with employers, in which the employer would agree not to hire non-union members

Daniel Shays

a veteran of the revolution who led a rebellion about back-country folk who were losing their farms to tax or foreclosures; his followers were called Shaysites; conservatives fear his creation of a "mob-ocracy"

Jacob S. Coxey

a wealthy Ohio quarry owner turn populist who led a protest group to Washington D.C. to demand that the federal government provide the unemployed with meaningful work (during the depression of 1893). The group was arrested and disbanded peacefully in D.C.; movements like this struck fear into American's hearts

Anne Hutchinson

a woman colonist who held unorthodox views that challenged the authority of the clergy and the very integrity of the Puritan experiment in the MBC; she was eventually banished from Boston for her religious views, but is "judged a heroine in the eye of history"

panic of 1873

a world-wide depression that began in the United States when one of the nation's largest banks abruptly declared bankruptcy, leading to the collapse of thousands of banks and businesses; the crisis intensified debtors' calls for inflationary measures such as the printing of more paper money and the unlimited coinage of silver; conflicts over monetary policy greatly influenced politics in the last quarter of the nineteenth century

John Dean III

accused officials and the president of obstructing justice by trying to cover up the Watergate scandal

impressment

act of forcibly drafting an individual into military service, employed by the British navy against American seamen in times of war against France, 1793-1815; impressment was a continual source of conflict between Britain and the United States in the early national period

Compromise of 1850

admitted California as a free state, opened New Mexico and Utah to popular sovereignty, ended the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in Washington, D.C., and introduced a more stringent fugitive slave law; widely opposed in both the North and South, it did little to settle the escalating dispute over slavery

Great Rapprochement

after decades of occasionally "twisting the lion's tail," American diplomats began to cultivate close, cordial relations with Great Britain at the end of the nineteenth century--a relationship that would intensify further during World War I

mining industry

after gold and silver strikes in Colorado, Nevada, and other western territories in the second half of the nineteenth century, fortune seekers by the thousands rushed to the West to dig; these metals were essential to U.S. industrial growth and were also sold into world markets; after surface metals were removed, people sought ways to extract ore from underground, leading to the development of heavy mining machinery; this, in turn, led to the consolidation of the mining industry, because only big companies could afford to buy and build the necessary machines

Saddam Hussein

as president of Iraq, he maintained power through the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and the first Persian Gulf War (1991); during these conflicts, he repressed movements he deemed threatening to the stability of Iraq, particularly Shi'a and Kurdish movements seeking to overthrow the government or gain independence, respectively. While he remained a popular hero among many disaffected Arabs everywhere for standing up to the West and for his support for the Palestinians, U.S. leaders continued to view him with deep suspicion following the 1991 Persian Gulf War. He was deposed by the U.S. and its allies during the 2003 invasion of Iraq

James Earl ("Jimmy") Carter, Jr.

as the 39th president of the United States, he represented a historical change in national politics--he was the first modern president to be elected from the Deep South

A. Mitchell Palmer

attorney general during the height of the Red Scare (1919-1920) who led raids against suspected radicals; reacting to terrorist bombings, fear of Bolshevism, and his own presidential aspirations, Palmer arrested 6,000 people and deported over 500

William Faulkner

author who wrote Soldier's Pay, The Sound and the Fury, and As I Lay Dying, used a new, choppy "stream of consciousness" form of writing

F. Scott Fitzgerald

author who wrote The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise, both of which appealed to young readers

Ernest Hemingway

author who wrote The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, exemplified the "Lost Generation" of WWI

Malcolm X

black militant, radical minister, and spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964; he preached a doctrine of no compromise with white society, of separation and not integration, and was assassinated in New York City in 1965

civil law

body of written law enacted through legislative statutes or constitutional provisions; in countries where civil law prevails, judges must apply the statutes precisely as written

Winslow Homer

broke the Old World traditions in art, and was vigorously American in his paintings of New England maritime life and other native subjects.

Duke of York

brother of King Charles II, he was given the colony of New Netherlands/New Amsterdam, and after the English took control, the colony was renamed New York

Robert S. McNamara

businessman turned Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968; he was the author of the "flexible response" doctrine, which created a variety of military options and avoided a stark choice between nuclear warfare and none at all; as Defense Secretary, he was the chief architect of the Vietnam War

Department of Homeland Security

cabinet-level agency created in 2003 to unify and coordinate public safety and anti-terrorism operations within the federal government

responsorial

call and response style of preaching that melded Christian and African traditions; practiced by African slaves in the South

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

cartel comprising Middle Eastern states and Venezuela first organized in 1960; OPEC aimed to control access to and prices of oil, wresting power from Western oil companies and investors; in the process, it gradually strengthened the hand of non-Western powers on the world stage

Martin Luther King, Jr.

civil rights leader and Baptist preacher who rose to prominence with the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957; he was an outspoken advocate for black rights throughout the 1960s, most famously during the 1963 March on Washington where he delivered the "I Have a Dream Speech"---he was assassinated in Memphis in 1968 while supporting a sanitation workers' strike

land-grant colleges

colleges and universities created from allocations of public land through the Morrell Act of 1862 and the Hatch Act of 1887; these grants helped fuel the boom in higher education in the late nineteenth century and many of today's public universities derive from these grants

royal colonies

colonies where governors were appointed directly by the King; though often competent administrators, the governors frequently ran into trouble with colonial legislatures, which resented the imposition of control from across the Atlantic

proprietary colonies

colonies-Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware-under the control of local proprietors, who appointed colonial governors

Albert E. Smith

colorful New York governor who was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president in 1928. His Catholicism and "wet" stance on Prohibition made him a controversial figure, even in the traditionally loyal Democratic South. Although Smith lost the electoral vote to a Hoover landslide, his appeal to urban voters foreshadowed the Northern urban and Southern coalition that would gain Franklin Roosevelt the White House in 1932

George Dewey

commander of the American Asiatic Squadron who boldly captured Manila Bay and the Philippines at the launch of the Spanish American War; his actions ultimately led to fierce debates about the propriety of American imperialism

Deism

eighteenth-century religious doctrine that emphasized reasoned moral behavior and the scientific pursuit of knowledge; most deists rejected biblical inerrancy and the divinity of Christ, but they did believe that a Supreme Being created the universe

Hiram W. Johnson

elected Republican governor of California in 1910, he oversaw numerous progressive reforms, including the passage of woman suffrage at the state level. In 1917 he entered the Senate, where he proved an isolationist in foreign affairs. He is famous for declaring that "the first casualty when war comes, is truth."

