U.S. History Terms + Additional Terms

William McKinley

Republican candidate who defeated William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 presidential election. A supporter of big business, McKinley pushed for high protective tariffs. Under his leadership, the U.S. became an imperial world power. He was assassinated by an anarchist in 1901.

Ronald Reagan

Republican, president from 1981 to 1989. His presidency revolved around two goals: economic prosperity and victory in the Cold War. Reagan initiated major tax cuts and a massive military buildup.

Richard Nixon

Republican, served as president from 1969 until his resignation on August 9, 1974. Nixon oversaw a moderately conservative domestic program; gradually pulled troops out of Vietnam; and improved relations with the nation's communist enemies. He resigned from office after being implicated in the Watergate scandal.

George Bush

Republican, vice president to Ronald Reagan and president of the United States from 1989 to 1993. His presidency was marked by economic recession and U.S. involvement in the Gulf War.

Hayes-Tilden Compromise

Resolved the conflict arising from the election of 1876, in which Democrat Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote but Republican leaders contested some states' election returns, thereby ensuring Republican Rutherford B. Hayes's victory. To minimize protest from the Democratic Party, Republicans agreed to end Reconstruction by removing federal troops from the last two occupied states in the South.

Missouri Compromise

Resolved the conflict surrounding the admission of Missouri to the Union as either a slave or free state. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 made Missouri a slave state, admitted Maine as a free state, and prohibited slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Territory.

Federal Reserve Board ("The Fed")

Responsible for making monetary policy in the United States. The Fed operates mainly through the mechanisms of buying and selling government bonds and adjusting the interest rates. During the Great Depression, the Fed was given greater power and freedom to directly regulate the economy.

Tariff of Abominations

Name given by Southern politicians to the 1828 tariff because it seriously hurt the South's economy while benefiting Northern and Western industrial interests. Resistance to the tariff in South Carolina led to the Nullification Crisis.

Bull Moose party

Name given to the Progressive party in the 1912 presidential campaign; Bull Moose candidate ex-president Theodore Roosevelt ran against incumbent president William Howard Taft and Democrat Woodrow Wilson, with Wilson emerging victorious.

McCarthyism

Named After Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, the title given for the movement that took place during the late 1940s and early 1950s in American politics to root out potential communist influence in the government, the military, and the entertainment industry. Harsh tactics were often used by congressional investigations, with few actual communists ever discovered. This period is seen by many today as an era of intolerance and paranoia.

Tenements

Narrow, four- or five-story buildings with few windows and limited electricity and plumbing. Housing mostly poor ethnic minorities and immigrants, tenements were common during the Industrial Age due to a dramatic increase in the urban poor population.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

National labor union founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886; original goal was to organize skilled workers by craft. Merged with Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1955.

Henry Kissinger

National security adviser and, later, secretary of state under President Nixon. A major proponent of détente, Kissinger often met secretly with communist leaders in efforts to improve East-West cooperation.

American Indian Movement (AIM)

Native American organization founded in 1968 to protest government policies and injustices suffered by Native Americans; in 1973 organized armed occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

Camp David Accords

Negotiaged by President Carter, the Camp David Accords were signed by Israel's leader, Menachem Begin, and Egypt's leader, Anwar el-Sadat, on March 26, 1979. The treaty, however, fell apart when Sadat was assassinated by Islamic fundamentalists in 1981.

Works of Progress Administration (WPA)

New Deal program established in 1935 whose goal was to give out jobs as quickly as possible, even though the wages paid by them were relatively low. Roads and public buildings were constructed by their work crews; at the same time, its authors wrote state guidebooks, artists painted murals in newly constructed public buildings, and musicians performed in large cities and small towns across the country.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

New Deal program that began in 1933, putting nearly 3 million young men to work; workers were paid little, but worked on conservation projects and maintaining beaches and parks. CCC program for young women began in 1937.

Jazz Age

Nickname for the 1920s due to the development and flourishing of jazz music, as well as the highly publicized (if exaggerated) accounts of wild parties, drinking, and dancing.

Baby boom

Nickname for the 1950s, when economic prosperity caused U.S. population to swell from 150 million to 180 million.

Carpetbaggers

Nickname given to northerners who moved South during Reconstruction in search of political and economic opportunity. The term was coined by Southern Democrats, who said that these northern opportunists had left home so quickly that they were able to carry all their belongings in rough suitcases made from carpeting materials.

Scottsboro Boys

Nine black young men who were accused of raping two white women in a railway boxcar in Scottsboro, Arizona, in 1931. Quick trials, suppressed evidence, and inadequate legal council made them symbols of the discrimination that faced blacks on a daily basis during this era.

bias

No historical writing can be totally objective; observers are always influenced by either conscious or unconscious bias. Conscious bias might be a flattering biography of Lincoln written by an abolitionist in 1865, or an unflattering biography of Lincoln written by a southerner in the same year. Unconscious bias may be created by one's education, predispositions toward the subject, or even one's race or gender.

The Beats

Nonconformist writers such as Allan Ginsberg, the author of Howl (1956), and Jack Kerouac, who penned On the Road (1957). The Beats rejected uniform middle-class culture and sought to overturn the sexual and social conservatism of the period.

Suez Canal

North-south waterway in Egypt that connects the Mediterranean and the Red Seas. In 1956, the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser tried to nationalize the canal, which had been owned by British and French interests. In response, Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt. The U.S., United Nations, and USSR condemned the intervention and pressured the forces to withdraw in November 1956.

Battle of Concord

Occurred on April 19, 1775, between British regulars and Massachusetts militiamen. Almost 275 British soldiers were wounded or died; as a result, a wider conflict between the colonies and the British became much more probable.

Teapot Dome scandal

Occurred when President Harding's secretary of the interior, Albert B. Fall, secretly leased government oil reserves to two businessmen in exchange for a $400,000 payment. The scandal was exposed after Harding's death in 1923, and came to symbolize government corruption.

Saturday Night Massacre

October 20, 1973, event when Richard Nixon ordered the firing of Archibald Cox, the special investigator in charge of the Watergate investigation. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and several others in the Justice Department refused to carry out this order and resigned. This event greatly damaged Nixon's popularity, both in the eyes of the public and in the Congress.

American Expeditionary Force

Official title of the American army sent to Europe to aid England and France after the United States entered World War I; army was commanded by General John J. Pershing.

GI Bill

Officially called the Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944, this legislation gave many benefits to returning World War II veterans, including financial assistance for veterans wanting to go to college or enter other job training programs, special loan programs for veterans wanting to buy homes or businesses, and preferential treatment for veterans who wished to apply for government jobs.

Mayflower Compact

Often cited as the first example of self-government in the Americas. The Pilgrims, having arrived at a harbor far north of the land that was rightfully theirs, signed the Mayflower Compact to establish a "civil body politic" under the sovereignty of James I.

Korean War

On June 24, 1950, troops from the Soviet-supported People's Democratic Republic of Korea, known as North Korea, invaded the Republic of Korea, known as South Korea. Without asking for a declaration of war, Truman committed U.S. troops as part of a United Nations "police action." The Korean War was conducted by predominantly American forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. Limited fighting continued until June 1953, when an armistice restored the prewar border between North and South Korea.

Tiananmen Square

On June 3 and 4, 1989, China's communist army brutally crushed a pro-democracy protest in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China significantly soured as a result of the attack.

Salem Witch Trials

120 men, women, and children were arrested for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692; 19 of these were executed. A new governor appointed by the Crown stopped additional trials and executions; several historians note the class nature of the witch trials, as many of those accused were associated with the business and/or commercial interests in Salem, wile most of the accusers were members of the farming class.

Navigation Acts

1660 measures passed by Charles II that were designed to increase the dependence of the colonies on England for trade. Charles mandated that certain goods produced in the colonies, such as tobacco, should be sold only to England, that if the colonists wanted to sell anything to other countries it had to come through England first, and that all trade by the colonies to other countries would have to be done in English ships. These measures could have been devastating to the colonies; however, British officials in the colonies did not enforce them carefully.

Queen Anne's War

1702 to 1713 war, called the War of the Spanish Succession in European texts, pitted England against France and Spain. Spanish Florida was attacked by the English in the early part of this war, and Native Americans fought for both sides in the conflict. The British emerged victorious and in the end received Hudson Bay and Nova Scotia from the French.

Stono Rebellion

1739 slave rebellion in South Carolina where over 75 slaves killed white citizens and marched through the countryside with captured guns. After the rebellion was quashed, discipline imposed by many slave owners was much harsher. This was the largest slave rebellion of the 1700s in the colonies.

Albany Congress

1754 meeting of representatives of seven colonies to coordinate their efforts against French and Native American threats in the Western frontier regions.

Currency Act

1764 British act forbidding the American colonies to issue paper money as legal tender; act was repealed in 1773 by the British as an effort to ease tensions between themselves and the colonies.

Sugar Act

1764 British law which lowered the duty on foreign-produced molasses as an attempt to discourage colonial smuggling. The Sugar Act further stipulated that Americans could export many commodities—including lumber, iron, skins, and whalebone—to foreign countries only if the goods passed through British ports first. The terms of the act and its methods of enforcement outraged many colonists.

Quartering Act

1765 British edict stating that to help defend the empire; colonial governments had to provide accommodation and food for British troops. Many colonists considered this act to be the ultimate insult; they perceived that they were paying for the troops that were there to control colonies.

Declaratory Act

1766 British law stating that the Parliament had absolute right to tax the colonies as they saw fit and to make laws that would be enacted in the colonies. Ironically issued at the same time as the repeal of the Stamp Act.

Townsend Acts

1767 Parliamentary act that forced colonists to pay duties on most goods coming from England, including tea and paper, and increased the power of custom boards in the colonies to ensure that these duties were paid. These duties were despised and fiercely resisted in many of the colonies; in Boston resistance was so fierce that the British were forced to occupy Boston with troops. The acts were finally repealed in 1770.

