APUSH Second Semester Study Guide

Reverend Josiah Strong

A Congregationalist minister who added the sanction of religion to theories of racial and national superiority. He wrote Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis. He thought the Anglo-Saxon embodied civil liberty and a pure, spiritual Christianity.

Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (1890)

A Danish immigrant who exposed slum conditions in his novel.

"billion dollar congress"

A name for the Republican Congress because of its extravagant expenditures on military pension and other programs.

Lewis W. Hine

A photographer who exposed the evils of child labor

Meat Inspection Act (1906)

A reaction to the conditions discovered in The Jungle. It required federal inspection of meats destined for interstate commerce and empowered officials in the Agriculture Department to impose sanitation standards within processing plants.

Cross of Gold speech

A speech given by William Jennings Bryan in favor of free silver. This speech helped him win the Democratic nomination.

Panama Canal

After the Spanish American War, John Hay tried to negotiate with the British ambassador to establish consent to build the Panama Canal. Their first treaty, the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, was rejected but a second was ratified without the former limitations. There were still other obstacles though. From 1881-1887, A French company under Ferdinand de Lesseps had spent $300 million and 20,000 lives to dig a third of the Panama Canal and wanted $109 million for their holdings. McKinley decided a Nicaraguan route would be cheaper and passed and act for construction there. So the French company lowered their price to $40 million. Hay then started negotiations with Colombia and agreed to pay $!0 million plus an annual fee of $250,000 but the Columbian senate held out for $25 million in cash. In response, Manuel Guerrero hatched a plot with Philippe Bunau-Varilla. He informed his conspirators that the US was sending military so Guerrero staged a revolt the next day. Varilla took over as ambassador to sign the treaty. Colombia eventually got its money during the Harding administration in 1921.

Seventeenth Amendment (1913)

Allowed direct election of Senators

Farmers Alliances

As the Grange lost energy, the Farmer's Alliances grew. They offered social and recreational opportunities but also emphasized political action. This was a grassroots, local organization representing marginal farmers. This was also a chance for women to get involved in economic and political issues. The president was Charles W. Macune

How did the U.S. React to the Cuban fight for independence from Spain in 1895?

At the outset of the Cleveland administration, the government tried to protect American rights in Cuba but avoided involvement beyond an offer of mediation. Cleveland eventually tried to cooperate with Spain to bring peace and allow the Cubans a measure of independence but Spain refused. When McKinley took office the position of neutrality changed sharply because McKinley had been elected on a platform of Cuban independence. McKinley was eventually pressure by public reaction to the sinking of the Maine, among other things, to declare war against Spain.

Rutherford B. Hayes

Became President in 1877. He embodied the "party of morality". He brought a new style of uprightness that contrasted the graft and corruption of the Grant administration. But his presidency suffered because of the secret deal that won him the election. Failed to get civil service legislation but did mandate his own rules for political appointments based on merit.

"Great White Fleet"

Before Roosevelt left the White House, he celebrated America's rise to world power by sending the entire US navy on a grand tour around the world. The ships were called the Great White Fleet and set off rousing celebrations in every port.

Interstate commerce act

Created the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first independent regulatory commission. The five members were able to investigate railroads and prosecute violators. Railroads were forbidden to grant secret rebates, discriminate, or enter into pools. It's actual powers proved to be weak when tested in court.

"Cuba Libre"

Cuba was under Spanish rule in the late 19th century but had frequently revolted against them. Americans traded more with Cuba than Spain did. In 1895, insurrection broke out again against Spanish rule after sugar prices collapsed, putting many Cubans out of work. They waged guerrilla warfare against Spanish troops and sought to damage the economic life of the island to excite the concern of American investors.

Teller Amendment

Disclaimed any US designs on Cuban territory

Foraker Act (1900)

Established a civil government on Puerto Rico. The president appointed a governor and 11 members of an executive council, and an elected House of Delegates made up the lower house of the legislature. Also levied a temporary duty on imports from Puerto Rico.

Commission system

First adopted by Galveston, Texas in 1901 when local government there collapsed in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane. It placed ultimate authority in a board composed of elected administrative heads of city departments, commissioners of sanitation, police, utilities, and so on

Hepburn Act (1906)

Gave the ICC power to set maximum freight rates. It no longer had to go to court to enforce its decisions.

James G. Blaine (Half-Breeds)

Half loyal to Grant and half committed to reforming the spoils system

Who were some expansionists that embraced the ideas of imperialism?

Henry Cabot Lodge, Albert J. Beveridge, and Theodore Roosevelt.

Crime of '73

In 1873, Congress revised the coinage laws and dropped the then unused provision for the coinage of silver. This occurred just when silver production in the western states began to increase, which reduced its market value.

William Howard Taft

In 1900, McKinley sent Judge Taft to the Philippines to set up a system of government. He liked the Filipinos and encouraged them to participate in the government. Taft eventually became the civil governor.

Sherman Silver Purchase Act

It replaced the Bland Allison Act of 1878. It required the treasury to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver each month and to issue in payment paper money redeemable in gold or silver. The amount of silver doubled but it still wasn't enough

William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer

Journalists for popular press. Hearst with the New York Journal and Pulitzer with the New York World. They were always locked in a competition for readers.

Elkins Act (1903)

Made it illegal for railroads to take, or give, secret rebates from freight charges to their favorite customers. All shippers had to be charged the same price.

Causes of imperialism

Manifest Destiny, fear of possible loss of territories to European powers, desire for new markets, desire for naval power, desire for resources, international Social Darwinism, and missionary impulse

City-manager plan

More durable than the commission system. Under this system, a professional administrator ran the municipal government in accordance with policies set by the elected council and mayor. Staunton, VA first adopted the plan.

Yellow journalism

Newspaper sensationalism that, at the time, surrounded the fight for independence in Cuba.

Benjamin Harrison

Nominated by the Republican party in the 1888 election. There was little in his political record to offend anyone. Made protective tariff the chief issue and promised pension to veterans. He had an advantage in funding and campaigned actively. He won the election.

Treaty of Paris (1898)

Offered Spanish negotiators compensation of $20 million and added Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to US territory. The treaty was controversial and probably would not have passed if populist Democrat William Jennings Bryan had not influenced the vote for approval.

George Perkins Marsh, Man and Nature

One of the first advocates of government conservation efforts. His book observed that man was a disturbing agent that destroys nature. He urged Americans to protect the long term health of the environment.

Mary Elizabeth Lease

One of the leaders of the farm protest movement in Kansas. Advised farmers to raise less corn and more hell. The joined the Farmer's Alliance and the Knight of Labor and became a fiery public speaker.

Tom Watson

One of the most respected southern Alliance leaders in Georgia. He took the lead in urging African American tenant farmers and sharecroppers to join with their white counterparts in ousting the white political elite.

Pendleton Act (1883)

Set up a three member Civil Service Commission independent of the Cabinet departments. About 14% of all government jobs would now be filled on the basis of competitive examinations instead of political favors. The president could also enlarge this class of jobs at his discretion. This was a vital step in a new approach to government administration that valued merit of patronage.

Henry Demarest Lloyd, Wealth against Commonwealth (1894)

Sometimes cited as the first muckraker. His book was a critical examination of the Standard Oil Company.

The Grange

Started as a social and educational response to the isolation of farmers but as it grew, it began to promote farmer owned cooperatives for the buying and selling of crops. Their long range ideal was to free themselves from the high prices charged by grain elevators. They soon became indirectly involved in politics. They wanted to regulate the rates charged by railroads.

Frederick Winslow Taylor and "Taylorism"

The original "efficiency expert". He developed techniques that he summed up in his book to reduce waste through careful analysis of labor. Many workers resented his innovations. They saw it as a tool for employers to make people work faster than was healthy or fair. But his system did bring concrete improvements in productivity, especially among highly standardized industries.

"free silver"

The owners of precious metals like silver could have any quantity of gold or silver coined free, except for a nominal fee to cover the costs.

Grover Cleveland

The rise of the mugwumps influenced the Democrats to nominate Cleveland as a reform candidate. He had little charisma but impressed the public with his stubborn integrity. A scandal erupted when he was said the be the father of the child of a woman he had an affair with. He responded by paying child support. He won the election. He had a mixed record on civil service. He endorsed the Pendleton Act but removed Republicans who had used their jobs to forward the interests of their party. He was also against pension. He also tried to regulate railroads and created the ICC. He also focused on tariff reform.

Populists (Peoples party)

The success of the Alliance led many to consider forming a third national party. In 1891, a conference in Cincinnati brought together delegates from farm, labor, and reform organizations and formed a national executive committee of the People's party. Another meeting in St. Louis in 1892 called for a convention of the new People's party in Omaha.

Describe the central ideas of progressivism

Their overall goals were greater democracy, honest and efficient government, more effective regulation of business, and greater social justice for working people. They believed that the scope of local, state, and federal government authority should be expanded to accomplish these goals.

Commodore Dewey- Manila Bay

While public attention was focused on Cuba, Theodore Roosevelt was thinking of the Spanish controlled Philippines. Commodore Dewey was ordered to engage the Spanish in the Philippines in case of war. In late April, Dewey destroyed or captured all the Spanish war ships in Manila Bay. Only 8 men in his squad were wounded. Dewey waited there for reinforcements while the German and British warships hung around the scene in case the US didn't take the Philippines. American troops finally arrived and, with the help of Filipino insurrectionists under Emilio Aguinaldo, Dewey entered Manila.

Sewards Folly

William H. Seward was was President Johnson's Secretary of State. In 1866 he learned of Russia's desire to sell Alaska. He bought it for $7.2 million, removing Russia from the New World. Critics scoffed at it calling it Seward's folly, but it turned out to be the biggest bargain since the Louisiana Purchase.

Muckrakers

Writers who thrived on exposing social ills.

Ida Tarbell

Wrote History of the Standard Oil Company, which was also run by McClure's.

Fundamentalism

Based on the fear that modern ways of thinking about religion had infected schools and pulpits. Christians took on this militant fundamentalism that was distinguished less by a faith that many shared than by hostility towards any other beliefs.

Stokely Carmichael

Became the head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1966 and championed the philosophy of black power. When H. Rap Brown took over as head of the committee in 1967, Carmichael moved on to the black panther party.

Spanish Civil War

Began in 1936 with an uprising of Spanish armed forces in Morocco, led by General Francisco Franco. In three years he had established a dictatorship

New Freedom

Belief that the federal government should restore competition among small economic units rather than regulate huge monopolies.

How were race relations and the lives of African Americans impacted by WWII?

Black leaders demanded equality in the armed forces and defense industries. About 1 million served in the armed forces but usually in segregated units and facilities. War industries were even less hospitable to integration. Membership in the NAACP grew.

"the New Negro"

A term used during the Harlem Renaissance that described the new spirit of protest against racial segregation among blacks. One characteristic was increased political activity. It also found expression in something called Negro nationalism which exalted black cultural expression and exclusiveness.

Federal Farm Loan Act (1916)

12 Federal land banks paralleled the regional Federal Reserve Banks and offered farmers loans of 5 to 40 years duration at low interest rates

What effects did the Great Depression have on the American population?

13 million people were out of work. Those who kept their jobs had hours and wages reduced. Factories shut down, banks closed, farms went bankrupt, and millions of people became homeless.

Anthracite Coal Strike (1902)

150,000 members of the United Mine Workers walked off the job in PA and WV, demanding a 20% wage increase and a reduction in daily hours from 10 to 9, and recognition of the union by mine owners. The mine owners refused and shut down the mines. Roosevelt was concerned about a coal shortage in the upcoming winter and threatened to militarize the mines. The strike ended later that year with an agreement to submit the issues to an arbitration commission named by the president. It only produced a partial victory for the miners. They won a nine hour day but only a 10% wage increase and no union recognition.

Women's Army Corps (WAC)

200,000 women served in this women's branch of the US army.

Daniel Ellsberg

A former Defense Department official who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times

Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP)

A fundraising organization for Nixon's reelection campaign. The organization was directly involved in the Watergate scandal.

Destroyers for bases deal

50 destroyers went to the British in return for a 99 year American lease on naval and air bases in British territories in the Caribbean.

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

A student activist movement that was the most explicitly political strain of the youth revolt. It was founded by Tom Hayden and Al Haber, two University of Michigan students in 1960.

H.L. Menken

A Baltimore journalist who attacked what he called the "booboisie"

Emilio Aguinaldo

A Filipino leader who had been in exile until Commodore Dewey brought him back to make trouble for the Spanish. Since his forces were basically in control of the islands outside Manila, what followed was an American conquest of 2 years. Organized resistance collapsed in 1899 and Aguinaldo was captured in 1901.

Newt Gingrich

A Georgian who led the republican insurgency in Congress in the mid-1990s. He was a former history professor who had helped mobilize religious and social conservatives associated with the Christian Coalition. He announced that they were at the end of an era and that the Democratic party was dying. He promoted something called the Contract with America.

Margaret Sanger

A New York nurse and midwife in the working class tenements of Manhattan. Here she saw many struggling mothers who often did not have enough money to provide for their growing families. She saw unwanted pregnancies, tragic miscarriages, and amateur abortions. She began distributing birth-control information to working class women. She organized the American Birth Control League which eventually turned into Planned Parenthood.

Joseph R. McCarthy

A Republican senator who suddenly surfaced as the most ruthless exploiter of anti-communist anxieties. He claimed the Senate department was infested with Communists and that he was in possession of a list of their names. His accusations were surrounded by confusion and he never uncovered a single Communist agent in the government.

Francisco Franco

A Spanish general who established a fascist dictatorship with the help of Hitler and Mussolini while the European democracies stood by and left Spain to its fate.

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

A book that made the realization that cities and industrial development were damaging the environment and altering the earth's ecology.

Gifford Pinchot

A close friend of Roosevelt and the head of the Division of Forestry. He and Roosevelt championed the Progressive notion of efficiency and government regulation. They were utilitarian, determined to ensure that nature was used in appropriate ways. he was especially concerned about the millions of acres of public land still owned by the government. He helped create the Forest Reserve Act.

Dust Bowl

A devastating drought that settled over the plains states between 1932 and 1935. It played a great role in reducing production and creating the dust-bowl migrations depicted in John Steinbeck's The Grapes or Wrath. Many migrant families had also been driven off the land by the AAA benefit programs.

Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA)

A domestic Peace Corps

Environmental Protection Agency

A federal agency that was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress

Articles of impeachment

A few days after the trial, the House Judiciary Committee voted to recommend three articles of impeachment: obstruction of justice through the payment of "hush money" to witnesses and the withholding of evidence, abuse of power through the use of federal agencies to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights, and defiance of Congress by withholding the tapes. But before they could vote, Nixon handed over the complete tapes and resigned

Little Rock Nine

A few weeks after the Civil Rights Act of 1957 passed, Arkansas governor Orval Faubus called out the national guard to prevent nine black students from entering Little Rock's Central High School under a federal court order. He was forced to withdraw the national guard but a hysterical white mob forced local authorities to remove the students again. So Eisenhower sent in 1000 paratroopers to protect to students and placed the national guard on federal service. The soldiers stayed throughout the school year. The next year, Faubus decided to close the school rather than allow integration

"Bonus Expeditionary Force"

A group of unemployed veterans who converged on the nation's capital in 1932. Their goal was to get immediate payment of the bonuses to veterans of World War I that Congress had voted in 1924. The House approved a bonus bill but the Senate vetoed it and most of the veterans went home. The rest camped in vacant government buildings. Hoover wanted to disperse of them so he urged Congress to pay for their tickets home. Most left but some stayed after Congress adjourned hoping to meet with the president. In July, the buildings were ordered to be cleared. During this process, a policeman fired into the crowd and killed two veterans. Then soldiers entered and drove the rest away, injuring many and killing an 11 week old baby.

The Beats

A group of young writers, poets, painters, and musicians who rebelled against the regimented horrors of war and the mundane horrors of middle class life. They grew out of the bohemian underground in Greenwich Village where they began a quest for a visionary sensibility and a spontaneous way of life. They were more interested in transforming themselves than transforming the world. Their road to salvation lay in hallucinogenic drugs and alcohol, sex, jazz, and Buddhism.

"Ohio gang"

A group with which Harding met in a house on K street to get away from the pressures of the White House.

John Muir and the Sierra Club

A journalist who became at odds with Pinchot after Pinchot endorsed a water reservoir in the Hetch Hetchy Valley to supply the needs of San Francisco. This project had forced Roosevelt to choose between preserving the valley or providing water to a city. He chose the city. Muir and his Sierra Club criticized this decision and opposed it fiercely, leading Roosevelt to postpone his decision. When Wilson became president, he approved construction of the reservoir

Birth of a Nation

A movie directed by D.W. Griffith that marked the arrival of the modern motion picture but at the same time perpetuated a grossly distorted image of Reconstruction. It was based on a book called The Clansman and featured stereotypes of villainous carpetbagger, sinister mulattos, blameless white southerners, and faithful "darkies". It was a blatantly racist film but grossed $18 million and revealed the movie industry's enormous potential as a social force

Reaganomics

A name for the economic policies of Reagan that included widespread tax cuts, decreased social spending, increased military spending, and the deregulation of domestic markets. Opponents of these policies called it voodoo economics. It suggested that the stagflation was caused by excessive taxes that weakened incentives to work, save, and reinvest and that the solution was to slash tax rates.

Captain Alfred T. Mahan

A naval captain who had become a leading advocate of sea power and Western imperialism. He published The Influence of Sea Power upon History in which he argued that national greatness and prosperity flowed from maritime power. Theodore Roosevelt, assistant secretary of the navy, ordered a copy for every ship. His writings influenced a gradual expansion of the navy

Department of Energy

A new cabinet level department concerned with US policies involving energy and safety in handling nuclear material

"new woman"

A new mindset in women who were eager to exercise new freedoms. They discarded corsets and wore bobbed hair, heavy makeup, and skirts above the ankle. They smoked, drank, and drove. Basically they defied Victorian expectations of womanly behavior

"sit-down strike"

A new technique in which workers refused to leave a workplace until employers granted collective bargaining rights to their unions

McNary-Haugen Bill

A plan to dump farmer's surpluses on the world market to raise prices in the home market. The goal was to achieve parity- to raise domestic farm prices to a point where they would have the same purchasing power relative to other prices they had had between 1909 and 1914 ( a time viewed as the golden age of American agriculture). It passed both houses but was vetoed by Coolidge. It was vetoed again in 1928. But the debates over it made the farm problem a national policy issue.

Head Start

A program for disadvantaged preschoolers

KKK

A result of the new nativist feelings. Devoted to 100% Americanism and restricted its membership to white, native-born Protestants. It was against not only blacks, but also Jews, Roman Catholics, and immigrants. Its leader was William J. Simmons. It was also no longer restricted to the South. Eventually died out after immigration law was passed.

Phyllis Schlafly

A right-wing Republican activist from Illinois. She orchestrated the campaign to defeat the ERA and urged women to embrace their "God-given" roles as wives and mothers.

Black Panther Party

A self-professed group of urban revolutionaries founded in Oakland, CA in 1966. They practiced militant self defense of minority groups against the government. The armed Black Panthers terrified the public and eventually fragmented into violence.

Hundred Days

A session that lasted from March 9 to June 16 in which Congress received from the president 15 major proposals and enacted them with a speed unlike any ever seen before in America.

Lost Generation

A term popularized by Hemingway to describe the generation that came of age during World War I. In Europe it was used to describe those that died during the war.

Christmas bombings

A week before the 1972 election, Kissinger announced that peace was at hand but several days earlier the Thieu regime in South Vietnam had rejected the Kissinger plan for a cease fire. The Paris peace talks broke off and in December and two days later the re-elected Nixon ordered massive bombings in Hanoi and Haiphong, the two largest cities in North Vietnam. These bombings and the simultaneous mining of North Vietnamese harbors aroused worldwide protest. But the bombings also made the North Vietnamese more flexible at the negotiating table. They stopped on December 29th and the talks in Paris soon resumed. Nixon claimed that the bombings had brought North Vietnam to its sense but the North Vietnamese never actually altered their basic stance

F. Scott Fitgerald

A writer who named the Jazz Age and wrote the book This Side of Paradise.

Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Harry L. Hopkins

Addressed the broader problems of human distress. Harry L. Hopkins was the leader of the program. It expanded the assistance to the unemployed that had begun under Hoover's RFC. He pushed an immediate work instead of dole approach but state officials preferred the dole (direct cash payments) as a quicker way to help the needy. It was mostly unsuccessful but spawned the creation of other programs like the CWA

Battle of Midway

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto hoped to render Pearl Harbor helpless from Midway Island. But American cryptanalysts had broken the naval code and Admiral Chester Nimitz knew what was up. He reinforced Midway with planes adn carriers. The first Japanese foray against Midway severely damaged the defenses but at the cost of 1/3 of their planes. Total, the Japanese lost their four best aircraft carriers and the Americans lost a carrier and a destroyer. This was the turning point of the Pacific war.