Tom Watson

elected to the U.S Congress, became known as a champion of Georgia's farmers, and he sponsored and pushed through a law providing for RFD-rural free delivery

Revolution of 1800

electoral victory of Democratic Republicans over the Federalists, who lost their Congressional majority and the presidency; the peaceful transfer of power between rival parties solidified faith in America's political system

headright system

employed in the tobacco colonies to encourage the importation of indentured servants, the system allowed an individual to acquire fifty acres of land if he paid for a laborer's passage to the colony

National War Labor Board (NWLB)

established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to act as an arbitration tribunal and mediate disputes between labor and management that might have led to war stoppages and thereby undermined the war effort; the NWLB was also charged with adjusting wages with an eye to controlling inflation

Civil Rights Act of 1964

federal law that banned racial discrimination in public facilities and strengthened the federal government's power to fight segregation in schools; Title VII of the act prohibited employers from discriminating based on race in their hiring practices, and empowered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commision (EEOC) to regulate fair employment

Federal Highway Act of 1956

federal legislation signed by Dwight D. Eisenhower to construct thousands of miles of modern highways in the name of national defense; officially called the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, this bill dramatically increased the move to the suburbs, as white middle-class people could more easily commute to urban jobs

Malinche (Dona Marina)

female Indian slave who was picked up by Cortés, who served as a translator (knew Mayan and Nahuntl); helped him gain allies; baptized under Spanish name but maalinchista means "traitor"

Amelia Bloomer

female reformer who promoted short skirts and trousers as a replacement for highly restrictive women's clothing

Betty Friedan

feminist author of "The Feminine Mystique" in 1960; her book sparked a new consciousness among suburban women and helped launch the second-wave feminist movement

Elizabeth I

finalized England's break with the Roman Catholic Church (reestablished Protestantism); troops crushed Catholic Irish uprisings; financed Sir Francis Drake; led the defeat of the Spanish armada

Panic of 1857

financial crash brought on by gold-fueled inflation, overspeculation, and excess grain production; raised calls in the North for higher tariffs and for free homesteads on western public lands

Ronald Reagan

first elected president in 1980 and elected again in 1984; he ran on a campaign based on the common man and "populist" ideas; while president, he developed Reagannomics, the trickle down effect of government incentives, he cut out many welfare and public works programs, he used the Strategic Defense Initiative to avoid conflict, and his meetings with Gorbachev were the first steps to ending the Cold War

Canadian shield

first part of the North-American landmass to emerge above sea level

Ngo Dinh Diem

first president of South Vietnam, where he took power following the Geneva Accords in 1954; he was propped up by the United States until he was overthrown and assassinated by a coup in 1963

Boris Yeltsin

first president of the Russian Federation

Tariff of 1816

first protective tariff in American history; created primarily to shield New England manufacturers from the inflow of British goods after the War of 1812

Sandra Day O'Connor

first woman in the Supreme Court, appointed by Ronald Reagan

Border States

five slave states--Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia--that did not secede during the Civil War; to keep the states in the Union, Abraham Lincoln insisted that the war was not about abolishing slavery but rather protecting the Union

Barack Obama

forty-forth president of the United States, and first African American elected to that office; a lawyer and community organizer in Chicago, he served in the Illinois State Senate before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004; after a protracted primary election campaign against Senator Hillary Clinton, he sealed the Democratic Party's nomination and defeated Senator John McCain on November 4, 2008

William Jefferson ("Bill") Clinton

forty-second president of the United States; a former Arkansas governor and founding member of the Democratic Leadership Council, he promoted "third way" politics and distanced his policies from traditional Democratic programs; he signed the Welfare Reform Act in 1996 to fulfill a campaign promise to "end welfare as we know it." He was the first Democrat to be reelected since Franklin Roosevelt and first president to be impeached since Andrew Johnson

Richard Cheney

forty-sixth vice president of the United States; a former White House staffer, congressman, and secretary of defense during the first Persian Gulf War, he joined the Bush ticket in 2000 to add experience and a link to the first Bush presidency; as vice president, he was more active in policy and politics than his predecessors, playing decisive roles especially in matters of foreign policy

George W. Bush

forty-third president of the United States; he emerged victorious from the contested election of 2000, where he lost the popular vote; as president, he pursued changes in social security, immigration, and education laws, and appointed two conservative justices to the Supreme Court; launching and leading the "war on terror" in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he was the architect of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

Battle of Acoma (1599)

fought between Spaniards under Don Juan de Onate and the Pueblo Indians in present-day New Mexico; Spaniards brutally crushed the Pueblo people and established the territory as New Mexico in 1609

Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

founded in Ohio in the 1870s to combat the evils of excessive alcohol consumption, the WCTU went on to embrace a broad reform agenda, including campaigns to abolish prostitution and gain the right to vote for women

Lord Baltimore

founded the colony of Maryland and offered religious freedom to all Christian colonists because he knew that members of his own religion (Catholicism) would be a minority in the colony; he wanted to provide refuge to his fellow Catholics who were still being persecuted in Protestant England

James Oglethorpe

founder of Georgia in 1733; soldier-statesman, philanthropist; started Georgia as a haven for people in debt because of his interest in prison reform; saved Georgia with his energetic leadership and by mortgaging his own personal fortune

Roger Williams

founder of Rhode Island for separation of church and state and total religious tolerance; did this after he was ordered to leave the MBC for his religious beliefs; challenged legality of MBC charter; build what was likely the first Baptist church in America

European Economic Community (EEC)

free trade zone in Western Europe created by Treaty of Rome in 1957; often referred to as the "Common Market," this collection of countries originally included France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg; the body eventually expanded to become the European Union, which by 2005 included 27 member states

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

from 1993 to 2010, the policy affecting homosexuals in the military; it emerged as a compromise between the standing prohibition against homosexuals in the armed forces and President Clinton's push to allow all citizens to serve regardless of sexual orientation; military authorities were forbidden to ask about a service member's orientation, and gay service personnel could be discharged if they publicly revealed their homosexuality; at President Obama's urging, Congress repealed DADT in 2010, permitting gays to serve openly in uniform

détente

from the French word for "reduced tension," the period of Cold War thawing when the United States and the Soviet Union negotiated reduced armament treaties under President Nixon, Ford, and Carter; as a policy prescription, détente marked a departure from the policies of proportional response, mutually assured destruction, and containment that had defined the earlier years of the Cold War

squatters

frontier farmers who illegally occupied land owned by others or not yet officially opened for settlement; many of North Carolina's early settlers were squatters, who contributed to the colony's reputation as being more independent-minded and "democratic" than its neighbors