Tea Act

1773 act by Parliament that would provide the American colonies with cheap tea, but at the same time would force the colonies to admit that Parliament had a right to tax them. The Sons of Liberty acted against this measure in several colonies, with the most dramatic being the Boston Tea Party. Parliament responded with the harsh Coercive Acts.

Declaration of Rights and Grievances

1774 measure adopted by the First Continental Congress, stating that Parliament had some rights to regulated colonial trade with Britain, but that the Parliament did not have the right to tax the colonies without their consent.

Report on the Public Credit

1790 report by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, in which he proposed that the federal government assume the entire amount of the nation's debt (including state debt), and that the federal government should have an increased role in the nation's economy. Many of America's early leaders vigorously opposed the expansion of federal economic power in the new republic and the expansion of American industry that Hamilton also promoted.

Jay's Treaty

1794 treaty between the United States and Great Britain designed to ease increasing tensions between the two nations; the British did make some concessions to the Americans, including abandoning forts they occupied in the interior of the continent.However, Britain refused to make concessions to America over the rights of American ships; tensions over this issue would eventually be a cause of the War of 1812.

Jay's Treaty

1795 treaty which provided for the removal of British troops from American land and opened up limited trade with the British West Indies, but said nothing about British seizure of American ships or the impressment of American sailors. While the American public criticized the treaty for favoring Britain, it was arguably the greatest diplomatic feat of the Washington administration, since it preserved peace with Britain.

Judiciary Act

1801 bill passed by the Federalist Congress just before the inauguration of President Thomas Jefferson; Federalists in this bill attempted to maintain control of the judiciary by reducing the number of Supreme Court judges (so Jefferson probably wouldn't be able to name the replacement) and by increasing the number of federal judges ( who President Adams appointed before he left office). Bill was repealed by new Congress in 1802.

Marbury v. Madison

1803 decision of this case written by Chief Justice John Marshall established the principal of judicial review, meaning that the Supreme Court ultimately has the power to decide if any federal or state law is unconstitutional.

Twelfth Amendment

1804 amendment the established separate balloting in the Electoral College for president and vice president. This amendment was passed as as result of the electoral deadlock of the 1800 presidential election, when Thomas Jefferson and his "running mate" Aaron Burr ended up with the same numbers of votes in the Electoral College; the House of Representatives finally decided the election in favor of Jefferson.

Lewis and Clark Expidition

1804 and 1806 mission sent by Thomas Jefferson to explore and map the newly acquired Louisiana territory and to create good relations with various Native American tribes within the territory. Reports brought back indicated that settlement was possible in much of the region, and that the Louisiana territory was well worth what had been paid for it.

Treaty of Ghent

1814 treaty between the United States an d Great Britain ending the War of 1812; treaty restored diplomatic relations between the two countries but did nothing to address the issues that had initially caused the war.

Tallmadge Amendment

1819 amendment to the bill for Missouri's admission to the Union. Proposed by Representative Tallmadge, the amendment sought to prohibit the further introduction of slaves into Missouri and would have mandated the emancipation of slaves' children. The proposal was blocked by the Senate, but it sparked intense congressional debate over the balance of slave and free states. In 1821, Congress reached a compromise for Missouri's admission known as the Missouri Compromise.

Gibbons v. Ogden

1824 Supreme Court case involving state versus federal licensing rights for passenger ships between New York and New Jersey. A devoted Federalist, Chief Justice Marshall ruled that the states could not interfere with Congress's right to regulate interstate commerce. He interpreted "commerce" broadly to include all business, not just the exchange of goods.

Webster-Hayne Debate

1830 Senate debate between Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Senator Robert Hayne of South Carolina over the issue of state's rights and whether an individual state has the right to nullify federal legislation. Webster skillfully outlined the dangers to the United States that would be caused by the practice of nullification; this debate perfectly captured many of the political divisions between North and South that would increase in the 1830s through the 1860s.

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia

1831 Supreme Court case in which the Cherokee tribe claimed that Georgia had no right to enforce laws in Cherokee territory, since Cherokee were a sovereign nation; ruling by Marshall stated that Cherokees were a "domestic dependent nation" and had no right to appeal in federal court.

Force Act

1832 legislation that gave President Andrew Jackson the power to invade any state if that action was necessary to enforce federal law; bill was response to nullification of federal tariff regulation by the legislature of South Carolina.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

1852 novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that depicted all of the horrors of Southern slavery in great detail. The book went through several printings in the 1850s and early 1860s and helped fuel abolitionist sentiment in the North.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 compromise legislation crafted by Stephan Douglas that allowed the settlers in Kansas and Nebraska territories to decide if those territories would be slave or free. Bill caused controversy and bloodshed throughout these territories; in the months before the vote in Kansas, large numbers of "settlers" moved in to influence the vote, and after the vote (won by pro-slavery forces), violence between the two sides intensified.

Harpers Ferry

1859 raid on a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, led by John Brown. Twenty-one men seized a federal arsenal in a failed attempt to incite a slave rebellion. Brown was caught and hanged.

Crittenden Plan

1860 compromise proposal on the slavery issue designed to defuse tension between North and South; would have allowed slavery to continue in the South and would have denied Congress the power to regulate interstate slave trade. On the advice of newly elected President Lincoln, Republicans in Congress voted against it.

Homestead Act

1862 enactment by Congress that gave 160 acres of publicly owned land to a farmer who lived on the land and farmed it for two years. The provisions of this bill inspired hundreds of thousands of Americans to move westward in the years after the Civil War.

Morrill Land-Grant Act

1862 federal act designed to fund state "land-grant" colleges. State governments were given large amounts of land in the western territories; this land was sold to individual settlers, land speculators, and others, and the profits of these land sales could be used to establish the colleges.

Thirteenth Amendment

1865 amendment abolishing slavery in the United States and all of its territories (the Emancipation Proclamation had only ended slavery in the Confederate states). Final approval of this amendment depended on ratification by newly constructed legislatures in eight states that were former members of the Confederacy.

Tenure of Office Act

1867 congressional act designed to limit the influence of President Andrew Johnson. The act took away the president's role as commander in chief of American military forces and stated that Congress had to approve the removal of government officials made by the president. In 1868 Johnson attempted to fire Secretary of War Stanton without congressional approval, thus helping set the stage for his impeachment hearings later that year.

Battle of the Little Bighorn

1876 Montana battle where Colonel George Custer and more than 200 of his men were killed by a group of Cheyenne and Lakota warriors. This was the last major victory by the Native American forces over a U.S. army unit.

Timber and Stone Act

1878 bill that allowed private citizens to purchase forest territory in Oregon, Washington, California, and Nevada. Although the intent of the bill was to encourage settlement in these areas, lumber companies purchased large amounts of these land claims from the individuals who had originally purchased them.

Pendleton Civil Service Act

1883 act that established a civil service system; there were a number of government jobs that were filled by civil service examinations and not by the president appointing one of his political cronies. Some states also started to develop professional civil service systems in the 1880s.

Haymarket riot

1886 rally in Chicago to protest police brutality against striking workers. The rally became violent after someone threw a bomb, killing seven policemen and prompting a police backlash. After the riot, leaders of the Knights of Labor were arrested and imprisoned, and public support for the union cause plunged.

Dawes Act

1887 act designed to break up Native American tribes, offered Native American families 160 acres of farmland or 320 acres of farmland for grazing. Large amounts of tribal lands were not claimed by the Native Americans, and thus were purchased by land speculators.

Sherman Antitrust Act

1890 congressional legislation designed to break up industrial trusts such as the one created by John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil. The bill stated that any combination of businesses that was "in the restraint of trade" was illegal. Because of the vagueness of the legislation and the lack of enforcement tools in the hands of the federal government, few trusts were actually prosecuted as a result of this bill.

Homestead strike

1892 Pittsburgh steel workers' strike against the Carnegie Steel Company to protest a pay cut and 70-hour workweek. Ten workers were killed in a riot that began when 300 "scabs" from New York (Pinkerton detectives) arrived to break the strike. Federal troops were called in to suppress the violence.

Pullman strike

1894 strike against the Chicago-based Pullman Palace Car Company after wages were slashed and union representatives were fired. Led by Eugene Debs, the boycott completely crippled railroad traffic in Chicago. The courts ruled that the strikers had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and issued an injunction against them. When the strikers refused to obey the injunction, Debs was arrested and federal troops marched in to crush the strike. In the ensuing frenzy, thirteen died and fifty-three were injured.

reconcentration

1896 Spanish policy designed to control the Cuban people by forcing them to live in fortified camps; American outrage over this leads some politicians to call for war against Spain.

McCulloch v. Maryland

1896 Supreme Court case that determined states could not tax federal institutions such as the Second Bank of the United States. The ruling asserted that the federal government wielded supreme power in its sphere and that no states could interfere with the exercise of federal powers. The ruling angered many Republicans, who favored states' rights.

Food and Drug Act

1906 bill that created a federal Food and Drug Administration; example of consumer protection legislation of the progressive era, it was at least partially passed as a result of Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle.

Webb Alien Land Law

1913 California law that prohibited Japanese who were not American citizens from owning farmland in California. This law demonstrates the nativist sentiment found in much of American society in the first decades of the twentieth century.

Sixteenth Amendment

1913 amendment that instituted a federal income tax. In debate over this measure in Congress, most felt that this would be a fairer tax than a national sales tax, which was proposed by some.

Clayton Antitrust Act

1914 act designed to strengthen the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890; certain activities previously committed by big businesses, such as not allowing unions in factories and not allowing strikes, were declared illegal.

Washington Conference

1921 conference where the United States, Japan, and the major European powers agreed to build no more warships for 10 years; in addition, the nations agreed not to attack each other's territories in the Pacific. This treaty came from strong post-World War I sentiment that it was important to avoid conflicts between nations that might lead to war.

