End of Course U.S. History Vocabulary

Impeachment

A charge of misconduct made against the holder of a public office.

Estee Lauder

founder of one of the world's largest cosmetic lines

Schechter Poultry v. U.S.

"the sick chicken case"; Declared the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional on three grounds: That the act delegated legislative power to the executive; that there was a lack of constitutional authority for such legislation; and that it sought to regulate the businesses that were wholly intrastate in character.

Endangered Species Act

(1973) identifies threatened and endangered species in the U.S. and puts their protection ahead of economic considerations.

Taliban

A coalition of ultraconservative Islamists who rose to power in Afghanistan after the Soviets withdrew. The Taliban leaders gave Osama bin Laden a safe haven in their country in exchange for aid in fighting the Northern Alliance, who were rebels opposed to the Taliban. After they refused to turn bin Laden over to the United States, America invaded Afghanistan.

Department of Homeland Security

A concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur.

War in Iraq

A protracted armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein.

"Hoovervilles"

Shanty towns that the unemployed built in the cities during the early years of the Depression; the name given to them shows that the people blamed Hoover directly for the Depression.

Lionel Sosa

founder of the largest Hispanic advertising agency in the U.S.

Warsaw Pact

treaty signed in 1945 that formed an alliance of the Eastern European countries behind the Iron Curtain; USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.

Phyllis Schlafly

A right-wing Republican activist who spearheaded the anti-feminism movement. She believed feminist were "anti-family, anti-children, and pro-abortion." She worked against the equal rights amendment for women and civil rights protection for gays.

Pendleton Civil Service Act

1883 law that created a Civil Service Commission and stated that federal employees could not be required to contribute to campaign funds nor be fired for political reasons.

Tin Pan Alley

A section of New York City that became the capital of popular music publishing where song-writing and musical ideas merged to form American popular music.

Father Coughlin

A Catholic priest from Michigan who was critical of FDR on his radio show. His radio show morphed into being severely against Jews during WWII and he was eventually kicked off the air, however before his fascist rants, he was wildly popular among those who opposed FDR's New Deal.

John Locke

English political philosopher whose ideas inspired the American revolution. He wrote that all human beings have a right to life, liberty, and property, and that governments exist to protect those rights. He believed that government was based upon an unwritten "social contract" between the rulers and their people, and if the government failed to uphold its end of the contract, the people had a right to rebel and institute a new government.

Battle of the Bulge

(also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Von Rundstedt Offensive to the Germans) (16 December 1944 - 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive (die Ardennenoffensive), launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name (Bataille des Ardennes), and France and Luxembourg on the Western Front. The Wehrmacht's code name for the offensive was Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein ("Operation Watch on the Rhine"), after the German patriotic hymn Die Wacht am Rhein.

Captains of Industry

.A business leader whose means of amassing a personal fortune contributes positively to the country in some way.

Omar Bradley

1893 - 1981, U.S. General during WWII. On July 25, 1944, he unleashed a massive air and land bombardment against the enemy at St. Lô, providing a gap in the German line of defense through which General George Patton and his army could advance.

Korematsu v. U.S.

1944 Supreme Court case where the Supreme Court upheld the order providing for the relocation of Japanese Americans. It was not until 1988 that Congress formally apologized and agreed to pay $20,000 2 each survivor.

Marshall Plan

1947, $5.3 billion to Europe to help rebuild post-war; mainly raw materials, food and fuel; underlying purpose of preventing communism; Soviets attempt to imitate with their own Molotov Plan- failure.

Truman Doctrine

1947, containment; US will "contain" Soviets in Greece and turkey- support free peoples; $400 million to stop them from falling to communism.

Interstate Highway Act

1956 Eisenhower 20 yr plan to build 41,000 mi of highway, largest public works project in history. These highways did much to change the economic and social structure of America. They helped businesses and families move from downtown to suburbs, from Main Street to Wal-Mart.

Richard Nixon

1968 and 1972; Republican; Vietnam: advocated "Vietnamization" (replace US troops with Vietnamese), but also bombed Cambodia/Laos, created a "credibility gap," Paris Peace Accords ended direct US involvement; economy-took US off gold standard (currency valued by strength of economy); created the Environmental Protection Agency, was president during first moon landing; SALT I and new policy of detente between US and Soviet Union; Watergate scandal: became first and only president to resign.

Berlin Wall destroyed

1989 collapse of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the Cold War.

William H. Taft

27th president of the U.S.; he angered progressives by moving cautiously toward reforms and by supporting the Payne-Aldrich Tariff; he lost Roosevelt's support and was defeated for a second term.

Ronald Reagan

40th President of the US. He ran on a campaign based on the common man and "populist" ideas. He served as governor of California from 1966-1974, and he participated in the McCarthy Communist scare. Iran released hostages on his Inauguration Day in 1980. While president, he developed his own form of economics, the trickle down effect of government incentives. He cut out many welfare and public works programs. He used the Strategic Defense Initiative to avoid conflict. His meetings with Gorbachev were the first steps to ending the Cold War. He was also responsible for the Iran-contra Affair which bought hostages with guns.

Eugenics

A belief that the human race could be improved by breeding.

Battle of Midway

A 1942 battle that proved to be a turning point in the Pacific front during World War II; it was the Japanese navy's first major defeat in 350 years.

Monopoly

A corporation so large that it effectively controls the entire market for its products or services.

U.S. Constitution

A document that embodies the fundamental laws and principles by which the United States is governed. It was drafted by the Constitutional Convention and later supplemented by the Bill of Rights and other amendments.

Clarence Darrow

A famed criminal defense lawyer for Scopes, who supported evolution. He caused William Jennings Bryan to appear foolish when Darrow questioned Bryan about the Bible.

Illegal Immigration

A foreigner who enters the U.S. without an entry or immigrant visa, especially a person who crosses the border by avoiding inspection or who overstays the period of time allowed as a visitor, tourist, or businessperson.

Trench Warfare

A form of prolonged combat between the entrenched positions of opposing armies, often with little tactical movement.

Inflation

A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.

Iran Hostage Crisis

A group of anti-American Muslim militants stormed the US embassy in Tehran, taking all occupants hostage and demanding the return of the exiled Iranian shah; after economic sanctions and political pressure failed, Carter launched a ill-fated rescue mission and the crisis continued throughout his presidency.

San Juan Hill

A hill near Santiago de Cuba, the scene of a decisive 1 July 1898 battle during the Spanish-American War. This was the bloodiest and most famous battle of the war and the greatest victory of the Rough Riders as claimed by Roosevelt. The Rough Riders played a central role in the victory but for also supported by black soldiers of the 24th and 25th infantry regiments.

Settlement house

Product of the late nineteenth-century movement to offer a broad array of social services in urban immigrant neighborhoods; Chicago's Hull House was one of the hundreds of settlement houses that operated by the early twentieth century.

Credibility Gap

A lack of popular confidence in the truth of the claims or public statements made by the federal government, large corporations, politicians, etc.

Frontier

A line that separated east and west (civilization and wilderness).

New Orleans Levees

A long ridge of sand, silt, and clay built up by a river along its banks, especially during floods. An artificial embankment along a rivercourse or an arm of the sea, built to protect adjoining land from inundation.

Just-In-Time Production

A management system in which materials or products are produced or acquired only as demand requires.

Knights of Labor

A national labor organization with a broad reform platform; reach peak membership in the 1880s.

Ghettos

A part of a city, especially a slum area, occupied by a minority group or groups.

Title IX

A part of the Education Amendments which prohibited sex discrimination in any educational programs or activities that are funded by the federal government.

Third Party

A person or group besides the two primarily involved in a situation, especially a dispute.

Urbanization

A population shift from rural to urban areas and the ways in which each society adapts to the change.

Lester Maddox

A populist Democrat, Maddox came to prominence as a segregationist, when he refused to serve black customers in his Atlanta restaurant, in defiance of the Civil Rights Act.

Alliance for Progress

A program in which the United States tried to help Latin American countries overcome poverty and other problems, 1961-63; JFK economic policy towards S.America, 10 yr. development plan where JFK promised Latin Amer. leaders that U.S. would.

egalitarianism

A society of equals; in America, despite differences in wealth/power/ intelligence, everyone was socially equal; the two exceptions of egalitarianism were slavery and the treatment of Native Americans.

Sussex Pledge

A torpedo from a German submarine hit a french passenger liner, called the Sussex in march 1916. Wilson demanded the Germans refrain from attacking passenger ships. In this statement, Germany said they would temporarily stop these attacks but might have to resume in the future if the British continued to blockade German ports.