Land Act of 1820

fueled the settlement of the Northwest and Missouri territories by lowering the price of public land; also prohibited the purchase of federal acreage on credit, thereby eliminating one of the causes of the Panic of 1819

Charles Townshend

government official, close to the king, likeable, sponsored taxes, "Champagne Charlie", sponsored taxes for: lead, glass, paper, paint & tea

William Berkeley

governor of Viginia who monopolized the fur trade, held friendly policies toward the Indians that were resented by the colonists, and refused to retaliate against a series of brutal Indian attacks, which led to Bacon's Rebellion, which was later crushed by him

Sir Edmund Andros

governor of the Dominion of New England from 1686 to 1692, when the colonists rebelled and forced him to return to England; he was unpopular because of his restrictions on the courts, press, and schools, he revoked all land titles, taxed without consent, curbed town meetings, enforced Navigation Acts

Reform Bill of 1867

granted suffrage to all male British citizens, dramatically expanding the electorate; the success of the American democratic experiment, reinforced by the Union victory in the Civil War, was used as one of the arguments in favor of the Bill

Dust Bowl

grim nickname for the Great Plains region devastated by drought and dust storms during the 1930s; the disaster led to the migration into California of thousands of displaced "Okies" and "Arkies"

Hoovervilles

grim shantytowns where impoverished victims of the Great Depression slept under newspapers and in makeshift tents; their visibility (and sarcastic name) tarnished the reputation of the Hoover administration

Robert M. ("Fighting Bob") La Follette

hailing from Wisconsin, he was one of the most militant of the progressive Republican leaders. He served in the Senate and in the Wisconsin governor's seat, and was a perennial contender for the presidency, keeping the spirit of progressivism alive into the 1920s

Robert M. ("Fighting Bob") La Follette

hailing from Wisconsin, he was one of the most militant of the progressive Republican leaders; he served in the Senate and in the Wisconsin governor's seat, and was a perennial contender for the presidency, keeping the spirit of progressivism alive into the 1920s

Venustiano Carranza

he became president of Mexico in 1914. He succeeded the harsh President Huerta. He at first supported Wilson's sending General Pershing into Mexico to look for the criminal Pancho Villa, but when he saw the number of troops he became outraged and opposed Wilson

Bernard Baruch

he headed the War Industries Board, which placed the control of industries into the hands of the federal government; It was a prime example of War Socialism

Ferdinand of Aragon

he married Isabella of Castile; marriage marked beginning of modern state of Spain and capture of Granada from the Moors in 1492 united Spain as one country; together they instituted Spanish Inquisition in 1478 and supported the expedition of Christopher Columbus in 1492

Victoriano Huerta

he ruthlessly seized power in Mexico in 1913. President Wilson objected to his murderous methods and refused to extend diplomatic recognition to his government. He abdicated in 1914

Albert B. Fall

he was Secretary of the Interior during Harding's administration, and was a scheming anti-conservationist. He was convicted of leasing naval oil reserves and collecting bribes, which was called the Teapot Dome scandal

Eugene V. Debs

he was the president and the organizer of the American Railway Union; he organized the Pullman Strike and helped organize the Social Democratic party

Mikhail Gorbachev

head of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991; his liberalization effort improved relations with the West, but he lost power after his reforms led to the collapse of Communist governments in eastern Europe

Abraham Lincoln Brigade

idealistic American volunteers who served in the Spanish Civil War, defending Spanish republican forces from the fascist General Francisco Franco's nationalist coup; some 3,000 Americans served alongside volunteers from other countries

New Immigrants

immigrants from southern and eastern Europe who formed a recognizable wave of immigration from the 1880s until 1924, in contrast to the immigrants from western Europe who had come before them; these new immigrants congregated in ethnic urban neighborhoods, where they worried many native-born Americans, some of whom responded with nativist anti-immigrant campaigns and others of whom introduced urban reforms to help the immigrants assimilate

buffer

in politics, a territory between two antagonistic powers, intended to minimize the possibility of conflict between them; in British North America, Georgia was established as a buffer colony between British and Spanish territory

modernism

in response to the demanding conditions of modern life, this artistic and cultural movement revolted against comfortable Victorian standards and accepted chance, change, contingency, uncertainty, and fragmentation; originating among avant-garde artists and intellectuals around the turn of the twentieth century, modernism blossomed into a full-fledged cultural movement in art, music, literature, and architecture

middlemen

in trading systems, those dealers who operate between the original producers of goods and the retail merchants who sell to consumers; after the eleventh century, European exploration was driven in a large part by a desire to acquire alluring Asian goods without paying heavy tolls to Muslim middlemen

Underground Railroad

informal network of volunteers that helped runaway slaves escape from the South and reach free-soil Canada; seeking to halt the flow of runaway slaves to the North, Southern planters and congressmen pushed for a stronger fugitive slave law

Reaganomics

informal term for Ronald Reagan's economic policies, which focused on reducing taxes, social spending, and government regulation, while increasing outlays for defense

Greek Revival

inspired by the contemporary Greek independence movement, this building style, popular between 1820 and 1850, imitated ancient Greek structural forms in search of a democratic architectural vernacular

conversion

intense religious experience that confirmed an individual's place among "the elect", or the "visible saints"; Calvinists who experienced conversion were then expected to lead sanctified lives to demonstrate their salvation

Kyoto Treaty

international treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions; it was negotiated and opened for signatories in 1997, and took effect in 2005; although signed by 169 (of 192) countries, the Bush Administration rejected the plan as too costly in 2001

Thomas Alva Edison

invented the phonograph and by 1900 it was used in over 150,000 homes. His invention made going to the symphony obsolete. He also invented the light bulb. This invention changed the way of life for thousands of Americans

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

investigatory body established in 1938 to root out "subversion"; sought to expose communist influence in American government and society, in particular through the trial of Alger Hiss

George Whitefield

itinerant English preacher who gave electrifying sermons throughout the American colonies which drew vast audiences; these preachings helped to spark a wave of religious conversion, the First Great Awakening; his emotionalism distinguished him from traditional "Old Light" minsters who embraced a more reasoned approach to religious practice

Sigmund Freud

justified the new sexual frankness in America in his writings, Viennese physician that appeared to argue that sexual repression was responsible for a variety of nervous and emotional ills, saying health demanded sexual gratification and liberation