Fordney-McCumber Tariff

1922 act that sharply increased tariffs on imported goods; most Republican leaders of the 1920s firmly believed in "protectionist" policies that would increase profits for American businesses.

Scopes Trial

1925 Tennessee trial where teacher John Scopes was charged with teaching evolution, a violation of state status. The American Civil Liberties Union hired Clarence Darrow to defend Scopes, while the chief attorney for the prosecution was three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. While Scopes was convicted and ordered to pay a small fine, Darrow was able to poke holes in the theory of creationism as expressed by Bryan.

The Jazz Singer

1927 film starring Al Jolson that was the first movie with sound. Story of the film deals with young Jewish man who has to choose between the "modern" and his Jewish past.

Agricultural Marketing Act

1929 act championed by Herbert Hoover that authorized the lending of federal money to farmer's cooperatives to buy crops to keep them from the over-saturated market; program hampered by lack of adequate federal financial support.

National Industry Recovery Act (NIRA)

1933 New Deal legislation that created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that created jobs t put people back to work right away and the National Recovery Administration (NRA), who worked in conjunction with the industry to bolster the industrial sector and create more long-lasting jobs.

Smith-Connally Act

1943 legislation that limited the nature of labor action possible for the rest of the war. Many in America felt that strikes, especially those organized in the coal mines by the United Mine Workers, were detrimental to the war effort.

kamikaze pilots

1945 tactic of Japanese air force where pilots flew at American ships at full speed and crashed into them, in several cases causing ships to sink. This tactic showed the desperate nature of the Japanese military situation at this time; by July 1945, kamikaze attacks were no longer utilized, as Japan was running out of airplanes and pilots.

Taft-Hartley Act

1947 congressional legislation that aided the owners in potential labor disputes. In key industries the president could declare an 80-day cooling off period before a strike could actually take place; the bill also allowed owners to sue unions over broken contracts, and forced union leaders to sign anticommunist oaths. The bill was passed over President Truman's veto; Truman only vetoed the bill for political reasons.

Rio Pact

1947 treaty signed by the United States and most Latin American countries,stating that the region would work together on economic and defense matters and creating the Organization of American States to facilitate this cooperation.

Korean War

1950 to 1953 war where American and other United Nations forces fought to stop communist aggression against South Korea. U.S. entry into Korean War was totally consistent with the U.S. Cold War policy of containment. Negotiated settlement divided Korea along the 38th parallel, a division that remains today.

McCarran-Walter Act

1952 bill that limited immigration from everywhere except Northern and Western Europe and stated that immigration officials could turn any immigrant away that they thought might threaten the national security of the United States.

Brown v. Board of Education

1954 Supreme Court decision that threw out the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that schools could be "separate but equal"; the ruling began the long and painful process of school desegregation in the South and other parts of America.

Army-McCarthy hearings

1954 televised hearings on charges that Senator Joseph McCarthy was unfairly tarnishing the United States Army with charges of communist infiltration into the armed forces; hearings were the beginning of the end for McCarthy, whose bullying tactics were repeatedly demonstrated.

Battle of Dien Bien Phu

1954 victory of Vietnamese forces over the French, causing the French to leave Vietnam and all of Indochina; Geneva Peace Accords that followed the established North and South Vietnam.

Rebel Without a Cause

1955 film starring James Dean exploring the difficulties of family life and the alienation that many teenager felt in the 1950s. Juvenile delinquency, and reasons for it, was subtext of this film, as well as the source of countless other 1950s-era movies aimed at the youth market.

Cuban Missile Crisis

1962 conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet missiles discovered in Cuba; Soviets eventually removed missiles under American pressure. Crisis was perhaps the closest the world came to armed conflict in the Cold War era.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

1964 Congressional resolution that gave President Johnson the authority to "take all necessary measures to repel" attacks against American military forces stationed in Vietnam. Later, critics would charge, this resolution allowed the president to greatly expand the Vietnam War without congressional oversight.

Woodstock Music Festival

1969 event that some perceive as the pinnacle of the 1960s counterculture. 400,000 young people came together for a weekend of music and a relative lack of hassles or conflict. The difficulty of mixing the 1960s counterculture with the radical politics of the era was demonstrated when Peter Townshend of the Who kicked Abbie Hoffman off the Woodstock stage

SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks)

1972 treaty signed by Richard Nixon and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev limiting the development of additional nuclear weapon systems and defense systems to stop them. SALT I was only partially effective in preventing continued development of nuclear weaponry.

Roe v. Wade

1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal (except in the last months of pregnancy). Justices voting in the majority in this 5-to-2 decision stated that a woman's right to privacy gave her the legal freedom to choose to have an abortion. Abortion has remained one of the most hotly debated social issues in America.

Contract with America

1994 pledge by Republican candidates for House of Representatives; led by Newt Gingrich, candidates promised to support term limits, balancing the budget, and lessening the size of the federal government. In 1994 Congressional elections, Republicans won both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years.

Laissez-faire

A "hands-off" approach to the economy, allowing markets to regulate themselves. "Laissez-faire" means "let do" in French.

flapper

A "new woman" of the 1920s, who wore short skirts and bobbed hair and rejected many of the social regulations that controlled women of the previous generations.

Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania

A 1767 pamphlet by Pennsylvania attorney and landowner John Dickinson, in which he eloquently stated the "taxation without representation" argument, and also stated that the only way that the House of Commons could represent the colonies in a meaningful way would be for actual colonists to be members of it.

First Continental Congress

A 1774 meeting in Philadelphia at which colonists vowed to resist further efforts to tax them without their consent.

Specie Circular

A 1836 executive order issued by President Jackson in an attempt to stabilize the economy, which had been dramatically expanding since the early 1830s due to state banks' excessive lending practices and over-speculation. The Specie Circular required that all land payments be made in gold and silver rather than in paper money or credit. It precipitated an economic depression known as the panic of 1837.

Munich Pact

A 1938 agreement between Britain, France, Italy, and Germany. The Munich Pact permitted Germany to annex the Czech Sudentenland after Hitler declared he would take it by force. Intended to appease Hitler and avoid war, the pact only emboldened him further.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

A 1954 landmark Supreme Court decision that reversed the "separate but equal" segregationist doctrine established by the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision. The Court ruled that separate facilities were inherently unequal and ordered public schools to desegregate nationwide. This decision was characteristic of the Supreme Court rulings under liberal Chief Justice Earl Warren.

Freedom ride

A 1961 program, led by the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, in which black and white members of the two organizations rode through the South on public buses to protest illegal segregation in interstate transportation.

Lusitania

A British vessel sunk by a German U-boat in May 1915, killing more than 120 American citizens. The sinking of the Lusitania prompted President Woodrow Wilson to plan for a military buildup, and encouraged American alliance with Britain and France in opposition to Germany.

Clarence Darrow

A Chicago trial lawyer. Darrow earned fame in the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. Although Darrow's client, the teacher John Scopes, lost the case, Darrow argued masterfully in court, and in so doing weakened the influence and popularity of fundamentalism nationwide.

George Armstrong Custer

A Civil War hero. Custer was dispatched to the hills of South Dakota in 1874 to fight off Native American threats. When gold was discovered in the region, the federal government announced that Custer's forces would hunt down all Sioux not in reservations beginning January 31, 1876. Many Sioux refused to comply, and Custer mobilized his troops. At the Battle of Little Bighorn, the Sioux wiped out an overconfident Custer and his men.

Bill Clinton

A Democrat, Clinton served as president from 1993 to 2001, during a period of intense partisanship in the U.S. government. Clinton's few major domestic and international successes were overshadowed by the sex scandal that led to his impeachment and eventual acquittal.

Jacques Cartier

A French sailor who explored the St. Lawrence River region between 1534 and 1542. Cartier searched for a Northwest Passage, a waterway through which ships could cross the Americas and access Asia. He found no such passage but opened the region up to future exploration and colonization by the French.

Samuel de Champlain

A Frenchman who explored the Great Lakes and established the first French colony in North America at Quebec in 1608.

Hiroshima

A Japanese city that was site of the first-ever atomic bomb attack. On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing 70,000 of its citizens instantaneously and injuring another 70,000, many of whom later died of radiation poisoning.

Whiskey Rebellion

A July 1794 riot that broke out in western Pennsylvania in response to a high excise tax on whiskey initiated by Alexander Hamilton. In a show of national strength, President George Washington led a force of militiamen to crush the rebellion.

Dorothea Dix

A Massachusetts schoolteache. Dix studied the condition of the insane in poorhouses and prisons. Her efforts helped bring about the creation of asylums, where the mentally ill could receive better treatment.

Sacajawea

A Native American woman who proved an indispensable guide to Lewis and Clark during their 1804-1806 expedition. Sacajawea showed the men how to forage for food and helped them maintain good relations with tribes in the Northwest.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

A Republican, served as president from 1953 to 1961. Along with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower sought to lessen Cold War tensions. One notable success in this realm was the ending of the Korean War. Before serving as president, Eisenhower was the supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in World War II, coordinating Operation Overlord and the American drive from Paris to Berlin.

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish immigrant who in 1901 founded Carnegie Steel, then the world's largest corporation. In addition to being an entrepreneur and industrialist, Carnegie was a philanthropist who donated more than $300 million to charity during his lifetime.

Huey Long

A Senator from Louisiana and one of the most vocal critics of FDR's New Deal. Long's liberal "Share Our Wealth" program proposed a 100 percent tax on all income over $1 million, and large redistribution measures. His passionate orations won him as many followers as enemies: he was assassinated in September of 1935 at the capitol building in Baton Rouge.

Tecumseh

A Shawnee chief who tried to unite Native American tribes in Ohio and Indiana to thwart white settlement. His forces were defeated in the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe. Tecumseh later allied with the British during the War of 1812.