Yellow Journalism

A type of news reporting, epitomized in the 1890s by the newspaper empires of William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, that intentionally manipulates public opinion through sensational headlines, illustrations, and articles about both real and invented events.

temperance movement

A widespread reform movement, led by militant Christians, focused on reducing the use of alcoholic beverages.

Andrew Carnegie

He was a steel magnate who believed that the general public benefited from big business even if theses companies employed harsh business practices. This philosophy became deeply ingrained in the conventional wisdom of some Americans. After he retired, he devoted himself to philanthropy in hopes of promoting social welfare and world peace.

World Trade Organization

Promoted by Clinton, this organization was the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, taking a step toward a global free-trade system. This was highly protested within the United States.

Korean War

After WWII, Korea had been partitioned along the 38th parallel into a northern zone governed by the Soviet Union, and a southern zone controlled by the U.S. In 1950, after the Russians had withdrawn, leaving a communist government in the North, the North invaded the South. The U.N. raised an international army led by the U.S. to stop the North. It was the first use of U.N. military forces to enforce international peace. Called a limited war, because the fighting was to be confined solely to the Korean peninsula, rather than the countries involved on each side attacking one another directly.

detente

Relaxation of tensions between the United States and its two major Communist rivals, the Soviet Union and China.

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Agreement eliminating trade barriers that was signed in 1994 by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, making North America the largest free-trade zone in the world.

Bataan Death March

After the Japanese landed in the Philippines in May 1942, nearly 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners were forced to endure a 60-mile forced march; during the ordeal, 10,000 prisoners died or were killed.

Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique

Account of housewives' lives in which they subordinated their own aspirations to the needs of men; bestseller was an inspiration for many women to join the women's rights movement later co-founded NOW (National Organization for Women).

Equal Pay Act

Act requiring companies to pay women the same wages as men received for the same work.

Freedom Riders

Activists who, beginning in 1961, traveled by bus through the South to rest federal court rulings that banned segregation segregation on buses and trains.

Ida B. Wells

African American journalist. published statistics about lynching, urged African Americans to protest by refusing to ride streetcars or shop in white owned stores.

Fourteenth Amendment

All persons born or naturalized in the US are citizens of the US and of the state where they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of US citizens. No state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. No state shall deny to any person the equal protection of laws. Representatives shall be apportioned among the states according to their population. Slaves no longer added to the census as 3/5. US does not pay the debts of rebellious states.

John Witherspoon

American Revolutionary leader and educator (born in Scotland) who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and president of the college that became Princeton University (1723-1794).

Thurgood Marshall

American civil rights lawyer, first black justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. Marshall was a tireless advocate for the rights of minorities and the poor.

Jonas Salk

American doctor who invented the polio vaccine in 1953. Polio crippled and killed millions worldwide, and the successful vaccine virtually eliminated the scourge.

American Expeditionary Force

American force of 14,500 that landed in France in June 1917 under the command of General John Pershing. Both women and blacks served during the war, mostly under white officers.

Sandford Dole

American plantation owner in Hawaii (Dole Pineapple) who led a revolt against the queen of Hawaii and was later elected as president of the Republic of Hawaii. He was president until the US annexed Hawaii 4 years later.

Flying Tigers

American volunteer pilots in Burma to protect China from Japan in pre-WWII.

U.S.S. Maine

American warship that exploded in the Cuban port of Havana on January 25, 1898; though later discovered to be the result of an accident, the destruction of the Maine was attributed by war-hungry Americans to Spain, contributing to the onset of the War of 1812

Rationing

Americans at home reminded to conserve materials in all aspects of life to support the military; resulted in saving up of money to cause economic boom after war.

Gloria Steinem

An American journalist, who became the spokeswoman for the woman's liberation movement in the 1960s. She was the co founder of Ms. Magazine, which is an American feminist magazine. It was the first magazine to describe the issue of domestic violence.

Affirmative Action

Programs designed to give preferential treatment to women and minorities as compensation for past injustices.

Klondike Gold Rush

An attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region of the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold.

Laissez-Faire

An economic doctrine holding that businesses and individuals should be able to pursue their economic interests without government interference.

"Boss" Tweed

An infamous political boss in New York City, Tweed used his "city machine," the Tammany Hall ring, to rule, plunder, and sometimes improve the city's government. His political domination of New York City ended with his arrest in 1871 and conviction in 1873.

George Wallace

An outspoken defender of segregation. As the governor of Alabama, he once attempted to block African American students from enrolling at the University of Alabama. He ran as the presidential candidate for the American Independent party in 1968, appealing to voters who were concerned about rioting anti-war protesters, the welfare system, and the growth of the federal government.

Time-Study Analysis

Analysis of a specific job by a qualified worker in an effort to find the most efficient method in terms of time and effort. Time Study measures the time necessary for a job or task to be completed using the best method.

Bessmer process

Apparatus which blasts air through molten iron to produce steel in very large quantities.

Osama bin Laden

Arab terrorist who established al-Qaeda and was accused of planning the terrorist attacks on 9-11. Killed in 2011 in a covert assassination by US Seal Team 6 coordinated by President Barrack Obama.

Rosenbergs

Arrested in the Summer of 1950 and executed in 1953, they were convicted of conspiring to commit espionage by passing plans for the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.

Theodore Roosevelt

As the assistant secretary of the navy, he supported expansionism, American imperialism, and war with Spain. He led the Rough Riders, in Cuba during the War of 1898 and used the notoriety of this military campaign for political gain. As President McKinley's vice president, he succeeded McKinley after his assassination. His forceful foreign policy became known as "big stick diplomacy." Domestically, his policies on natural resources helped start the conservation movement. Unable to win the Republican nomination for president in 1912, he formed his own party of progressive Republicans: the "Bull Moose" party.

John Kennedy assassinated

Assassinated on November 23, 1963 in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald. Kennedy was visiting Dallas to start gathering support for the upcoming presidential election of 1964.

Hiroshima/Nagasaki

Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki involved the nuclear attack on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the United States Army Air Forces on August 6, 1945 with the nuclear weapon "Little Boy," followed three days later by the detonation of the "Fat Man" bomb over Nagasaki during World War II against the Empire of Japan, part of the opposing Axis Powers alliance. the prevailing view is that the bombings ended the war months sooner than would otherwise have been the case, saving many lives that would have been lost on both sides if the planned invasion of Japan had taken place.

Selective Service Act

Authorized President Woodrow Wilson to raise an infantry force from the general population of no more than four divisions, and it created the Selective Service System.

Espionage Act 1917

Prohibit interference with military operations, to ban support of U.S. enemies during wartime or to promote insubordination in the military. Basically, made it a crime to criticize the war

Eighth Amendment

Prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.

Third Amendment

Prohibits the government from placing troops in people's homes without their permission.

Scopes "Monkey Trial"

Highly publicized 1925 trial of a high school teacher in Tennessee for violating a state law that prohibited the teaching of evolution; the trial was seen as the climax of fundamentalism was on Darwinism.

Fourth Amendment

Prohibits unreasonable search and seizures.

Alexander Hamilton

His belief in a strong federal government led him to become a leader of the Federalists. As the first secretary of the Treasury, he laid the foundation for American capitalism through his creation of a federal budget, funded debt, a federal tax system, a national bank, a customs service, and a coast guard. His "Reports on Public Credit" and "Reports on Manufacturers" outlined his vision for economic development and government finances. He died in a duel against Aaron Burr.

United Farm Workers

Organization formed in 1962 to represent the interests of Mexican American migrant workers.

Alvin York

Became a hero in the Battle of Argonne Forest. For his bravery, he was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor.

Charles Lindbergh

Became a national hero and international celebrity when he was the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.

National Rifle Association (NRA)

Became political when it endorsed Ronald Reagan as president

18th amendment

Began Prohibition, banning the sale of alcoholic beverages.

John Hancock

Boston smuggler and prominent leader of the colonial resistance, who served as president of the Second Continental Congress.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Boycott of bus system in Montgomery, Alabama, organized by civil rights activists after the arrest of Rosa Parks.

Lusitania

British ocean liner torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat; the deaths of nearly 1,200 of its civilian passengers, including many Americans, caused international outrage.

Henry Ford

Built cars that Americans could more easily afford by introducing the assembly line method of production

Tennessee Valley Authority

Built dams for flood control and hydroelectric power in the Tennessee valley, created projects to combat erosion and deforestation.