How has the proliferation of computer technology transformed the American life?

Advancements in technology produced a surge in productivity and prosperity. A team of engineers at the University of Pennsylvania created ENIAC, the first all-purpose, all-electronic, digital computer. During the 1950s and 1960s corporations such as IBM and government agencies worked to develop computers. In 1947 at Bell Laboratories, three physicists invented the transistor to reduce the space of the computer which also led to the development of hearing aids and portable radios. In 1971, the microprocessor was invented which led to the first personal computer, created by Ed Roberts. Bill Gates then dropped out of college and formed a company called Microsoft to sell the Altair 8800 computer. By the end of the 1980s there were 60 million personal computers and in the 1990s, email and the Internet were developed. This fostered communication across the globe and accelerated globalization. But it also further widened the gap between the rich and the poor.

Great Migration

After 1945, more than 5 million southern blacks left their native regions in search of better jobs, higher wages, decent housing, and greater social equality. The south side of Chicago became known as the capital of black America. Most migrants were sharecroppers and farm laborers from the Mississippi Delta because after the invention of a cotton picker, they were no longer needed. When they arrived in northern cities though, they were confronted with harsh realities. Slumlords gouged them for rent, they weren't hired, and unions denied them membership. Though some managed to get into the middle class, most did not.

Election of 1968

After LBJ announced he was not running again, Democrats nominated his faithful vice president, Hubert Humphrey, in Chicago. Republicans nominated Richard Nixon in Miami. Nixon had become a spokesman for the values of "Middle America" and he offered a vision of stability and order that appealed to the majority of Americans (silent majority). George Wallace ran on a third party ticket. Nixon had an enormous lead in the polls that narrowed as the election approached. Wallace was hurt by his outspoken running mate, Curtis LeMay, who wanted to expand the war in Vietnam. Nixon and his running mate, Spiro Agnew, won the election by a narrow margin.

Gerald Ford

After Nixon resigned, VP Spiro Agnew could not succeed him because he had been forced to resign for taking bribes from contractors before and during his term as VP. So the VP at the time of Nixon's resignation was Gerald Ford. He at first stated he had no intention of pardoning Nixon but went back on that and issued him a full pardon. His popularity rate plummeted from 71% to 49% in one day after that and his press secretary resigned in protest. Ford was devastated by the hostile reaction of the public and never recovered their confidence. Many suspected he and Nixon had made a deal but he insists a deal was never made. During his time as president, he got the record for most vetoes. He refused to reduce taxes or increase federal spending, plunging America into the deepest recession since the Great Depression.

Pearl Harbor

After Prime Minister Konoe resigned, War Minister Tojo took over complete control of the government. He sent an envoy with his final offer for compromise with the US, which the US denied. On the same day, a naval fore began secretly heading for Pearl Harbor. The US was expecting an attack in the Pacific, not in Hawaii. On December 7,1941, servicemen decoded the last of a 14 part Japanese message breaking off diplomatic relations. Delays in communication began after that so the War Department sent out an alert that something was about to happen but the message arrived too late. For two hours, Japanese planes attacked the fleet at Pearl Harbor. Three battleships were sunk, one grounded, one capsized, and the other badly damaged. They also destroyed 180 planes. It fell short of total success though because no aircraft carriers or oil tanks were destroyed

Montgomery Bus Boycott

After Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man, black community leaders met and organized a massive bus boycott. MLK led the boycott. The boycott achieved remarkable solidarity and in 1956, the Supreme Court affirmed that the separate but equal doctrine could not be applied to public transportation.

Kellogg-Briand Pact

After World War I, many Americans wanted to simply abolish war, which culminated in the signing of this pact. It started when a French minister proposed the pact to the US Secretary of State to draw the US into the French security system but the US countered and proposed to have all nations sign the pact. It was officially called the Pact of Paris and it declared that the nations who signed would not go to war with each other. But most reserved self-defense as an escape. The US also included a reservation about the Monroe Doctrine.

John L. Lewis, Congress of Industrial Organizations

After disputes with the AFL, the AFL expelled all CIO unions which formed a permanent structure called the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Lewis was the head of it. Their major organizing drives in the auto and steel industries began in 1936 but until the Supreme Court upheld the Wagner Act, companies had failed to cooperate with its provisions.

Army-McCarthy hearings

After the 1952 election, Republicans thought their victory would curb McCarthy's recklessness but McCarthy actually grew more outlandish in his charges and investigation methods. He overreached himself when he made the charge that the US Army was "soft" on communism. From April to June of 1954, televised Senate hearings displayed McCarthy bullying witnesses, dragging out lengthy irrelevances, and repeatedly calling "point of order". The Senate condemned McCarthy for contempt of the Senate. His political career collapsed and he began drinking heavily and died three years later.

Cuban Missile Crisis

After the Bay of Pigs incident, the Soviets reasoned that they could install their ballistic missiles in Cuba without US opposition. They thought this balanced out the presence of US missiles in Turkey. US officials feared that this presented a real threat to American security. In 1962, US intelligence discovered Soviet missile construction sites in Cuba and Kennedy decided to put a blockade on Cuba, but called it a quarantine to avoid it being considered an act of war. Khrushchev sent ships anyway but they stopped just short of the quarantine line. Soviets then offered to withdraw the missiles in return for a public pledge by the US not to invade Cuba. Kennedy then received two messages first repeating the original offer and also demanding the removal of American missiles from Turkey. Kennedy responded favorably to the first proposal but ignored the second so the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles. This was the closest the two countries came to a nuclear war

Dixiecrats—Strom Thurmond

After the Democratic Convention nominated Truman, a group of rebellious southern Democrats met in Birmingham and nominated South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond on a States Rights Democratic ticket. This was quickly dubbed the Dixiecrat party. They hoped to draw enough electoral votes to preclude a majority for either major party and throw the election into the House of Representatives where they might strike a sectional bargain.

"Gentlemen's Agreement" (1907)

An agreement between Roosevelt and the Japanese government about the school board's policies in San Francisco. He got the school board to change their policies after making sure that Japanese authorities would not issue passports to laborers except for former residents of the US or those who already had an interest in an American farming enterprise. The precise terms of the agreement have never been revealed but it halted the influx of Japanese immigrants and brought some respite to racial agitation in California.

Iraq War

After the Persian Gulf War in 1991, UN inspectors had gone to Iraq to search for biological and chemical weapons. Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein ordered UN inspectors to leave. After that, the US became increasingly concerned about their weapons and their support of terrorism. In November, the UN passed Resolution 1441 ordering Iraq to disarm immediately or face serious consequences. In 2003, US and British military began assembling. Bush issued an ultimatum to Hussein: he and his sons had to leave Iraq within 48 hours or face a US invasion. Two days later the US attacked in operation Iraqi freedom which involved a massive bombing campaign followed by a fast-moving invasion across the desert. After three weeks on intense fighting, allied forces occupied Baghdad, the capital of Iraq and Bush declared the war over.

Iran Hostage Crisis

After the fall of the shah in Iran, the revolutionaries rallied around Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a Muslim religious leader with a deep hatred of the US. In 1979, the exiled shah was allowed to enter the US to undergo treatment for cancer. Days later, a frenzied mob stormed the US embassy in Tehran and seized diplomats and staff. Khomeini endorsed the mob action and demanded the return of the shah along with all his wealth in exchange for the release of the 52 hostages held captive. Americans demanded a military response but Carter first went to the UN, which didn't work. Then he froze all Iranian assets in the US which didn't work. Then he tried to send in a rescue mission but it was aborted after helicopter trouble. Finally they were released after 444 days after Carter released several billion dollars of Iranian assets as ransom. But by then, Reagan had been elected

Baby-boom generation

After the military veterans returned to America, population growth soared. This new oversized generation would become a dominant force in the country's social and cultural life.

Washington Naval Conference (Five-Power, Four-Power, and Nine-Power Treaties)

After the war ended, Japanese-American relations worsened. To address the problem, Harding invited 8 foreign powers to the Washington Conference in 1921. There, Hughes helped put an halt on the arms race. Delegates from US, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy signed a Five-Power Treaty incorporating Hughes's plan for tonnage limits and a moratorium of 10 years during which no battleships would be built. They also agreed not to fortify their current Pacific possessions. The In Four-Power Treaty, the US, Britain, France, and Japan agreed to respect each other's possessions in the Pacific. The Nine-Power Treaty pledged the signers to support the principle of Open Door in China. The signers were the same as the Five Power Treaty with the addition of China, Belgium, Portugal, and the Netherlands.

Gastonia Strike of 1929

After the war, textile owners closed mills, slashed wages, and raised production quotas. This eventually causes workers to rebel. Many join the AFL's Unite Textile Workers. Most strikes lasted less than a week but in 1929, there was a walkout at Loray Mill in Gastonia, NC. Local officials were shocked that the mill workers were collaborating with the Communist group, the National Textile Workers Union. They were also shocked by the large number of women in the strike. The mill owners refused to meet with the strikers and dispatched national guard units to break the strike. So vigilante groups attacked union headquarters and shot the police chief. Later vigilantes attacked again and Ella May Wiggins was killed. 7 strikers were convicted

Alice Paul- National Women's Party

Alice Paul was a Quaker social worker who became head of National American Woman Suffrage Association's Congressional Committee. She instructed female activists to picket state legislatures, target and punish politicians who failed to endorse suffrage, incite police to arrest them, and undertake hunger strikes. Her new party set a new feminist goal: an equal rights amendment to reduce legal distinctions between the sexes.

Direct primary elections

Allowed voters to directly decide their party's candidates.

Progressives—Henry Wallace

Also after the Democratic Convention, the left wing of the Democratic party met in Philadelphia to nominate Henry Wallace on a Progressive party ticket.

GI Bill of Rights

Also known as the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. Under this bill, $13 billion was spent for military veterans on education, vocational training, medical treatment, unemployment insurance, and loans for building houses and going into business

How did Eisenhower approach the programs created under the New Deal?

Although he chipped away at several Democratic programs, he kept the basic structure of the New Deal. In some ways he even expanded it. Amendments to Social Security covered more people and the programs benefits went up 7%. Farm related aid programs were expanded and a new highway construction act was passed.

What historical factors led to the tensions between the U.S and the USSR during the Cold War?

America's preference of self-determination and democracy vs. the Soviet Union's preference for spheres of influence and totalitarianism. Russia had been invaded by Germany twice so Soviet leaders wanted to tame buffer states on their border for protection. After World War II, the US abandoned its long-standing aversion to peacetime alliances

Beirut bombing

American governments had continued to view Israel as the strongest and most reliable ally in the Middle East and were seeking to encourage moderate Arab groups. But in the mid-1970s, Lebanon collapsed into an anarchy of warring groups. The capital, Beirut, became a battleground for Sunni and Shiite Muslims, the Druze, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Arab Christians, Syrian invaders, and Israelis responding to PLO attack across the border. In 1982 Israeli forces pushed PLO out of southern Lebanon to Beirut and began shelling their strongholds there. The US sent a special ambassador to negotiate a settlement. French, Italian, and American forces moved into Lebanon as peacekeepers but in such small numbers that they became targets. American warships and planes responded by shelling and bombing Muslim positions behind Beirut which increased Muslim resentment. In 1983, an Islamic suicide bomber drove a truck full of explosives into the US Marine Headquarters leaving 241 Americans dead

What functions did the federal government perform in the late 19th century?

Americans expected little direct support from the federal government. The most significant political activity occurred at the state and local levels. Residents in the western territory were left to fend for themselves.

Michael Harrington, The Other America

Americans had rediscovered poverty because of this work. Harrington argued that more than 40 million people were mired in a "culture of poverty". He said the modern poor lacked hope.

Walter Reuther

An autoworkers and union organizer who organized a sit-down strike at General Motors assembly plants in Flint, Michigan. Thousands of employees occupied the factories and stopped all production. Female workers supported male counterparts by picketing at the plant entrance. The wives and daughters formed a Women's Auxiliary to feed the strikers who slept at the plants. The strike lasted over a month until the company signed a contract recognizing the union.

Gertrude Stein

An early champion of modern art and a collector of works by Cezanne, matisse, and Picasso. She came to be recognized as one of the chief promoters of the modernist prose style, beginning with her book Three Lives.

Job Corps

An education and employment program for inner city youths aged 16 to 21

Armory Show (1913)

An international art exhibit that the National Guard built in New York. It went on to Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston and shocked traditionalists with its display of works by experimental and nonrepresentational artists like expressionists, primitives, and cubits. Pablo Picasso's work made its American debut here. The show was a huge success.

AIDS

Another group of outcasts were those suffering from the new malady that had come to be known as AIDS. At the beginning of the 1980s, public health officials began reporting that gay men and intravenous drug users were especially at risk for developing AIDS. Those infected developed a strange combination of infections and eventually died. People contracted the virus (HIV) through blood or bodily fluids of an infected person. The Reagan administration mostly ignored it because it was viewed as a "gay" disease. By 2000 it had claimed almost 300,000 American lives and was spreading among a larger segment of the population. It had become the leading cause of death among young men. The potential for further spreading of the virus prompted the surgeon general to launch a controversial public education program to encourage safe sex through the use of condoms.

Department of Education

Another new cabinet level department created by Carter.

"brinkmanship"

Another policy by Dulles that depended on fears of nuclear disaster. He argued that a nation sometimes had to "go to the brink" of war. He thought that same strategy had halted further aggression in Korea.

William Faulkner

Another vital figure of the Southern Renaissance who wrote Sartoris and The Sound and the Fury. His achievement was rooted in the coarsely textured social world that produced him. His novel was one of the triumphs of the modernist society.

New Economy

As the 20th century came to a close, the US benefitted form a prolonged period of prosperity. It was buoyed by low inflation, high employment, declining federal budget deficits, dramatic improvements in productivity, the rapid globalization of economic life, and the astute financial leadership of Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan. Business and industry witnessed record profits. The stock market also soared. The new economy was centered on computer software and new technology. The stock market was fueled purely on speculation. One major factor was also the end of the cold war so less money was devoted to defense spending.

Kent State

At Kent State University, the Ohio National Guard was called in to quell rioting in which the campus's ROTC building was burned down by anti-war protestors. The poorly trained guardsmen panicked and opened fire on the rock-throwing demonstrators, killing four student bystanders. This protest was in response to the news of the Cambodian incursion

Atomic Energy Commission

Atomic force was new so it was agreed that the public welfare required the control of atomic energy through a government monopoly but there was a debate about whether to give control to the military of the citizens. So in 1946 Congress created the civilian Atomic Energy Commission. And the president alone was given the power to order the use of atomic weapons in warfare.

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society

Attacked the prevailing notion that sustained economic growth would solve chronic social problems. He argued that the public sector was starved for funds and public enterprises everywhere were deteriorating. he reminded readers that for all of America's vaunted postwar prosperity, the nation had yet to eradicate poverty.

Sixteenth Amendment (1913)

Authorized a federal income tax.

Warehouse Act (1916)

Authorized federal licensing of private warehouses and federal backing made their receipts for stored produce more acceptable as collateral for short term bank loans to farmers

Lend-Lease Act

Authorized president to sell, transfer, exchange, lend, lease, or otherwise dispose of arms and other equipment and supplies to any country whose defense the president deems vital to the defense of the US. Isolationists saw the bill as the point of no return. It ended up becoming law.

Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1966

Authorized special aid to the economically depressed region of the Appalachians. This established the Appalachian Regional Commission to facilitate economic development and oversee the construction of the Appalachian Highway Development System

Trade Agreements Act of 1934

Authorized the president to lower tariff rates as much as 50% for countries that made similar concessions on American products. Agreements were made in 14 countries by the end of 1935 with a total of 29 by 1945

Ballinger-Pinchot controversy

Ballinger was Taft's secretary of the interior. He opened 1 million acres of land Roosevelt had withdrawn and Taft backed him up. He also turned over federal land in Alaska to a group of Seattle tycoons. Pinchot found out about this and went to Taft who refused to intervene. When Pinchot went public with it, he was fired for insubordination. Ballinger was investigated but cleared of all charges. But Progressive suspicion created so much pressure that he resigned. This tarnished Taft's image in the public mind.

Taft-Hartley Act of 1947

Banned close shop (in which nonunion workers could not be hired) but permitted a union shop (in which workers newly hired were required to join a union) unless banned by state law. It also included provisions against unfair union practices like secondary boycotts, jurisdictional strikes, refusal to bargain in good faith, and contributing to political campaigns. Union leaders also had to take oaths declaring they were not Communists. it forbade strikes by federal employees and enforced an 80 day cooling off period on any strike the president found to be dangerous. Truman vetoed this bill, restoring his credit with many union workers but the bill passed over his veto.

18th Amendment

Banned manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors

Neutrality Act of 1939, "cash and carry"

Britain and France could send their own freighters to the US, buy supplies with cash, and take away arms or anything else they wanted. American ships were excluded from the ports of warring nations and form specified war zones. One unintended effect of this move was to relieve Hitler of any inhibitions about using unrestricted sub warfare to blockade Britain.

Alliance for Progress

Broad programs designed to help Latin America

Glass-Steagall Act (1932)

Broadened the definition of commercial loans that the Federal Reserve would support. It also released about $750 million in gold formerly used to back the Federal Reserve notes, countering the effect of foreign withdrawals and domestic hoarding of gold at the same time that it enlarged the supply of credit.

How did the terrorist attacks of 2001 change US foreign policy? In what ways did they challenge Americans' assumptions about their own security?

Bush immediately forged an international coalition to fight terrorism worldwide. The coalition demanded that Afghanistan's Taliban government surrender the terrorists or risk military attack. Bush warned Americans that the war on terrorism would be a lengthy campaign. The economy also went into a free fall. With people worldwide scared to fly, airlines laid off thousands of employees. Insurance companies struggled to pay off $30 billion in claims resulting from the attacks.

What factors led to the stock market crash of 1929?

By 1929, the stock market was based purely on speculation. Hoover voiced concern over this but nothing came of it. Tuesday October 29 was the most devastating day in the market's history. Stocks fell by a total of 37%. The stock market crash did not cause the depression, it just revealed major structural flaws in the economy and in government policies. Too many businesses had maintained retail prices and taken large profits while holding down wages. So about a third of income went to only 5% of the population. Most profits went back into expansion instead of wage increases so the imbalance of wealth grew. The flow of capital abroad began to dry up when the stock market began to look better. High tariffs discouraged foreign trade and encouraged high prices, causing consumers to save more and lowering demand for consumer goods.

Why did the economy fall once again in 1937?

By 1937, output had moved above the 1929 level largely due to government spending. But Roosevelt was concerned about federal deficits and rising inflation and ordered sharp cuts in government spending. At the same time, the Treasury began to diminish disposable income by collecting $2 billion in Social Security payroll taxes. Private spending couldn't fill the gap left by reductions in government spending and businesses lacked the faith to risk large investments. So the economy suddenly stalled and slid to a business slump deeper than that of 1929.

Black Power

By 1966, "black power" had become the new rallying cry. Stokely Carmichael became the leader of this separatist philosophy when he took over as head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He made black power the official objective of the organization and ousted whites from the organization. This movement never attracted more than a small minority of African Americans. Only about 15% of blacks labeled themselves as separatists

Farm Credit Administration

By executive decree, Roosevelt reorganized all federal farm credit agencies into the Farm Credit Administration. Through two more acts he also authorized extensive refinancing of farm mortgages at lower interest rates to stem the tide of foreclosures

Why did so many northern cities erupt in riots in the mid- to late-1960s?

By that time, the civil rights movement had shifted to the plight of urban blacks. By the mid-1960s 70% of the black population lived in urban areas in the north. And in these areas, the nonviolent tactics did not work as well as they had worked in the south. These riots were also oftentimes initiated by blacks themselves to try to fix what civil rights legislation had not been able to change

"Court-packing"

By the end of 1936, the Court had ruled against New Deal programs in 7 out of 9 major cases it reviewed and suits against Social Security and the Wagner Acts were pending. So Roosevelt decided to enlarge the Court, a power that was well within his power. He created 50 new federal judges and 6 new Supreme Court justices and diminished the power of those who had served 10 or more years or reached the age of 70. The scheme backfired though. By implying that some judges were impaired with senility, Roosevelt offended the elder statesmen of Congress and the Court. But new events blunted Roosevelt's drive to change the court. A series of decisions in 1937 reversed previous judgements and upheld the two acts. In addition, a conservative judge resigned and Roosevelt appointed one of the most consistent New Dealers, Hugo Black.