J.P. Morgan

A Wall Street financier and business leader during the era of industrialization. In 1901, Morgan bought Carnegie Steel and established the world's first billion-dollar corporation, U. S. Steel Corporation.

dark horse candidate

A candidate for office with little support before the beginning of the nomination process; James K. Polk was the first dark horse candidate for president in 1844.

Flapper

A central stereotype of the Jazz Age. The flapper was a flamboyant, liberated, pleasure-seeking young woman seen more in media portrayals than in reality. The archetypal flapper look was tomboyish and fashionable: short bobbed hair; knee-length, fringed skirts; long, draping necklaces; and rolled stockings.

Intolerable Acts

A combination of the four Coercive Acts—meant to punish the colonists after the 1773 Boston Tea Party—and the unrelated Quebec Act. Passed in 1774, the Intolerable Acts were seen as the blueprints for a British plan to deny the Americans representative government and were the impetus for the convening of the First Continental Congress.

Fidel Castro

A communist revolutionary. Castro ousted an authoritarian regime in Cuba in 1959 and established the communist regime that remains in power to this day.

holding company

A company that existed to gain monopoly control over an industry by buying large numbers of shares of stock in as many companies as possible in that industry. The best example in American history was John D. Rockefeller's standard Oil corporation.

Economic Opportunity Act

A component of Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society. The Economic Opportunity Act established an Office of Economic Opportunity to provide young Americans with job training. It also created a volunteer network devoted to social work and education in impoverished areas.

Virginia Plan

A concept of government crafted by James Madison and adopted by delegates to the convention that created the United States Constitution, this plan proposed a stronger central government than had existed under the Articles of Confederation; to prevent too much power being placed in the hands of one person or persons, the plan proposed that the powers of the federal government be divided amongst officials of executive, judicial, and legislative branches.

Trust

A conglomerate of businesses that tends to reduce market competition. During the Industrial Age, many entrepreneurs consolidated their businesses into trusts in order to gain control of the market and amass great profit, often at the expense of poor workers and consumers.

Court Packing scheme

A court reform bill proposed by FDR in 1937. It was designed to allow the president to appoint an additional Supreme Court justice for each current justice over the age of seventy, up to a maximum of six appointments. Though he claimed the measure was offered in concern for the workload of the older justices, the proposal was an obvious attempt to dilute the power of the older, conservative justices. The Senate voted against the proposal later that year. Many historians argue that the proposed bill resulted in a loss of credibility for FDR, helping slow the New Deal to a standstill.

Scalawags

A derisive term that Democrats gave to Southern moderates who cooperated with Republicans during Reconstruction.

Anne Hutchinson

A dissenter in the Massachusetts Bay Colony who caused a schism in the Puritan community. Hutchinson's faction lost out in a power struggle for the governorship and she was expelled from the colony in 1637. She traveled southward with a number of her followers, establishing the settlement of Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

Roger Williams

A dissenter who clashed with Massachusetts Puritans over the issue of separation of church and state. After being banished from Massachusetts in 1636, he traveled south, where he founded a colony in Rhode Island that granted full religious freedom to its inhabitants.

Bay of Pigs Invasion

A failed attempt by U.S.-backed Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro's communist government in April 1961.

Upton Sinclair

A famous muckraker who published The Jungle in 1906. Sinclair's novel exposed the unsanitary conditions in several meatpacking plants. It and other exposés led to the passage of laws designed to ensure the safety of foods and medicines.

Benito Mussolini

A fascist Italian dictator who rose to power in 1922. Mussolini aligned himself with Hitler, creating Rome-Berlin Axis in 1936. The union of the two fascist forces paved the way for World War II.

Edgar Allan Poe

A fiction writer who gained popularity in the 1840s for his horrific tales. He published many famous stories, including "The Raven" (1844) and "The Cask of Amontillado" (1846).

Harriet Tubman

A former slave who helped establish the Underground Railroad, a network of safehouses and escorts throughout the North to help escaped slaves to freedom.

Marshall Plan

A four-year plan (begun in 1948) to provide American aid for the economic reconstruction of Europe. The U.S. government hoped that this plan would prevent further communist expansion by eliminating economic insecurity and political instability in Europe. By 1952, Congress had appropriated some $17 billion for the Marshall Plan, and the Western European economy had largely recovered.

Tet Offensive

A general offensive launched throughout South Vietnam by the Vietcong and North Vietnamese on January 31, 1968, the first day of the Tet, or Vietnamese New Year. Although the forces did not succeed in capturing the cities, they did cause widespread devastation, killing many thousands of American troops. The month-long attack led the American public to believe that victory in Vietnam was unattainable.

Conquistador

A general term for any one of a group of Spanish explorers in the New World who sought to conquer the native people, establish dominance over their lands, and prosper from natural resources. The Conquistadors established a large Hispanic empire stretching from Mexico to Chile and wreaked havoc among native populations.

Union

A general term for the United States during the Civil War. "Union" also referred to the Northern army.

Pentagon Papers

A government study of American involvement in Vietnam that outlined in detail many of the mistakes that America had made there; in 1971 a former analyst for the Defense Department, Daniel Ellsberg released these to the "New York Times."

unicameral legislature

A governmental structure with one-house legislature. As written in the Articles of Confederation, the United States would have a unicameral legislature, with all states having equal representation.

United Nations

A group of 51 countries founded the United Nations on October 24, 1945. Its central mission is to preserve peace and global stability through international cooperation and collective security. Today, the UN claims around 191 countries as members.

Pilgrims

A group of English Separatists who sought refuge from the Church of England in the Netherlands. In 1620, they sailed to the New World on the Mayflower and established the colony of Plymouth Plantation.

Sons of Liberty

A group of colonists who led opposition to the Stamp Act.

Plumbers

A group of intelligence officials who worked for the committee to reelect Richard Nixon in 1972; the job of this group was to stop leaks of information and perform "dirty tricks" on political opponents of the president. The Plumbers broke into the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, looking for damaging information against him and totally discredited the campaign of Democratic hopeful Edmund Muskie.

Spheres of influence

A group of nations or territories in the unofficial economic, political, and social orbit of a greater power. NATO countries were in the U.S. sphere of influence, while the Communist countries of the Warsaw Pact were in the USSR's sphere of influence. The term is also used to describe European and Russian influence in China at the end of the nineteenth century, when certain countries had exclusive trade and development rights in key Chinese ports and regions.

War Hawks

A group of westerners and southerners, led by John Calhoun and Henry Clay, who pushed for war against Britain. The War Hawks objected to Britain's hostile policies against U.S. ships, including impressment and the seizure of shipping goods, and advocated fighting instead of submitting to such treatment. They also hoped that through war, the U.S. would win western, southwestern, and Canadian territories.

Boxer Rebellion

A group of zealous Chinese nationalists terrorized foreigners and Chinese Christians, capturing Beijing (Peking) in June 1900 and threatening European and American interests in Chinese markets. The United States committed 2,500 men to an international force that crushed the rebellion in August 1900.

secondary source

A historical account written after the fact; a historian writing a secondary source would analyze the available primary sources on his/her topic. Examples would be a textbook, a biography written today of Napoleon, or a new account of the Black Death.

revisionist history

A historical interpretation not in "standard" history books or supported by most historians. Their history of the origins of the Cold War, for example, would maintain that the aggressive actions of the United States forced the Soviet Union to seize the territories of Eastern Europe for protection. Historical interpretation that may originally be this may, in time, become standard historical interpretation.

sit-down strikes

A labor tactic where workers refuse to leave their factory until management meets their demands. The most famous sit-down strike occurred at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, beginning in December, 1936; despite efforts by guards to end the strike by force, the workers finally saw their demands met after 44 days.

Federal Home Loan Bank Act

A late attempt by President Hoover to address the problems of destitute Americans. The 1932 Federal Home Loan Bank Act established a series of banks to make loans to other banks, building and loan associations, and insurance agencies in an attempt to prevent foreclosures on private homes.

Samuel Adams

A leader of the Sons of Liberty. Adams suggested the formation of the Committees of Correspondence and fought for colonial rights throughout New England. He is credited with provoking the Boston Tea Party.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A leader of the transcendentalist movement and an advocate of American literary nationalism. He published a number of influential essays during the 1830s and 1840s, including "Nature" and "Self Reliance."

Mark Twain

A leading literary figure during the Industrial Age. Twain's most famous books include The Gilded Age (1873), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).

Susan B. Anthony

A leading member of the women's suffrage movement. She served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1892 until 1900.

bicameral legislature

A legislative structure consisting of two houses, this was adopted by the authors of the U.S. Constitution; membership of the states in one house (the House of Representatives) is determined by population, while in the other house (the Senate) all states have equal representation.

Malcolm X

A major advocate of Black Power who helped lead the Nation of Islam to national prominence. In 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated after a well-publicized break with the Nation of Islam over his newfound dedication to cross-cultural unity.

Yalta Conference

A meeting between the Big Three (FDR, Churchill, and Stalin) from February 4 to February 11, 1945. Although FDR and Churchill's bargaining power with Stalin was severely hindered by the presence of Soviet troops in Poland and Eastern Europe, Stalin did agree to declare war on Japan soon after Germany surrendered. Plans for a United Nations conference in April 1945 were also approved.

Hartford Convention

A meeting of Federalists near the end of the War of 1812, in which the New England-based party enumerated its complaints against the ruling Republican Party. The Federalists, already losing power steadily, hoped that antiwar sentiment would lead the nation to support their cause and return them to power. Perceived victory in the war, however, turned many against the Federalists, whose actions in Hartford were labeled traitorous and antagonistic to the unity and cooperation of the Union.

Constitutional Convention

A meeting to amend the Articles of Confederation. Delegates came to the convention from every state except Rhode Island in May 1787, and decided to draft an entirely new framework of government that would give greater powers to the central government. This document became the Constitution.

Oliver North

A member of the National Security Council who was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal. In 1987, investigations revealed that North had headed the initiative to secretly and illegally fund the contras in Nicaragua, who fought against an anti-U.S. regime.

pocket veto

A method a president can use to "kill" congressional legislation at the end of a congressional term. Instead of vetoing the bill, the president may simply not sign it; once the congressional term is over, the bill will then die.