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

landmark Supreme Court decision that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and abolished racial segregation in public schools; the court reasoned that "separate" was inherently "unequal," rejecting the foundation of the Jim Crow system of racial segregation in the South; this decision was the first major step toward the legal end of racial discrimination and a major accomplishment for the Civil Rights Movement

plantation

large-scale agricultural enterprise growing commercial crops and usually employing coerced or slave labor; European settlers established plantations in Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and the American South

Peter Stuyvesant

last governor of New Netherlands who led an expedition against the Swedish and lost New Netherlands to the English

common law

laws that originate from court rulings and customs, as opposed to legislative statutes; the United States Constitution grew out of the Anglo-American common law tradition and thus provided only a general organizational framework for the new federal government

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

one of the best-known sculptors of the period, he was known for his large and robust compositions

Jiang Jieshi

leader of Chinese Nationalists, also known as Chang kai-shek. He was defeated by Mao Zedong's communist revolutionaries in 1949 and was forced to flee to the island of Taiwan, where, with the support of the United States, he became president of the Republic of China

Reinhold Niebuhr

leading American theologian who advocated Christian realism and the use of force if necessary to maintain justice against Nazi or Stalinist evil

irreconcilables

led by Senators William Borah of Idaho and HIram Johnson of California, this was a hard-core group of militant isolationists who opposed the Wilsonian dream of international cooperation in the League of Nations after World War I; their efforts played an important part in preventing American participation in the international organization

Sandinistas

leftwing anti-American revolutionaries in Nicaragua who launched a civil war in 1979

loose construction

legal doctrine which holds that the federal government can use powers not specifically granted or prohibited in the Constitution to carry out its constitutionality mandated responsibilities

charter

legal document granted by a government to some group or agency to implement a stated purpose, and spelling out the attending rights and obligations; British colonial charters guaranteed inhabitants all the rights of Englishmen, which helped solidify colonists' ties to Britain during the early years of settlement

limited liability

legal principle that facilitates capital investment by offering protection for individual investors, who, in cases of legal claims or bankruptcy, cannot be held responsible for more than the value of their individual shares

primogeniture

legal principle that the oldest son inherits all family property or land; landowner's younger sons, forced to seek their fortunes elsewhere, pioneered early exploration and settlement of the Americas

Employment Act of 1946

legislation declaring that the government's economic policy should aim to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power, as well as to keep inflation low; a general commitment that was much shorter on specific targets and rules than its liberal creators had wished; The Act created the Council of Economic Advisers to provide the president with data and recommendations to make economic policy

Voting Rights Act of 1965

legislation pushed through Congress by President Johnson that prohibited ballot-denying tactics, such as literary tests and intimidation; the Voting Rights Act was a successor to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and sought to make racial disenfranchisement explicitly illegal

Earl Warren

liberal Californian politician appointed Chief Justice the Supreme Court by Eisenhower in 1953, he was principally known for moving the Court to the left in defense of civil and individual rights in such cases as Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), and Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

Eugene McCarthy

liberal anti-war senator from Minnesota who rallied a large youth movement behind his presidential campaign in 1968; challenging sitting president Johnson in the New Hampshire primary, McCarthy captured 41 percent of the vote and helped ensure that Johnson would quit the race

Louis XIV

long reigning French monarch who took a deep interest in overseas colonization, sending French explorers throughout the New World who established outposts in present-day Canada and Louisiana; he brought France to global superiority and Louisiana was named after him

Tariff of 1857

lowered duties on imports in response to a high Treasury surplus and pressure from Southern farmers

Rachel Carson

marine biologist and author of Silent Spring who exposed the harmful effects of pesticides

Eero Saarinen

may be best known for designing the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, though he died before it was completed

glasnost

meaning "openness," a cornerstone along with Perestroika of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's reform movement in the USSR in the 1980s; these policies resulted in greater market liberalization, access to the West, and ultimately the end of communist rule

perestroika

meaning "restructuring," a cornerstone along with Glasnost of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's reform movement in the USSR in the 1980s; these policies resulted in greater market liberalization, access to the West, and ultimately the end of communist rule

liberal Protestants

members of a branch of Protestantism that flourished from 1875 to 1925 and encouraged followers to use the Bible as a moral compass rather than to believe the Bible represented scientific or historic truth; many Liberal Protestants became active in the "social gospel" and other reform movements of the era

realism

mid-nineteenth-century movement in European and American literature and the arts that sought to depict contemporary life and society as it actually was, in all its unvarnished detail; adherents eschewed the idealism and nostalgia of the earlier romantic sensibility

indentured servants

migrants who, in exchange for transatlantic passage, bound themselves to a colonial employer for a term of service, typically four to seven years; their migration addressed the chronic labor shortage in the colonies and facilitated settlement

John Rolfe

one of the English settlers at Jamestown who married Pocahontas; he discovered how to successfully grow tobacco and cure it for export, which made Virginia an economically successful colony

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

military alliance of Western European powers and the United States and Canada established in 1949 to defend against the common threat from the Soviet Union, marking a giant stride forward for European unity and American internationalism

Vietnamization

military strategy launched by Richard Nixon in 1969; the plan reduced the number of American combat troops in Vietnam and left more of the fighting to the South Vietnamese, who were supplied with American armor, tanks, and weaponry

New Lights

ministers who took part in the revivalist, emotive religious tradition pioneered by George Whitefield during the Great Awakening

settlement houses

mostly run by middle-class native-born women, settlement houses in immigrant neighborhoods provided housing, food, education, child care, cultural activities, and social connections for new arrivals to the United States; many women, both native-born and immigrant, developed life-long passions for social activism in the settlement houses; Jane Addams's Hull House in Chicago and Lillian Wald's Henry Street Settlement in New York City were two of the most prominent

dollar diplomacy

name applied by President Taft's critics to the policy of supporting U.S. investments and political interests abroad; first applied to the financing of railways in China after 1909, the policy then spread to Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua; President Woodrow Wilson disavowed the practice, but his administration undertook comparable acts of intervention in support of U.S. business interests, especially in Latin America

John Hay

named U.S. ambassador to England in 1897, when William McKinley became president. He later served as McKinley's secretary of state. He was author of the Open Door Notes, which called for free economic competition in China

Lord de la Warr

new governor of Jamestown who arrived in 1610, immediately imposing a military regime in Jamestown and declaring war against the Powhatan Confederacy; employed "Irish tactics" in which troops burned houses and cornfields

Democratic Leadership Council

non-profit organization of centrist Democrats founded in the mid-1980s; the group attempted to push the Democratic party toward pro-growth, strong defense, and anticrime policies; among its most influential early members was Bill Clinton, whom it held up as an example of "third way" politics