Korematsu v. United States

Concerned the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans to the internment camps. The Court sided with the government and said ti was constitutional, with one dissension. In 1983, Korematsu's conviction for avoiding internment was overruled. But the decision itself has never been explicitly overruled

Hawley-Smoot Tariff

Carried duties to an all time high. Rates went up on more than 70 farm products and more than 900 manufactured items. More than 1000 economists petitioned Hoover to veto the bill because they said it would raise prices paid by consumers, damage export trade, and hurt farmers. They ended up being right but Hoover felt he had to go with his party during election year

Panama Canal Zone Treaty

Carter had a successful effort to turn over the control of the Panama Canal to the government of Panama, which generated intense criticism. Carter argued that the limitations on US influence in Latin America and the deep resentment of American colonialism in Panama left the US with not other choice. The treaty reverted the Canal Zone to Panama in stages with completion by 1999. The treaty was ratified by the Senate by a paper thin margin but conservatives lambasted Carter for surrendering American authority in this critical part of the world

Camp David Accords

Carter's crowning foreign policy achievement. This was the arrangement of a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. Sadat had said he was willing to recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli state, which opened the door for Carter and Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance.He invited them both to Camp David, Maryland for two weeks of difficult negotiations. This first part of the agreement required Israel to return all the land in the Sinai in exchange for Egyptian recognition. This part of the agreement was completed but the second part, calling for Israel to negotiate with Sadat to resolve the Palestinian refugee dilemma, began to unravel after the summit. By March, when they returned to sign the formal treaty, Begin had already made clear his refusal to block new Israeli settlements on the West Bank, which Sadat had regarded as prospective homeland for the Palestinians. After the accords, most Arabs condemned Sadat as a traitor and Islamic extremists assassinated him. Still Carter and Vance had prevented an all-out war in the foreseeable future which was seen as a success.

How did Eisenhower react to the communist revolution in Cuba?

Castro embraced Soviet support and entered a trade agreement to trade Cuban sugar for Soviet oil and machinery. Then Cuba seized three British-American oil refineries that refused to process Soviet oil, so Eisenhower put strict limits on imports of Cuban sugar. This increased tensions with Khrushchev and the Soviet Union. The US then suspended imports of Cuban sugar and embargoed most trade from America to Cuba. One of Eisenhower's last acts as president was to suspend diplomatic relations with Cuba. He also authorized the CIA to begin secretly training a force of Cuban refugees to oust Castro.

26th Amendment

Changed the voting age to 18

Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932)

Congress set this up in 1932 with $500 million for emergency loans to banks, life-insurance companies, building and loan societies, farm mortgage associations, and railroads. It was run by former VP Charles G. Dawes. It staved off bankruptcies but Hoover's critics found it in favoritism to business.

"militia movement"

Convinced that the federal government was infringing on personal liberties, thousands of working class people joined well-armed militia organizations. Some were based on racial and ethnic hatred and others aligned themselves with right wing religious groups. Several militias challenged federal control of land, refused to pay taxes, and threatened to arrest and execute local government officials and judges. In Waco, TX, a group called the Branch Davidians sparked a tragedy. They were found to be stockpiling weapons and engaging in child abuse. When federal agents tried to get involved they were met with gunfire and the FBI took over siege of the compound. At least 72 people ended up dying. Two years later a truck bomb exploded in front of a federal office building and the entire front of the building collapsed.

National Defense Research Committee

Coordinated military research, including a top secret effort to develop an atomic bomb.

George F. Kennan

Counselor of the American embassy to Moscow. He sent the secretary of state a dispatch that outlined the roots of Soviet policy and warned against them. A year later he spelled out his ideas for a response to the Soviets in an anonymous article in Foreign Affairs. This policy eventually became containment, the US policy against the Soviets through the end of the Cold War.

National Environmental Policy Act

Created a Council on Environmental Quality in the White House that reported annually to Congress and required environmental-impact studies prior to any federal construction project.

Federal Reserve Act (1913)

Created a new national banking system with regional reserve banks supervised by a central board of directors. There would be 12 banks. each owned by member banks in its district which could issue Federal Reserve notes to member banks. All national banks became members. This arrangement made it possible to expand both money supply and bank credit in times of high business activity or as the level of borrowing increased

New Nationalism

Created by Roosevelt. It would enable to government to promote social justice and effect such reforms as graduated income and inheritance taxes, workers compensation, regulation of the labor of women and children, and a strong Bureau of Corporations.

Civil Works Administration

Created in 1933 when it became apparent that state sponsored programs through FERA were inadequate. It provided federal jobs and wages to those unable to find work that winter. During its 4 month existence it put to work over 4 million people. The workers made highway repairs, laid sewer lines, constructed airports, and provided teaching jobs. The programs costs however skyrocketed to over $1 billion, startling Roosevelt and causing him to order the CWA dissolved

War Production Board

Created in 1942. it directed the conversion of industrial manufacturing to war production. Roosevelt wanted to confront the enemy with a superiority of equipment.

Eisenhower Doctrine

Created in 1957, this promised military and economic aid to any Middle Eastern country needing help in resisting communist aggression

Peace Corps

Created in 1961 to supply volunteers who would provide educational and technical services abroad

National Security Act (1947)

Created the National Military Establishment, headed by the secretary of defense with sub-cabinet departments of army, navy, and air force. It also created the National Security Council, which included the president, heads of defense departments, and secretary of state, among others. It made permanent the Joint Chiefs of Staff and established the CIA to coordinate global intelligence-gathering activities.

Home Owners' Loan Corporation

Created through the Home Owners' Loan Act. it provided a similar service as the Farm Credit Administration to city dwellers. It refinanced mortgage loans at lower monthly payments for strapped homeowners, again helping to slow the rate of foreclosures.

Securities and Exchange Commission

Created to regulate the chaotic stock and bond markets.

Indian Reorganization Act

Created to replace the Dawes Act. This was created by John Coller who wanted to reinvigorate Indian cultural traditions by restoring land to tribes, granting Indians the right to charter business enterprises and establish self-governing constitutions, and providing federal funds for vocational training and economic development. The Act actually passed was a diluted version of this that only brought partial improvement to the lives of Native Americans.

Federal Home Loan Bank Act of 1932

Created with Hoover's blessing a series of discount banks for home mortgages. They provided to savings- and- loan and other mortgage agencies with a service much like the one that the Federal Reserve system provided to commercial banks.

Wendell Willkie

Dark horse Republican candidate in the 1940 campaign. He openly supported aid to the Allies and brought many other Republicans to the same viewpoint. Roosevelt won but it was his narrowest victory.

United States v Butler

Declared the AAA's tax on food processors unconstitutional.

Tennessee Valley Authority

Designed to bring electrical power and jobs to one of the poorest regions of the nation. By 1936 it had 6 dams completed or underway and a master plan to build 9 dams on the Tennessee River. It also opened rivers to navigation, fostered soil conservation and forestry, experimented with fertilizers, drew new industry to the region, encouraged formation of unions, improved schools, and sent cheap electric power through the valley for the first time. But the construction of dams also meant destruction of homes and communities.

Civilian Conservation Corps

Designed to give work to unemployed, unmarried men age 18-25. CCC workers built roads, bridges, campgrounds, and fish hatcheries. They also planted trees, taught farmers how to control soil erosion, and fought fires. They were paid a sum of $30 per month of which $25 went home to their families. They could also take education courses and earn high-school diplomas.

"hippies"

Direct descendants of the Beats. They were intent on rejecting conventional society but most of the time ended up being dependent on it. They were soon panhandling on the streets or lined up at government offices collecting welfare, unemployment compensation, and food stamps to help them survive the rigors of natural living.

How did the war effort impact the New Deal?

Discontent with price controls, labor shortages, rationing, etc., caused a national swing against the Democratic party. A coalition of conservatives dismantled New Deal programs they deemed inessential. These included the WPA, the NRA, the CCC, and the National Resources Planning Board.

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906)

Documented the filthy conditions of Chicago's meat packing industry. Roosevelt read it and sent two agents to Chicago who confirmed that everything in the book was true.

Atlantic Charter

Drawn up by Roosevelt and Churchill in a secret meeting. It called for self-determination of all people, equal access to raw material, economic cooperation, freedom of the seas, and a new system of international security. 11 anti-Axis nations endorsed the charter, including the Soviet Union

Employment Act of 1946

Dropped a previously requested commitment to full employment and set up a three member Council of Economic Advisors to make appraisals of the economy and advise the president in an annual economic report. A new congressional Joint Committee on the Economic Report would propose legislation.

SEATO

Dulles responded to the growing Communist influence in Vietnam by organizing a mutual defense agreement for Southeast Asia. In September 1954, at a meeting in Manila, the US joined seven other countries in forming SEATO. The signers agreed that in case of attack on one, the others would act according to their "constitutional practices" and in case of threats or subversion they would "consult immediately". The members were the US, Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, and Pakistan.

De Lome letter

Dupey de Lome was the Spanish ambassador. In 1898, the New York Journal released a letter written by him stolen from a Cuban spy. In the letter, De Lome called McKinley weak and a bidder for the admiration of the crowd. De Lome resigned after this to prevent further embarrassment to his government.

How did the tangle of war debts and reparations from WWI contribute to the Great Depression?

During World War I, the US had advanced the Allies billions of dollara and expected those debts to be paid back. But Americans who thought their money went to Europe were wrong, it actually was used to purchase US military supplies, fueling the economy. American states had also repudiated debts to the British after the Revolution and the French had never been repaid for helping the US during the Revolution either. To get the money to repay the US, Europe had to sell their goods to the US but the high tariff made that hard, making the debts harder to pay. This was the structure that collapsed during the Depression.

Why was Bill Clinton impeached and why was he acquitted?

During his first term he was dogged by allegations of improper involvement in the Whitewater Development Corporation. He had invested in this resort project which turned out to be a fraud and a failure and the Clintons took a loss on the investment. But Kenneth Starr, who was hired to investigate, did not find any evidence that the Clintons were directly involved in the fraud. Separate form this, another scandal came to light when it was revealed that Clinton had engaged in a sexual affair with a White House intern, Monica Lewinski, and that the president had pressured her to lie under oath. At first he denied the charges but later admitted to them. Kenneth Starr continued his investigation and submitted to Congress a report that caused the House to vote to impeach him. The House approved two articles of impeachment: lying under oath and obstructing justice. The Senate had trouble interpreting Clinton's actions as high crimes worthy of removing him from office so he was acquitted.

Mugwumps/ goo goos

During the 1884 election, Republicans nominated James Blaine. But during the campaign, the Mulligan letters surfaced saying things like that he was in the pocket of railroad barons and that he had sold his votes. This caused prominent leaders and supporters of the party to leave. They are called the mugwumps, or unreliable Republicans. They were centered in large cities or universities. They were mostly educators and editors and shared an opposition to tariffs and championed free trade. They foremost goal was to enact civil service reform by removing the power to distribute federal jobs to a party's supporters.

"peace with honor"`

During the 1968 campaign, Nixon had said he had a plan that would bring "peace with honor" in Vietnam. He insisted that the US could not simply cut and run leaving the 17 million South Vietnamese to a cruel fate under Communist tyranny.

War on Drugs

During the 1980s, cocaine addiction spread through sizable amounts of society, luring not only those with money but also the poor, who used it in its smokable form known as crack. Bush vowed to make drug abuse his number one priority and appointed William J. Bennett, former education secretary, as drug czar, or head of a new Office of National Drug Control Policy, with cabinet status but no department. Yet federal spending on programs intended to curb drug abuse rose modestly. The message on this, as well as other issues like education and housing, was that more of the burden should fall on the states

New immigration and new nativism

During the 1990s, over 30% of Americans claimed African, Asian, Latin American, or American Indian ancestry. In 2005, Latinos became the fastest growing minority group. The primary cause of this was growing immigration. In 2000 the US welcomed more than twice as many immigrants as all other countries in the world combined, which did not include the number of undocumented aliens. This wave of new immigration heightened conflict between old and new ethnicities. Critics charged that the nation was being overrun with foreigners and questioned whether they could be assimilated into American culture. California even passed Proposition 187, a controversial initiative that denied the state's illegal immigrants access to public schools, healthcare, and other social services.

"dirty tricks"

During the course of the presidential campaign, George McGovern had complained about the numerous "dirty tricks" orchestrated by members of the Nixon administration. On several occasions Nixon sought to coerce the Internal Revenue Service to investigate and intimidate his opponents. At the time, his accusations seemed shrill and biased and Nixon ignored them, publicly. But privately, he and his aides began trying to cover up the break in so as to not endanger his reelection campaign.

Détente

Easing of tensions between the US and the Soviet Union. Many Americans now wanted this especially because now the US and the Soviet Union had an equal number of nuclear weapons. This new policy offered the promise of a more orderly and restrained competition between the two superpowers.

How did scientific discoveries impact Americans' understanding of the world in the 1920s?

Einstein's relativity theories challenged the view that the universe was governed by specific laws, which had bee held since the 18th century. The discoveries of radioactivity and the quantum theory also developed new views of the world and led people to deny the relevance of absolute values in any sphere of society. Prevalent scientists during this time were Einstein, Isaac Newton, Max Planck, and Werner Heisenberg.

How do historians generally asses the Eisenhower presidency today? Why has that assessment changed over time?

Eisenhower's reluctance to enforce civil rights rulings and unwillingness to speak on behalf of racial equality undermined his efforts to promote general welfare. That was also combined with other troubles like issues with Cuba and the U-2 incident. But opinion of his presidency has improved with time. Critics give him credit for ending the Korean war and muzzling McCarthy. He failed to end the Cold War but he did sense the limits of American power and kept its application to low-risk situations. He also tried to restrain the arms race. He sustained the major innovations of the New Deal and saw that inflation remained minimal.

Southern Renaissance

Emerged from the conflict between the dying world of tradition and the modern commercial world struggling to come to life after the war. In the South, this conflict of values aroused the KKK who tried to bring back the world of tradition. It also inspired the vitality and creativity of the South's young writers

Welfare reform

Ended the government's open-ended guarantee of aid to the poor. It turned over the major federal welfare programs to the states and limited the amount of time a person can receive welfare benefits to 24 months. It also required that at least half of the state's welfare recipients have jobs or be enrolled in a job training program by 2002. States failing to meet this deadline would have their federal funds cut.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Ensured all citizens the right to vote. It authorized the attorney general to dispatch federal examiners to register voters. In states or counties where fewer than half the adults had voted in 1964, the act suspended literacy tests and other devices commonly used to defraud citizens of the vote. By the end of the year, 250,000 African Americans were newly registered to vote.

Anti-war movement

Escalating US involvement in Vietnam soon changed the student agenda. With the huge expansion of the war, millions of young men faced the prospect of being drafted into the unpopular war. Deferments enabled college students to postpone military service until they got their degree but in 1966 the Selective Service System modified the provisions so that even college students were eligible for the draft. People began to ignore their draft notices and 56,000 people qualified for conscientious objector status. People fled to other countries to avoid the draft or flunked the physical examination. Anti-war groups sponsored draft-card burning rallies and sit-ins that led to numerous arrests.

"welfare capitalism"

Examples of welfare capitalism are profit sharing, bonuses, pension, health programs, recreational activities, and things like that. The benefits of these programs were extensive and were designed to suppress unions

Keating-Owen Act (1916)

Excluded from interstate commerce goods manufactured by children under the age of 14.

John Maynard Keynes

Explored the theory that renewed government spending was good because the recession had come just when the budget was brought into balance. His book was called The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. This Keynesian economics offered a convenient theoretical justification for what the New Deal had done in response to existing conditions

Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority

Expressed the major goals of the right wing: the economy should operate without interference by the government, which should be reduced in size, the Supreme Court decision in Roe v Wade should be reversed, evolution should be replaced by the story of creation, prayer should be allowed in schools, and Soviet communism should be opposed as a form of pagan totalitarianism. By 1980, the Moral Majority claimed over 4 million members. Its base of support was southern Baptists but its appeal extended across the country. The religious right opposed Carter even though he was a self-described, born-again Christian and supported Reagan who was not very religious.

Smith-Hughes Act (1917)

Extended agricultural and mechanical education to high schools through grants-in-aid

Neutrality Act of 1937

Extended neutrality laws to cover civil wars.

Fair Labor Standards Act

Fair Labor Standards Act Applied only to enterprises that operated in or affected interstate commerce. It set a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour and a maximum work week of 40 hours, to be put into effect over several years. It also prohibited child labor under the age of 16.

McCarran Internal Security Act (1950)

Fear of espionage led Congress to pass this over Truman's veto in 1950. It made it unlawful to combine, conspire, or agree with anything or anyone that would contribute to the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship. Communists and Communist-front organizations had to register with the attorney general. Aliens who belonged to totalitarian parties were barred from admission to the US.

Omaha Platform

Focused on issues of finance, transportation, and land. Demanded implementation of the subtreasury plan, unlimited coinage of silver, an increase in the amount of money in circulation, a graduated income tax, and postal savings banks. They wanted to nationalize the railroads, as well as telegraphs and telephone systems. And they enforced the 8 hour workday and restriction of immigration.

Bill Clinton

For several years he led the Democratic Leadership Council and pushed the party from the liberal left to the center of the spectrum. Clinton had gone to Georgetown University, won a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford, and then earned a law degree from Yale where he met and married Hillary Rodham. In 1979, he was serving as Arkansas's youngest governor. He promised to cut the defense budget, provide tax relief for the middle class, and create a massive economic aid package for former republics of the Soviet Union to help them forge democratic societies. He was a compelling speaker and reminded many of JFK. But he did make use of the polls to shape and change his opinions on things to get elected. He was also charged by the media with being a chronic adulterer and had avoided the draft in Vietnam. He won the election by a comfortable margin. But his inexperience in foreign affairs caused him to make mistakes in his first year as president

Neutrality Act of 1935

Forbade the sale of arms and munitions to all warring nations whenever the president proclaimed that a state of war existed. And it declared that Americans traveling on belligerent's ships did so at their own risk. This did not have any negative effect on Mussolini because it did not stop him from buying raw materials such as oil

Whip Inflation Now

Ford rejected wage and price controls to curb inflation, preferring voluntary restraints which he promoted by passing out WIN buttons. The WIN buttons instead became a national joke and a popular symbol of Ford's ineffectiveness in the fight against stagflation.

America First Committee

Formed by isolationists, including Herbert Hoover and Charles Lindbergh Jr.

Teheran Conference

From November 28 to December 1, the Big Three leaders conferred in Tehran. Their chief subject was the planned invasion of France and a Russian offensive timed to coincide with it. Stalin repeated his promise to enter the war against Japan and the three leaders agreed to create an international organization to maintain peace after the war (United Nations)

Marshall Plan

George C. Marshall called for a program of massive aid to rescue western Europe from disaster. He offered aid to all European countries, including the Soviet Union and called on them upon them to take the lead in judging their own needs. In December 1947, Truman submitted his proposal for the European Recovery Program to Congress. Two months later the Communist seized Prague which ensured congressional passage of the plan. From 1948 to 1951, the Marshall Plan poured $13 billion into European economic recovery.

American Independent Party--George Wallace

George Wallace made his reputation as an outspoken defender of segregation. He moderated his position on the race issue but appealed even more candidly than Nixon to voters' concerns about rioting anti-war protestors, the welfare system, and the growth of the federal government. It generated considerable appeal outside his native South, especially among white working-class citizens, where resentment flourished against LBJ's Great Society liberalism

What were the effects of Watergate on the American public and political system?

Gerald Ford ended up taking office to replace Nixon and he pardoned Nixon. Many Americans were outraged at this act and his approval rate plummeted. Congress responded to the Watergate revelations with several pieces of legislation designed to curb executive power. But the shock of the incident also produced a deep sense of disillusionment with the so-called imperial presidency. It renewed public cynicism toward a government that had systematically lied to the people and violated their civil liberties.

Why did the Republicans suffer such an overwhelming defeat in the 1964 presidential election?

Goldwater was too radical for many voters and proposed cuts that were too drastic like the sale of the TVA or overhaul of Social Security

Public Works Administration

Granted $3.3 billion for public buildings, highway programs, flood control, and other improvements. It was under the direction of Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes and indirectly served the purpose of work relief. Ickes focused it on well planned permanent improvements and he used private contractors rather than workers on the government payroll. PWA workers built Virginia's Skyline Drive and Chicago's subway system, among other things.

Jones Act (1917)

Granted Puerto Ricans citizenship to the United States and made both houses of legislature elective

Economy Act

Granted the executive branch the power to cut government salaries, reduce payments to military veterans for non-service connected disabilities, and reorganize federal agencies in the interest of reducing federal expenses.