Radical Republicans

A minority group that emerged in Congress during the Civil War. Led by Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner, the Radicals demanded a stringent Reconstruction policy in order to punish the Southern states for seceding, and called for extended civil rights in the South. Often aligned with moderate Republicans during the early years of Reconstruction, Radical Republicans were a dedicated and powerful force in Congress until the mid-1870s.

James Buchanan

A moderate Democrat with support from both the North and South who served as president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. Buchanan could not stem the tide of sectional conflict that eventually erupted into Civil War.

progressivism

A movement that desired political and social reform, and was most influential in America from the 1890s up until World War I. Most popular progressive causes included reforming city government, better conditions for urban workers, the education of newly arrived immigrants, and the regulation of big businesses.

Triangular trade

A name for the trade routes that linked England, its colonies in North America, the West Indies, and Africa. At each port, ships were unloaded of goods from another port along the trade route, and then re-loaded with goods particular to that site. New England rum was shipped to Africa and traded for slaves, who were brought to the West Indies and traded for sugar and molasses, which went back to New England.

Underground Railroad

A network of safe houses and escorts established by Northern abolitionists to foil enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. The Underground Railroad helped escaped slaves reach freedom in the North and in Canada.

Containment

A policy established during Truman's presidency, at the start of the Cold War, that called for the prevention of further Soviet expansion by any means. Containment soon evolved into a justification for U.S. global involvement against communism.

isolationism

A policy of disengaging the United States from major world commitments and concentrating on the U.S. domestic issues. This was the dominant foreign policy of the United States for much of the 1920s and 1930s.

Popular Front

A political group active in aiding the leftist forces in the Spanish Civil War. Prominent American intellectuals and writers, including Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos, joined the group.

Redemption

A political movement to overturn Reconstruction in the South. Redemption shifted the power in state governments from Republican to Democratic hands, undid Republican legislature, and reinstated the oppression of freedmen.

Free-Soil Party

A political party supporting abolition. It was formed from the merger of a northern faction of the Democratic Party, the abolitionist Liberty Party, and antislavery Whigs. The Free-Soilers nominated Martin Van Buren as their candidate for president. The party didn't win the election, but it did earn 10 percent of the national popular vote—an impressive showing for a third party. The relative success of the Free-Soil Party demonstrated that slavery had become a central issue in national politics.

Rosie the Riveter

A popular advertising character during World War II. Rosie the Riveter—a well-muscled woman carrying a rivet gun—symbolized the important role American women played in the war effort at home. "Rosie" represented the new, hard-working, independent woman.

Townshend Duties

A popular name for the Revenue Act of 1767, which taxed glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea entering the colonies. The colonists resented that the act was clearly designed to raise revenue exclusively for England rather than to regulate trade in a manner favorable to the entire British Empire.

Marcus Garvey

A powerful African American leader during the 1920s. Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and advocated a mass migration of African Americans back to Africa. Garvey was convicted of fraud in 1923 and deported to Jamaica in 1927. While the movement won a substantial following, the UNIA collapsed without Garvey's leadership.

Vietcong

A pro-communist guerrilla force working secretly within South Vietnam.

William Randolph Hearst

A prominant publisher who bought the New York Journal in the late 1890s. His paper, along with Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, engaged in yellow journalism, printing sensational reports of Spanish activities in Cuba in order to win a circulation war between the two newspapers.

Herman Melville

A prominent American fiction writer in the 1840s and 1850s. His best-known novel is Moby-Dick (1851).

Martin Luther King Jr.

A prominent Civil Rights leader who rose to fame during the 1956 Montgomery bus boycott. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, King tirelessly led the struggle for integration and equality through nonviolent means. He was assassinated in 1968.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

A prominent advocate of women's rights. Stanton organized the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention with Lucretia Mott.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

A prominent author during the Roaring Twenties, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote stories and novels that both glorified and criticized the wild lives of the carefree and prosperous. His most famous works include This Side of Paradise, published in 1920, and The Great Gatsby, published in 1925.

Eugene Debs

A prominent socialist leader and five-time presidential candidate. Debs formed the American Railway Union in 1893 and led the Pullman Strike a year later. He helped found the Industrial Workers of the World, or Wobblies, in 1905. A pacifist, Debs opposed the government's involvement in World War I. In 1918, he was imprisoned for denouncing the government's aggressive tactics under the Espionage Act and Sedition Amendment; he was released in 1921.

Henry David Thoreau

A prominent transcendentalist writer. Two of his most famous writings are Civil Disobedience (1849) and Walden (1854). Thoreau advocated living life according to one's conscience, removed from materialism and repressive social codes.

Boston Tea Party

A protest against the 1773 Tea Act, which allowed Britain to use the profits from selling tea to pay the salaries of royal governors. In December 1773, Samuel Adams gathered Boston residents and warned them of the consequences of the Tea Act. Following the meeting, approximately fifty young men dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded the ships and dumped the cargo into the harbor.

Puritans

A radical Protestant group that sought to "purify" the Church of England from within. Persecuted for their beliefs, many Puritans fled to the New World in the early 1600s, where they established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in present-day Boston. The Puritans placed heavy emphasis on family values and strict morality.

Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies)

A radical labor organization founded in 1905. The IWW advocated revolution and massive societal reorganization. The organization faded away around 1920.

Postmodernism

A recent trend in cultural and historical study that doubts the existence of absolute historical certainties. It is impossible to know, for example, what "really happened" in the past; therefore, how individuals observe and interpret the past becomes a valuable source of analysis. Postmodernists would also reject statements such as "democracy is best for all nations of the world," and would emphasize the study of various historical viewpoints.

Jane Addams

A reformer and pacifist best known for founding Hull House in 1889. Hull House provided educational services to poor immigrants.

First Great Awakening

A religious revival in the American colonies that lasted from the 1720s through the 1740s; speakers like Jonathan Edwards enraptured speakers with sermons such as "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Religious splits in colonies became deeper because of this movement.

John Brown

A religious zealot and an extreme abolitionist who believed God had ordained him to end slavery. In 1856, he led an attack against pro-slavery government officials in Kansas, killing five and sparking months of violence that earned the territory the name "Bleeding Kansas." In 1859, he led twenty-one men in seizing a federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in a failed attempt to incite a slave rebellion. He was caught and hanged.

To Secure These Rights

A report issued in 1957 by Truman's Presidential Commitee on Civil Rights. The report, titled To Secure These Rights, called for the elimination of segregation.

Rationalism

A school of thought heavily influenced by the Enlightenment. Rationalists criticized most traditional religion as irrational and unfounded. Proponents of rationalism held that religious beliefs should not simply be accepted but should instead be acquired through investigation and reflection.

Manhattan Project

A secret American scientific initiative to develop the atomic bomb. Scientists worked for almost three years in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and on July 16, 1945 succeeded in detonating the first atomic blast. The bombs produced by the Manhattan Project were subsequently dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

Fair Deal

A series of domestic programs proposed to Congress by President Harry Truman that included a Fair Employment Practices Act, a call for government construction of public housing, an extension of Social Security, and a proposal to ensure employment for all American workers.

Iran-Contra affair

A series of investigations in 1987 exposed evidence that the U.S. had been selling arms to the anti-American government in Iran and using the profits from these sales to secretly and illegally finance the Contras in Nicaragua. (The Contras were a rebel group fighting against the communist-linked Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.) Oliver North, a member of the National Security Council, had organized the operation from within the White House. There was no proof that Ronald Reagan was aware of North's actions.

The Federalist Papers

A series of newspaper articles written by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers enumerated the arguments in favor of the Constitution and refuted the arguments of the Anti-federalists.

New Federalism

A series of policies during the administration of Ronald Reagan that began to give some power back to the states that had always been held by federal government. Some tax dollars were returned to state and local governments in the form of "block grants"; the state and local governments could then spend this money as they thought best.

Palmer Raids

A series of raids coordinated by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. Throughout 1910, police and federal marshals raided the homes of suspected radicals and the headquarters of radical organizations in thirty-two cities. The Palmer Raids resulted in more than 4,000 arrests, 550 deportations, and uncountable violations of civil rights.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A series of seven debates held from August 21 and October 15, 1858 between senatorial candidates, the debates pitted Abraham Lincoln, a free-soil Republican, against Stephen A. Douglas, a Democrat in favor of popular sovereignty. The debates were hard-fought, highly attended, and ultimately inconclusive, but they crystallized the dominant positions of the North in regard to slavery and propelled Lincoln into the national arena.

Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer

A series of twelve letters published by John Dickinson. The letters denounced the Townshend Duties by demonstrating that many of the arguments employed against the Stamp Act were valid against the Townshend Duties as well. The letters inspired anti-British sentiment throughout the colonies.

secession

A single state or group of states leaving the United States of America. New England Federalists threatened to do this during the first administration of Thomas Jefferson; Southern states did this in the period prior to the Civil War.

Lost generation

A small but prominent circle of writers, poets, and intellectuals during the 1920s. Artists like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ezra Pound grew disillusioned with America's postwar culture, finding it overly materialistic and spiritually void. Many became expatriates, and their writings often expressed their disgust with America.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

A southern vigilante group founded in 1866 in Tennessee. By 1868, the Klan operated in all Southern states. The group often conducted raids and lynchings to intimidate black voters and Republican officials. The Klan faded away in the late nineteenth century, but resurfaced in 1915. Capitalizing on middle-class Protestant dismay at changing social and economic conditions in America, the Klan took root throughout the South as well as in Western and Midwestern cities, and was dominated by white native-born Protestants. Membership and influence declined again in 1925, when corruption among Klan leaders was exposed.