Hillary Clinton

Prominent child care advocate and health care reformer in Clinton administration; won U.S. senate seat in 2000.

Tinker v. Des Moines

Ruled that schools would need to show evidence of the possibility of substantial disruption before students' free speech at school could be limited.

Chester Nimitz

Commander of the U.S. naval forces in the Pacific and brilliant strategist of the "island-hopping" campaign.

House Un-American Activities Committee

Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives formed in 1938; it was originally tasked with investigating Nazi subversion during the Second World War and later shifted its focus to rooting our Communists in the government and the motion-picture industry.

Roe v. Wade

Court ruled that a woman could end her pregnancy in the first three months based on her constitutional right to privacy.

Bill Gates

Created Microsoft; one of the wealthiest Americans; company produced operating software for most personal computers.

"Return to Normalcy"

Campaign promise of Republican presidential candidate Warren G. Harding in 1920, meant to contrast with Woodrow Wilson's progressiveness and internationalism.

Executive Order 9066

Camps, A presidential executive order issued during WWII by FDR that sent Japanese ethnic groups to internment camps.It was issued because of the fear for the country's safety and also Japanese-American's safety.

Reparations

Central-nation compensation that weakened the US economy and left countries without source with which to repay loans.

John Jay

Chief Justice of the United States; in 1794, George Washington sent him to negotiate a treaty with England; his treaty was a failure because it didn't mention British impressments and America had to pay Pre-Revolutionary debts. It did prevent a war with England and helped in the signing of the Pickney Treaty with Spain.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

Civil right organization formed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that championed nonviolent direct action as means ending segregation.

March on Washington

Civil rights demonstration on August 28, 2963, on the National Mall, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Al Gore Jr.

Clinton's vice-president and a candidate for the 2000 presidential election. His running caused on of the closest elections in history and a fiasco with the voting system

John F. Kennedy

Cold war and the superpower rivalry and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Used the technology of the television to tell the public about the crisis and he allowed the leaders of the Soviet Union to withdraw their missiles. Building of the Berlin Wall, the space race, and early events of the Vietnamese war. He was assassinated

Federalist Papers

Collection of eighty-five essays, published widely in newspapers in 1787 and 1788, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in support of adopting the proposed U.S. Constitution.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Congress voted to give Johnson full military powers to stop North Vietnam's aggression in the Gulf of Tonkin

Interstate Commerce Act

Congressional legislation that established the Interstate Commerce Commission, compelled railroads to publish standard rates, and prohibited rebates and pools. Railroads quickly became adept at using the Act to achieve their own ends, but the Act gave the government an important means to regulate big business.

16th amendment

Constitutional amendment that authorized the federal income tax.

19th amendment

Constitutional amendment that granted women the right to vote in 1920.

17th amendment

Constitutional amendment that provided for the direct election of senators rather than the traditional practice allowing state legislatures to name them.

National Recovery Administration

Controversial federal agency that brought together business and labor leaders to create "codes of fair competition" and "fair labor" policies, including a national minimum wage.

Multinational Corps.

Corporations with offices and factories in multiple countries, which expanded to find new markets and cheaper sources of labor. Globalization was made possible by the proliferation of these multinational corporations.

Political Machine

Corrupt organized groups that controlled political parties in the cities. A boss leads the machine and attempts to grab more votes for his party. Bosses ran the machines in the cities, they appealed to most immigrants, most were 1st and 2nd generation immigrants.

yellow fever

Deadly tropical disease conquered during the Spanish-American War by Dr. Walter Reed and other American medical researchers.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Defensive political and military alliance formed in 1949 by the United States, Canada and ten Western European nations to deter Soviet expansion in Europe.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Democratic candidate who won the 1932 election by a landslide. He refused to uphold any of Hoover's policies with the intent on enacting his own. He pledged a present a "New Deal" (its specific meaning ambiguous at the time to the American people) to the American public.

Barry Goldwater

In 1964, LBJ was opposed by this Republican Arizona senator who attacked the federal income tax, the Social Security system, the Tennessee Valley Authority, civil rights legislation, the nuclear test-ban treaty, and the Great Society

Bill Clinton

Promised Americans domestic reforms, including a comprehensive healthcare reform program, which failed. Reduced military spending after the Cold War and a rise in the computer

Alger Hiss

During the second Red Scare, he served in several government departments and was accused of being a spy for the Soviet Union. He was convicted of lying about espionage. The case was politically damaging to the Truman administration because the president called the charges against Hiss a "red herring."

Civilian Conservation Corps

Early New Deal agency that worked to solve the problems of unemployment and conservation by employing the youth in reforestation and other socially beneficial tasks

free enterprise system

Economic system where a government places very few restrictions on the types of business activities or ownership in which citizens participate. This type of system is often referred to by others as a free market, or capitalism.

Free Enterprise System

Economy where competition is allowed to flourish with a minimum of government interference. The American economy is a free enterprise.

Berlin Airlift

Effort by the United States and Great Britain to deliver massive amounts of food and supplies flown in to West Berlin in response to the Soviet land blockade of the city.

Loyalty Review Boards

Established by Truman, investigated alleged communists holding government jobs.

Office of War information

Established by the government to promote patriotism and help keep Americans united behind the war effort.

Bank Holiday

FDR closes all American banks for 4 days (Congress meets to discuss legislation); Creates a great sense of relief for the public.

Bay of Pigs

Failed CIA operation that, in April 1961, deployed a band of Cuban rebels to overthrow Fidel Castro's Communist regime.

Cesar Chavez

Farm worker, labor leader, and civil-rights activist who helped form the National Farm Workers Association, later the United Farm Workers. He helped to improve conditions for migrant farm workers and unionize them

Domino Theory

Fear that if one Southeast Asian country were to fall to communism many others would.

Securities and Exchange Commission

Federal agency established to regulate the issuance and trading of stocks and bonds in an effort to avoid financial panics and stock market "crashes."

Mendez v. Westminister

Federal case in California, challenged racial segregation in schools - segregating Mexican American students is unconstitutional

Environmental Protection Agency

Federal environmental agency created in 1970 by Nixon to appease the demands of congressional Democrats for a federal environmental watchdog agency.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Federal law that barred Chinese laborers from immigrating to America.

Dawes Act

Federal legislation that divided ancestral Native American lands among the heads of each Indian family in an attempt to "Americanize" Indians by forcing them to become farmers working individual plots of land.

American hostages taken in Iran

Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, after a group of Iranian students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

John Glenn

First American to orbit the earth

Sonia Sotomayor

First Hispanic and third woman justice in the Supreme Court's history, confirmed in August 2009.

Transcontinental Railroad

First Line across the continent from Omaha, Nebraska, to Sacramento, California, established in 1869 with the linkage of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads at Promontory, Utah.

Warren G. Harding

Promised a 'return to normalcy' after World War I. He placed emphasis on prosperity at home while steering away from foreign affairs by enacting high tariffs, refusing to join the League of Nations, and restricting immigration.

Congress of Racial equality (CORE)

First civil rights organization to use non-violent tactics to promote racial equality and desegregation

Bill of Rights

First ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1791 to guarantee individual rights and to help secure ratification of the Constitution by the states.

Declaration of Independence

Formal statement, principally drafted by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, that officially announced the thirteen colonies' break with Great Britain.

W.E.B. Du Bois

Fought for immediate implementation of African American rights. Opponent of Booker T Washington, he helped to found Niagara Movement in 1905 to fight for and establish equal rights. This movement later led to the establishment of the NAACP.

American Federation of Labor

Founded in 1881 as a national federation of trade unions made up of skilled workers. (AFL)

Sam Walton

Founder of Wal-Mart Corporation. Created a unique corporate culture; included promotional gimmicks. Anti-union policies.

Free Silver

Free, unlimited coinage of free silver, which would cause inflation. Supported by farmers, Democrats, the Populist Party, Westerners and Southerners.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

From Austria-Hungary. He and his wife visit the Bosnian city of Sarajevo. The Gen. warned him not to come b/c he would get killed. Conspirators, members of the Black Hands, waited in the streets for him to kill him b/c they wanted Bosnia to be free of Austria-Hungary and to become part of a large Serbian kingdom. Gavrilo Princep eventually succeeded in shooting both the archduke and his wife.

Political "Boss"

Gave assistance to immigrants by trading jobs and services for votes; provided jobs on city's payroll, found housing for new arrivals, gave needy gifts of foods and clothing, etc.