19th Amendment

Granted women's suffrage. This was one of the climactic achievements of the Progressive Era

Grenada invasion

Grenada was the smallest independent country in the western hemisphere. But there, a leftist government had admitted Cuban workers to build a new airfield and signed military agreements with Communist countries. And in 1983, an even more radical military council seized power. Appeals from the governments of neighboring islands led Reagan to order 1900 marines to invade the island, depose the new government, and evacuate a small group of US students at Grenada's medical school. The UN condemned this invasion but it was extremely popular in America. It made Reagan look decisive and proved to Latin American countries that the US would use force if needed.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Guaranteed personal bank deposits up to $5,000. To prevent speculative abuses, it separated investment and commercial banking corporations and extended the Federal Reserve Board's regulatory power over credit. This was created under the Banking Act

Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

Had promoted the case for prohibition since 1874. Weren't very successful. The more successful prohibition party was the Anti-Saloon League

"return to normalcy"

Harding's promise during his campaign for the election of 1920. This reflected his conservative values and folksy personality.

Saturday Night Massacre

Harvard law professor, Archibald Cox, was appointed by the new attorney general, Elliot Richardson, as special prosecutor to investigate the Watergate case. He took the president to court to obtain the tapes. Nixon refused to release the recordings and ordered Cox fired. Attorney General Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned rather than carry out the order. Solicitor General Robert Bork finally fired Cox. Nixon's firing of Cox produced a firestorm of public indignation. Newspapers started calling for the President to be impeached for obstructing justice.

How did Roosevelt react to the growing world crisis of the 1930s?

He called for a military buildup and pushed Congress to devote more money to defense. He also began releasing stocks of arms, planes, and munitions to Britain. Roosevelt was revitalized by the war and acted with remarkable boldness while still being neutral.

How did Wilson deal with the social justice issues of progressivism?

He endorsed state action for women's suffrage but declined to support a federal suffrage amendment. He also withheld support form federal child-labor legislation because he regarded it as a state matter. He opposed a bill to support rural credits. It wasn't until his second term that he signed an important piece of social-justice legislation- an act strengthening shipboard safety requirements, reducing the power of captains, setting food standards, and required wage payments.

"trickle-down" economics

Hoover's critics said that all these new measures reflected a dubious trickle down theory, which is favoritism of the wealthy or privileged. They thought if the government could help banks and railroads, it should be able to help everyone else in America who has been without wages, but the contraction of credit devastated debtors like farmers and those who held a balloon style mortgage.

How did Roosevelt react to Japanese aggression in the Pacific? What was Japan's response?

He froze all Japanese assets in the US, restricted oil exports to Japan, and merged the armed forces of the Philippines with the US army and put MacArthur in charge of all forces in east Asia. Oil restrictions eventually tightened into an embargo. This caused the Japanese navy to begin attacks on teh Dutch adn British colonies to the south. This put Japan and America on a collision course leading to war.

In what ways did Taft achieve progressive reforms as president?

He had attempted tariff reform, appointed men with impeccable credentials in conservation to replace Ballinger and Pinchot, won the power to protect public lands, and was the first president to withdraw oil reserves from use. He withdrew more public land than Roosevelt in less time, and brought more anti-trust suits.

How did Roosevelt work to conserve natural resources and federal forest lands?

He helped form the Boone and Crockett Club to ensure that big game animals were protected for posterity. He also helped form a powerful coalition promoting rational government management of natural resources. Congress established a Division of Forestry and the Forest Commission. As president, Roosevelt created 50 wildlife refuges, approved 5 new national parks, and designated national monuments such as the Grand Canyon

Charles Lindbergh

He made the first solo transatlantic flight, traveling from NY to Paris in 33.5 hours. It won him $25,000 and gave a psychological boost to the growing aviation industry. The NYC parade in his honor surpassed even the celebration of the armistice.

How did Taft alienate the progressive wing of the Republican party while he was president?

He tried to pass the Aldrich bill, a tariff bill, and many progressive Republicans thought this was a corrupt throwback to the days when the Republican party had done the bidding of big businesses. At first Taft agreed with them but then, fearing a party split, he backed the majority and agreed to an imperfect bill. He was conservative and didn't want to interfere too much with the legislative process. He was drifting into the orbit of the Republican Old Guard which quickly alienated the progressives.

Father Charles E. Coughlin

He was called the "radio priest" and founded the National Union for Social Justice in 1935. In broadcasts over the CBS network, he promoted schemes for the coinage of silver to increase the money supply and made attacks on bankers that increasingly hinted at anti-Semitism.

Why did Kennedy have trouble enacting his legislative proposals?

He was elected by a razor thin margin so he did not enjoy a popular mandate. He did not show much skill guiding his legislature through a Congress that was controlled by a conservative southern coalition that blocked efforts to increase federal aid to education, provide health insurance, and create a Department of Urban Affairs. They also blocked one of his proposals for a massive tax cut.

Watergate break in

He was especially disturbed by a curious incident in which five burglars were caught breaking into the Democratic campaign committee headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in DC. The burglars were former CIA agents, including James W. McCord who worked for the Nixon campaign.

Francis E. Townsend

He was outraged by the sight of three elderly women digging through the trash for food so he developed his own plan called the Townsend Recovery Plan. The plan would pay $200 a month to every citizen over 60 who retired from employment and promised to spend the money within the month. Critics noted that the cost of his plan for 9% of the population would be more than half of the nation's income but Townsend was not concerned with the cost of the plan.

Richard M. Nixon

He was well known because of his 8 years as Eisenhower's vice president. He wanted to reverse the tide of New Deal liberalism. He attacked opponents, employed half-truths, lies, and rumors, and manipulated and fed off the growing anti-Communist frenzy.

Medicaid

Help to the Poor

Medicare

Help to the elderly

Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger Secretary of state and national security advisor under Nixon.

Herbert Hoover and "associationalism"

Herbert Hoover served as secretary of commerce in the Harding and Coolidge cabinets. He developed a philosophy called cooperative individualism or associationalism. He promoted a kind of middle way between the regulatory and trust busting traditions, a way of voluntary cooperation among businesses. Under this philosophy, business leaders competing in a given industry would share information on everything. This allowed them to make plans with more confidence which would create more stable employment and wages. Sometimes this led to price fixing and other monopolistic practices though.

Dr. Benjamin Spock, Baby and Child Care

His book sold 1 million copies a year between 1946 and 1960. Spock said that parents should foster in their children qualities and skills that would enhance their chances in what Riesman called the popularity market.

How did Hoover attempt to combat the Depression? How successful were those attempts?

Hoover thought the nation's fundamental business structure was sound and that the country's main need was confidence. He exhorted people to keep up hope and urged owners to keep shops and mills open, maintain wages, and spread out work. He ordered the commencement of government construction projects in order to provide jobs but state and local cutbacks more than offset new federal spending. The Federal Reserve returned to an easier credit policy and Congress passed a tax reduction. The Federal Farm Board stepped up its loans only to face bumper crops

Huey P. Long, Share-the-Wealth

Huey Long was Louisiana's "Kingfish" Senator. He intitally supported Roosevelt but quickly grew suspicious of the NRA's collusion with big businesses. He was also jealous of Roosevelt's popularity because he had developed his own presidential aspirations. His plan to deal with the Depression was the Share-the-Wealth program which confiscated large personal fortunes to guarantee every poor family a cash grant of $5,000 and every worker an annual income of $2500, provide pensions to the elderly, pay veterans bonuses, and ensure a college education for every qualified student. It did not matter to him that his figures failed to add up or that the program promoted little economic recovery. But he still had 7.5 million supporters.

Woodstock and Altamont

Huge outdoor rock music concerts were also a popular source of community for hippies. The largest of these was the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. 500,000 people converged on a 600 acre farm in Bethel, NY. For three days the assembled flower children reveled in "good music, cheap marijuana, and casual sex" This was short-lived though. When promoters tried to recreate the scene four months later at Altamont Speedway, the counterculture encountered the criminal culture. the Rolling Stones hired Hells Angels motorcycle gang members to provide security for their show. Drunken white motorcyclists beat to death an African American man wielding a gun in front of the stage. Three other spectators were killed that night.

How did the United States encroach upon and eventually annex Hawaii?

In 1875, Hawaii signed a trade agreement under which Hawaiian sugar would enter the US duty free and Hawaii promised that none of its territory would be granted to a third power. This created a sugar boom and Americans established a white, economic elite in Hawaii that built their fortunes on cheap immigrant labor. In 1887, the government forced Hawaii to accept a constitutional government. In 1890 the McKInley tariff destroyed Hawaii's favored position with sugar bringing on an economic crisis. When Liliuokalani got the throne she tried to eliminate white control. The American ambassador brought in marines and an order for Hawaii to be annexed. This annexation was revoked after Harrison took office. When McKinley became president he again tried to annex Hawaii and succeeded.

Samoa

In 1878, Samoans signed a treaty with the US that granted a naval base at Pago Pago and extraterritoriality for Americans, exchanged trade concessions, and called for the US to extend its good offices in case of a dispute with another nation. The next year German and British governments worked out similar arrangements with other islands of the Samoan group. In 1887 a civil war broke out and a peace conference was arranged in Berlin which established a tripartite protectorate over Samoa with Germany, Great Britain, and the US.

Coxey's army

In 1894, the nation's economy had reached bottom. That year, 750,000 workers went on strike and millions found themselves unemployed. So railroads construction workers began tramping east and talked of marching on the capital. Few made it to the Capital but Coxey's Army did, led by Jacob S. Coxey. He and 400 protestors made it to Washington where he was arrested for walking on grass and the protestors dispersed peacefully. But their march and the growth of Populism scared many Americans.

U.S.S. Maine

In 1898, the Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor with a loss of 260 men. A naval court found that an external mine had set off the explosion and although they lacked hard evidence, the court made no effort to fix the blame. The yellow press rose outcries against Spain with the cry "Remember the Maine". Later a study found that the Maine was sunk by accident.

Northern Securities case (1902)

In 1902, Roosevelt ordered his attorney general to break up the Northern Securities Company, a giant conglomeration of railroads. It was a merger of railroads from the Union Pacific and the Northern Pacific that essentially ended competition and created a monopoly. In 1904, the Supreme Court ordered the railroad to be dissolved.

Treaty of Portsmouth

In 1904 the Japanese had become convinced that Russians threatened their ambitions in China and Korea. This started a war between the two countries. Roosevelt offered to mediate their conflict and sponsored a peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In the treaty, the concessions all went to the Japanese. Russia acknowledged Japan's predominant interests in Korea and both powers agreed to evacuate Manchuria.

American Liberty League

In 1934, a group of conservative businessmen and politicians, including Alfred E. Smith and John Davis, formed the American Liberty League to oppose the New Deal's measures as violations of personal and property rights.

U.S.S. Panay

In 1937, Japan bombed and sank the U.S.S Panay which had been anchored in China, prominently flying the US flag. Three people died. The Japanese government apologized and paid reparations but the incident reinforced American animosity towards Japan. The private boycott of Japanese goods spread but isolationist sentiment continued.

Rome-Berlin-Tokyo "Axis"

In 1937, Japan joined Germany and Italy in the "Anti-Comintern Pact", allegedly directed at the Communist threat. This established the "axis"

38th parallel

In 1945, the Soviets accepted an American proposal to divide Korea at the 38th parallel until steps could be taken to unify the war-torn country.

Internationalism vs. isolationism

Internationalists believed national security demanded aid to Britain and isolationists charged that Roosevelt was drawing the US into a needless war

Truman Doctrine

In 1947 Truman requested $400 million in economic aid to Turkey and Greece and the authority to send military personnel to train their soldiers. This became the Truman Doctrine, which justified aid to Greece and Turkey. The principles in this doctrine committed the US to intervene throughout the world to "contain" the spread of communism. This also marked the beginning of the Cold War

Alger Hiss

In 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a former Soviet agent, told the HUAC that Hiss had given him secret documents 10 years earlier, when Chambers was spying for the Soviets and Hiss was working in the State Department. Hiss sued for libel and denied the accusation but was convicted for lying about espionage. This was even more damaging because Truman had called these accusations a red herring.

Berlin blockade and airlift

In 1948, the US, Britain, and France united their zones into West Germany. Shortly after, the Soviets began to restrict road and rail traffic into West Berlin and cut off their electricity. They hoped the blockade would force the Allies to give up Berlin or the plan to unify West Germany. But Truman instead opted for a massive airlift instead. Allied planes were flying in 13,000 tons of food, medicine, and coal a day. Finally, in May of 1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade.

Earl Warren

In 1953 Eisenhower appointed former governor Earl Warren of California as chief justice. He thought he would be conservative but it turned out to be a mistake as the decisions of the Warren Court turned out to be extremely liberal and became an important agent of social and political change in the 1960s.

"Southern Manifesto"

In 1956, 101 members of Congress signed this, denouncing the Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education as an abuse of judicial power.

U-2, Francis Gary Powers

In 1959, Eisenhower and Khrushchev had agreed to have a summit meeting. But in 1960, a Soviet rocket shot down an American spy plane. When confronted about the plane, Eisenhower and the State Department insisted that there had been no attempt to violate Soviet airspace. But then the Soviets disclosed that they had captured the pilot, Francis Gary Powers and his pictures of Soviet military installations. So Eisenhower took responsibility for the incident and Khrushchev revoked his offer for Eisenhower to come to the Soviet Union. Later in 1962, Powers was exchanged for a captured Soviet spy.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

In 1960 student activists, black and white, formed this committee, which worked with King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference to broaden the civil rights movement. Most of the activists practiced King's concept of nonviolent protest. They refused to retaliate even when struck by clubs or poked with cattle prods.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

In 1961, this group sent a group of black and white "freedom riders" on buses to test a federal court ruling that had banned segregation on buses and trains.

James Meredith

In 1962 the governor of Mississippi defied a court order and refused to allow James Meredith to enroll at Ole Miss. Attorney General Robert Kennedy intervened again dispatching federal marshals to enforce the law. These marshals were assaulted by a white mob and federal troops had to intervene. After two deaths and many injuries, Meredith was registered at the university.

Birmingham marches

In 1963, MLK launched a series of demonstrations in Birmingham where Police Commissioner Eugene Connor served as the perfect opposite to King's tactic of nonviolent civil disobedience. Connor used dogs, tear gas, electric cattle prods, and fire hoses on the protestors. Millions of outraged Americans watched the confrontations on television. King was arrested and jailed during these protests which is when he wrote the famous Letter from Birmingham Jail to defend the nonviolent strategy.

American Indian Movement (AIM)

In 1963, two Chippewas, George Mitchell and Dennis Banks, founded the American Indian Movement to promote "red power". The leaders of AIM occupied Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay in 1969 claiming the site by right of discovery.

Why did Johnson decide to "Americanize" the Vietnam War? What were the effects of this escalation?

In 1965, Viet Cong guerillas killed 8 and wounded 126 Americans at Pleiku. Further attacks later that week led Johnson to start Operation Rolling Thunder, the first sustained bombing of North Vietnam. In 1965, General Westmoreland greeted the first installment of combat troops who were engaged in "search and destroy" operations. The war started to have more tv coverage in the US and the body count began to grow. Johnson said that to leave Vietnam to its fate would shake the confidence of everyone in the value of American commitment. They did not want to win the war and instead wanted to prevent the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong from winning and force a negotiated settlement. But public support for the war faded quickly

National Organization for Women (NOW)

In 1966 Friedan and other activists founded the National Organization for Women. It initially sought to end discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sex and went on to spearhead efforts to legalize abortion and obtain federal and state support for child-care centers.

Weathermen

In 1968, the SDS fractured into rival factions, the most extreme of which was the Weathermen. They embarked on a campaign of violence and disruption. They firebombed university buildings and killed innocent people. The government arrested most of them and the rest went underground.

Cambodian "incursion"

In 1969 the US began a 14 month bombing campaign aimed at Communist forces in Cambodia. Congress did not learn of these secret raids until 1970. In 1970, Nixon announced what he called an "incursion" into neutral Cambodia by US troops to clean out North Vietnamese military staging areas. The head of Cambodia had opposed this for two decades but he had been ousted, clearing the way for American invasion. There were huge public outcries against this when the public found out, especially among the anti-war students

Stonewall Riots

In 1969, NYC police raided the Stonewall Inn, a male gay bar in Greenwich Village. The patrons fought back and the struggle spilled into the streets. Hundreds of other gays and their supporters joined the fracas against the police and rioting lasted throughout the weekend. When it ended, homosexuals had found a new sense of solidarity and a new organization, the Gay Liberation Front.

Nixon in China

In 1971, Henry Kissinger made a secret trip to Peking to explore the possibility of US recognition of Communist China. In one trip, Kissinger and Nixon ended two decades of diplomatic isolation. Americans watched on TV as Nixon visited famous landmarks and drank toasts with the Premier Chou En-lai and Mao Tse-tung. The US and China agreed to scientific and cultural exchanges, steps toward the resumption of trade, and the eventual reunification of Taiwan with the mainland. A year after his visit, "liaison offices" were established in Washington and Beijing that served as unofficial embassies and in 1979, diplomatic recognition was formalized.

BIA sit-in

In 1972 a sit in at the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington attracted national attention to their cause. The BIA has since been viewed widely as the worst managed federal agency. Instead of finding creative ways to promote tribal autonomy and economic self-sufficiency, the BIA has served as a classic example of government inefficiency and paternalism gone awry.

Wounded Knee occupation

In 1973, AIM led 200 Sioux in occupying the tiny village of Wounded Knee. They sought to draw attention to the plight of the Indians living on the reservations there. Half of the families there were dependent on government welfare checks, alcoholism was rampant, and 80% of children had dropped out of school. The militants took eleven hostages so federal marshals and FBI agents surrounded the encampment. For ten weeks the two sides engaged in a tense standoff. AIM leaders tried to bring in food and supplies but that resulted in a shoot out. The confrontation ended when the government promised to reexamine Indian treaty rights.

Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings

In 1991, Thurgood Marshall retired after 24 years as Supreme Court justice. To succeed him, Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, and African American federal judge who was raised in poverty in the segregated south. His views delighted conservative senators. He questioned many civil rights acts. During his confirmation hearings, Anita Hill, a law professor at the University of Oklahoma, charged that Thomas had harassed her when she worked for him in a federal agency in the 1980s. He denied the charges. The Senate ended up confirming him by a narrow margin. The hearings also sparked a resurgence of the women's movement because of the treatment of Anita Hill

Chicago Democratic National Convention (1968)

In August 1968 Democrats gathered in a Chicago convention hall to nominate Hubert Humphrey while almost 20,000 police officers and national guardsmen and a small army of television reporters stood watch over a group of protestors. Chicago mayor Daley had given "shoot-to-kill" orders to police during previous riots and said he would not tolerate any disruptions. Riots broke out anyway and were televised nationwide. The country watched police tear gas and club demonstrators.

Battle of Leyte Gulf

In July 1944, Roosevelt met with MacArthur and Nimitz. They decided next to liberate the Philippines from Japanese control. MacArthur's forces landed first on the island of Leyte. The Japanese knew that the loss of the Philippines would cut them off from the essential raw materials of the East Indies and brought in fleets from three different directions. The battle was the largest in naval history. The Japanese lost most of their remaining sea power and the ability to defend the Philippines. The battle also brought the first of the suicide attacks by Japanese pilots, which inflicted considerable damage.

Moon landing

In July 1969 astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. This achievement buoyed American spirits at a time when troops were mired in Vietnam, cities were full of racial unrest, and the economy was languishing.

John Erlichman, H.R. Haldeman, John Mitchell

In March 1974, the Watergate grand jury indicted these three people for obstruction of justice and named Nixon an "unindicted co-conspirator".

U.S.S. Reuben James

In October 1941, a German sub torpedoed and sank teh destroyer the Rueben James, with a loss of 115 seamen, while it was on convoy duty west of Iceland .his action spurred Congress to make changes to the Neutrality Act, essentially repealing it. Step by step the US was giving up on neutrality.

Sputnik

In October 1957, the Soviets launched the first satellite, called Sputnik. Until then, Americans had been complacent about their technical superiority. They thought if the Soviets were so advanced in rocketry then they might be able to hit American cities with armed missiles. Eisenhower had known that the missile gap was more illusory than real but he could not reveal that spy planes had gathered this information. This led to efforts to increase defense spending, offer NATO allies intermediate range ballistic missiles pending development of long range intercontinental ballistic missiles, set up a new agency to coordinate space efforts, and establish a crash program in science eduction and military research. Eventually led to creation of NASA

"talkies"

In the 1920s, films were silent but now they were transformed by the introduction of sound. This made film the most popular form of entertainment during the 1930s

Mass consumer culture

In the 1920s, more people had money and leisure to indulge in their consumer fancies. There was also a growing advertising industry that fueled the expanding middle class. Consumer goods industries fueled much of the economic boom of that decade.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

In the 1932 election, Roosevelt was the Democratic nomination. He appeared in person to accept the nomination and pledged that the Americans would get a "New Deal". Roosevelt was born into a wealthy family and married a distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt. He was the running mate for James Cox in the 1920 election. He suffered an attack of polio that left him permanently disabled but his battle for recovery made him less arrogant and more focused. He went on a grueling campaign tour, blaming the Depression on Hoover. He wanted to balance the budget, he was evasive of the tariff, called for strict regulation of utilities, and promised to repeal the Prohibition amendment. Voters liked him because of his uplifting confidence and Roosevelt won the election.