Rough Riders

A special unit of soldiers recruited by Theodore Roosevelt to do battle in the Spanish-American War; this unit was composed of men from many backgrounds, with the commanding officer of the unit being Roosevelt (after he resigned as Assistant secretary of the Navy). The most publicized event of the war was the charge of the Rough Riders up San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898.

Transcendentalism

A spiritual movement that arose in the 1830s as a challenge to rationalism. Transcendentalists aimed to achieve an inner, emotional understanding of God rather than a rational, institutionalized one. They believed concepts such as absolute truth and freedom were accessible through intuition and sudden insight. Among the more prominent transcendentalists were the writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

island-hopping

A successful American military tactic in the Pacific in 1942 and 1943 of taking strategic islands that could be used as staging points for continued military offensives. Increasing American dominance in air power made this tactic possible.

Zimmerman Telegram

A telegram sent in 1917 from the German foreign minister to the German ambassador in Mexico. The telegram was intercepted by British intelligence, and revealed Germany's plans to urge Mexico to enter the war against the U.S. in exchange for a pledge to help restore Mexico's former territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. The unmasking of Germany's aggressive war plans, coupled with Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, pushed the U.S. into World War I.

Silent majority

A term coined by Richard Nixon during the 1968 presidential campaign. According to Nixon, he represented the "silent majority"—Americans tired of chaos, student protests, and civil rights agitation and eager for a conservative federal government.

Iron curtain

A term coined by Winston Churchill for the area of Eastern Europe controlled indirectly by the USSR, usually through puppet governments. This area was cut off from noncommunist Europe.

Ross Perot

A third-party candidate in the 1992 presidential election who won 19 percent of the popular vote. Perot's strong showing demonstrated voter disaffection with the two major parties.

First Great Awakening

A time of religious fervor during the 1730s and 1740s. The movement arose in response to the Enlightenment's increased religious skepticism. Protestant ministers held revivals throughout the English colonies in America, stressing the need for individuals to repent and urging a personal understanding of truth instead of an institutionalized one. The Great Awakening precipitated a split within American Protestantism.

Sussex Pledge

A torpedo from a German submarine hit the French passenger liner the "Sussex" in March 1916, killing and injuring many (including six Americans). In a strongly worded statement, President Wilson demanded that the Germans refrain from attacking passenger ships; in this pledge the Germans said that they would temporarily stop these attacks, but that they might have to resume them in the future if the British continued their blockade if German ports.

stagflation

A unique economic situation faced political leaders in the early 1970s, where inflation and signs of economic recession occurred at the same time. Previously, in times of inflation, the economy was improving, and vice versa. Nixon utilized wage and price controls and increased government spending to address this problem.

Salvation Army

A welfare organization imported from England to the U.S. in 1880. The Salvation Army provides food, shelter, and employment to the urban poor while preaching temperance and morality.

Walt Whitman

A writer and a disciple of transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson. Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass (1855), celebrated America's diversity and democracy.

Ten Percent Plan

Abraham Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction, which would have offered full pardons to persons living in Confederate states who would take an oath of allegiance to the United States (former Confederate military officers and civilian authorities would not be offered this possibility); once 10 percent of the citizens of the state had taken such an oath, the state could take steps to rejoin the Union. Radical Republicans in the U.S. Senate felt that this plan was much too lenient to the South.

OPEC

Acronym for Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, this organization sets the price for crude oil and determines how much of it will be produced. The decision of OPEC to raise oil prices in 1973 had a dramatic economic impact in both the United States and the rest of the world.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Act that struck down Black Codes and defined the rights of all citizens; also stated that federal government could act when civil rights were violated at a state level. Passed by Congress over the veto of President Andrew Johnson.

primary source

Actual documents or accounts from an era being studied, these are invaluable to historians. Almost all true historical research involves analysis of primary source documents. Examples would be a letter written by Napoleon, an account of someone who knew Napoleon personally, or a newspaper account from Napoleon's time.

Bill of Rights

Added to the Constitution in 1791, the first 10 amendments protected freedom of speech, freedom of press, the right to bear arms, and other basic rights of American citizens.

Articles of Confederation

Adopted in 1777 during the Revolutionary War. The Articles established the first limited central government of the United States, reserving most powers for the individual states. The Articles didn't grant enough federal power to manage the country's budget or maintain internal stability, and were replaced by the Constitution in 1789.

Aztecs

Advanced Indian society located in central Mexico; conquered by Spanish conquistador Cortes. The defeat of the Aztecs was hastened by the smallpox brought to Mexico by the Spanish.

Inca empire

Advanced and wealthy civilization centered in the Andes mountain region; aided by smallpox, Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas in 1533.

Committee to Defend America First

Advocated isolationism and opposed FDR's reelection in 1940. Committee members urged neutrality, claiming that the U.S. could stand alone regardless of Hitler's advances on Europe.

Rosa Parks

African American seamstress who sparked the Montgomery bus boycott by refusing to give up her bus seat for a white man in December 1955.

Operation Desert Shield

After Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, President Bush sent 230,000 American position toward China as announced by Secretary of State John Hay in 1899.

irreconcilables

After World War I, a group of U.S. senators who were opposed to a continued U.S. presence in Europe in any form. This group was influential in preventing the passage of the Versailles Treaty in the Senate.

Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)

After World War II, the AEC worked on developing more effective ways of using nuclear material, such as uranium, in order to mass-produce nuclear weapons.

Levittown

After World War II, the first "suburban" neighborhood; located in Hempstead, Long Island, houses in this development were small, looked the same, but were perfect for the postwar family that wanted to escape urban life. Levittown would become a symbol of the post-World War II flight to suburbia taken by millions.

Battle of Vicksburg

After a lengthy siege, this Confederate city along the Mississippi River was finally taken by Union forces in July 1863; this victory gave the Union virtual control of the Mississippi River and was a serious psychological blow to the Confederacy.

Geneva Accords

After the French were defeated in Vietnam, a series of agreements made in 1954 that temporarily divided Vietnam into two parts (along the 17th parallel) and promised nationwide elections within two years. To prevent some communists from gaining control, the United States installed a friendly government in South Vietnam and saw that the reunification elections never took place.

Farmers' Alliances

After the decline of Grange organizations, this became the major organizations of farmers in the 1880s; many experimented with cooperative buying and selling. Many local alliances became involved in direct political activity with the growth of the Populist Party in the 1890s.

Non-Intercourse Act

After the repeal of the Embargo Act, this 1809 law restricted trade with Britain and France only, opening up trade with all other foreign ports.

Great Society

Aggressive program announced by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 to attack the major social problems in America; Great Society programs included the War on Poverty, Medicare, and Medicaid programs for elderly Americans, greater protection for and more legislation dealing with civil rights, and greater funding for education. Balancing the Great Society and the war in Vietnam would prove difficult for the Johnson administration.

Limited Test-Ban Treaty

Agreed to in July 1963 by JFK and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The treaty prohibited undersea and atmospheric testing of nuclear weaponry and was characteristic of a period of lessening tensions—known as détente—between the world's two superpowers.

Powhatan Confederacy

Alliance of Native American tribes living in the region of the initial Virginia settlement. Powhatan, leader of this alliance, tried to live in peace with the English settlers when they arrived in 1607.

writ of habeas corpus

Allows a person suspected of a crime not to simply sit in jail indefinitely; such a suspect must be brought to court and charged with something, or he or she must be released from jail. Abraham Lincoln suspended the right of this during the Civil War so that opponents of his policies could be contained.

war bonds

Also called Liberty Bonds, these were sold by the United States government in both World War I and World War II and used by the government to finance the war effort. A person purchasing a war bond can make money if he or she cashes it in after 5 or 10 years; in the meantime, the government can use the money to help pay its bills. In both wars, movie stars and other celebrities encouraged Americans to purchase war bonds.

Church of England

Also called the Anglican Church, this was the Protestant Church established by King Henry VIII; religious radicals desired a "purer" church that was allowed by monarchs of the early seventeenth century, causing some to leave for the Americas.

Emergency Quota Act

Also called the Johnson Act, this 1921 bill limited immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe by stating that in a year, total immigration from any country would equal 3 percent of the number of immigrations from that country living in the United States in 1910.

Wagner Act

Also called the National Labor Relations Act, this July 1935 act established major gains for organized labor. It guaranteed collective bargaining, prevented harassment by owners of union activities, and established a National Labor Relations Board to guarantee enforcement of its provisions.

spoils system

Also called the patronage system, in which the president, governor, or mayor is allowed to fill governmental jobs with political allies and former campaign workers. Political reformers of the 1880s and 1890s introduced legislation calling for large numbers of these jobs to be filled by the merit system, in which candidates for jobs had to take competitive examinations. President Andrew Jackson began this system.

Transcontinental railroad

On May 10, 1869, the first transcontinental railroad was completed when the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads joined their tracks at Promontory Point, Utah. The railroad dramatically facilitated western settlement, shortening to a single week a coast-to-coast journey that had once taken six to eight months by wagon.

Transcontinental Treaty

Also known as the Adams-Onís Treaty. The Transcontinental Treaty was signed in 1819 between the U.S. and Spain. By the terms of the treaty, Spain ceded eastern Florida to the U.S., renounced all claims to western Florida, and agreed to a southern border of the U.S. west of the Mississippi extending all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Iranian Hostage Crisis

On November 4, 1979, Islamic fundamentalists seized the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, and took all Americans working there hostage. This was a major humiliation for the United States, as diplomatic and military efforts to free the hostages failed. The hostages were finally freed on January 20, 1981, immediately after the inauguration of Ronald Reagan.

Corrupt bargain

Although Andrew Jackson won the most popular and electoral votes in the 1824 election, he failed to win the requisite majority and the election was thrown to the House of Representatives. Speaker of the House Henry Clay backed John Quincy Adams for president, ensuring Adams's victory, and Adams rewarded Clay by making him secretary of state. Jackson and his supporters, enraged that the presidency had been "stolen" from them, denounced Adams and Clay's deal as a "corrupt bargain."