George Patton

General in the United States Army who helped lead the Allies to victory in the Battle of the Bulge.

George Marshall

General who was the army chief of staff who supported a plan for a major Allied invasion of France across the English Channel in the spring of 1943.

U-boat

German military submarines (Unterseeboot) used during the First World War to attack enemy naval vessels as well as merchant ships of enemy and neutral nations.

Eisenhower Doctrine

Given in a message to Congress on January 5, 1957, was the foreign policy of US President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The doctrine stated that the United States would use armed forces upon request in response to imminent or actual aggression to the United States. Furthermore, countries that took stances opposed to Communism would be given aid in various forms.

Philanthropy

Giving away a lot of money to worthy causes.

War on Terror

Global crusade to root out anti-American, anti-Western Islamist terrorist cells launched by President George W. Bush as a response to the 9/11 attacks.

Great Plains

Grassland prairie region of North America, extending from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, in Canada, south through the west-central United States into Texas. Note: Now characterized by huge ranches and farms, the Great Plains were long inhabited by Native Americans.

First Amendment

Guarantees freedoms of religion, speech, the press, assembly, and petition.

Seventh Amendment

Guarantees the right to a trial by a jury.

Teapot Dome Scandal

Harding administration scandal in which Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall profited from secret leasing of government oil reserves in Wyoming to private oil companies.

Huey Long

He began his political career in Louisiana where he developed a reputation for being an unscrupulous reformer. As a U.S. senator, he became a critic of President Roosevelt's New Deal Plan and offered his alternative: the Share-the-Wealth program. He was assassinated in 1935.

William Jennings Bryan

He delivered the pro-silver "cross of gold" speech at the 1896 Democratic Convention and won his party's nomination for president. Disappointed pro-gold Democrats chose to walk of the convention and nominate their own candidate, which split the Democratic party and cost them the White House. Bryan's loss also crippled the Populist movement that had endorsed him.

League of Nations

Organization of nations formed in the aftermath of the First World War to mediate disputes and maintain international peace; despite President Wilson's intense lobbying for the League of Nations, Congress did not ratify the treaty and the United States, failed to join.

Booker T. Washington

He founded a leading college for African Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama, and become the foremost black educator in America by the 1890s. He believed that the African American community should establish an economic base for its advancement before striving for social equality. His critics charged that his philosophy sacrifices educational and civil rights for dubious social acceptance and economic opportunities.

Samuel Gompers

He served as the president of the American Federation of Labor from its inception until his death. He focused on achieving concrete economic gains such as higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions.

Thomas Jefferson

He was a plantation owner, author, the drafter of the Declaration Independence, ambassador to France, leader of the Republican party, secretary of state, and the third president of the United States. As president, he purchased the Louisiana territory from France, withheld appointments made by President Adams lading to Marbury v. Madison, outlawed foreign slave trade, and was committed to a "wise and frugal" government.

George W. Bush

He was the Republican nominee in the election of 2000. He was the eldest son of George H. W. Bush. Many people found him to be reckless and more of a divider rather than a uniter. He challenged research on global warming, didn't support abortions, limited research on embryonic stem cells, and allowed Vice President Cheney to hammer out his administration's energy policy behind closed doors.

Henry Cabot Lodge

He was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who favored limiting America's involvement in the League of Nation's covenant and sought to amend the Treaty of Versailles.

Orval Faubus

He was the governor of Arkansas during the time of the Little Rock Crisis. He attempted to block the integration of the school by using the national guard, leading to a confrontation with the Eisenhower and ultimately integration of the school.

Marcus Garvey

He was the leasing spokesman fro Negro Nationalism, which exalted blackness, black cultural expression, and black exclusiveness. he called upon African Americans to liberate themselves from the surrounding white culture and create their own businesses, cultural centers, and newspapers. He was also the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

Alexis de Tocqueville

He wrote a two-volume Democracy in America that contained insights and pinpointed the general equality among people. He wrote that inequalities were less visible in America than France.

al-Qaeda

Shadowy terrorist network that organized 9/11 and was associated with earlier attacks on American embassies in East Africa and on the USS Cole in Yemen

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Hoping to restart the weak economy, President Obama signed this $787 billion economic stimulus bill in February 2009. The bill included cash distributions to states, funds for food stamps, unemployment benefits, construction projects to renew the nation's infrastructure, funds for renewable-energy systems, and tax reductions.

John D. Rockefeller

In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, which was his first step in creating his vast oil empire. He [perfected the idea of a holding company.

Queen Liliuokalani

In 1891, she ascended to the throne of the Hawaiian royal family and tried to eliminate white control of Hawaiian government. Two years later, Hawaii's white population revolted and seized power with the support of American marines.

Palmer Raids

In 1919, a series of unexplained bombings in the U.S. convinced Attorney General Mitchell Palmer that action was needed to prevent a radical takeover. His assistant J. Edgar Hoover directed the Palmer Raids, which resulted in the arrests of 4,000 suspects and the deportation of 600 suspects.

Jackie Robinson

In 1947, he became the first African American to play major league baseball. He won over fans and players and stimulated the integration of other professional sports

Brown v. Board of Education

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were "inherently unequal" and ordered their integration in the case Brown v. Board of Education. This overturned the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which said separate facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional.

Rosa Parks

In 1955, she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, which a local ordinance required of blacks. She was arrested for disobeying the ordinance. In response, black community leaders organized the Montgomery bus boycott.

Contract with America

In 1994, the Contract with America was introduced as a program of conservative principles arguing the government was too large. The contract was a promise by Republican candidates to the American people to restore balance between government and its citizens and was intended to get Republican candidates elected to Congress.

Isolationism

In American diplomacy, the traditional belief that the United States should refrain from involvement in overseas politics, alliances, or wars, and confine its national security interst to its own borders.

Black Tuesday

October 29, 1929. On this date, share prices on the New York Stock Exchange completely collapsed, becoming a pivotal factor in the emergence of the Great Depression.

Appeasement

In an effort to avoid open conflict with Germany, the democracies adopted this policy, which allowed Hitler to get away with relatively small acts of aggression and expansion.

Ku Klux Klan

Organized in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866 to terrorize former slaves who voted and held political offices during Reconstruction; a revived organization in the 1910s and 1920s stressed white, Anglo-Saxon, fundamentalist Protestant supremacy; the Klan revived a third time to fight the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s in the South.

Barack Obama

In the 2008 presidential election, Senator Barack Obama mounted an innovated Internet-based and grassroots-oriented campaign. As the nation's economy nosedived in the fall of 2008, Obama linked the Republican economic philosophy with the country's dismal financial state and promoted a message of "change" and "politics of hope," which resonated with voters. He decisively won the presidency and became America's first person of color to be elected president.

Jim Crow Laws

In the New South, these law mandated the separation of races in various public places that served as a way for the ruling whites to impose their will on all areas of black life.

Progressive Movement

In the early twentieth century, reformers worked to improve American society and counteract the effect of industrialization.

George H. W. Bush

Increased welfare and unemployment benefits during a recession, yielded to Democrat Congress on economic issues, signed the American with Disabilities Act, sent troops to Panama, Soviet Union collapsed in 1991: end of Cold War, sent troops to fight Saddam Hussein in the Persian Gulf War; North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Independent government agency, established to prevent back panics, that guarantees the safety of deposits in citizens' savings accounts.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

International trade organization that encourages free trade by lowering tariffs and other trade restrictions; 1947, replaced by WTO. (GATT)

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

Interracial organization formed in 1960 with the goal of intensifying the effort to end racial segregation.

Referendum

Is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is invited to vote on a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new law.

"E Pluribus Unum"

Out of many, one (the motto of the US).

Red Scare

Outbreak of anti-Communist hysteria that included the arrest without warrants of thousands of suspected radicals, most of whom (mostly Russian immigrants) were deported.

Federal Reserve Board

Oversaw a nationwide system of 12 regional reserve districts each with its own central bank and had the power to issue paper money.

Schenck v. U.S.

Justice Holmes' claim that Congress could restrict speech if the words "are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create and clear and present danger" when Schenck was convicted for mailing pamphlets urging potential army inductees to resist conscription.

fiat money

Paper money backed only by the promise of the government to accept it in payment of taxes. It originated in Massachusetts after a military emergency in 1690.

Gerald Ford

Pardoned Nixon; economy: "Whip Inflation Now" (WIN); president when Roe v. Wade was decided; continued detente policy with Soviets; Vietnam: Fall of Saigon, evacuation of US troops. Only president never to be elected to office.