Fair Deal

In the 1948 elections, most analysts predicted that Truman would be defeated. But Truman mounted a furious reelection campaign. He viewed his eventual victory as a vindication for the New Deal and a mandate for modern liberalism. The name was given to his plan to distinguish it from the New Deal but its programs were mainly extensions or enlargements of the New Deal programs already in place like higher minimum wage, expansion of Social Security, extension of rent controls, and slum clearance

George H.W. Bush

In the 1988 election, Republicans nominated Reagan's two term VP, George H.W. Bush, who easily cast aside his rivals in the primaries. He was Reagan's handpicked heir but still had to establish his own political identity. He promised to use the White House to fight bigotry, illiteracy, and homelessness. His most popular line was "Read my lips, no new taxes". He attacked his opponent, Dukakis, as a camouflaged liberal. He won by a good margin. He had good success with blue collar workers.

Chester Arthur

In the election of 1880, the Republican convention was deadlocked between James Blaine and Grant. But then ended up nomination dark horse candidate Garfield. The named Chester Arthur as candidate for vice president as a sop to the Stalwarts. Garfield was elected but shot four months later leaving Arthur as President. He distanced himself from Conkling and the Stalwarts and became independent. He emerged as a civil service and tariff reformer.

Jimmy Carter

In the election of 1976, the Democrats nominated an obscure naval officer and engineer turned peanut farmer who had served one term as governor of Georgia. Carter campaigned harder than any of the other hopefuls and capitalized on the post-Watergate mood by promising never to tell a lie to the American people and cited his inexperience in Washington as an asset. Reporters marveled at the candidate who was a Baptist and claimed to be "born-again". He received the New Deal coalition and a narrow margin of victory over Ford thanks to a heavy turnout of African American voters. He also benefited from the appeal of running mate, Walter Mondale. But after the honeymoon period his popularity waned. But he did enjoy several successes. His administration had more blacks and women than ever and he offered amnesty to men who had fled the country to avoid the draft. He reformed civil service and created two new cabinet departments. He also passed several environmental initiatives.

Lochner v. New York

In this case the Court voided the 10 hour workday law because it violated workers' "liberty of contract" to accept any terms they chose.

Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971)

In this case, Burger ruled that school systems must bus students out of their neighborhoods if necessary to achieve racial integration

Wabash case

In this case, the Court denied the state's power to regulate rates on interstate traffic.

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

In this case, the Court required that every felony defendant be provided a lawyer regardless of the defendant's ability to pay

United States v. E.C. Knight and Company (1895)

In this case, the Supreme Court had declared manufacturing an intrastate activity.

Sweatt v. Painter (1950)

In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that a separate black law school in Texas was not equal in quality to the state's whites-only school. The Court ordered the state to remedy the situation

Scottsboro Boys

In this case, two black boys were convicted of raping two white women. The first verdict failed in Powell v Alabama because the judge had not ensured that the defense was provided adequate defense attorneys. In Norris v Alabama, the verdict also failed because of the systematic exclusion of African Americans from juries, which had denied the defendants equal protection of the law. These were two important precedents.

What was the influence of race on the 1948 election?

In this election Truman sought to shore up the major elements of the New Deal coalition, which included the African American vote. In his State of the Union message, he said his first goal would be to secure human rights and he promised a special message on civil rights, which helped draw the attention of civil rights supporters.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911)

In this fire, 146 people, mostly young women, died because the owner kept the stairway doors locked to prevent theft. Workers were trapped on the upper floors and either died in the fire or jumped to their deaths. Stricter building codes and factory inspection acts followed, including accident insurance systems

How did gender roles change in the post-war boom years?

Increasing conformity in the middle-class workplace was mirrored in the home. The ideal woman was a white suburban housewife and mother who had married young. The soaring birthrate reinforced the deeply embedded notion that a woman's place was in the home. Even though millions of women had responded to wartime appeals and joined the traditionally male work force, afterword they were encouraged and even forced to return to their full-time commitment to their home and and family.

John F. Kennedy

Inexperienced compared with his opponent. He had a record of heroism in World War II, a Harvard education, and a rich and powerful family, but no political experience in the House or Senate. His political rise was owed to the effective public relations campaign engineered by his father. He had serious spinal problems and diseases like Addison's disease but masked his ailments from the public

Free speech movement

Initially protested on behalf of student rights but it quickly escalated into a more general criticism of the modern university and what leader Marco Savio called the "depersonalized, unresponsive bureaucracy" infecting American life. In 1964, he led hundreds of students into a UC- Berkeley administration building and organized a sit-in. The goals of this movement spread to colleges throughout the country.

The "pill"

Initially these birth control pills were only available to married couples but that restriction soon ended. Widespread access to the pill gave women a greater sense of sexual freedom than any previous contraceptive device. It also contributed to a rise in STDs but many women viewed the pill as a godsend. It quickly became the most popular birth control method. The US birthrate dropped to below 2 per women

Executive Order 9066

Initiated the removal of Japanese Americans to internment camps. They were forced to sell their farms and businesses and were victims of racial prejudice. In 1983, the government recognized the injustice of the internment policy and granted $20,000 to all still living

Richard M. Nixon

Insisted on pursuing the Alger Hiss case and then exploited an anti-Communist stance to win the election to the Senate in 1950.

Neutrality Act of 1936

It extended the arms embargo and added a provision forbidding loans to nations at war

How did voting rights impact the lives of American women?

It gave women the ability to participate more in politics and after the 19th amendment was passed, many more women were elected to office, although they had greater success in state level politics than in any national level positions.

What were the results of the combination of tax cuts and defense spending increases in the Reagan years?

It generated ever mounting federal deficits. Reagan's advisors insisted that the unbalanced budgets were only temporary and the new tax plan would eventually fuel economic growth and boost tax revenues as profits soared. But this never happened. By 1983, an economic recovery was on the way but Reagan had accumulated more debt than any of his predecessors combined.

How did the "noble experiment" of prohibition work itself out in practical terms?

It just motivated people to use illegal ways to get alcohol. Congress never supplied adequate enforcement. There was also a lot of profit to be made in bootlegging. In Detroit, the liquor industry was second only to the auto industry, Drinking by women increased along with the inventions of speakeasies, hip flasks, and cocktail parties. It also supplied criminals with new income which gave rise to gangs and gangsters like Al Capone.

Underwood-Simmons Tariff (1913)

It reduced import duties on most goods and lowered the overall average duty to 29%. A list of 300 items exempt from tariff duties included important consumer goods and raw materials. The act lowered tariff rates but raised federal revenues

How did the Vietnam War affect the economy and the programs of the Great Society?

It was severely undermining the programs of the Great Society. Civil rights leaders and social activists felt betrayed because federal funds earmarked for the war on poverty were used for the expanding war instead.

Why did the 1950s see both a growth in teen culture and juvenile delinquency?

J. Edgar Hoover, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, insisted that the root of the problem was a lack of religious training. Others thought it was the growing number or urban slums because they said these bad environments almost ensured that children would become criminals. The problem with those explanations was that they failed to explain why so many middle-class kids from God-fearing families were becoming delinquents. So one other contributing factor could have been the unprecedented mobility of young people thanks to growing access of cars that enabled teens to escape parental control

Official recognition of the Soviet Union (1933)

Japanese expansion in Asia gave the US and the Soviet Union a common concern. Roosevelt invited Maksim Litvinov, Soviet commissioner to foreign affairs, to visit D.C. After 9 days of talks, a formal exchange of notes signaled the renewal of diplomatic relations. Litvinov promised to refrain from promoting Communist propaganda in the US, extend religious freedom to Americans in the Soviet Union, and reopen the question of unpaid debts to US.

Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965

Johnson said that this new law would redress the wrong done to those from southern and eastern Europe and those from the developing continents of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It abolished the discriminatory quotas based on national origin that had been in place since the 1920s. It treated all nationalities and races equally. In place of national quotas, it created hemispheric ceilings on visas issues. It also said that no more than 20,000 people from one country could come per year. Last, it allowed the entry of immediate family members of American residents without limit. During the 1960s, Asians and Latin Americans became the largest contingent of new Americans

Lyndon B Johnson

Johnson took over after Kennedy's assassination and brought a huge change of style to the White House. many viewed him as a stereotypical southern conservative but they failed to see the depth of his concern for the poor and his commitment to the cause of civil rights. In foreign affairs though, he was a novice. He wanted to be the greatest American president but he ended up promising far more than he could accomplish

Examine the success of Kennedy's proposals for economic and social reform.

Kennedy's greatest accomplishment was the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 which led to tariff cuts averaging 35% on goods traded between the US and the European Economic Community. He was more successful in social legislation. Victories included a Housing Act that put aside $5 billion for urban renewal over four years, an increase in minimum wage, the Area Redevelopment Act of 1961 which gave $400 million in loans and grants to distressed areas, an increase in Social Security benefits, and additional funds for sewage treatment plants. He also won support for an accelerated space program with the goal of landing on the moon before the end of the decade.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

King and a group of associates organized this group in 1957 to keep the spirit of the bus boycott alive.

How did the MLK and RFK assassinations impact the American psyche, politics, and society?

King's death set off an outpouring of grief among whites and blacks. It also ignited riots in over 60 cities. Kennedy's death occurred at the end of the day on which he had defeated Eugene McCarthy in the California Democratic primary, assuming leadership of the anti-war forces in the race for presidential nomination. Both deaths were a huge blow to the national self image

Causes of the Great Depression

Lack of economic diversification, unequal distribution of wealth, weak consumer demand, overproduction, reduction in the workforce, unstable credit structure, decline in European demand for American goods, international debt structure, world agricultural depression of the 1920s, adherence to the gold standard

My Lai Massacre

Late in 1969 the story of the My Lai Massacre broke into the press, plunging the country into two years of exposure to the gruesome tale of Lieutenant William Calley who ordered the murder of 347 civilians in the village of My Lai in 1969. 25 army officers were charged with complicity in the massacre and subsequent cover up but only Calley was convicted. Nixon later granted him parole.

"Good Neighbor" Policy

Latin Americans harbored a resentment of Americans so the Harding administration set about reversing that. They agreed to pay Colombia the $25 million they demanded for the Panama Canal. Troops also left the DR and Nicaragua although they returned to Nicaragua a year later at the outbreak of civil war. The Coolidge administration brought both parties into agreement for US supervised elections but one rebel leder held out so the troops stayed. Coolidge also travelled to Havana to open the first Pan- American conference. It was an unusual gesture of friendship. Roosevelt also practiced this Good Neighbor policy and held the 7th Pan-American conference in 1933. Under him, the marines completed withdrawal and removed the Platt amendment, ending the last formal claim to a right to intervene in Latin America.

John Keats, The Crack in the Picture Window

Launched the most savage assault on life in the huge new suburban developments. He ridiculed Levittowns and other mass produced communities. He said they were living in a "homogeneous postwar Hell", locked in a monotonous routine and engulfed by mass mediocrity

Anti-ERA campaign

Led by Phyllis Schlafly to defeat the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment

Why was Douglas MacArthur relieved of his command in Korea?

MacArthur had asked for 34 atomic bombs and proposed air raids on Manchuria, a naval blockade of China, and an invasion of the Chinese mainland by the Taiwan Nationalists. Truman opposed this plan and sent in troops under General Ridgeway instead. Then Truman offered negotiations to restore the prewar boundary but MacArthur undermined the move by issuing an ultimatum for China to make peace of suffer an attack. This act of insubordination caused Truman to fire MacArthur

Farm Security Administration

Made available rehabilitation loans to shore up marginally profitable farmers and prevent their sinking into tenancy. It also made loans to tenants for the purchase of their own farms. In the end it proved to be little more than another relief operation that tided a few farms over difficult times.

Panama Invasion

Manuel Noriega had maneuvered himself into the position of leader of the Panamanian Defense Forces in 1983. Earlier, as chief of intelligence, he had supplied info the the CIA. But at the same time he was developing avenues for drug smuggling and gunrunning, laundering the money from those activities through Panamanian banks. For a time, US officials ignored it because he was a useful contact but eventually he became an embarrassment. In 1988, federal grand juries indicted Noriega and 15 others on drug charges. The Panamanian president tried to fire Noriega but the National Assembly ousted the president and made Noriega the national leader and then proclaimed Panama to be in a state of war with the US. The next day an American marine in Panama was killed. Bush ordered an invasion of Panama to capture Noriega for trial and install a new government headed by Guillermo Endara. Within hours, Noriega surrendered. Only 23 Americans were killed compared with 4000 Panamanians.

How did the changes in modern society result in tensions within Protestantism in the 1920s?

Many churches started to develop the idea that the Bible should be studied in the light of modern scholarship or that it could be reconciled with the theories of evolution. This angered those who wanted to adhere to strict, old-time religion. They saw the new views as a threat to a traditional way of life. This was a debate that continued for years

How did Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon's policies impact the American economy and people?

Many considered him to be the greatest secretary of the Treasury since Alexander Hamilton. He reduced government spending and lowered taxes, but thought the tax cuts should go mainly to the rich. He thought having the wealth in the hands of the few would augment general welfare through increased capital investment. Like the Republicans, he favored a high tariff. During his time as secretary, government expenditures and the national debt fell. But the high tariffs made it hard for Europeans to pay back the money they owed the US

Rock and Roll

Many observers blamed teen delinquency on this new type of music. Alan Freed coined this term in 1951 when he noticed that white teens were buying R&B record previously only purchased by Hispanics and African Americans. So he labeled it rock and roll instead to surmount the racial barrier and it was an immediate success that helped bridge the gap between "white" and "black" music.

"right to life" movement

Many of Schlafly's supporters also participated in the growing pro-life movement. By 1980, the National Right to Life Committee, supported by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, boasted 11 million members representing all religious denominations. The intensity of its members' commitment made it a powerful political force and Reagan began highlighting his own support for family values and gender roles in response.

What problems lurked below the surface of the affluent society of post-war America?

Many social critics expressed a growing sense of unease that the postwar society was becoming too complacent, conformist, and materialistic. These questions rose from increased tension between idealism and materialism.

Causes of post-war economic boom

Massive federal expenditures had catapulted the economy out of the Depression during the war. And high government spending continued in the post war era because of tensions generated by the Cold War. Military research also spawned the growth of new industries like chemicals, electronics, and aviation. Also, most other major industrial nations had been devastated by the war, which gave the US a virtual monopoly on trade. The major catalyst in promoting economic expansion was the unleashing of pent-up consumer demand.

Yippies

Members of the new Youth International party. They were determined to create anarchy in the streets of Chicago. They wanted legalization of marijuana and all psychedelic drugs, the abolition of money, student-run schools, and promiscuous sex. The outlandish behavior of Yippies and the other demonstrators provoked an equally outlandish response by Mayor Daley and his army of city police.

United Farm Workers (UFW)

Mexican American leaders helped end bracero programs in 1964 and formed the United Farm Workers to represent Mexican-American migrant workers.

Bracero programs

Mexico agreed to provide seasonal farm workers in exchange for a promise by the US government not to draft them into military service. The workers were hired on year long contracts and American officials provided transportation from the border to their job sites. Under the program, 200,000 workers entered the US. Many more entered as undocumented workers

How did World War II affect the United States politically, socially, and economically?

Mobilization for the war stimulated a phenomenal increase in productivity and brought full employment, ending the Great Depression. New war technology began to transform the private sector. And new opportunities for women as well as African Americans culminated in the Civil Rights and feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The Democratic party also benefitted by solidifying control of the White House and Congress. Presidential authority grew at the expense of congressional and state power. All isolationism dissolved. The war also left the US economically and militarily the strongest nation on earth.

Modernism

Modernists viewed reality as something to be created rather than copied and expressed rather than reproduced. New technical features appeared such as abstract paintings, free verse, writers using new forms of language, and interior monologues in stories. The first major artistic bohemian were Chicago and Greenwich Village, in NY.

How did most Americans react to the growing aggression in foreign nations during the 1930s?

Most Americans were absorbed by problems associated with the Great Depression so they retreated further into isolationism in the 1930s. The chief exception to this attitude was Cordell Hull's grand scheme of reciprocal trade agreements.

"sunbelt"

Much of the urban population growth occurred in the South, the Southwest, and the West, in an arc called the sunbelt.

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)

Nixon and Brezhnev signed this treaty, which negotiators had been working on since 1969. The SALT agreement did not end the arms race but it did limit the number of ICBMs each nation could possess and the construction of antiballistic missile systems. In effect, the Soviet Union was allowed to retain a greater number of missiles with greater destructive power while the US retained a lead in the total number of warheads. No limitations were placed on new weapons systems, though each side agreed to work toward a permanent freeze on all nuclear weapons.

"Vietnamization"

Nixon could not ignore the growing opposition to the war. He resolved to diffuse it by reducing the number of US troops in Vietnam, justifying the reduction as a result of Vietnamization, which was the equipping and training of the South Vietnamese to assume the burden of ground combat in place of Americans.

What were the effects of Nixon's economic policies during the recession of the 1970s

Nixon responded erratically and ineffectively, trying old remedies for a new problem. First he tried to reduce the deficit by raising taxes and cutting the budget. He also encouraged the Federal Reserve board to reduce the money supply by raising interest rates. The stock market immediately collapsed, starting the "Nixon recession". In 1971, he froze all wages and prices for 90 days and took the US off the gold standard. This caused the dollar to drift lower on world currency exchanges. After the 90 days he established mandatory guidelines for subsequent wage and price increases under the supervision of a federal agency, but the economy did not improve. By 1973, the wage and price guidelines were made voluntary, which rendered them almost entirely ineffective.

"southern strategy"

Nixon wanted to garner support among Republican delegates from the South and win over southern voters in the election. He assured southern conservatives that he would slow federal enforcement of civil rights laws and appoint pro-southern justices to the Supreme Court. He followed through on these promises once in office.

Election of 1972

Nixon's foreign policy achievements allowed him to stage the presidential campaign of 1972 as a triumphal procession. The main threat to his reelection came from Alabama's Democratic governor George Wallace, who had the potential as a third party candidate to deprive the Republicans of conservative votes and throw the election to the Democrats. But he was then shot and was left paralyzed below the waist, forcing him to withdraw from the campaign. During the election, Nixon cast himself as the "global peacekeeper". He won the greatest victory of any Republican presidential candidate in history.

Louis D. Brandeis

Nominated by Wilson to the Supreme Court

OPEC oil embargo

OPEC decided to use its huge oil supplies as a political and economic weapon. In 1973, the US sent massive aid to Israel after a devastating Syrian-Egyptian attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. After that, OPEC announced it would not sell oil to nations supporting Israel and that it was raising prices by 400%. There were gas shortages and factories cut production.

Paris Accords

On January 27th, the US, North and South Vietnam, and the Viet Cong signed an agreement ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam. The North Vietnamese kept 150,000 troops in the south and remained committed to the reunification of Vietnam under one government. The South Vietnam accepted these terms on the basis of Nixon's promise that the US would respond with full force to any Communist violation of the agreement. So in March of 1973, US troops left Vietnam

United States v. Richard M. Nixon

On July 24, 1974 the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the president must surrender all of the tapes.

Iran-Contra Affair

On midterm election day, reports surfaced that the US was secretly selling arms to Iran in the hope of securing the release of American hostages held in Lebanon by extremist groups sympathetic to Iran. This would contradict Reagan's repeated assurance that his administration would never deal with terrorists. At the center of the scandal was marine lieutenant colonel Oliver North. From the basement of the White House, he had been running secret operations involving many government, private, and foreign individuals, His most far-fetched scheme sought to use the profits from the secret sale of military supplies to Iran to subsidize the Contra rebels fighting in Nicaragua at a time when Congress had voted to ban such aid. It turned out that his activities were approved by Robert McFarlene, John Poindexter, and William Casey. Shultz and Weinberger both criticized the dealing of arms but their objections were ignored.

Tet Offensive (1968)

On the first day of Vietnamese new year, the Viet Cong defied a holiday truce to launch ferocious assaults on American and South Vietnamese forces throughout South Vietnam. The old capital city of Hue fell to the Communists and Viet Cong units temporarily occupied the grounds of the US embassy in Saigon. Viet Cong casualties were enormous but the impact of the surprise attacks on the American public was more telling. This contradicted upbeat claims by US commanders that the war was going well. LBJ's popularity dropped to 35%.