Tennessee Valley Authority

Ambitious New Deal program that for the first time provided electricity to residents of the Tennessee Valley; it also promoted agricultural and industrial growth (and prevented flooding) in the region. In all, residents of seven states benefited from it.

Erie Canal

America's first major canal project. Begun in 1817 and finished in 1825, the Erie Canal stretched from Albany to Buffalo, New York, measuring a total of 363 miles.

John Adams

America's second president, Adams served from 1797 to 1801. A Federalist, he supported a powerful centralized government. His most notable actions in office were the undertaking of the Quasi-war with France and the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Stokely Carmichael

Once a prominent member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Carmichael abandoned his nonviolent leanings and became a leader of the Black Nationalist movement in 1966. He coined the phrase "Black Power."

Berlin Airlift

American and British pilots flew in food and fuel to West Berlin during 1948 and early 1949 because Soviet Union and East Germany blockaded other access to West Berlin (which was located in East Germany); Stalin ended this blockade in May 1949. Airlift demonstrated American commitment to protecting Western allies in Europe during the Cold War period.

Meuse-Argonne Offensive

American forces played a decisive role in this September 1918 Allied offensive, which was the last major offensive of the war and which convinced the German general staff that victory in World War I was impossible.

jingoism

American foreign policy based on strident nationalism, a firm belief in American world superiority, and a belief that military solutions were, in almost every case, the best ones. Jingoism was most evident in America during the months leading up to and during the Spanish-American War.

U-2

American reconnaissance aircraft shot down over the Soviet Union in May 1960. President Eisenhower initially refused to acknowledge that this was a spy flight; the Soviets finally produced pilot Francis Gary Powers, who admitted the purpose of the flight. This incident created an increase in Cold War tensions at the end of the Eisenhower presidency.

USS Maine

American ship sent to Havana harbor in early 1898 to protect American interests in period of increased tension between Spanish troops and native Cubans; on February 15 an explosion took place on the ship, killing nearly 275 sailors. Later investigations pointed to an internal explosion on board, but all of the muckraking journals of the time in the United States blamed the explosion on the Spanish, which helped to develop intense anti-Spanish sentiment in the United States.

Booker T. Washington

An African American leader and the first principal of the Tuskegee Institute (1881). Washington adopted a moderate approach to addressing racism and segregation, urging his fellow African Americans to learn vocational skills and strive for gradual improvements in their social, political, and economic status.

W.E.B. Du Bois

An African American leader opposed to the gradual approach of achieving equal rights argued by Booker T. Washington. Du Bois advocated immediate equal treatment and equal educational opportunities for blacks. He was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Pearl Harbor

An American naval base in Hawaii that was bombed by Japan on December 7, 1941. The surprise attack resulted in the loss of more than 2,400 American lives, as well as many aircraft and sea vessels. The following day the U.S. declared war against Japan, officially entering World War II.

Henry Hudson

An English explorer sponsored by the Dutch East India Company. In 1609, Hudson sailed up the river than now bears his name, nearly reaching present-day Albany. His explorations gave the Dutch territorial claims to the Hudson Bay region.

John Rolfe

An English settler in Jamestown. Rolfe married Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief of the Powhatan tribe, and introduced the Jamestown colonists to West Indian tobacco in 1616. Tobacco soon became the colony's lifeblood, bringing in much revenue and many immigrants eager for a share in the colony's expanding wealth.

New Freedom Policy

An approach favored by Southern and Midwestern Democrats, this policy stated that economic and political preparation for World War I should be done in a decentralized manner; this would prevent too much power falling into the hands of the federal government. President Wilson first favored this approach, but then established federal agencies to organize mobilization.

Panama Canal

An articifial waterway built by the U.S. between 1904 and 1914 as part of Roosevelt's "big stick" diplomacy. The canal stretches across the isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Panama gained full control of the canal in 1999.

Hull House

An early settlement house founded in Chicago in 1889 by Jane Addams. Hull House provided education, health care, and employment aid to poor families.

Great Debate

An eight-month discussion in Congress over Henry Clay's proposed compromise to admit California as a free state, allow the remainder of the Mexican cession (Utah and New Mexico territories) to be decided by popular sovereignty, and strengthen the Fugitive Slave Act. Clay's solution was passed as separate bills, which together came to be known as the Compromise of 1850.

Medical Care Act

An element of President Johnson's 1965 Great Society program. The Medical Care Act created Medicare and Medicaid to provide senior citizens and welfare recipients with health care.

Roosevelt Corollary

An extension of the Monroe Doctrine, this policy was announced in 1904 by Theodore Roosevelt; it firmly warned European nations against intervening in the affairs of nations in the Western Hemisphere, and stated that the United States had the right to take action against any nation in Latin America if "chronic wrongdoing" was taking place. The Roosevelt Corollary was used to justify several American "interventions" in Central America in the twentieth century.

Tariff 1816

An extremely protectionist tariff designed to assist new American industries in the aftermath of the War of 1812; this tariff raised import duties by nearly 25 percent.

Henry Clay

An important political figure during the Era of Good Feelings and the Age of Jackson. Clay engineered and championed the American System, a program aimed at economic self-sufficiency for the nation. As speaker of the house during Monroe's term in office, he was instrumental in crafting much of the legislation that passed through Congress. A gifted negotiator, Clay helped resolve the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and designed the Compromise of 1833 and Compromise of 1850. He led the Whig Party until his death in 1852.

James Fenimore Cooper

An influential American writer in the early nineteenth century. His novels, The Pioneers (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), and others, employed distinctly American themes.

The Liberator

An influential abolitionist newspaper published by radical abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison from 1831 to 1865. The Liberator expressed controversial opinions, such as the belief that blacks deserved legal rights equal to those of whites.

Kitchen Cabinet

An informal group of advisors, with no official titles, who the president relies on for advice. The most famous Kitchen Cabinet was that of Andrew Jackson, who met with several old political friends and two journalists for advice on many occasions.

Enlightenment

An intellectual movement that spread through Europe and America in the eighteenth century. Also known as the Age of Reason, Enlightenment ideals championed the principles of rationalism and logic. Their skepticism toward beliefs that could not be proved by science or clear logic led to Deism.

special prosecutor

An official appointed to investigate specific governmental wrongdoing. Archibald Cox was the one assigned to investigate Watergate, while Kenneth Starr was one assigned to investigate the connections between President Clinton and Whitewater. President Nixon's order to fire Cox was the beginning of the famous 1973 "Saturday Night Massacre."

political machine

An organization that controls the politics of a city, a state, or even the country, sometimes by illegal or quasi-legal means; a machine employs a large number of people to do its "dirty work," for which they are either given some government job or allowed to pocket government bribes or kickbacks. The "best" example of a political machine was the Tammany Hall organization that controlled New York City in the late nineteenth century.

Lucretia Mott

An outspoken proponent of women's rights. Mott organized the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 with Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Sacco-Vanzetti case

Anarchist Italian immigrants who were charged with murder in Massachusetts in 1920 and sentenced to death. The case against Sacco and Vanzetti was circumstantial and poorly argued, although evidence now suggests that they were in fact guilty. It was significant, however, because it showcased nativist and conservative forces at work in America.

Bank veto

Andrew Jackson's 1832 veto of the proposed charter renewal for the Second Bank of the United States. The veto marked the beginning of Jackson's five-year battle against the national bank.

Democratic Party

Andrew Jackson's party, organized at the time of the election of 1828. Throughout the mid- and late 1800s, the Democrats championed states' rights and fought against political domination by the economic elite. They opposed tariffs, federal funding for internal improvements, and other extensions of the power of the federal government. The party found its core support in the South. The party underwent a major transformation in the 1930s during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency, when Democrats began to embrace a more aggressive and involved federal government. FDR's New Deal policies cost Democrats the support of the white South—their traditional stronghold—and won them the support of many farmers, urban workers, blacks, and women. This Democratic support base remains in place today.

Eisenhower Doctrine

Announced in 1957. The doctrine committed the U.S. to preventing Communist aggression in the Middle East, with force if necessary.

Nixon Doctrine

Announced in July 1969 as a corollary to Nixon's efforts to pull American troops out of Vietnam, the Nixon Doctrine pledged a change in the U.S. role in the Third World from military protector to helpful partner.

Sugar Act

Another effort to pay for the British army located in North America, this 1764 measure taxed sugar and other imports. The British had previously attempted to halt the flow of sugar from French colonies to the colonies: By this act they attempted to make money from this trade. Another provision of the act harshly punished smugglers of sugar who didn't pay the import duty imposed by the British.

Horace Mann

Appointed secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837. Mann reformed the public school system by increasing state spending on schools, lengthening the school year, dividing the students into grades, and introducing standardized textbooks. Mann set the standard for public school reform throughout the nation.

Anti-Imperialist League

Argued against American imperialism in the late 1890s. Its members included such luminaries as William James, Andrew Carnegie, and Mark Twain.

Republican Party

Arose as the opposition party to the dominant Federalists during the Washington administration, Republicans (sometimes known as Democratic-Republicans) aimed to limit the power of central government in favor of states' rights and individual liberty. A long period of Republican dominance began with Thomas Jefferson's election in 1800 and ended with Democrat Andrew Jackson's election in 1828. A new Republican Party was formed in the mid-1850s after the collapse of the Whig Party. As a sectional party concentrated in the North, the Republican Party focused primarily on promoting the issue of free soil. In 1860, the party successfully elected Abraham Lincoln president, and dominated politics during the Civil War and early Reconstruction. Because of its origin as an antislavery party, the Republican Party held the black vote for over sixty years, until FDR's New Deal policies caused black voters align with the Democrats.

Elastic clause

Article I, Section VIII of the Constitution. The article states that Congress shall have the power "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution . . . powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States." This clause was a point of much contention between those who favored a loose reading of the Constitution and those who favored a strict reading.