Lost Generation

Label given to modernist writers and authors, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, who had lost faith in the values and institutions of Western civilization in the aftermath of the Great War.

Social Security Act

Legislation enacted to provide federal assistance to retired workers through tax-funded pension payments and benefit payments to the unemployed and disabled.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Legislation ensuring that all Americans were able to vote; the law ended literacy tests and other means of restricting voting rights.

Homestead Act

Legislation granting "homesteads" of 160 acres of government -owned land to settlers who agree to work the land for at least five years.

Federal Reserve Act

Legislation passed by Congress to create a new national banking system in order to regulate the nation's currency supply and ensure the stability and integrity of member banks who made up the Federal Reserve System across the nation.

Lend-Lease Act

Legislation that allowed the president to lend or lease military equipment to any country whose own defense was deemed vital to the defense of the United States.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Legislation that outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and employment, passed at the urging of President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Agriculture Adjustment Acts

Legislation that paid farmers to produce less in order to raise crop prices for all; the act was later declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of United States v. Butler (1936).

Great Migration

Mass exodus of African Americans from the rural South to the Northeast and Midwest during and after the First World War.

Nativists

Members of a reactionary conservative movement characterized by heightened nationalism, anti-immigration sentiment, and the enactment of laws setting stricter regulations on immigration.

Zimmermann Telegram

Message sent by a German official to the Mexican government in 1917 urging an invasion of the United States; the telegram was intercepted by British intelligence agents and angered Americans, many of whom called for war against Germany.

Black Power Movement

Militant form of civil rights protest focused on urban communities in the North and led by Malcolm X that grew as a response to impatience with the nonviolent tactics of Martin Luther King Jr.

Prohibition

National ban on the manufacture and sale of alcohol that lasted from 1920 to 1933, though the law was widely violated and proved too difficult to enforce effectively.

Open Door Policy

Official U.S. insistence that Chinese trade would be open to all nations; Secretary of State John Hay unilaterally announce the policy in 1899 in hopes of protecting the Chinese market for U.S. exports.

"In God We Trust"

Official motto of the United States of America and of the U.S. state of Florida. It was adopted as the nation's motto in 1956 as a replacement or alternative to the unofficial motto of E pluribus unum, which was adopted when the Great Seal of the United States was created and adopted in 1782.

Navajo Code Talkers

Native Americans served the country by enlisting in the armed services and working in thousands of factories across the United States. Most famous of this group, who translated U.S. code into the Native American language so that enemy forces could not decipher the content.

Immigration Acts

Nativism led Congress to restrict immigration from Europe for the first time. Immigration Acts of 1921, 1924, and 1929 were designed to keep out immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe by setting immigration quotas.

Thirteen Amendment

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the US. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Nicknamed "Ike", was a General of the Army (five star general) in the United States Army and U.S. politician, who served as the thirty-fourth President of the United States (1953-1961).As President, he oversaw the cease-fire of the Korean War, kept up the pressure on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, made nuclear weapons a higher defense priority, launched the Space Race, enlarged the Social Security program, and began the Interstate Highway System.

Vietnamization

Nixon-era policy of equipping and training South Vietnamese forces to take over the burden of combat from U.S. troops.

September 11, 2001

On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked commercial airplanes and flew them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Battle of Argonne Forest

On September 26, an American force of over 1 million soldiers advanced against the Germans in the Argonne Forest. After 42 days, the force had helped push the Germans back toward their own border and had cut the enemy's major supply lines to the front.

Fireside Chats

One of a series of radio broadcasts made by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the nation, beginning in 1933.

Hurricane Katrina

One of the deadliest hurricanes ever to hit the United States. An estimated 1,833 people died in the hurricane and the flooding that followed in late August 2005, and millions of others were left homeless along the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans.

Vernon Baker

One of the first African american soldiers to see combat ; committed heroic acts; received the Congressional Medal of Honor 52 yrs later.

Billy Graham

One of the most popular evangelical ministers of the era. Star of the first televised "crusades" for religious revival. He believed that all doubts about the literal interpretation of the bible were traps set by Satan. He supported Republicans and a large increase to money in the military.

Panama Canal Treaty

Passed by President Carter, these called for the gradual return of the Panama Canal to the people and government of Panama. They provided for the transfer of canal ownership to Panama in 1999 and guaranteed its neutrality.

Meat Inspection Act

Passed in 1906 largely in reaction to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the law set strict standards of cleanliness in the meatpacking industry

Pure Food and Drug Act

Passed in 1906, the first law to regulate manufacturing of food and medicines; prohibited dangerous additives and inaccurate labeling.

Camp David Accords

Peace agreement in 1978 between Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, the first Arab head of state to officially recognize the state of Israel.

Versailles Treaty

Peace treaty that ended the First World War, forcing Germany to dismantle its military, pay immense war reparations, and give up its colonies around the world.

initiative

People have the right to propose a new law.

Benjamin Rush

Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush argued that young women should ensure their husbands' "perseverance in the paths of rectitude" and called for loyal "republican mothers" who would instruct "their sons in the principles of liberty and government."

Langston Hughes

Poet and writer that attacked racism and inspired pride and optimism in the black community by celebrating their heritage.

Star Wars

Popular name for Reagan's proposed space-based nuclear defense system, officially called the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Dollar Diplomacy

Practice advocated by President Theodore Roosevelt in which the U.S. government fostered American investments in less-developed nations and then used U.S. military force to protect those investments.

Court-packing Plan

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's failed 1937 attempt to increase the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices from nine to fifteen in order to save his Second New Deal programs from constitutional challenges.

"Rugged Individualism"

President Herbert Hoover believed in "rugged individualism," a system in which equal opportunities, a free education, and a will to succeed spurred progress and America's greatness.

Great Society

President Johnson's far reaching domestic programs aimed at ending poverty, improving healthcare, rebuilding inner cities and providing for equality.

Roosevelt Corollary

President Theodore Roosevelt's 1904 revision of the Monroe Doctrine (1823) in which he argued that the United States could use military force in Central and South American nations to prevent European nations from intervening in the Western Hemisphere.

Fourteen Points

President Woodrow Wilson's proposed plan for the peace agreement after the First World War that included the creation of a "league of nations" intended to keep the peace.

22th amendment

Presidents are limited to a maximum of two elected terms, and only one if they succeeded an elected President and served for more than two years of that elected President's term. (This Amendment was a reaction to FDR's four elected terms, which broke the age-old tradition set by George Washington. George Washington set a two-term precedent, but it was only a tradition until this Amendment mad it the law of the land.) (1951).

DeLome Letter

Private correspondence written in 1898 by the Spanish ambassador to the U.S., Depuy de Lome, that described President McKinley as "weak"; the letter was stolen by Cuban revolutionaries and published in the New York Journal, deepening American resentment of Spain and moving the two countries closer to war in Cuba.

Victory gardens

Private gardens which American citizens were encouraged to create as a source of food during the war period.

Equal Rights Amendment

Proposed amendment to the U.S. constitution passed by Congress and submitted to the states for ratification in 1971; outlawing discrimination based on gender, it was at first seen as a great victory by women's-rights groups. The amendment fell 3 states short of the 38 required for ratification. However, many states have adopted similar amendments to their state constitutions.

liberty

Protection against tyrannical government; the federal system helped prevent the rise of an over-powerful government; American customs were devoted to the spirit of liberty.

Social Gospel Movement

Protestant movement that stressed the Christian obligation to address the mounting social problems caused by urbanization and industrialization.

American Indian Movement (AIM)

Protested against textbooks, TV shows and movies which showed anti-American Indian.

GI Bill of Rights

Provided unemployment, education, and financial benefits for World War II veterans to ease their transition back to the civilian world.

Joseph Pulitzer

Publisher of the "New York World", took advantage of the crisis in Cuba to advance his paper.

Push and Pull Factors

Push (pressures on people to leave their homes) and pull (the lure of the new lands). Poverty and inadequate land, political and religious oppression was the push. The pull was new land, industrial jobs, greater freedom abroad, faster, cheaper, easier transportation.

Ellis Island

Reception center in New York Harbor through which most European immigrants to America were processed from 1892 to 1954.

First New Deal

Refers to President FDR's first round of programs to lift the nation out of the Great Depression. The First New Deal included bills, which Congress passed beginning in 1933, to restore public confidence in the banking system (The Emergency Banking Relief Bill and the Banking Act of 1933); provide relief for the rural poor (the Agricultural Adjustment Act); and establish government control over industry (the National Industrial Recovery Act).