September 11, 2001

On this day, a commercial airliner hijacked by Islamic terrorists crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. A second hijacked jumbo jet crashed into the south tower and the two towers collapsed as well as surrounding buildings. A third hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon. A fourth was probably headed for the White House but the passengers assaulted the hijackers and it ended up crashing into a field. This was the costliest terrorist attack in the country's history. The death toll was almost 3000. It prompted an unprecedented display of national unity and patriotism.

No Child Left Behind

One of Bush's top priorities was education reform/ In 2001 Congress passed a comprehensive education-improvement plan called No Child Left Behind. It required states to set new learning standards and ensure that all students were proficient at reading and math by 2014. It also mandated that all teachers be highly qualified in their subject area by 2005, allowed children in low performing schools to transfer to other schools, and required states to submit annual reports of scores on standardized tests. Schools that fell short of the requirements were eligible for financial support but if it still did not improve, states would take over. States soon criticized the program claiming it provided insufficient funding ad that poor school districts would be hard-pressed to meet the guidelines.

Clean Air Act

One of the first and most influential environmental laws. It was designed to control air pollution on a national level. It regulated emissions of hazardous air pollutants.

Tom Hayden

One of the founders of Students for a Democratic Society. He drafted the Port Huron statement.

Huey Newton

One of the leaders of the Black Panther party

Abbie Hoffman

One of the leaders of the Yippies. He explained that their conception of revolution was that it was fun.

Thomas Wolfe

One of two vital figures from the Southern Renaissance. He wrote Look Homeward, Angel

D-Day

Operation Overlord prevailed because it was the most carefully planned operation in military history and because Eisenhower and the Allies surprised the Germans. They fooler them into thinking the invasion would occur at Pas de Calais. Instead they occurred at Normandy. While they made final preparations, Allies disrupted the transportation network in northern France, smashing railroads and bridges. At first, Germans thought the landings were a distraction for the "real attack". D-Day almost failed because many paratroopers and pilots missed their landing zones, landing crafts delivered some troops to the wrong locations, and bombs were dropped too far inland. Many American soldiers died but the devastation to German losses were even greater. By mid-September most of France and Belgium were cleared of enemy troops.

How did opposition to the Vietnam War in the U.S. grow into a significant political movement?

Opposition to the war on college campuses began with "teach ins" at the University of Michigan. The following year, investigations began into American policy in Vietnam. George Kennan said the the doctrine of containment was appropriate for Europe but not for Southeast Asia. And a respected general testified that the US military strategy had no chance of achieving victory. By 1967, anti-war demonstrations attracted massive support. Vietnam was the first war to receive television coverage and the brutal coverage called into question the official optimism.

How were workers and unions affected by American economic growth in the 1920s?

Organized labor didn't do any better than agriculture. Harding tried to reduce the 12 hour work day and the six day work week but he ran into opposition in Congress. Unions suffered a setback as more businesses practiced open-shop policy (discriminating against unions). Employers often made them sign yellow-dog contracts promising to stay out of a union.

Smith Act (1940)

Outlawed any conspiracy to advocate the overthrow of the government. The Supreme Court upheld the law under the doctrine of "clear and present danger" which overrode the right to free speech.

Clayton Anti-trust Act (1914)

Outlawed practices such as price discrimination, tying agreements, interlocking directorates, connecting corporations of capital more than $1 million, and corporations acquisition of stock in competing corporations. But northern Republicans amended the bill to limit its power.

Roscoe Conkling (Stalwarts)

Part of Hayes's own party that had split. They were stalwart in their support for Grant. They also promoted radical reconstruction of the South and the spoils system.

"arsenal of democracy" speech

Part of Roosevelt's speech in a fireside radio chat. He said the nation must become "the great arsenal of democracy" because of the threat of Britain's fall to the Nazis. And to do so, it must make new efforts to help the British purchase US supplies

Gold Standard Act

Passed after inflation came due to a huge influx of gold into the market from South Africa, the Canadian Yukon, and Alaska. Passing this act marked the end of the silver movement.

Interstate Highway Act

Passed as a result of the suburban revolution. It authorized the construction of 37,000 miles of highway and nine years later it funded over 42,000 additional miles in a new national system of interstate expressways. These new roads provided access to the growing suburbs

Emergency Banking Relief Act

Passed during the four day bank holiday. It allowed sound banks to reopen and provided managers for those that remained in trouble.

Granger laws

Passed to help regulate railroads in five states. They first proved relatively ineffective but laid the foundation for stronger legislation.

Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition

Pat Robertson organized the Christian Coalition to replace Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority. It encouraged religious conservatives to vote, run for office, and only support candidates who supported their organization's views. They supported school-prayer, anti-abortion, and anti-gay rights positions. They also promoted traditional family values and wanted to downsize the government.

Why was there such a strong backlash against feminism in the 1960s?

People like Phyllis Schlafly charged feminists with being anti-family, anti-children, and pro-abortion. The movement was well financed and formed organizations like Women Who Want to Be Women and Females Opposed to Equality

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

Placed restrictions on the markets of prepared foods and patent medicines and forbade the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated, misbranded, or harmful foods, drugs, and liquors.

Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Portrayed the Beat's life of "bursting ecstasies" and maniacal traveling. It elicited sarcasm and anger from many reviewers but still made the best seller list.

How did the Depression affect women and children?

Poverty led to increase of street-corner begging and prostitution. Divorce rate dropped only because couples could not afford to live separately or pay the fee to obtain a divorce. 1.5 million husbands left home, deserting their wives and children. Married couples often decided not to have children so the birthrate plummeted. In 1933, one out of every five children was not getting enough to ear. Parents often sent children to live with relatives or friends. 900,000 children left home and joined the army of homeless "tramps"

Why was there a religious revival in the 1950s? What types of theology characterized that revival?

President Eisenhower promoted a patriotic crusade to bring Americans back to God. Congress also added the phrase "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. People began to assume that a godly nation would better withstand the march of godless communism. Ministers assumed that people were not interested in having their consciences overburdened with a sense of personal sin or guilt. So their addresses instead projected love, joy, courage, faith, trust in God, and goodwill and avoided condemnation, criticism, and controversy. They were basically "selling" religion

Initiative and referendum

Procedures that allowed voters to enact laws directly. If a designated number of voters petitioned to have a measure put on the ballot (the initiative), then the electorate could vote it up or down (referendum)

Johnson Debt Default Act

Prohibited even private loans to any government that had defaulted on its debts to the US

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Prohibited racial segregation in public facilities such as bus terminals, restaurants, theaters, and hotels. And it outlawed discrimination in the registration of voters and the hiring of employees. The bill passed in the House but in the Senate, southern legislators launched a filibuster that lasted two months. Johnson prevailed though and the bill became law. This might have made many southerners become Republicans

How did the President, Congress, and the American public react to court-ordered busing?

Protest over desegregation began to erupt more in the North, Mid-west, and Southwest than the South. Angry parents in Pontiac, Michigan firebombed school buses. Nixon asked Congress to impose a moratorium on all busing orders by the federal courts. The House of Representatives went along with it but the Senate filibustered and blocked the bill.

Federal Highways Act (1916)

Provided dollar matching contributions to states with highway departments that met certain federal standards. Authorized distribution of $75 million over five years and marked a sharp departure from Jacksonian opposition to internal improvements at federal expense.

Smith-Lever Act (1914)

Provided federal grants-in-aid for farm demonstration agents under the supervision of land-grant colleges. Made permanent a program that had started a decade before in Texas

Endangered Species Act

Provided for the conservation of endangered animals and conservation of the environment in which endangered animals live.

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Provided for the construction of 240,000 public housing units and $3 billion for urban renewal. Funds for rent supplements for low income families followed. A new Department of Housing and Urban Development was also created and headed by Robert C. Weaver, the first African American cabinet member

McKinley Tariff

Raised duties on manufactured goods to their highest level ever, including three new departures. There were high tariffs on imported agricultural products. They also put sugar on the duty free list. And they included a reciprocity section which empowered the president to hike duties on certain products to pressure countries to reduce unreasonably high tariffs on American goods.

What kinds of policy changes did Ronald Reagan advocate in order to depart from the liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s?

Reagan promised a "revolution of ideas" to unleash the capitalist spirit, restore national pride, and regain international respect. He offered an uplifting alternative to Carter's strident moralism. He wanted to increase military spending, dismantle the bloated federal bureaucracy, reduce taxes and regulations, and in general shrink the role of the federal government. He also wanted to affirm old-time religious values by banning abortions and reinstitution prayer in public schools.

Recall

Recall Allowed removal of corrupt or incompetent political officials by public petition and vote

Tax Reform Act

Reduced the number of federal tax brackets from 14 to two and reduced rates from a maximum of 50% to 15% and 20%, the lowest since Coolidge was president. Tax shelters were also sharply limited.

National Origins Act of 1924

Reduced the number of immigrants allowed to 2% based on the 1890 census, which included fewer of the "new immigrants". The purpose was to tilt the balance in favor of immigrants from northern and western Europe. It also completely excluded people from east Asia, which was an insult to the Japanese

Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938

Reestablished the earlier programs but left out the processing tax. Benefit payments would come from general federal funds. This time the law was upheld as a legitimate exercise of the power to regulate interstate commerce. So agriculture was now held to be in the stream of commerce

Gas crisis

Renewed violence in the Middle East produced a second fuel shortage in the US and motorists were again forced to wait in long lines for limited supplies of gas that were excessively expensive. During this time, Carter's approval rating dropped.

War Powers Act (1973)

Required a president to inform Congress within 48 hours if US troops are deployed in combat abroad, and to withdraw troops after 60 days unless Congress specifically approves their stay.

Federal Securities Act

Required full disclosure of information about new stock and bond issues through registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission

Open Door Policy

Resembled the Monroe Doctrine. The US proclaimed a hands off policy in China. The policy was outlined in Secretary of State John Hay's Open Door Note dispatched in 1899 to London, Berlin, and Russia. It called upon foreign powers to refrain from interfering with any treaty port, to permit Chinese authorities to collect tariffs on equal basis, and to show no favors to their own nationals in the matter of harbor dues or railroad charges. Tapped the sympathies of anti-imperialists but had little legal standing.

Emergency immigration act of 1921

Restricted new arrivals each year to 3% of the foreign born of any nationality as shown in the 1910 census.

Platt Amendment

Restricted the independence of the new government of Cuba. Required that Cuba never sign treaties with a third power, that it keep its debt within the government's power to repay it out of ordinary revenues, and that it acknowledge the right of the US to interfere in Cuba for the preservation of Cuban independence. Finally, it was called upon to sell or lease to the US lands to be used for coaling or naval stations (set up Guantanamo Bay). This amendment was made an appendix to their constitution.

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

Restricted the use of racial quotas to achieve racial balance.

Richard Wright, Native Son

Richard Wright was an African American, grandson of former slaves and son of a sharecropper who deserted his family. He ended formal schooling after 9th grade and saved up to move north. When he arrived in Chicago the Federal Writer's Project gave him a chance to develop his talent. Native Son is the story of Bigger Thomas, a black man who is a product of the ghetto and is impelled to murder by forces beyond his control.

"Wisconsin idea"

Robert La Follette promoted this principle of government by experts and he established a Legislative Reference Bureau to provide research, advice, and help in the drafting of legislation.

Counterculture

Rock music, mind-altering drugs, blue jeans, and experimental living arrangements were more important that revolutionary ideologies. They were, like their New Left, primarily well-educated, middle class, young whites alienated by the Vietnam War, racism, and parental demands. In their view, a complacent materialism had settled over urban and suburban life. But they were not attracted to organized political action. For some this meant the daily use of hallucinogenic drugs and for others it meant the practice and study of Asian mysticism.

Social Security Act

Roosevelt called this the New Deal's cornerstone and supreme achievement. It has proved to be the most significant and far reaching of all the New Deal initiatives. It had three major provisions. The first set up a pension fund for retired people over the age of 65 and their survivors. Benefit payments started at $22 a month but since then, Social Security payments have become viewed as a primary source of income and the monthly payment has now exceeded $900. The Act also set up a shared federal-state unemployment-insurance program, financed by a payroll tax on employers. And it committed the national government to a broad range of social welfare activities. To that end, it inaugurated federal grants-in-aid for old age assistance, dependent children, and the blind. It was a regressive tax and impeded Roosevelt's efforts to revive the economy

How did New Deal policies affect minorities?

Roosevelt failed to assault long-standing patterns of racism and segregation so many of his New Deal programs were for whites only. The AAA especially devastated black farmers because it eliminated the need for tenant farmers, jobs filled primarily with African Americans. Mexican Americans also suffered because many were in the US without documentation and could not participate in the federal relief programs. Deportation became a popular solution to that problem.

"fireside chats"

Roosevelt hosted these over radio to generate support for his New Deal initiatives. He was the first president to take advantage of the popularity of radio broadcasting

Relief, recovery, and reform

Roosevelt's basic philosophy of Keynesian economics. Relief was immediate action taken to halt the economic deterioration. Recovery was temporary programs to restart the flow of consumer demand. Reform was permanent programs to avoid another depression.

Communes

Rural communes attracted many rebels. In the 1960s thousands of inexperienced romantics flocked to the countryside, eager to be liberated from parental controls and to live in harmony with nature and coexist in an atmosphere of love and openness. But only a handful of these communities lasted more than a few months.

Persian Gulf Invasion

Saddam Hussein, dictator of Iraq, had invaded Kuwait for its oil production. The UN quickly condemned the invasion and demanded withdrawal. In August, the Security Council issued Resolution 661, an embargo on trade with Iraq. America and Great Britain soon joined forces for operation Desert Shield. By 1991 30 nations were committed to this operation. It became operation Desert Storm when the first allied cruise missiles began to hit Iraq in January. The allied ground assault began in February and only lasted four days. Iraqi soldiers surrendered by the thousands. Six weeks after fighting began, Bush called for a cease fire and the Iraqis accepted.

Roosevelt Corollary

Said that since the Monroe Doctrine prohibited intervention in certain regions by the Europeans, the US was justified in intervening first to forestall actions of outsiders.

John Foster Dulles-"liberation" and "massive retaliation"

Secretary of State under Eisenhower. He thought Americans should work towards liberation of Eastern Europe from Soviet domination but made no significant departure from the strategy of containment. Massive retaliation was an extended strategy of deterrence.

Elihu Root

Secretary of State who negotiated the Root-Takahira agreement in 1908 with the Japanese ambassador. This agreement endorsed the status quo and reinforced the Open Door Policy by supporting the independence and integrity of China.

Domino Theory

Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, warned that Thailand, Burma, and the rest of Southeast Asia would fall like dominoes to Communist if America withdrew its troops

Cordell Hull

Secretary of State. Demanded that Japan withdraw from Indochina and China as the price of renewed trade with the US.

Nye Committee, "merchants of death"

Senator Gerald P. Nye concluded that bankers and munitions makers had made scandalous profits during the war. This caused millions of Americans to think they had been duped by these "merchants of death"

Agricultural Marketing Act

Set up a Federal Farm Board to help farm cooperatives market the major commodities. It also provided a program in which the Farm Board could set up stabilization corporations empowered to buy surpluses.

Committee on Un-American Activities (Dies Committee)

Set up by the House or Representatives and chaired by Martin Dies of Texas, who took up the warpath against Communists. Soon he began to brand New Dealers as Red dupes.

Eleanor Roosevelt

She was an activist who redefined the role of the presidential spouse. She was the first to address a national political convention, to write a nationally syndicated column, and to hold regular press conferenced. She supported African Americans, women, and the plight of unemployed youth. She also became the president's most visible and effective liaison with liberal groups, bringing labor leaders, women activists, and black spokesmen to the White House. She deflected criticism of the president by taking progressive stands and running political risks he did not dare to attempt.

Carrie Chapman Catt

She was the leader of the National Woman Suffrage Association

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

Since 1938 this committee had kept up a drumbeat of accusations about supposed subversives in the federal government. This was a part of the Second Red Scare

How effective were the Great Society programs at eliminating poverty and reforming society?

Some successes that were very popular weres setting standards for automobile manufacturers and highway design and providing scholarships for college students. Johnson also made headway with health, nutrition, and education improvements aimed at poor Americans and efforts to clean up air and water pollution. However many of his most ambitious plans were not well conceived and were underfunded. For example, Medicare removed incentives for hospitals to control costs and medical bills skyrocketed. The Great Society reduced the number of people living in poverty but it did so by giving them federal payments, not by helping them find a productive job, which caused a lot of resentment and backlash against the programs.

Revenue Act of 1935

Sometimes called the Wealth-Tax Act and popularly known as the soak-the-rich tax. It raised tax rates on income above $50,000. Estate and gift taxes also rose, as did the corporate tax on all but small corporations. Business leaders were angry about this new tax policy and called Roosevelt a traitor to his own party. The tax failed to increase federal revenue and didn't result in a redistribution of income. But the view among conservatives was the Roosevelt had moved in a radical direction

Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933

Sought to control farm production by compensating farmers for voluntary cutbacks in production. Its goal was to raise farm prices by lowering supply. The money for these payments came from taxes on basic commodities like the cotton gin or flour mill. It was controversial because they sponsored a plow under program, destroying current crops. 6 million pigs were also slaughtered. It worked for a while to raise prices and farm income grew by 58%. But the AAA was only partially responsible for the decrease in production.

Great Society

Speaking at Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1964, Johnson called for a Great Society which demanded an end to poverty and racial injustice

National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)

Sponsored by Senator Robert Wagner. It gave workers the right to bargain through unions of their choice and prohibited employers from interfering with union activities. A National Labor Relations Board of five member could supervise plant elections and certify unions as bargaining agents where a majority of workers approved. The board could also investigate the actions of employers and issue cease and desist orders against specified unfair practices

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

Steinbeck had travelled with displaced Okies driven from the dust bowl to the illusion of good jobs in the fields of California. This firsthand experience allowed him to create a vivid tale of the Joad family's painful journey west in The Grapes of Wrath

Battle of Coral Sea

Stopped a fleet convoying Japanese troop transports toward New Guinea. Planes from the Lexington and Yorktown sank one Japanese carrier, damaged another, and destroyed smaller ships. American losses were greater but the Japanese threat against Australia was repulsed

Office of Price Administration

Strict restraints were needed to keep prices from soaring too high as consumer goods stopped being produced. So Congress gave this office the power to set price ceilings. With prices frozen, goods had to be allocated through rationing. Wages and farm prices were not controlled

Smith v. Allwright

Struck down Texas's whites only primary on the grounds that the Democratic primaries were part of the election process and subject to the 15th Amendment

Roe v. Wade

Struck down state laws forbidding abortions during the first three months of pregnancy.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)

Struck down the law of separate but equal that had been established earlier in Plessy v. Ferguson. A year after this, the Court directed that the process of racial integration should move forward. Eisenhower did not force states to comply with this decision.

Conformity

Suburban life encouraged uniformity. In new communities of strangers, people felt the need for companionship and a sense of belonging. Conformity became the central social problem of the age.

Teapot Dome

Teapot Dome was a naval oil reserve administered by the Department of the Interior under Andrew B. Fall. But once he was in control, he signed sweetheart contracts letting petroleum companies exploit the deposits. He argued that these contracts were in the government's interests but people got suspicious when his standard of living started rising. It turned out that he was taking bribes of $400,000. Harding avoided this public disgrace.

Religious right

Tended to be evangelical Christians or orthodox Catholics who joined together to exert increasing religious pressure on the political process.

Why did the AFL splinter in 1935?

The AFL did not want to include industrial unions and wanted to stay mainly craft unions. So they expelled industrial unions which joined to create the CIO, while the AFL stayed mainly craft unions.

Describe criticisms of the New Deal

The New Deal was criticized because, although the downward slide had stalled, unemployment remained high. People were also unsettled by the dramatic growth of executive power and the emergence of welfare capitalism, where workers developed a sense of entitlement to federal support programs.

Boxer Rebellion

The Boxers were Chinese nationalists. In 1900, they rebelled against foreign encroachments on China and attacked foreign embassies in Peking. An international exposition of German, British, Russian, Japanese, and American forces mobilized to relieve the embassies. Hay feared that the intervention might become an excuse to dismember China so he refined the Open Door Policy. 6 weeks later the expedition reached Peking and quelled the rebellion.