Populists

officially known as the People's party, the Populists represented Westerners and Southerners who believed that U.S. economic policy inappropriately favored Eastern businessmen instead of the nation's farmers; their proposals included nationalizing the railroads, creating a graduated income tax, and most significantly the unlimited coinage of silver

Jeremiad

often-fiery sermons lamenting the waning piety of parishioners first delivered in New England in the mid-seventeenth century; named after the doom-saying Old Testament prophet Jeremiah

Winfield Scott

one of the leaders of the American invasion of Mexico (AKA "old fuss and feathers" because he wore a blue uniform with a yellow sash; supervised the landing at Veracruz and then set off for Mexico City; his army didn't lose a single battle)

Oneida Community

one of the more radical Utopian communities established in the nineteenth century, it advocated "free love," birth control, and eugenics; Utopian communities reflected the reformist spirit of the age

Anti Federalists

opponents of the 1787 Constitution, they cast the document as antidemocratic, objected to the subordination of the states to the central government, and feared encroachment on individual' liberties in the absence of a bill of rights

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

organization formed from the former republics of the Soviet Union in 1991

Black Panther party

organization of armed black militants formed in Oakland, California, in 1966 to protect black rights; the Panthers represented a growing dissatisfaction with the non-violent wing of the civil rights movement, and signaled a new direction to that movement after the legislative victories of 1964 and 1965

Judiciary Act of 1789

organized the federal legal system, establishing the Supreme Court, federal districts and circuit courts, and the office of the attorney general

Mason-Dixon line

originally drawn by surveyors to resolve the boundaries between Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia in the 1760s, it came to symbolize the North-South divide over slavery

Old Lights

orthodox clergymen who rejected the emotionalism of the Great Awakening in favor of a more rational spirituality

Joseph Pulitzer

owner of the New York World newspaper/ Leader in Yellow Journalism; used colored comics featuring yellow kid--gave name yellow journalism to his sheets; made the situation in Cuba seem worse than it actually was

greenbacks

paper currency issued by the Union Treasury during the Civil War; inadequately supported by gold, greenbacks fluctuated in value throughout the war, reaching a low of 39 cents on the dollar

Wade-Davis Bill

passed by Congressional Republicans in response to Abraham Lincoln's "10 percent plan," it required that 50 percent of a state's voters pledge allegiance to the Union, and set stronger safeguards for emancipation; reflected divisions between Congress and the President, and between radical and moderate Republicans, over the treatment of the defeated South

Judiciary Act of 1801

passed by the departing Federalist Congress, it created sixteen new federal judgeships ensuring a Federalist hold on the judiciary

Workingmen's Compensation Act

passed under Woodrow Wilson, this law granted assistance to federal civil-service employees during periods of disability; it was a precursor to labor-friendly legislation passed during the New Deal

Daughters of Liberty

patriotic groups that played a central role in agitating against the Stamp Act and enforcing non-importation agreements

Sons of Liberty

patriotic groups that played a central role in agitating against the Stamp Act and enforcing non-importation agreements

H. L. Mencken

patron to many young writers in the 1920's. "Bad Boy of Baltimore"; he criticized many subjects like the middle class, democracy, marriage and patriotism in his monthly AMERICAN MERCURY

Funding at Par

payments of debts, such as government bonds, at face value; in 1790, Alexander Hamilton proposed that the federal government pay its Revolutionary war debts in full in order to bolster the nation's credit

Benjamin Spock

pediatrician and author of "The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care," which instrumented parents on modern child-rearing, replacing traditional means of passing along such knowledge; he is often said to have the bible of the baby boomer generation

carpetbaggers

pejorative used by Southern whites to describe Northern businessmen and politicians who came to the South after the Civil War to work on Reconstruction projects or invest in Southern infrastructure

mestizos

people of mixed Indian and European heritage, notably in Mexico

racketeers

people who obtain money illegally by fraud, bootlegging, gambling, or threats of violence; racketeers invaded the ranks of labor during the 1920s, a decade when gambling and gangsterism were prevalent in American life

cult of domesticity

pervasive nineteenth-century cultural creed that venerated the domestic role of women; it gave married women greater authority to shape home life but limited opportunities outside the domestic sphere

writ of habeas corpus

petition requiring law enforcement officers to present detained individuals before the court to examine the legality of the arrest; protects individuals from arbitrary state action; suspended by Lincoln during the Civil War

spoils system

policy of rewarding political supporters with public office, first widely employed at the federal level by Andrew Jackson; the practice was widely abused by unscrupulous office seekers, but it also helped cement party loyalty in the emerging two-party system

Moral Majority

political action committee founded by evangelical Reverend Jerry Falwell in 1979 to promote traditional Christian values and oppose feminism, abortion, and gay rights; the group was a major linchpin in the resurgent religious right of the 1980s

republicansim

political theory of representative government; based on the principle of popular sovereignty, with a strong emphasis on liberty and civic virtue; influential in eighteenth-century American political thought, it stood as an alternative to monarchical rule

Burned-Over District

popular name for Western New York, a region particularly swept up in the religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening

Horatio Alger

popular novelist during the Industrial Revolution who wrote that virtue, honesty and industry would be rewarded with success, wealth and honor

pet banks

popular term for pro-Jackson state banks that received the bulk of federal deposits when Andrew Jackson moved to dismantle the Bank of the United States

turnpike

privately funded, toll-based public road constructed in the early nineteenth century to facilitate commerce

privateers

privately owned armed ships authorized by Congress to prey on enemy shipping during the Revolutionary War; privateers, more numerous than the tiny American Navy, inflicted heavy damages on British shippers

affirmative action

program designed to redress historic racial and gender imbalances in jobs and education; the term grew from an executive order issued by John F. Kennedy in 1961 mandating that projects paid for with federal funds could not discriminate based on race in their hiring practices; in the late 1960s, President Nixon's Philadelphia Plan changed the meaning of affirmative action to require attention to certain groups, rather than protect individuals against discrimination

Gag Resolution

prohibited debate or action on antislavery appeals; driven through the House by pro-slavery Southerners, the gag resolution passed every year for eight years, eventually overturned with the help of John Quincy Adams

Maine Law of 1851

prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcohol; a dozen other states followed Maine's lead, though most statutes proved ineffective and were repealed within a decade

Booker T. Washington

prominent black American, born into slavery, who believed that racism would end once blacks acquired useful labor skills and proved their economic value to society; was head of the Tuskegee Institute in 1881; avoided the issue of social equality; was fine with segregation

Federalists

proponents of the 1787 Constitution, they favored a strong national government, arguing that the checks and balances in the new Constitution would safeguard the people's liberties