Second New Deal

Refers to the set of legislative initiatives passed under FDR beginning in 1935, after his court-packing scheme was rejected. These initiatives are often considered more far reaching than those passed under the First New Deal; they include the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act (which created the works Progress Administration), the National Labor Relations Act, and the Social Security Act.

Herbert Hoover

Republican candidate who assumed the presidency in March 1929 promising the American people prosperity and attempted to first deal with the Depression by trying to restore public faith in the community.

Francis Townsend

Retired physician who proposed an Old Age Revolving Pension Plan to give every retiree over age 60 $200 per month, provided that the person spend the money each month in order to receive their next payments; the object of Townsend's plan was to help retired workers as well as stimulate the spending in order to boost production and end the Depression.

Sixth Amendment

Right to a fair and speedy public trial.

Fifth Amendment

Right to a grand jury. Due process, prohibits self-incrimination, and double jeopardy.

3 R's

Roosevelt's basic philosophy of Keynesian economics manifested itself in what became known as the three "R's" of relief, recovery and reform. The programs created to meet these goals generated jobs and more importantly, hope.

Square Deal

Roosevelt's progressive agenda of the "Three C's": control of corporations, conservation of natural resources, and consumer protection.

Iran-Contra scandal begins

Scandal that erupted during the Reagan administration when it was revealed that US government agents had secretly sold arms to Iran in order to raise money to fund anti- communist "Contra" forces in Nicaragua. Those acts directly contravened an ongoing US trade embargo with Iran as well as federal legislation limiting aid to the Contras. Several Reagan administration officials were convicted of federal crimes as results.

Watergate Scandal

Scandal that exposed the criminality and corruption of the Nixon administration and ultimately led to President Nixon's resignation in 1974.

John Hay

Secretary of state in the McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt administrations; he was the author of the Open Door Notes, which attempted to protect American interests in China in the early 20th century by asking European countries to pledge equal trading rights in China and the protection of its territory from foreign annexation.

Charles Carroll

Sent to the Continental Congress from Maryland; Signer of the Declaration of Independence; Served on the Board of War during the Revolution.

Neutrality acts

Series of laws passed by Congress aimed at avoiding entering a Second World War, these included the Neutrality Act of 1935, which banned loans to warring nations.

Nuremburg Trials

Series of trials in 1945 conducted by an International Military Tribunal in which former Nazi leaders were charged with crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes

Tenement

Shabby, low-cost inner-city apartment buildings that housed the urban poor in cramped, poorly ventilated apartments.

Jane Addams

She founded and ran of one of the best known settlement houses, the Hull House. Active in the peace and suffragist movements, she established child care for working mothers, health clinics, job training, and other social programs.

Eleanor Roosevelt

She redefined the role of the presidential spouse and was the first woman to address a national political convention, write a nationally syndicated column, and hold regular press conferences. She traveled throughout the nation promoted the New Deal, women's causes, and organized labor, and to meet with African American leaders.

Sandra Day O'Conner

She was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States and was appointed by Present Reagan. Reagan's critics charged that her appointment was a token gesture and not a sign of any real commitment to gender equality.

Brain Trust

Specialists in law, economics, and welfare, many young university professors, who advised President Franklin D. Roosevelt and helped develop the policies of the New Deal.

Ninth Amendment

States that citizens have rights that aren't specifically listed in the Constitution.

Second Amendment

States that people have the right to "bear arms."

Tenth Amendment

States that the federal government has ONLY the powers given to it in the Constitution; other powers are reserved to the states or the people.

prime the pump

Stimulate or support the growth or success of something by supplying it with money.

Sweatt v. Painter

Supreme Court case stating that the attempt to create a segregated UT Law School was unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause.

Hernandez v. Texas

Supreme Court case, Mexican Americans and other racial groups have equal protection under 14th Amendment

White v. Regester

Supreme Court ruled Texas redistricting in 1970 was discriminatory against different groups in various districts.

Pearl Harbor

Surprise Japanese attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which prompted the immediate American entry into the war.

Tet Offensive

Surprise attack by Viet Cong guerillas and the North Vietnamese army on U.S. and South Vietnamese forces in 1968 that shocked the American public and led to widespread sentiment against the war.

Douglas MacArthur

Surrender the Philippines during WWII, He was the supreme allied commander during the Cold War in 1945. After World War II, MacArthur was put in charge of putting Japan back together. In the Korean War, he commanded the United Nations troops. He was later fired by Harry Truman for insubordination.Allied commander and five star general in the U.S. army. He headed the U.S. army in Japan and Korea but was fired by Truman for questioning the actions of his superiors in the midst of the Korean war.

Holocaust

Systematic racist attempt by the Nazis to exterminate the Jews of Europe, resulting in the murder of over 6 million Jews and more than a million other "undesirables."

Civil Disobedience

Tactic of defying unjust laws through peaceful actions championed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Tariff

Taxes on goods imported from other nations, typically used to protect home industries from foreign competitions and to generate revenue for the federal government.

Moral Majority

Televangelists Jerry Falwell's political lobbying organization, the name of which became synonymous with the religious right; conservative evangelical Protestants who helped ensure President Ronald Reagan's 1980 victory.

Frances Willard

Temperance movement leader and reformer that believed that the banning of alcohol would protect families, women, and children from the effects of alcohol abuse.

Stagflation

Term coined by economist during the Nixon presidency to describe the unprecedented situation of stagnant economic growth and consumer price inflation occurring at the same time.

"Silent Majority"

Term popularized by President Richard Nixon to describe the great majority of American voters who did not express their political opinions publicly-"the non-demonstrators."

Edgewood ISD v. Kirby

Texas case ending discrimination against poor school districts, redistributes property taxes equally across the state from richer districts to poorer districts

Tammany Hall

The "city machine" used by "Boss" Tweed to dominate politics in New York City until his arrest in 1871.

Roaring Twenties

The 1920s were a period of economic prosperity and changing cultural values.

Harry Truman

The 33rd U.S. president, who succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt upon Roosevelt's death in April 1945. Truman, who led the country through the last few months of World War II, is best known for making the controversial decision to use two atomic bombs against Japan in August 1945. After the war, Truman was crucial in the implementation of the Marshall Plan, which greatly accelerated Western Europe's economic recovery.

amendments

The Constitution can be amended to adjust to changing times/ attitudes.

checks and balances

The Constitution gives each branch ways to stop or "check" the power of the other two branches.

Woodrow Wilson

The Democratic representative in the presidential elections of 1912 and 1916. He was elected into the presidency as a minority president. He was born in Virginia and was raised in a very religious family. He was widely known for his political sermons. He was an aggressive leader and believed that Congress could not function properly without good leadership provided by the president. His progressive program was known as New Freedom and his foreign policy program was Moral Diplomacy. He was president during World War I.

Rough Riders

The First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, led in the War of 1898 by Theodore Roosevelt; they were victorious in their only engagement, the Battle of San Juan Hill near Santiago, Cuba, and Roosevelt was celebrated as a national hero, bolstering his political career.

Spanish-American War

War fought between the US and Spain in Cuba and the Philippines. It lasted less than 3 months and resulted in Cuba's independence as well as the US annexing Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.

Sputnik

The Soviet Union launched this first satellite into orbit on October 4, 1957. Humiliated at being upstaged by the Russians, the U.S. reshaped the educational system in efforts to produce the large numbers of scientists and engineers that Russia had. In addition, to better make scientific advancements, NASA was created in 1958. Created by Congress, it brought a national aeronautics agency to administer non-military space research and exploration.

Frances Perkins

The U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945 and the first woman ever appointed to the cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her friend Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition.

deterrent

The US Cold War policy which involved building up power and weaponry in order to make enemies fear and deter conflict.- Truman

Panama Canal

The United States built the Panama Canal to have a quicker passage to the Pacific from the Atlantic and vice versa. It cost $400,000,000 to build. Columbians would not let Americans build the canal, but then with the assistance of the United States a Panamanian Revolution occurred. The new ruling people allowed the United States to build the canal.

Immigration

The action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country.

Americanization

The action of making a person or thing American in character or nationality.

Feminist Movement

The advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to that of men.

Social Darwinism

The application of Charles Darwin's theory of evolutionary natural selection to human society; social Darwinist used the concept of "survival of the fittest' to justify class distinctions, explain poverty, and oppose government intervention in the economy.

James Madison

The author of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, Madison was also the father of the Federalist party and the fourth President of the United States. He was President during the war of 1812 and was also Vice-President under Jefferson. He was a great statesman but was not a strong president.