North American Free Trade Agreement

The Bush administration had negotiated this with Canada and Mexico. The debate over its congressional approval revived old arguments about the tariff. Clinton stuck with his party tradition of low tariffs and urged approval of NAFTA, which would make America the largest free-trade area in the world. Opponents favored barriers that would discourage cheap foreign products and believed the approval of NAFTA would lead to a huge increase in outsourcing, which there was

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

The Court issued perhaps its most bitterly criticized ruling when it ordered that an accused person in police custody must be informed of certain basic rights like the right the remain silent and the right to have an attorney present during interrogation. The Court also established rules for police to follow in informing suspects of their legal rights before questioning could begin.

Escobedo v. Illinois (1964)

The Court ruled that a person accused of a crime must also be allowed to consult a lawyer before being interrogated by police.

Hopwood v Texas

The Court ruled that considering race to achieve a diverse student body at the University of Texas was "not a compelling interest under the 14th amendment"

Munn v Illinois

The Court ruled that the state, under its "police powers" had the right to regulate property where that property was clothed in a public interest. It said if regulatory power was abused, the people must resort to the polls, not the courts.

Why did the Iraq War turn out to be both more controversial and more difficult than the Bush administration initially expected?

The Defense Department had greatly underestimated the difficulty of reconstructing postwar Iraq. Bush admitted that troops would remain in Iraq for a more extended period of time. There were near daily suicide bombings and roadside ambushes and terrorists kidnapped foreign civilians and beheaded them on camera for the world to see. The president's credibility also suffered a sharp blow when administration officials admitted no weapons of mass destruction, the primary reason for the invasion, had been found. There were also photos released showing American soldiers torturing and abusing Iraqi war prisoners that eroded public confidence in Bush's handling of the war and its aftermath.

Woodrow Wilson

The Democratic nominee in 1912. He expressed views closer to Roosevelt than Taft. He thought the government should promote the general welfare of the people rather than narrow, special interests. He was also critical of big businesses, organized labor, socialists, and agrarian radicalism

William Jennings Bryan

The Democratic nominee in the 1896 election, nominated on a free-silver platform. Campaigned actively. Found support in the South and West but won little in the critical Midwest area.

James Cox

The Democratic nominee in the 1920 election. The Democrats suffered from the conservative postwar mood and preferred Harding's return to normalcy

Al Smith

The Democratic nominee in the 1928 election. His platform was endorsing economic equality of agriculture with other industries. He promised to endorse the Volstead Act, which enforced prohibition.

George S. McGovern

The Democrats further ensured Nixon's victory by nominating Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. He was a liberal who embodied anti-war principles and embraced progressive social-welfare policies. At the Democratic Convention in Miami Beach, McGovern benefited from party reforms that increased the representation of women, African Americans, and other minorities. But those changes alienated party regulars. Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago was actually ousted from the convention, and the AFL-CIO refused to endorse the liberal Democratic candidate.

Oliver H. Kelley

The Department of Agriculture sent him on tour of the post-antebellum south in 1866. He was impressed by the isolation of the farm folk. He decided to do something about this and founded the National Grange of Patrons of Husbandry with some government clerks.

"insular cases"

The Foraker Act was challenged in federal courts on the grounds that the island had become a part of the US but the Court upheld it. This was one of many insular cases where federal judges faced a question: Does the Constitution follow the flag? The Court ruled that it did not apply in US territory abroad unless Congress extended it there

What was the motivation behind the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan?

The Japanese defense of Okinawa had convinced military planners that an amphibious invasion of Japan itself could cost too many Allied casualties. The US had also been fire bombing Japan for a while so the atomic bomb would seem like the next logical step to end the war without invasion. After the first bomb, the Soviets were eager to enter the war but Truman thought the Soviet's entry to the war would complicate negotiations and ordered the second bomb dropped

Mayaguez incident

The Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian Communist movement, had won a resounding victory, plunging the country into a bloodbath. They organized a genocidal campaign to destroy their opponents, killing almost a third of the population. Ford lost his patience when he sent marines to rescue the crew of the American merchant ship, the Mayaguez, which had been captured by Cambodian communists. The vigorous move won popular acclaim until it was disclosed that the Cambodians had already agreed to release the captured Americans so the 41 Americans killed in the operation had died for no purpose.

W.E.B. DuBois---National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

The NAACP's goal was to focus on legal action to bring the 14th and 15th amendments back to life. They also had a campaign against lynching.

Big-Stick Diplomacy

Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy as President.

Pentagon Papers

The New York Times began publishing excerpts from a secret Defense Department study commissioned by Robert McNamara before his resignation as secretary of defense in 1968. They confirmed what many critics of the war had long suspected: Congress and the public had not received the full story on the Gulf of Tonkin incident of 1964 and contingency plans for American entry into the war were being drawn up when President Johnson was promising that combat troops would never be sent to Vietnam. Also, there were no plans for bringing the war to an end as long as the North Vietnamese persisted. Nixon attempted to block their publication saying they endangered national security but the Supreme Court ruled against him

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

The North Atlantic Treaty was signed by representatives of 12 nations. The treaty pledged that an attack against any one of these members would be considered an attack against all and provided for a council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Panic of 1898

The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad declared bankruptcy, setting off a panic on Wall Street. Other overextended railroads collapsed, taking many banks with them. Businesses were affected but entire farm regions were also devastated by the spreading depression. A quarter of the city's unskilled workers lost their jobs.

James B. Weaver

The Populist nominee for the 1892 election.

Warren G. Harding

The Republican candidate in the 1920 election. He was an Ohio senator. He was perceived as an old fashioned moralist but he was far from this in his personal life. He drank bootleg liquor, smoked, and had several affairs.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Republican candidate in the 1952 election. He inspired confidence and his leadership had been tested in war. He balanced the ticket with Richard Nixon as his running mate. In the election, the Republicans called Eisenhower the man of the people and the general of decisive action as he was running against Democrat Adlai Stevenson. He won in a landslide. During his presidency he was charged with being a "do nothing" president but he was actually an effective leader.

Barry Goldwater

The Republican candidate in the 1964 election. He proposed the abolition of the income tax, sale of the TVA, and a drastic overhaul of Social Security. From the time of Kennedy's victory, he had been mobilizing right-wing activists to capture party caucuses and contest primaries. During his campaign, he displayed a gift for frightening voters, He urged bombing of North Vietnam which left the impression of being trigger-happy. He savaged Johnson's war on poverty and the entire New Deal tradition. He was foolishly candid. He also opposed the nuclear test ban and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Johnson won by a landslide.

William McKinley

The Republican nominee in the 1896 election, nominated on a gold standard platform. Used a front porch campaign.

Which groups were loyal to the Republican and Democratic parties in the late 19th century?

The Republican party attracted mainly Protestants of British descent. Their native seat was New England but they had other strongholds in New York and the upper midwest. They also relied on the votes of African Americans and Union veterans. The Democrats were a heterogeneous coalition including southern whites, immigrants, Catholics, Jews, freethinkers, skeptics, and everyone repelled by the "party of morality".

Moscow summit

The SALT treaty was signed here. New trade agreements were also created, including an arrangement whereby the US sold almost 25% of its wheat crop to the Soviet union at a favorable price. American farmers rejoiced because that meant a high price for their crops but domestic critics grumbled that the deal would raise food prices in the US, serving mainly to rescue the Soviets from troublesome economic problems. It revealed the dramatic easing of tensions between the superpowers.

Valeriano Weyler

The Spanish general that adopted a policy of gathering Cubans behind Spanish lines in detention centers so no one could join the rebellion by night. These centers were in horrible conditions and Weyler earned the nickname Butcher Weyler because of it.

Invasion of Afghanistan

The Taliban had refused to turn over bin Laden so the US and its allies launched a ferocious military campaign, Operation Enduring Freedom, to punish terrorists or those harboring terrorists. American and British cruise missiles and bombers destroyed Afghan military installations and al Qaeda training camps. Northern Alliance troops eventually captured the Afghan capital of Kabul. Many residents viewed them as liberators. They took to the streets in celebration. Two months later, the Taliban regime collapsed entirely. In 200, Afghanistan's long fueding factions signed a UN brokered peace agreement that created an interim government led by Hamid Karzai, an exiled tribe leader. The new government faced the challenge of providing basic services and creating stability in a faction ridden, war-torn country.

American Anti-Imperialist League

The Treaty of Paris debates inspired a number of anti-imperialist groups which united in 1899 as the American Anti-Imperialist League. Most people in this league belonged to an older generation. Supporters of this group included Andrew Carnegie, Samuel Gompers, Charles Eliot, David Starr Jordan, and Jane Addams.

Calvin Coolidge

The Vice President under Hoover who became President when Hoover died in 1923. He was a man of strong principles and few words, earning him the nickname Silent Cal. He was more conservative than Harding and focused on industrial development. He strove to end government regulation of business and industry and reduce taxes as well as the national debt. He also successfully distanced himself from the scandals of the Harding administration. He won the 1924 election against John W. Davis and Robert M. La Follette.

New Look

The assumption that nuclear weapons could be used in limited-war situations, allowing reductions in conventional forces and thus budgetary savings.

Norman Vincent Peale

The best salesman of this gospel of reassuring "good-news" that was so prevalent in the new religious revival. He was the champion of feel-good theology. His book, The Power of Positive Thinking, was a best-seller throughout the decade because it offered a simple how-to course in personal happiness. His simple credo was "Stop worrying and start living"

How did Truman handle transition from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy?

The biggest economic problem was inflation due to pent up demand fueled by wartime deprivation. Truman endorsed wage increases to sustain purchasing power. This led to a series of strikes by auto and steel workers, among others. Truman's reactions to these set a price-wage spiral pattern that plagued consumers post-war. Truman seized both the mines and the railroads after strikes by those workers and gave into many of the union's demands. Ub 1946, Truman asked for a renewal of the powers of the Office of Price Administration. But during that year, business leaders campaigned against price controls and other restraints and Truman gave up, ending price controls on everything except rent, sugar, and rice.

How did the black power movement transform the larger movement for civil rights?

The black power philosophy had two positive effects on the civil rights movement. First, it helped African Americans take greater pride in their racial heritage. Malcolm X had pointed out that prolonged slavery and racism had eroded the self-esteem of many blacks in the US. He and other leaders helped blacks appreciate their African roots and American accomplishments. It was even Malcolm X that insisted blacks call themselves African Americans. Second, it forced King and other mainstream black leaders to launch a new stage in the civil rights movement to focus attention on the plight of poor inner-city blacks. Legal access to restaurants and schools did not mean as much to people living in urban poverty as jobs and decent housing.

Scopes trial (1925)-Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan

The climax of the evolution debate in Tennessee. The state had passed a law tht outlawed the teaching of evolution in schools. The American Civil Liberties Union paid a high school teacher, John T. Scopes, to be in a test case over this law. Called the "monkey trial". William Jennings Bryan was the prosecutor and Clarence Darrow was the lawyer for Scopes. The trial ended up being based solely on whether or not Scopes had taught evolution, which he had. He was found guilty but his fine was overruled. Bryan died a few days after the trial closed

"moral embargo"

The conflict in Spain led Roosevelt to seek a "moral embargo" on the arms trade. He asked Congress to extend the neutrality laws to cover civil wars, which they did in 1937.

Muller v. Oregon

The court upheld the 10 hour workday law for women on the basis of sociological data regarding the effects of long hours on the health and morale of women

Henry Ford

The creator of the Ford automobile. He also developed the assembly line and the technique of mass production.

What were the effects of the massive internal migration sparked by the Depression and Dust Bowl?

The cycle of falling crop prices and rising debt led farmers to plant as much as they could and as often as they could. This led to over farming and overgrazing which disrupted the normal ecology of the plants. Constant plowing loosened huge amounts of dirt that were easily swept up during the drought. Farmers could not pay mortgages and foreclosures shot up. So did suicides and divorces. Millions of people abandoned their farms and went to the West coast (Okies). But when they arrived they could not afford to buy land and had to compete with Latinos and Asians for work. They also experienced social prejudice

Globalization

The deepening involvement of the US in the complex affairs of eastern Europe symbolized the broadening scope of globalization. Consumer goods were produced and distributed all over the world, not just in the US and the advancements in communication helped connect the world even further. By the end of the 20th century, America had become globally dependent. Foreign trade was central to American prosperity

Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States

The defendants in this case had been accused of selling an "unfit chicken" and violating other NRA code provisions. The court ruled that Congress had exceeded its power under the commerce clause by regulating intrastate commerce. The poultry in question had come to permanent rest in one state even though it had previously moved across state lines. After this case, Roosevelt was worried that that same line of thinking could endanger other New Deal programs

NSC-68

The discovery that the Soviets had atomic weapons led the National Security Council to produce this top-secret document that called for rebuilding America's conventional military forces to provide options other than nuclear war. This plan represented a major departure from America's time-honored aversion to keeping large standing armies in peacetime and was extremely expensive.

Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES)

The equivalent of the Women's Army Corps but for the navy

Why were reports of the Holocaust generally disregarded in the United States even when credible evidence existed?

The falsehoods of World War I had led many people to doubt all the atrocity stories, and rumors of such horror seemed beyond belief. So although the stories appeared, people had trouble believing them

Jackie Robinson

The first African American player to cross the color line in major-league baseball. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. His growing fan base encouraged other teams to begin to integrate their teams as well.

U.S.S. Greer and "shoot on sight"

The first attack on an American warship. A German sub fired two torpedoes at the destroyer Greer. The president announced a week later orders to shoot on sight any German or Italian raiders that ventured into American waters

Dingley Tariff

The first important act of the McKinley administration. Raised the tariff to the highest ever.

How did the popularity of movies and radio transform American popular culture in the 1920s?

The first movie was shown in NY in 1896 and by this decade there were movie theaters all over the country. Hollywood became the center of movie production with movies by comedians like Charlie Chaplin. By the 1930s it was the nation's chief form of entertainment. It was made even more popular with the development of "talkies", movies with soundtracks. Radio broadcasting had even more amazing growth. Radio companies like NBC and CBS helped with this growth. In 1927, a Federal Radio Commission was created to regulate the growing industry. Calvin Coolidge was the first President to address the nation by radio, which he did monthly. It also paved the way for FDR's fireside chats

"stagflation"

When the economy is undergoing a recession and inflation at the same time.

What fueled the growth of nativism in the 1920s?

The foreign connection of many political radicals strengthened the idea that sedition was foreign born. Many immigrants from central and eastern Europe worked in factories. Because socialism and anarchism were popular in those regions, it reinforced the idea that immigrants were suspicious. This fear caused new efforts to restrict immigration.

Ezra Pound

The foreign editor of Poetry, through which many American poets achieved publication.

Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities (1904)

The golden age of muckraking is dated from 1902, when McClure's began running articles by this reporter on municipal corruption. These articles were later collected into his book.

How did the legacy of WWII affect race relations and the push for civil rights in the United States?

The government sponsored racism of German Nazis, Italian Fascists, and Japanese imperialists focused attention on the need for the US to improve its own race relations and to provide for equal rights under the law. The postwar confrontation with the Soviets also provided incentive for the US to improve race relations as the Soviets often compared official racial segregation in the US to the Nazi's treatment of the Jews.

A. Philip Randolph, March on Washington

The head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. He planned a march on Washington to demand an end to racial discrimination in defense industries. The Roosevelt administration struck a bargain: The group called off the march in return for an executive order tha forbade discrimination in defense work and training programs and set up the FEPC.

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963)

The high point of the integrationist phase of the civil rights movement occurred in August of 1963 when over 200,000 blacks and whites marched down the Mall in Washington D.C. The march was the largest civil rights demonstration in history. This was when MLK gave his famous "I have a dream" speech.

The Crisis

The journal of the NAACP, edited by W.E.B. Du Bois

Cesar Chavez

The leader of the United Farm Workers. He joined the CSO in 1952, a social service group that sought to educate and organize the migrant poor so that they could become self reliant. He founded new chapters and was named general director in 1958. He left the organization in 1962 when it refused to back his proposal to establish a union for farmworkers. They thought this was impossible because unlike industrial laborers, farmers were not guaranteed the right to organize or the right to receive minimum wage. So he founded National Farm Workers Association which gained national attention. Chavez's charisma, nonviolent tactics, and alliance with organized labor and religious groups all attracted media and national attention. He helped bring about recognition of the UFW and helped get wages increased and conditions improved.

Marcus Garvey---Universal Negro Improvement Association

The leading spokesperson for the views of black nationalism. He started the UNIA which grew rapidly amid the racial tensions of postwar years. He wanted blacks to liberate themselves from surrounding white culture. He saw every white person as a potential Klansman. These views appalled people like W.E.B. Du Bois but appealed to many who had travelled north during the Great Migration. He thought the only solution was for blacks to flee and start their own republic in Africa. But he was arrested for fraudulent use of mail and was sent to prison until he was deported to Jamaica.

Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique

The mainstream of the women's movement was led by Betty Friedan. Her influential book launched the new phase of female protest on the national level. In 1957, she conducted a poll and discovered that, despite the prevailing view of the happy suburban housewife, many women were miserable. She wrote that women had lost ground during the years after World War II when many left wartime employment and settled down in suburbia. Her book was an immediate best-seller and inspired man women who felt they were trapped in a domestic role.

Port Huron Statement

The manifesto of the SDS. It said that the country was dominated by huge organizational structures all of which conspired to alienate and oppress the individual. It said students had the power to restore participatory democracy by taking control of the administrative bureaucracy and forging links with other dissident movements. They adopted the term New Left to distinguish their efforts at grassroots democracy from the Old Left of the 1930s which had embraces Stalinism

Neo-orthodoxy

The message that people like Peale were promoting seemed to simplistic or misleading to some members of the religious community. They argued that the gospel of good news was merely a way to feel a sense of belonging and criticized those who identified the US as the only truly providential society and who used faith as a sanction for the social status-quo.

National Recovery Administration

The more controversial part of the National Industrial Recovery Act, headed by Hugh S. Johnson. Its purpose was to stabilize business by reducing chaotic competition through the implementation of industry wide codes that set wages and prices, and to generate more purchasing power for consumers by providing jobs, defining labor standards, and raising wages. The labor standards were 40 hour weeks and minimum wages of $13 a week. It also included a proviso against child labor under 16. It also guaranteed the right of workers to form unions. But it did not create adequate enforcement measures. At first it worked and provided an air of confidence but as soon as the economy started to recover it fell under harsh criticism. It died in 1935 when it was struck down by the Supreme Court

Malcolm X

The most articulate spokesman for black power. He became the chief disciple of the Black Muslim leader in the United States, Elijah Muhammad. By 1964 he had broken with Muhammad and founded an organization committed to the establishment of alliances between African Americans and the nonwhite population of the world. But shortly after the publication of his Autobiography in 1964, Malcolm was gunned down in Harlem by assassins representing a rival faction of the Black Muslims. And when he died, so did the most effective voice for urban black militancy since Marcus Garvey in the 1920s. His assassination was even more tragic because a few months before, he had begin to abandon his strict anti-white rhetoric and to preach a biracial message of social change.

Al Capone

The most celebrated gangster of the 1920s. In 1927 his Chicago based bootlegging, prostitution, and gambling empire brought him an income of $60 million. He insisted he was providing the public with what it demanded. But he also bludgeoned several policemen and ordered the execution of dozens of rival criminals. Eventually Eliot Ness and the Federal Bureau of Investigation began to smash his operations and arrested him for tax evasion. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison

David Riesman, The Lonely Crowd

The most comprehensive analysis of the new corporate character. Riesman and his researchers detected a fundamental shift in the dominant American personality from what inner-directed to other-directed. Inner-directed people possess a deeply internalized set of basic values that act as a built in stabilizer. Other-directed people were concerned more with being well-liked than being independent. Riesman thought this other-directed personality was widely dispersed throughout middle class life.

What themes were expressed in the art and literature of the 1950s? How did they relate to 1950s society?

The most enduring novels displayed a preoccupation with the individual's struggle for survival amid the smothering forces of mass society. Many painters decided that the post-war society was so chaotic that it precluded any attempt at literal representation and a new technique called abstract expressionism developed.

Reinhold Niebuhr

The most significant spokesman for neo-orthodoxy. He was a preacher-professor at New York's Union Theological Seminary. He disdained the popular religion of self-assurance and material success. He said spiritual peace involved the reality of pain

Great Migration

The movement of blacks to the North which began in 1915 when rapidly expanding war industries were experiencing a labor shortage and the war prevented replacement foreign immigrants. Legal restriction on immigration continued the movement in the 1920s. This created more black political influence in the north.

How did the New Deal transform the function of the federal government in American life? In what ways did it fall short of its transformative goals?

The national government was vastly enlarged and hope had been restored to the people. The New Deal developed the new view that the government should take positive steps to avoid social crisis. So the new programs conferred on the government's responsibility to ensure a minimum level of well-being for all Americans.

Warren Burger

The new chief justice under Nixon. He was appointed as a conservative but ended up delivering extremely liberal decisions.