Tariff of 1842

protective measure passed by Congressional Whigs, raising tariffs to pre-Compromise of 1833 rates

Josiah Strong

protestant clergyman and author of "Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis" (1885). He touted the superiority of Anglo-Saxon civilization and helped summon Americans to spread their religion abroad

Land Ordinance of 1785

provided for the sale of land in the Old Northwest and earmarked the proceeds toward repaying the national debt

Frederick W. Taylor

published a book titled "the principles of scientific management", an American mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency; he was one of the first to begin the study of industrial work so as to improve what he deemed was "amateurish industrial management". Many of his ideas were widely influential in the Progressive Era

"smoking gun" tape

recording made in the Oval Office in June 1972 that proved conclusively that Nixon knew about the Watergate break-in and endeavored to cover it up; led to complete break-down in Congressional support for Nixon after the Supreme Court ordered he hand the tape to investigators

weapons of mass destruction (WMD)

refers to weapons--nuclear, biological, and chemical--that can kill large numbers of people and do great damage to the built and natural environment; the term was used to refer to nuclear weapons during the Cold War; the Bush administration's claim that Saddam Hussein had developed WMD provided the rationale for the United State's invasion of Iraq in 2003; these weapons were never found after the invasion

American Colonization Society

reflecting the focus of early abolitionists on transporting freed blacks back to Africa, the organization established Liberia, a West-African settlement intended as a haven for emancipated slaves

Black Belt

region of the Deep South with the highest concentration of slaves; the "Black Belt" emerged in the nineteenth century as cotton production became more profitable and slavery expanded south and west

Mormons

religious followers of Joseph Smith, who founded a communal, oligarchic religious order in the 1830s, officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; Mormons, facing deep hostility from their non-Mormon neighbors, eventually migrated west and established a flourishing settlement in the Utah desert

Quakers

religious group known for their tolerance, emphasis on peace, and idealistic Indian policy, who settled heavily in Pennsylvania in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

John Calvin

religious leader who elaborated Martin Luther's ideas and profoundly influenced the religious thoughts of Europeans, and later, unborn Americans; he developed Calvinism and outlined his beliefs in Institutes of the Christian Religion, which included an argument for the existence of predestination

House of Burgesses

representative parliamentary assembly created to govern Virginia, establishing a precedent for government in the English colonies

Samuel Gompers

responsible for creating one of the first labor unions--The American Federation of Labor

Navigation Laws

series of laws passed, beginning in 1651, to regulate colonial shipping; the acts provided that only English ships would be allowed to trade in English and colonial ports, and that all goods destined for the colonies would first pass through England

Dorothea Dix

rights activist on behalf of mentally ill patients - created first wave of US mental asylums; wanted to prove that the mentally challenged weren't at fault; also responsible for reforming the prison system in the US

Mark Twain

satirist and author of southern literature (Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer); was also a cultural critic who came up with the nickname "the Gilded Age"

Pentagon Papers

secret U.S. government report detailing early planning and policy decisions regarding the Vietnam War under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson; leaked to the New York Times in 1971, it revealed instances of governmental secrecy, lies, and incompetence in the prosecution of the war

Congregational Church

self-governing Puritan congregations without the hierarchical establishment of the Anglican Church

Watergate

series of scandals that resulted in President Richard Nixon's resignation in August 1974 amid calls for his impeachment; the episode sprang from a failed burglary attempt at Democratic party headquarters in Washington's Watergate Hotel during the 1972 election

slave codes

set of laws defining racial slavery beginning in 1662, including establishing the hereditary nature of slavery, and legally limiting the rights and learning of slaves

Panic of 1819

severe financial crisis brought on primarily by the efforts of the Bank of the United States to curb over-speculation on western lands; it disproportionately affected the poorer classes, especially in the West, sowing the seeds of Jacksonian Democracy

Industrial Revolution

shift toward mass production and mechanization that included the creation of the modern factory system

Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937

short-sighted acts passed in 1935, 1936, and 1937 to prevent American participation in a European War; among other restrictions, they prevented Americans from selling munitions to foreign belligerents

joint-stock company

short-term partnership between multiple investors to fund a commercial enterprise; such arrangements were used to fund England's early colonial ventures

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

signed by Spain and Portugal, dividing the territories of the New World; Spain received the bulk of territory in the Americas, compensating Portugal with titles to lands in Africa and Asia

Appomattox Courthouse

site where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865 after almost a year of brutal fighting throughout Virginia in the "Wilderness Campaign"

conquistadores

sixteenth-century Spaniards who fanned out across the Americas, from Colorado to Argentina, eventually conquering the Aztec and Incan empires

breakers

slave drivers who employed the lash to brutally "break" the souls of strong-willed slaves

Separatists

small group of Puritans who sought to break away entirely from the Church of England; after initially settling in Holland, a number of English Separatists made their way to Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts in 1620

caravel

small regular vessel with a high deck and three triangular sails; caravels could sail more closely into the wind; allowing European sailors to explore the Western shores of Africa, previously made inaccessible due to prevailing winds on the homeward journey

Brain Trust

specialists in law, economics, and welfare, many of them young university professors, who advised President Franklin D. Roosevelt and helped develop the policies of the New Deal

Carrie Chapman Catt

spoke powerfully in favor of suffrage, worked as a school principal and a reporter; became head of the National American Woman Suffrage, an inspired speaker and a brilliant organizer; devised a detailed battle plan for fighting the war of suffrage

Andrew Carnegie

steel king; integrated every phase of his steel-making operation; pioneered "Vertical Integration"; his goal was to improve efficiency by making supplies more reliable by controlling the quality of the product at all stages of production and eliminating the middle man

Levittown

suburban communities with mass-produced tract houses built in the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas in the 1950s by William Levitt and Sons; typically inhabited by white middle-class people who fled the cities in search of homes to buy for their growing families

Jim Crow

system of racial segregation in the American South from the end of Reconstruction until the mid-twentieth century; based on the concept of "separate but equal" facilities for blacks and whites, the Jim Crow system sought to prevent racial mixing in public, including restaurants, movie theaters, and public transportation; an informal system, it was generally perpetuated by custom, violence, and intimidation

tariff

tax levied on imports; traditionally, manufacturers support tariffs as protective and revenue-raising measures, while agricultural interests, dependent on world markets, oppose high tariffs

excise tax

tax on goods produced domestically; excise taxes particularly the 1791 tax on whiskey, were a highly controversial component of Alexander Hamilton's financial program

boll weevils

term for conservative southern Democrats who voted increasingly for Republican issues during the Carter and Reagan administrations

transportation revolution

term referring to a series of nineteenth-century transportation innovations--turnpikes, steamboats, canals, and railroads--that linked local and regional markets, creating a national economy