Robotics

The branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, and application of robots.

Western Front

The contested frontier between the Central and Allied Powers that ran along northern France and across Belgium.

Genetic Engineering

The deliberate modification of the characteristics of an organism by manipulating its genetic material.

38th parallel

The dividing line between North and South Korea, across which the fighting between communists and United Nations forces ebbed and flowed during the Korean War.

National Market

The domestic marketplace for goods and services operating within the borders of and governed by the regulations of a particular country. The health of its home country's national market in terms of the supply and demand for the product that a business offers can be a strong determinant of its success.

supply-side economics

The economic theory of "Reaganomics" that emphasized cutting taxes and government spending in order to stimulate investment, productivity, and economic growth by private enterprise.

Presidential Election of 2008

The election was the first in which an African American was elected President. It was also the first time two sitting senators ran against each other. The 2008 election was the first in 56 years in which neither an incumbent president nor a vice president ran — Bush was constitutionally limited from seeking a third term by the Twenty-second Amendment; Vice President Dick Cheney chose not to seek the presidency. It was also the first time the Republican Party nominated a woman for Vice President (Sarah Palin, then-Governor of Alaska). Additionally, it was the first election in which both major parties nominated candidates who were born outside of the contiguous United States. Voter turnout for the 2008 election was the highest in at least 40 years.

Reaganomics

The federal economic polices of the Reagan administration, elected in 1981. These policies combined a monetarist fiscal policy, supply-side tax cuts, and domestic budget cutting. Their goal was to reduce the size of the federal government and stimulate economic growth.

Women's Liberation Movement

The feminist movement (also known as the Women's Movement, Women's Liberation, or Women's Lib) refers to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment and sexual violence.

Articles of Confederation

The first form of government for the United States, ratified by the original thirteen states in 1781; weak in central authority, it was replaced by the U.S. Constitution in 1789.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

The first law to limit monopolies in the United States. This wanted to create a fairer competition in the workforce and to limit any take-over's of departments of merchandise.

individualism

The government did not direct individual activity (as it did in Europe); people believed they could rise in society.

Unalienable rights

The idea that all people have the same rights from birth. Life, Liberty and Property-from John Locke in social contract originally and adapted by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration and changed to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

French and Indian War

The last-and most important-of four colonial wars fought between England and France for control of North America east of the Mississippi River.

Adolf Hitler

The leader of the Nazis who advocated a violent anti-Semitic, anti-Marxist, pan-German ideology. He started Wold War II in Europe and orchestrated the systematic murder of some 6 million Jews along with more than a million others.

Malcolm X

The most articulate spokesman for black power. Originally the chief disciple of Elijah Muhammad, the black Muslim leader in the United States, Malcolm X broke away and founded his own organization committed to establishing relations between African Americans and the nonwhite peoples of the world. Near the end of his life, he began to preach a biracial message of social change. In 1964, he was assassinated by members of a rival group of black Muslims.

Harlem Renaissance

The nation's first self-conscience black literary and artistic movement; it was centered in New York's Harlem district, which had a largely black population in the wake of the Great Migration from the South.

populism (popular sovereignty)

The participation of the common people in political life.

recall

The people can petition and vote to have an elected official removed from office.

republicanism

The people elect representatives to represent them.

Big Stick Diplomacy

The policy held by Teddy Roosevelt in foreign affairs. The "big stick" symbolizes his power and readiness to use military force if necessary. It is a way of intimidating countries without actually harming them.

federalism

The powers of government are divided between the national government and the states.

Limited government

The powers of the federal government are limited to those provided in the Constitution.

separation of powers

The powers of the government are divided among three separate branches.

Popular sovereignty

The powers of the government come from the consent of the governed.

Child Labor

The practice of sending children to work in mines, mills, and factories, often in unsafe conditions; widespread among poor families in the late nineteenth century.

Assimilation

The process by which a person or persons acquire the social and psychological characteristics of a group.

speculation

The purchase of any item in the hope of selling it later at a higher price in stocks and real estate

protectorate

The relation of a strong nation to a weak one under its control and protection.

Fifteenth Amendment

The right of citizens of the US to vote shall not be denied due to race. Man of every race has the right to vote.

Neutrality

The state of not taking sides, especially in a war or dispute. This policy was pursued early in World War I. Under it, the American economy flourished and grew because of its trade with belligerents. The United States refused to take sides in the Great War.

Demography

The study of statistics such as births, deaths, income, or the incidence of disease, which illustrate the changing structure of human populations.

Spoils system

The term-meaning the filling of federal government jobs with persons loyal to the party of the president-originated in Andrew Jackson's first term; the system was replaced in the Progressive Era by civil service.

Computer Revolution

The tremendous impact computers have on society. There have been four computer revolutions. The first was when computers began to proliferate in the 1960s, which transformed business around the world. The second started in the late 1970s when consumers became computer customers for the first time. Without personal computers, the Internet, the third revolution, would not have flourished. The fourth revolution began with smartphones and tablets. Each revolution changed society in myriad ways.

Imperialism

The use of diplomatic or military force to extend a nation's power and enhance its economic interests, often by acquiring territory or colonies and justifying such behavior with assumptions of racial superiority.

American Revolution

The war between Great Britain and its American colonies, 1775-83, by which the colonies won their independence.

Civil War

The war fought in the United States between northern (Union) and southern (Confederate) states from 1861 to 1865, in which the Confederacy sought to establish itself as a separate nation.

Foreign Policy

The way in which it interacts with foreign nations and sets standards of interaction for its organizations, corporations and system citizens of the United States.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Thirteen-day U.S.-Soviet standoff in October 1962, sparked by the discovery of Soviet missile sites in Cuba; the crisis was the closest the world has come to nuclear war since 1945.

Platt Amendment

This amendment to the new Cuban constitution authorized U.S. intervention in Cuba to protect its interests. Cuba pledged not to make treaties with other countries that might compromise its independence, and it granted naval bases to the United States, most notable being Guantanamo Bay.

Chicano Mural Movement

This began in the 1960s in Mexican-American barrios throughout the Southwest. Artists began using the walls of city buildings, housing projects, schools, and churches to depict Mexican-American culture

War on Poverty

This included health, education and welfare programs that Congress passed in 1964 and 1965. The original idea came under Kennedy and was continued under L. Johnson when it became a part of his "Great Society." The Council of Economic Advisers was closely related to actions regarding this term including the Economic Opportunity Act, the Job Corps, and the Community Action Program. All of these acts helped to combat poverty and help the poor in various ways.

Mao Zedong

This man became the leader of the Chinese Communist Party and remained its leader until his death. He declared the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and supported the Chinese peasantry throughout his life.

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

This oil cartel doubled their petroleum charges in 1979, helping American inflation rise well above 13%.

Sun Belt

This region consists of a broad band of states running across the South from Florida to Texas, extending west and north to include California and the Pacific Northwest. Beginning in the 1970s, this area experienced rapid economic growth and major gains in population.

Vietnam War

This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other capitalist nations.

Dust Bowl

Vast area of the Midwest where windstorms blew away millions of tons of topsoil from parched farmland after a long drought in the 1930s, causing great social distress and a massive migration of farm families.

Tuskegee Airman

U.S. Army Air Corps unit of African American pilots whose combat success spurred military and civilian leaders to desegregated the armed forces after the war.

Dr. William Gorgas

U.S. Army surgeon who contributed greatly to the building of the Panama Canal by introducing mosquito control to prevent yellow fever and malaria.

Martin Luther King Jr.

U.S. Baptist minister and civil rights leader. A noted orator, he opposed discrimination against blacks by organizing nonviolent resistance and peaceful mass demonstrations. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Nobel Peace Prize (1964).

Plessy v. Ferguson

U.S. Supreme Court decision supporting the legality of Jim Crow laws that permitted or required separate but equal facilities for blacks and whites.

Containment Policy

U.S. cold war strategy that sough to prevent global Soviet expansion and influence through political, economic, and, if necessary, military pressure as a means of combating the spread of communism.

Monroe Doctrine

U.S. foreign policy that barred further colonization in the Western Hemisphere by European powers and pledged that there would be no American interference with any existing European colonies.

Delgado v. Bastrop

US Federal District court ruled the segregation of Mexican American students was illegal

William R. Hearst

United States newspaper publisher whose introduction of large headlines and sensational reporting changed American journalism (1863-1951).

Dorothea Lange

United States photographer remembered for her portraits of rural workers during the Depression (1895-1965).