Gay Liberation Front

The new organization that resulted from the Stonewall riots. One of the gay rights movement's tactics was to encourage people to "come out" and to make public their homosexuality. This was not an easy decision because professing gays faced social ostracism, physical assault, exclusion from service, and discrimination in the workplace. But despite these risks, thousands did come out. By 1973 almost 800 gay and lesbian organizations had been formed across the country and every major city had a visible gay community and cultural life. But the movement still suffered internal divisions and a conservative backlash. By the end of the 1970s the gay movement had lost its initial momentum

Consumer revolution

The number of homeowners increased and these homes filled up with the latest appliances, including the most popular, the TV set. Marketing specialists targeted consumers desires and social envy. TV advertising increased by 1000%. Paying for these products was easy because the age of the credit card had arrived. Shopping also became a major recreational activity and thousands of new shopping centers were built.

Tonkin Gulf Resolution

The official sanction for military escalation in Southeast Asia. It authorized the president to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the US and to prevent further aggression.

Progressive (Bull Moose) Party

The party Roosevelt decided to run under for a third term against Taft. Roosevelt called a Progressive party convention but few professional politicians showed up. Progressive Republicans decided to preserve their efforts and fight another day

How has the population of the US changed since the 1980s?

The population grew by 20%. The Sunbelt also lured residents from the Midwest and the Northeast. 90% of the growth was in southern or western states. They tended to settle in large communities. This reflected trends in the job market as it shifted to service industries. By 2000 fewer than 2 million people were farmers. There was also a decline in the standard family unit . The number of single mothers increased.

How did the proliferation of the automobile affect the economy and society of the 1920s?

The production of cars stimulated other industries by consuming large amounts of steel, rubber, glass, and textiles. It also gave rise to a huge market for oil products. It quickened the movement for good roads, encouraged suburban sprawl, and sparked a real estate boom in California and Florida. It had become a leading example of modern mass production techniques and efficiency. It was the beginning of the assembly line process.

Bush v Gore

The recounts had been going on for five weeks before this case halted the statewide manual recounts in Florida. They said that any new recount would clash with existing Florida law. So Bush was declared the winner by 537 votes. When Al Gore lost Florida, he lost the election by two electoral votes.

"zoot-suit riots"

The rising Mexican population in areas like LA prompted a growing stream of anti-Latino incidents. In 1943, several thousand off duty sailors and soldiers, joined by white civilians rampaged through downtown LA assaulting Latinos, African Americans, and Filipinos. The violence lasted a week. They were called zoot-suit riots after the flamboyant suits worn by young Mexican American men

Hoovervilles

The settlements that grew to house the destitute and homeless. The Hoover flag was an empty pocket turned inside out

Harlem Renaissance

The spirit of the new negro received cultural expression in this literary and artistic movement. It featured the rediscovery of black folk culture and a broader treatment of controversial topics. Prominent writers included Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and James Weldon Johnson. But the most important creation of the time was Jean Toomer's novel, Cane.

Anschluss

The union of Austria with Germany in 1938 (forced by Hitler)

What caused the agricultural depression of the 1920s?

The wartime boom lasted into 1920 but then commodity prices collapsed as production returned to prewar levels. Overproduction brought lower prices for crops which lasted til 1923. Foreclosures and bankruptcies spread in the south after a bumper cotton crop caused more price collapses in 1926.

Why did the 1980s present such stark contrasts between the "haves" and "have-nots"?

There was a huge shortage of low cost housing because the government had given up on building public housing, urban renewal programs had demolished blighted areas but provided no new housing, and owners abandoned unprofitable buildings in poor neighborhoods or converted them into expensive condos (gentrification). Also, after new medications allowed for deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, many individuals ended up in the streets because the promised community mental health services failed to materialize.

"the cover-up"

There was never any evidence that Nixon ordered the break-in or that he was aware of plans to burglarize the Democratic National Committee. From the start though, Nixon was personally involved in the cover-up of the incident. He used his presidential powers to discredit and block the investigation. The Watergate burglary was also only one small part of a larger pattern of corruption and criminality sanctioned by the White House. After news got out of American bombings in Cambodia, Nixon ordered illegal telephone taps on several journalists and government employees suspected of leaking the story. He also orchestrated a break in of the psychiatrists office of Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers. The cover-up began to unravel as people started cooperating with the prosecutors. In 1973, L. Patrick Gray, acting director of the FBI, resigned after confessing that he confiscated and destroyed several incriminating documents. John Dean also testified that there had been a cover-up and Nixon had approved it. Nixon refused to provide the committee with the documents it requested, citing executive privilege, so the battle for the Nixon tapes began.

What caused the inflation and economic problems of the early 1970s?

There were three main causes. First, the Johnson administration had attempted to pay for both the Great Society programs and the Vietnam war without a major tax increase, generating larger federal deficits, huge money supply, and rising inflation. Second, America's technological and economic superiority was no longer unchallenged so they faced competition in international markets from countries like Germany, Japan, and other emerging powers. Third, the economy had depended heavily upon cheap sources of energy. But domestic petroleum reserves began to dwindle and dependence on foreign oil grew. There was also a flood of new workers from the baby boom generation that caused higher levels of unemployment.

Election of 1960

There were three things that shaped this election. The first was that Kennedy was the first Catholic to run for president since 1929 and he strove to dispel the impression that his religion was a major political liability. After that, the religious question drew little public attention. Second, Nixon decided to debate on television. 70 million people watched this debate and Nixon came across as weak and uneasy compared to Kennedy who came off as charming a polished. After that Kennedy's popularity shot up in the polls. Last, Kennedy got a huge advantage when he took advantage of King's arrest and distributed 2 million pamphlets extolling Kennedy's efforts on behalf of King. Kennedy ended up winning the closest presidential election since 1888.

silent majority"

These predominantly white working-class and middle-class citizens who were determined to try to regain control of a society they feared was awash in permissiveness, anarchy, and tyranny by the minority. Many believed that Johnson's Great Society programs were ineffective and inefficient.

Sacco and Venzetti

They were two Italian born anarchists who were arrested in 1920 for robbery and murder in South Braintree, MA. The judge was prejudiced against them going into the trial. Since then, many claimed that the were sentenced for their political ideas and ethnic origins rather than for a crime. There were public demonstrations around the world but they were convicted and sentenced to death in 1927.

Contract with America

This 10 point contract outlined an anti-big government program with less regulation, less environmental conservation, term limits for members of Congress, a line-item veto for the president, welfare reform, and a balanced budget amendment. It ended up fizzling out.

Florence Kelley and National Consumers' League

This Progressive crusade prompted the passage of state laws to address the distinctive hardships that long working hours imposed on women who were wives adn mothers.

Equal Rights Amendment

This amendment had once seemed very straightforward and assured of ratification but was stymied in several legislatures. By 1982 it had died several states short of passage.

Yalta Conference

This brought the Big Three leaders together again and focused on the post-war world. It called for a conference to create a new world security organization in 1945. Arrangements for postwar governance of Germany were also made. They also dictated the basic pattern of occupation zones: the Soviets would control eastern Germany and the Allies would control the west. Berlin would be subject to joint occupation. Similar arrangements were made for Austria. They never reached an agreement on reparations from Germany.

Election of 2000

This election revealed that voters were split evenly among party lines. The two major party candidates were Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush. Gore wanted an active federal government that would preserve Social Security, subsidize prescription medicine expenses, and protect the environment. Bush wanted to transfer power to the states, particularly in regards to the environment and education system. There were also two independent candidates: conservative columnist Patrick Buchanan and liberal activist Ralph Nader. Buchanan focused on criticism of NAFTA and Nader focused on corrupting effects of campaign finances and environmental protection. The election was one of the closest and most controversial in history. The TV networks originally reported that Gore had won the state of Florida but later they reversed themselves and said it was too close to call. Then they said Bush was the winner but then called it a toss-up again and a recount was required.

Sit-ins

This first gained national attention when four black college students sat down and demanded service at a whites only restaurant in Greensboro. Within a week this movement had spread to 6 more towns in the state and within two months demonstrations had occurred in 54 cities and nine states.

Hurricane Katrina

This killer hurricane devastated large areas of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Coastal towns were blown away and New Orleans was virtually destroyed. Over 1000 people died and millions were left homeless. Political officials were unprepared to deal with the situation. Disaster plans were incomplete, communication and coordination were sorely lacking, confusion was everywhere. Experts predicted it would take $200 billion to restore the gulf coast.

Bush Doctrine

This marked the complete departure from containment. This was a new doctrine of preemptive military action.

"flapper"

This name is derived from the way fashionable women allowed their galoshes to flap around their ankles. Conservatives saw flappers as another example of a degenerating society but others saw an expression of individualism

Sinclair Lewis, Main Street

This novel portrayed the stifling, mean, cramped life of prairie towns

Containment

This policy was created by George F. Kennan and was based on the fear that the Soviet Union was trying to spread Communism throughout eastern Europe and eventually the world. This policy said that the US needed to have a long term policy of containment, to repent the Soviets from spreading the ideas of Communism.

Works Progress Administration

This replaced the FERA and was headed by Harry Hopkins. He was told to provide millions of jobs quickly so many of those jobs were criticized as mere "leaning on shovels". But before the WPA dissolved during World War II, it left permanent monuments in the form of buildings, bridges, hard-surfaced roads, airports, and schools. It also employed a wide range of talented Americans in programs like the Federal Writers, Art, Music, or Theatre projects. Critics said these programs were frivolous but Hopkins insisted they were beneficial. It employed about 3 million of the 10 million unemployed at the time

"Dynamic Conservatism"

This was Eisenhower's domestic program. It meant being conservative when to comes to money and liberal when it comes to human beings. Budget cutting was a high priority. He abolished the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, ended wage and price controls, and reduced farm-price subsidies. He continued to support federal construction projects and expenditures for healthcare rose. Low income housing continued to be built with federal funds.

New Frontier

This was Kennedy's campaign slogan and the theme of his presidency. It meant the frontier of unknown opportunities and perils and of unfulfilled hopes and threats. He used this metaphor as the label for his domestic program during his presidency. He promised to use his administration to get the country "moving again"

Allen Ginsberg, Howl

This was a long prose poem published in 1956 that featured an explicit sensuality as well as an impressionistic attempt to catch the color, movement, and dynamism of modern life.

Fair Employment Practices Commission

This was implemented with executive order 8802. It prohibited companies to employ based on race. It was meant to help African Americans get jobs on the home front during the war but was not very effective

How did the GI Bill transform post-war America?

This was passed because of fears that the sudden influx of veterans would send the economy into a sudden drop and produce widespread unemployment. After the bill was passed, 8 million veterans took advantage of it to get an education and in 1949 the US boasted the world's best educated workforce. It turned college education into a lever into the middle class. So the GI Bill was successful in eroding class barriers.

Civil Rights Act of 1957

This was the first civil rights law to pass since Reconstruction. This established a Civil Rights Commission, which was later extended indefinitely, and a new Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department which could seek injunctions to prevent interference with the right to vote.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965)

This was the most expansive federal education bill ever passed. It allocated large resources to meet the needs of educationally deprived children, especially through compensatory programs for the poor

"massive resistance"

This was the rallying cry of Virginia senator Harry F. Byrd to oppose the court-ordered integration of public schools.

George Wallace

Throughout the Deep South, traditionalists defied efforts at racial integration. In the fall of 1963, governor George Wallace dramatically stood in the doorway of a building at University of Alabama to block the enrollment of African-American students, but he stepped aside at the insistence of federal marshals. That night Kennedy, for the first time, highlighted the moral issues facing the nation.

21st Amendment

Took back the 18th amendment by ending Prohibition

Freedom rides

Travelers riding buses to test a federal court ruling in the south. In Alabama, mobs attacked them with fists and pipes and burned the buses but demonstrators persisted and drew national attention, generating new respect and support for their cause. kennedy was no inspired by tis movement and told them to call it off. It fell to Attorney General Robert Kennedy to use federal marshals to protect the freedom riders during the summer of 1961

Harry S Truman

Truman was the opposite of Roosevelt. He did not come from wealth, did not go to college, was a clumsy speaker, lacked Roosevelt's dash and charm. He evoked the spirit of Jackson in his decisiveness and loyalty and he was confident and self-assured. He favored the New Deal and was prepared to expand it. He also replaced most of the Cabinet with more conservative choices. Soon after taking office he sent a 21 point plan to Congress that included higher minimum wage, slum clearance, public works programs, development of river valleys, and a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission

What strategies did the NAACP adopt to combat discrimination in the 1920s? How successful were those strategies?

Two court cases helped combat discrimination- Guinn v US struck down the grandfather clause in Oklahoma. Buchanan v Worley the court invalidated a residential segregation ordinance in Kentucky. They also had a bill to make mob murder a federal offense but it was defeated by a filibuster by southern senators.

Berlin Wall

Two months after the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy met with Khrushchev in Vienna and was shocked at the Soviet's aggressive stance. When he returned home, he demonstrated his resolve by calling up army reserve and national guard units. The Soviets responded by erecting the Berlin Wall, cutting off movement between East and West Berlin and it also plugged the most accessible escape hatch for East Germans, showed Soviet willingness to challenge American resolve in Europe, and became another intractable barrier to improved relations between East and West

United Nations charter

Two weeks after Roosevelt's death, delegates from 50 nations at war with the Axis drew up this charter. Additional members would be added by a 2/3 vote of the General Assembly. This body would meet annually to approve the budget, receive reports, and choose members of the Security Council. The Security Council had five permanent members- US, Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the Republic of China. Each permanent member had a veto on any issue. The Security Council can investigate any dispute, recommend settlement at the International Court, and resort to military forces. The charter was ratified and the organization had its first meeting in 1946.

Intermediate-range missile treaty

Under Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviets pursued renewed détente in order to free their energies and financial resources for domestic problems. Gorbachev announced he was willing to deal separately on a medium range missile treaty. After 9 months of strenuous negotiations, they signed a treaty to eliminate intermediate range nuclear missiles. This was a huge event because it marked the first time that two nations had agreed to destroy a whole class of weapons systems and it represented a first key step toward the eventual end of the arms race altogether

Title IX

Under Title IX, colleges were required to institute "affirmative action" programs to ensure equal opportunities for women.

The Tower Commission

Under increasing criticism, Reagan appointed a three man commission led by former Republican senator John Tower to investigate the scandal. The Tower Commission issued a devastating report in 1987 that placed much of the blame on Reagan's loose management style. Their investigations led to six indictments in 1988. A jury found North guilty of three minor charges but innocent of 9 more serious ones. And his conviction was later overturned on appeal. Of those involved in the affair, only John Poindexter got a jail sentence: 6 months for five felony counts of obstructing justice and lying to Congress.

Grovey v. Townsend

Upheld the Texas Democrats' white primary. But this decision only lasted 9 years and marked the end of the major decisions that had narrowed the application of Reconstruction amendments

War on Poverty

Upon taking office, Johnson announced this as his agenda. Money for this program would come from the tax revenues generated by corporate profits made possible by the tax reduction of 1964, which had led to one of the longest sustaining economic booms in history. Some of its programs included Job Corps, a Head Start program, work study programs, and a Community Action Program

Jazz Age

What F. Scott Fitzgerald dubbed the post-war era. In this time, daring young people were willing to experiment with new forms or recreation and sexuality. This new jazz music was a mix of African and European traditions characterized by "blue notes" and polyrhythm and was popular amongst rebellious young adults. It helped create carefree new dance steps like the Charleston and black bottom that shocked the generation or morality

How did Eisenhower achieve peace in Korea?

When Eisenhower entered office there was a deadlock in the Korean peace talks. UN negotiators refused to return Communist prisoners of war but North Korean and Chinese negotiators insisted that all prisoners be returned. To break the stalemate, Eisenhower stepped up aerial bombardment of North Korea then had Secretary of State, John Dulles secretly threaten to use atomic warfare. After that, negotiations moved quickly towards an armistice along the established border just above the 38th parallel and toward a complicated arrangement for an exchange of prisoners that allowed captives to accept or refuse repatriation.

Bank Holiday

When Hoover left office, 4/5 of the nation's banks were closed and the country was close to economic paralysis. On Roosevelt's second day in office he declared a four day bank holiday to allow the panic to subside. He passed the Emergency Banking Relief Act in 7 hours. Then he addressed the public in the first of his "fireside chats" and assured them that it was safe to keep their money in the banks. The next day, deposits in open banks exceeded withdrawals, meaning the banking crisis was over.

Shuttle diplomacy

When Israel recovered from the initial shock and surprise of the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Henry Kissinger negotiated a cease-fire and exerted pressure to prevent Israel from taking additional Arab territory. He also promoted closer ties with Egypt and its president, Anwar el-Sadat, and more restrained support for Israel. In an attempt to broker a lasting settlement, Kissinger made numerous flights among the capitals of the Middle East. This "shuttle diplomacy" won acclaim from all sides, but Kissinger failed to find a comprehensive formula for peace in the troubled region and ignored a Palestinian problem. But he did lay groundwork for the accord between Israel and Egypt in 1977.

Bay of Pigs

When Kennedy took office, Eisenhower had already begun a secret CIA operation training Cuban refugees for an invasion of their homeland. Kennedy adn his advisors decided to invade hoping it would inspire Cubans to rebel against Castro. But the scheme was poorly planned and poorly executed. When the force landed at the Bay of Pigs it was brutally subdued in two days. They had underestimated Castro's popularity and ability to react to a surprise attack. They also had poor communication, inaccurate maps, faulty equipment, and ineffective leadership.

Describe the impact of advances in airplane technology in the 1920s.

Wilbur and Orville Wright built and flew the first airplane in 1903. But the use of planes advanced slowly until the war started in 1914 and Europeans rapidly developed planes as a military weapon. An American plane industry developed during the war but stalled in the postwar demobilization. But under the kelly Act of 1925, the federal government began to subsidize the industry through airmail contracts. The Air Commerce Act of 1926 provided federal funds to aid the advancement of air transportation and navigation, including the construction of airports.

Levittown

William Levitt, a New York developer, led the suburban revolution. In 1947, he built 10,600 houses on 1200 acres on Long Island farmland. Within a few years there were similar Levittowns in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and other developers soon followed suit across the country, starting the suburban revolution.

Election of 1912

Wilson and Taft represented the two major parties while Eugene V Debs ran as a Socialist and Roosevelt ran as a Progressive. Roosevelt was shot during the campaign but continued. As the campaign developed, Taft lost ground. The election settled to a debate between Roosevelt's New Nationalism and Wilson's New Freedom. The Republican schism between Taft and Roosevelt allowed Roosevelt to win. The election was a high water mark for the Progressives and the first to feature presidential primaries.

How did the progressive movement deal with issues of racial inequality?

Wilson showed little interest in the plight of African Americans. He denounced the KKK but sympathized with the motives of restoring white rule in the post-war south. He courted African American voters but rarely consulted black leaders and avoided opportunities to associate with them in public. Workplaces were segregated by race.

How did WWII impact the roles of women in American society?

With so many men gone for wat, the government launched a campaign to draw women into traditionally male jobs. They used "Rosie the Riveter" as the cover girl. Old barriers fell as women became lumberjacks, blacksmiths, railroad workers, etc. Another new feature was the larger proportion of older, married women in the work force. Many men opposed this trend but many women were eager to get away from the routine of domestic life. It became something that women did not want to relinquish after the war was over

Ernest Hemingway

Wrote The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms to depict the affairs of the "lost generation". The novels featured a frenetic, hard-drinking lifestyle, and the cult of athletic masculinity.

T.S. Eliot

Wrote a novel called The Waste Land, which made few concessions to its readers with arcane allusions, juxtaposition of metaphors, sense of postwar disillusionment and melancholy, and its suggestion of a burned out civilization

Balkan War

Yugoslavia imploded in 1991 triggering ethnic conflict as four of its six republics seceded. In Bosnia, the war involved an ethnic cleansing, driving Muslims from their homes and towns. Clinton responded by dropping food and medical supplies to besieged Bosnians and sending planes to retaliate for attacks on places designated safe havens by the UN. In 1995, Americans negotiated a peace plan: Bosnia would remain a single nation but would divide into two states. Basic human rights would be restored and free elections held. To enforce the agreement, 60,000 NATO troops would be dispatched to Bosnia. In 1998, war flared up again in Kosovo. Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević decided to reassert Serbian control of the province. He stripped Kosovo of its autonomy and established de facto martial law. When the Albanian Kosovars resisted and large numbers of Muslim men began to join the Kosovo Liberation Army, Serbian soldiers and state police repressed them resulting in another ethnic cleansing. In 1999 NATO relied on US military resources to launch air strikes against Yugoslavia and after 72 days they sued for peace on NATO's terms. Not a single pilot was killed in combat