Old Northwest

territories acquired by the federal government from the states, encompassing land northwest of the Ohio River, east of the Mississippi River, and South of the Great Lakes; the well-organized management and sale of the land in the territories under the land ordinances of 1785 and 1787 established a precedent for handling future land acquisitions

Hetch Hetchy Valley

the federal government allowed the city of San Francisco to build a dam here in 1913; this was a blow to preservationists, who wished to protect the Yosemite National Park, where the dam was located

Iranian hostage crisis

the 444 days, from November 1979 to January 1981, in which American embassy workers were held captive by Iranian revolutionaries; the Iranian Revolution began in January 1979 when young Muslim fundamentalists overthrew the oppressive regime of the American-backed shah, forcing him into exile; deeming the United States "the Great Satan," these revolutionaries triggered an energy crisis by cutting off Iranian oil; the hostage crisis began when revolutionaries stormed the American embassy, demanding that the United States return the shah to Iran for trial; the episode was marked by botched diplomacy and failed rescue attempts by the Carter Administration; after permanently damaging relations between the two countries, the crisis ended with the hostages' release the day Ronald Reagan became president, January 20, 1981

Warren E. Burger

the Supreme Court justice during the Nixon administration; he was chosen by Nixon because of his strict interpretation of the Constitution; he presided over the extremely controversial case of abortion in Roe vs. Wade

Compromise of 1877

the agreement that finally resolved the 1876 election and officially ended Reconstruction; in exchange for the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, winning the presidency, Hayes agreed to withdraw the last of the federal troops from the former Confederate states; this deal effectively completed the southern return to white-only, Democratic-dominated electoral parties

William H. Taft

the corpulent civil governor of the Philippines under William McKinley. He went on to become twenty-seventh president of the United States in 1909

Pocahontas

the daughter of Powhatan who befriended the English at Jamestown and is said to have saved Captain John Smith's life; married John Rolfe

mechanization of agriculture

the development of engine-driven machines, like the combine, which helped to dramatically increase the productivity of land in the 1870s and 1880s; this process contributed to the consolidation of agricultural business that drove many family farms out of existence

New Deal

the economic and political policies of Franklin Roosevelt's administration in the 1930s, which aimed to solve the problems of the Great Depression by providing relief for the unemployed and launching efforts to stimulate economic recovery; the New Deal built on reforms of the progressive era to expand greatly an American-style welfare state

Sunbelt

the fifteen-state crescent through the American South and Southwest that experience terrific population and productivity expansion during World War II and particularly in the decades after the war, eclipsing the old industrial Northeast (the "Frostbelt")

Gerald ("Jerry") Ford

the first man to be made president solely by a vote of Congress; he pardoned Nixon for his crimes and also tried to enhance the detente with the Soviets. (Helsinki accords)

Charles A. Lindbergh

the first person to fly nonstop across the Atlantic in a small engine plane; he flew around the eifel tower and arrived in Paris

Frances Perkins

the first woman cabinet member and secretary of labor under Roosevelt, she helped draw labor into the New Deal coalition

Jane Addams

the founder of Hull House, which provided English lessons for immigrants, daycares, and child care classes; first women to earn the Noble Peace Prize

Mary McLeod Bethune

the highest-ranking African- American in the Roosevelt administration, she headed up the Office of Minority Affairs and was a leader of the unofficial "Black Cabinet," which sought to apply New Deal benefits to blacks as well as whites

deleveraging

the inverse of "leveraging," whereby businesses increase their financial power by borrowing money (debt) in addition to their own assets (equity); in times of uncertainty or credit tightening, the same businesses seek to improve their debt-to-equity ratios by shedding debt through the sale of assets purchased with borrowed money

Civil Rights Act of 1875

the last piece of federal civil rights legislation until the 1950s, the law promised blacks equal access to public accommodations and banned racism in jury selection, but the Act provided no means of enforcement and was therefore ineffective; in 1883, the Supreme Court declared most of the Act unconstitutional

Liliuokalani

the last reigning queen of Hawaii, whose defense of native Hawaiian self-rule led to a revolt by white settlers and to her dethronement

Neal S. Dow

the mayor of Portland, Maine who, in 1851, sponsored a law that helped earn his nickname "Father of Prohibition."

interlocking directorates

the practice of having executives or directors from one company serve on the Board of Directors of another company; J. P. Morgan introduced this practice to eliminate banking competition in the 1890s

vertical integration

the practice perfected by Andrew Carnegie of controlling every step of the industrial production process in order to increase efficiency and limit competition

horizontal integration

the practice perfected by John D. Rockefeller of dominating a particular phase of the production process in order to monopolize a market, often by forming trusts and alliances with competitors

rendezvous

the principal marketplace of the Northwest fur trade, which peaked in the 1820s and 1830s; each summer, traders set up camps in the Rocky Mountains to exchange manufactured goods for beaver pelts

Richard Olney

the pugnacious successor to James G. Blaine as secretary of state, serving from 1895 to 1897, he stirred up conflict with Great Britain during the Venezuelan Crisis of 1895-1896. He also insisted on the protection of American lives and property and on reparations for losses incurred during violent disturbances in Cuba, China, and Turkey

Cornelius Vanderbilt

the railroad owner who built a railway connecting Chicago and New York. He popularized the use of steel rails in his railroad, which made railroads safer and more economical. This man was one of the few railroad owners to be just and not considered a "Robber Barron"; also founded Vanderbilt University

Bible Belt

the region of the American South, extending roughly from North Carolina west to Oklahoma and Texas, where Protestant Fundamentalism and belief in literal interpretation of the Bible were traditionally strongest

Knights of Labor

the second national labor organization, organized in 1869 as a secret society and opened for public membership in 1881; the Knights were known for their efforts to organize all workers, regardless of skill level, gender, or race; after the mid-1880s, their membership declined for a variety of reasons, including the Knights' participation in violent strikes and discord between skilled and unskilled members

V-E (Victory in Europe) Day

the source of frenzied rejoicing, May 8, 1945 marked the official end to the war in Europe, following the unconditional surrender of what remained of the German government

Brigham Young

the successor to the Mormons after the death of Joseph Smith. He was responsible for the survival of the sect and its establishment in Utah, thereby populating the would-be state

reservation system

the system that allotted land with designated boundaries to Native American tribes in the West, beginning in the 1850s and ending with the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887; within these reservations, most land was used communally, rather than owned individually; the U.S. government encouraged and sometimes violently coerced Native Americans to stay on the reservations at all times