John Steinbeck

United States writer noted for his novels about agricultural workers. Wrote "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Of Mice and Men".

Rust Belt

Urban areas in New England and Middle West characterized by concentrations of declining industries (steel or textiles).

John J. Pershing

Was an American general who led troops against "Pancho" Villa in 1916. He took on the Meuse-Argonne offensive in 1918 which was one of the longest lasting battles- 47 days in World War I. He was the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War I.

Thomas Edison

Was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb.

Glenn Curtis

Was an early aviation pioneer whose innovations marked the birth of U.S. naval aviation

Jacob Riis

Was an early muckraking journalist who exposed the slum conditions in New York in his book How the Other Half Lives.

Alexander Bell

Was an eminent Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone.

New Immigrants

Wave of newcomers from southern and eastern Europe including many Jews, who become a majority among immigrants to America after 1890.

Robber Barons

Were American business men who used there power to develop industrial Monopolies and become extremely wealthy. They also used their money to pay of many government officials to keep quiet. This ended up leading to the 2nd corrupt bargain.

counterculture

White middle-class youths, called hippies. New Left, against Vietnam War, turned back on America because they believed in a society based on peace and love. rock'n'roll, colorful clothes, and the use of drugs, lived in large groups. lived in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbuy district because of the availability of drugs.

USA Patriot Act

Wide-reaching Congressional legislation, triggered by the war on terror, which gave government agencies the right to eavesdrop on confidential conversations between prison inmates and their lawyers and permitted suspected terrorists to be tried in secret military courts.

Great Depression

Worst economic downturn in American history; it was spurred by the stock market crash in the fall of 1929 and lasted until the Second World War.

Financial Crisis of 2008

Worst financial crisis since Great Depression; real estate, banks, insurance companies collapse, and affects global economies

Upton Sinclair

Writer who wrote The Jungle. While intending to reveal the plight of the worker, he revealed the unsanitary conditions where meat was created, which prompting Roosevelt to pass the Meat Inspection Act.

Muckrackers

Writers who exposed corruption and abuses in politics, business, consumer safety, working conditions, and more, spurring public interest in progressive reforms.

Alfred T. Mahan

Wrote The Influence of Sea Power upon History, which argued that control of the sea was the key to world dominance;it stimulated the naval race among the great powers.

Flapper

Young women of the 1920's whose rebellion against prewar standards of femininity included wearing shorter dresses, bobbing their hair, dancing to jazz music, driving cars, smoking cigarettes, and indulging in illegal drinking and gambling.

President

[Executive] Elected commander in chief of the United States.

Supreme Court

[Judicial] The highest federal court in the US, consisting of nine justices and taking judicial precedence over all other courts in the nation.

Congress

[Legislative] A national legislative body, especially that of the US. The US Congress, which meets at the Capitol in Washington DC, was established by the Constitution of 1787 and is composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Corporation

a company or group of people authorized to act as a single entity (legally a person) and recognized as such in law.

Mexican-American Repatriation

a forced migration that took place between 1929 and 1939, when as many as one million people of Mexican descent were forced or pressured to leave the US. (The term "Repatriation," though commonly used, is inaccurate, since approximately 60% of those driven out were minor dependents born in the U.S. and citizens under current interpretation.)The event, carried out by American authorities, took place without due process. The Immigration and Naturalization Service targeted Mexicans because of "the proximity of the Mexican border, the physical distinctiveness of mestizos, and easily identifiable barrios."

Beat Generation

a group of young writers, rebelled against conformity. These authors were later called the "Beatniks."

Venona Papers

a list of names deciphered from code names contained in the Venona project, an American government effort from 1943-1980 to decrypt coded messages by intelligence forces of the Soviet Union.

"McCarthyism"

a vociferous campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy in the period 1950-54. Many of the accused were blacklisted or lost their jobs, although most did not in fact belong to the Communist Party.

Persian Gulf War

after Iraq invaded Kuwait, the US invaded Iraq to liberate Kuwait; Iraq set Kuwait's oil fields on fire so the Americans couldn't gain the oil; this conflict caused the US to set military bases in Saudi Arabia; also called Operation: Desert Storm

"Letter from the Birmingham Jail"

also known as the Letter from Birmingham City Jail and The Negro Is Your Brother, is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. The letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism.

Black Panthers

an African-American organization established to promote Black Power and self-defense through acts of social agitation.

Blitzkreig

an intense military campaign intended to bring about a swift victory.

Union

an organized association of workers formed to protect and further their rights and interests; a labor union.

Pentagon

headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

Roy Benavidez

saved the lives of eight men, earning him a Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery.

arms race

competition between two or more parties for military supremacy. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation. the most prominent instance of such a competition was the rapid development by the United States and the Soviet Union of more and better nuclear weapons during the Cold War ( nuclear arms race).

Robert Johnson

first African American billionaire and founder of Black Entertainment Television

National Organization for Women (NOW)

founded by Betty Friedan; organization formed to work for economic and legal rights of women; demanded equality in educational and job opportunities, wages, and political representation; creation of childcare facilities; wanted Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforce its legal mandate to end sex discrimination

24th Amendment

eliminates literacy tests and poll taxes when voting

Fall of Saigon

final assault of north vietnamese on south Vietnam's capital city in 1975; occasion of surrender of South Vietnam

United Nations

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

World Trade Center

large complex of seven buildings in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. It featured the landmark Twin Towers, which opened on April 4, 1973, and were destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks

26th Amendment

lowered voting age to 18

Peace Through Strength

military power can help preserve peace.

Sit-in Movement

movement began in Greensboro, North Carolina when 4 African American students sat at a "Whites Only" lunch counter.

Little Rock Nine

nine black students enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957 testing a landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional

War Bonds

treasury department bond-selling drives that raised about $21 billion to provide most of the funds to finance the American war effort

Cold War

period of political, military, economic, and ideological tension between Western democratic nations led by the US and Eastern communist countries led by the Soviet Union (USSR) from around 1947 to 1991.

16th Street Baptist Church

racially motivated terrorist attack on September 15, 1963, by members of a Ku Klux Klan group in Birmingham, Alabama in the United States. The bombing of the African-American church resulted in the deaths of four girls. Although city leaders had reached a settlement in May with demonstrators and started to integrate public places, not everyone agreed with ending segregation. Other acts of violence followed the settlement. The bombing increased support for people working for civil rights.

Jimmy Carter

relinquished US control of the Panama Canal, Camp David Accords-negotiated peace between Israel and Egypt; chemical contamination emergency in Love Canal; final part of term marred by Iran Hostage Crisis. Has spent his retirement in volunteerism.

Lyndon B. Johnson

signed the civil rights act of 1964 into law and the voting rights act of 1965. he had a war on poverty in his agenda. in an attempt to win, he set a few goals, including the great society, the economic opportunity act, and other programs that provided food stamps and welfare to needy famillies. he also created a department of housing and urban development. his most important legislation was probably medicare and medicaid.

Heritage Foundation

sought to promote conservative policies and attempted to influence legislators to pass conservative legislation

Reagan Doctrine

stating that the U.S. would try to "roll back" communism in the Middle East and Asia.

Wisconsin v. Yoder

struck down a state law requiring Amish children to attend school past 8th grade (violation of freedom of religion)

Civil Rights Movement

struggle by African Americans in the mid-1950s to late 1960s to achieve Civil Rights equal to those of whites, including equal opportunity in employment, housing, and education, as well as the right to vote, the right of equal access to public facilities

Calvin Coolidge

taciturn, pro-business president (1923-1929) who took over after Harding's death, restored honesty to government, and accelerated the tax cutting and anti regulation policies of his predecessor; his laissez-faire policies brought short-term prosperity from 1923 to 1929.

Island Hopping

the American navy attacked islands held by the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean. The capture of each successive island from the Japanese brought the American navy closer to an invasion of Japan.

D-Day

the day (June 6, 1944) in World War II on which Allied forces invaded northern France by means of beach landings in Normandy.

Iron Curtain

the notional barrier separating the former Soviet bloc and the West prior to the decline of communism that followed the political events in eastern Europe in 1989.

Anti-War Movement

was a student protest that started as the Free Speech movement in California and spread around the world. All members of the Anti-War Movement shared an opposition to war in Vietnam and condemned U.S. presence there. They claimed this was violating Vietnam's rights.

Betty Friedman

wrote that women were as capable as men and should be permitted to compete for the same jobs in her book The Feminine Mystique.