Colombian Exchange

the transfer of goods, crops, and diseases between New and Old World societies after 1492

John W. Davis

the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president in 1924. The wealthy, Wall-Street-connected Davis was no less conservative than his opponent, Calvin Coolidge

"waving the bloody shirt"

the use of Civil War imagery by political candidates and parties to draw votes to their side of the ticket

WAACs (Women's Army Auxiliary Corps), WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), SPARs (U.S. Coast Guard Women's Reserve)

the women's branches of the U.S. Army, Navy, and Coast Guard, established during World War II to employ women in noncombatant jobs; women now participated in the armed services in ways that went beyond their traditional roles as nurses

Neutrality Act of 1939

this act stipulated that European democracies might buy American munitions, but only if they could pay in cash and transport them in their own ships; the terms were known as "Cash-and-Carry," it represented an effort to avoid war debts and protect American arms-carriers from torpedo attacks

John Muir

this noted naturalist split with conservationists like Gifford Pinchot by trying to protect natural "temples" like the Hetch Hetchy Valley from development. In 1892 he founded the Sierra Club, which is now one of the most influential conservation organizations in the United States. His writings and philosophy shaped the formation of the modern environmental movement

Frances E. Willard

this pious leader of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union wished to eliminate the sale of alcohol and thereby "make the world more homelike." Her ecumenical "do every thing" reform sensibility encouraged some women to take the leap toward more radical causes like woman suffrage, while allowing more conservative women to stick comfortably with temperance work

disestablished

to separate an official state church from its connection with the government; following the Revolution, all states disestablished the Anglican Church, though some New England states maintained established Congregational Churches well into the nineteenth century

Adolf Hitler

very crude leader that took advantage of a disillusioned and depression-stricken nation; after the Treaty of Versailles blamed Germany for WWI, led the nation into WWII under the "big lie"; manipulative and feared dictator that vented his anger on the Jewish Nation

regulars

trained professional soldiers, as distinct from militia or conscripts; during the French and Indian War, British generals, used to commanding experienced regulars, often showed contempt for ill-trained colonial militiamen

middle passage

transatlantic voyage slaves endured between Africa and the colonies; mortality rates were notoriously high

assumption

transfer of debt from one party to another; in order to strengthen the union, the federal government assumed states' Revolutionary War debts in 1790, thereby tying the interests of wealthy lenders with those of the national government

coureurs de bois

translated as "runners of the woods," they were French fur-trappers, also known as "voyageurs"

Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti

two Italian immigrants believed to be anarchists were accused of murder in Massachusetts and were found guilty after appeals in 1927 and executed; although the evidence against them was strong, the racist comments by the judge made it appear they were killed for their political beliefs, at the height of the terror in America

Marcus Alonzo Hanna

used the money he made in the iron business to support William McKinley's presidential campaign. He became a personification of big business in politics

admiralty courts

used to try offenders for violating various Navigation Acts passed by the crown after the French and Indian War; colonists argued that the courts encroached on their rights as Englishmen since they lacked juries and placed the burden on proof on the accused

minstrel shows

variety shows performed by white actors in black-face; first popularized in the mid-nineteenth century

patroonships

vast tracts of land along the Hudson River in New Netherlands granted to wealthy promoters in exchange for bringing fifty settlers to the property

Baron von Steuben

volunteer, general in Prussia,offered help to Patriots after Washington won the battles at Trenton & Princeton, arrived at Valley Forge in the spring of 1778

George H. W. Bush

was Reagan's Vice President who became the 41st president in 1988; went to war with Saddam Hussein

Francisco ("Pancho") Villa

was a combination of a bandit and a Robin Hood; he was a rival of President Carranza of Mexico and was considered a Mexican revolutionary who killed many Americans in Mexico; the United States sent John J. Pershing to capture him but never did

William Jennings Bryan

was a leading American politician from the 1890s until his death. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States (1896, 1900 and 1908)

Peter Cartwright

was an American Methodist revivalist in the Midwest, as well as twice an elected legislator in Illinois. Cartwright, a Methodist missionary, helped start the Second Great Awakening, personally baptizing twelve thousand converts

John Dewey

was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, whose thoughts and ideas have been greatly influential in the United States and around the world. He, along with Charles Sanders Peirce and William James, is recognized as one of the founders of the philosophical school of Pragmatism

John T. Scopes

was indicted for teaching evolution in Tennessee; his trial was watched all over the country, as it represented the Fundamentalist vs. the Modernist--in the end, he was only fined $100.00 dollars; while it seemed the Fundamentalists had won, the trial made them look bad

Emilio Aguinaldo

well-educated Filipino leader who first fought against Spain and later led the Philippine insurgency against United States colonial rule

Stephen C. Foster

white Pennsylvanian who wrote the most famous black songs; went to the south one time in 1852; contributed to American folk music by capturing the painful spirit of slaves; lost his art and popularity and died in a charity ward as a drunkard

peculiar institution

widely used term for the institution of American slavery in the South; its use in the first half of the 19th century reflected a growing division between the North, where slavery was gradually abolished, and the South, where slavery became increasingly entrenched

Isabella of Castile

wife of Ferdinand of Aragon and queen of Spain; their marriage united two kingdoms and inaugurated the modern Spanish state; together they expelled Muslims and Jews from Spain and sponsored Christopher Columbus' voyage

civic virtue

willingness on the part of citizens to sacrifice personal self-interest for the public good; deemed a necessary component of a successful republic

Francisco Franco

with the help of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, this guy overthrew the Loyalist regime and became the dictator of Spain in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939

camp followers

women and children who followed the Continental Army during the American Revolution, providing vital services such as cooking and sewing in return for rations

Nathaniel Bacon

young Virginia planter who led a rebellion against Governor William Berkeley in 1676 to protest Berkeley's refusal to protect frontier settlers from Indian attacks

factory girls

young women employed in the growing factories of the early nineteenth century, they labored long hours in difficult conditions, living in socially new conditions away from farms and families

Robert F. Kennedy

younger brother of John F. Kennedy who entered public life as U.S. Attorney General during the Kennedy administration; later elected senator from New York, he became an anti-war, pro-civil rights presidential candidate in 1968, launching a popular challenge to incumbent President Johnson; amid that campaign, he was assassinated in California on June 6, 1968

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

youth organization founded by southern black students in 1960 to promote civil rights; drawing on its members' youthful energies, SNCC in its early years coordinated demonstrations, sit-ins, and voter registration drives