Teller Amendment

As Americans were preparing for war with Spain over Cuba in 1898, this Senate measure stated that under no circumstances would the United States annex Cuba. The amendment was passed as many in the muckraking press were suggesting that the Cuban people would be better off "under the protection" of the United States.

Bleeding Kansas

As a result of Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, residents of Kansas territory could decide if territory would allow slavery or not; as a result, both pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups flooded settlers into Kansas territory. Much violence followed very disputed elections in 1855.

New Jersey Plan

As the U.S. constitution was being debated and drafted, large states and small states each offered proposals on how the legislature should be structured. This Plan stated that the legislature should have a great deal of power to regulate trade, and that it should consist of one legislative house, with each state having one vote.

Three-Fifths Compromise

As the new Constitution was being debated in 1787, great controversy developed over how slaves should be counted in determining membership in the House of Representatives. To increase their representation, Southern states argued that slaves should be counted as people; Northerners argued that they should not count, since they could not vote or own property. The compromise arrived at was that each slave would count as three-fifths of a free person.

hydrogen bomb

Atomic weapons much more powerful than those used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki; these were developed and repeatedly tested by both the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s, increasing dramatically the potential danger of nuclear war.

Thurgood Marshall

Attorney who successfully argued the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in front of the Supreme Court in 1954. In 1967, Marshall became the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court.

Lever Food and Fuel Control Act

August 1917 measure that gave President Wilson the power to regulate the production and consumption of food and fuels during wartime. Some in his administration argued for price controls and rationing; instead, Wilson instituted voluntary controls.

Thomas Paine

Author of influential pamphlet Common Sense, which exhorted Americans to rise up in opposition to the British government and establish a new type of government based on Enlightenment ideals. Historians have cited the publication of this pamphlet as the event that finally sparked the Revolutionary War. Paine also wrote rational criticisms of religion, most famously in The Age of Reason (1794-1807).

Horatio Alger

Author of popular young adult novels, such as Ragged Dick, during the Industrial Revolution. Alger's "rags to riches" tales emphasised that anyone could become wealthy and successful through hard work and exceptional luck.

Force Bill

Authorized President Jackson to use arms to collect customs duties in South Carolina as part of the Compromise of 1833.

Federal Trade Commision

Authorized after the passage of the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, it was established as the major government body in charge of regulating big businesses. The FTC investigated possible violations of antitrust laws.

War Industries Board

Authorized in 1917, the job of this board was to mobilize American industries for the war effort. The board was headed by Wall Street investor Bernard Baruch, who used his influence to get American industries to produce materials useful for the war effort. Baruch was able to increase American production by a staggering 22 percent before the end of the war.

Model T

Automobile produced by Ford Motor Company using assembly line techniques. The first Model Ts were produced in 1907; using the assembly line, Ford produced half of the automobiles made in the world between 1907 and 1926.

Second National Bank

Bank established by Congress in 1816; President Madison had called for the Second Bank in 1815 as a way to spur national economic growth after the War of 1812. After an economic downturn in 1818, the bank shrank the amount of currency available for loans, an act that helped to create the economic collapse of 1819.

Battle of Fredericksburg

Battle on December 13, 1862, where the Union army commanded by General Ambrose Burnside suffered a major defeat at the hands of Confederate forces.

Battle of Guadalcanal

Battle over this Pacific island lasted from August 1942 through February 1943; American victory against the fierce Japanese resistance was the first major offensive victory for the Americans in the Pacific War.

Adolph Hitler

Became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Hitler led the nation to economic recovery by mobilizing industry for the purposes of war. His fascist Nazi regime attempted to secure global hegemony for Germany, undertaking measures of mass genocide and ushering Europe into World War II.

John Tyler

Became president of the United States in 1841, when William Henry Harrison died after one month in office.

Battle of the Atlantic

Began in spring 1941 with the sinking of the American merchant vessel by a German submarine. Armed conflict between warships of America and Germany took place in September of 1941; American merchant vessels were armed by 1942.

Gulf War

Began when Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990. In January 1991, the U.S. attacked Iraqi troops, supply lines, and bases. In late February, U.S. ground troops launched an attack on Kuwait City, successfully driving out Hussein's troops. A total of 148 Americans died in the war, compared to over 100,000 Iraqi deaths.

Panic of 1893

Began when the railroad industry faltered during the early 1890s, sparking the collapse of many related industries. Confidence in the U.S. dollar plunged. The depression lasted roughly four years.

Revolutionary War

Began with the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The American colonists defeated the British and won independence.

Second New Deal

Beginning n 1935 the New Deal did more to help the poor and attack the wealthy; one reason Roosevelt took this path was to turn the American people away from those who said the New Deal wasn't going far enough to help the average person. Two key legislative acts of this era were the Social Security Act of 1935 and the June 1935 National Labor Relations Act (also called the Wagner Act), which gave all Americans the right to join labor unions. The Wealth Tax Act increased the tax rates for the wealthiest Americans.

creationism

Belief in the Biblical account of the origin of the universe and the origin of man; believers in creationism and believers in evolution both had their day in court during the 1925 Scopes Trial.

globalizations

Belief that the United States should work closely with other nations of the world to solve common problems; this was the foreign policy approach of President Clinton. Policies that supported this approach included the ratification of NAFTA, the United States working more closely with the United Nations, and "nation building" abroad. Many policies of globalization were initially rejected by Clinton's successor, George W. Bush.

Democratic-Republicans

Believed in the ideas of Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the benefits of a limited government and of a society dominated by the values of the yeoman farmer. Opposed to the Federalists, who wanted a strong national state and a society dominated by commercial interests.

The Feminine Mystique

Betty Friedan's 1963 book that was the Bible of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Friedan maintained that the post-World War II emphasis on family forced women to think of themselves primarily as housewives and robbed them of much of their creative potential.

Northwest Ordinances

Bills passed in 1784, 1785, and 1787 that authorized the sale of lands in the Northwest Territory to raise money for the federal government; these bills also carefully laid out the procedures for eventual statehood for parts of these territories.

Harlem Renaissance

Black literary and artistic movement centered in Harlem that lasted from the 1920s into the early 1930s that both celebrated and lamented black life in America; Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston were two famous writers in this movement.

Universal Negro Improvement Association

Black organization of the early 1920s founded by Marcus Garvey, who argued that, however possible blacks should disassociate themselves from the "evils" of white society. This group organized a "back to Africa" movement, encouraging blacks of African descent to move back there; independent black businesses were encouraged (and sometimes funded) by Garvey's organization.

Oregon Treaty

Both the United States and Great Britain claimed the Oregon Territory; in 1815 they agreed to jointly control the region. In 1843 the settlers of Oregon declared that their territory would become an independence republic.

Battle of Chancellorsville

Brilliant Confederate attack on Union forces led by Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee on May 2 to 3, 1863; Union defeat led to great pessimism in North and convinced many in the South that victory over North was indeed possible.

Lusitania

British passenger liner with 128 Americans on board that was sunk off the coast of Ireland by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915. This sinking caused outrage in the United States and was one of a series of events in the United States closer to war with Germany.

salutary neglect

British policy announced at the beginning of the eighteenth century stating that as long as the American colonies remained politically loyal and continued their trade with Great Britain, the British government would relax enforcement of various measures restricting colonial activity that were enacted in the 1600s. Tensions between the colonies and Britain continued over British policies concerning colonial trade and the power of colonial legislatures.

impressment

British practice of forcing civilians and ex-sailors back into naval service; during the wars against Napoleon the British seized nearly 7500 sailors from American ships, including some that had actually become American citizens. This practice caused increased tensions between the United States and Great Britain and was one cause of the War of 1812.

fireside chats

Broadcast on the radio by Franklin Roosevelt addressed directly to the American people that made many Americans feel that he personally cared for them; FDR did 16 of these in his first two terms. Many Americans in the 1930s had pictures of Roosevelt in their living rooms; in addition, Roosevelt received more letters from ordinary Americans than any other president in American history.

Spanish-American War

Broke out in 1898 over U.S. concerns for the Cuban independence movement. The U.S. decisively won the war, gaining the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, and securing independence for Cuba. The victory also marked the entrance of the United States as a powerful force onto the world stage.

United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)

Brought from Jamaica to the U.S. in 1916 by Marcus Garvey. The UNIA urged economic cooperation among African Americans.

Freedom Rides

Buses of black and white civil rights workers who in 1961 rode on interstate buses to the Deep South to see if Southern states were abiding by the 1960 Supreme Court ruling banning segregation on interstate buses and waiting rooms and restaurants at bus stations. Buses met mob violence in numerous cities; federal marshals were finally called to protect the freedom riders.

Selective Service and Training Act

Called for the nation's first peacetime draft. The act was passed in September 1940.

French and Indian War

Called the Seven Years War in European textbooks; in this war, the British and the French fought for the right to expand their empire in the Americas. Colonists and Native Americans fought on both sides, and the war eventually spread to Europe and elsewhere. The English emerged victorious, and in the end received all of French Canada.

settlement houses

Centers set up by progressive-era reformers in the poorest sections of American cities; at these centers workers and their children might receive lessons in the English language or citizenship, while for women lessons in sewing and cooking were often times held. The first settlement house was Hull House in Chicago, established by Jane Addams in 1889.

John D. Rockefeller

Chairman of the Standard Oil Trust, which grew to control nearly all of the United States' oil production and distribution.

Bank of the United States

Chartered in 1791, the bank was a controversial part of Alexander Hamilton's Federalist economic program.

Second Bank of the United States

Chartered in 1816 under President Madison. The Bank served as a depository for federal funds and a creditor for state banks. It became unpopular after being blamed for the panic of 1819, and suspicion of corruption and mismanagement haunted it until its charter expired in 1836. Jackson fought against the bank throughout his presidency, proclaiming it to be an unconstitutional extension of the federal government and a tool that rich capitalists used to corrupt American society.

Worcester v. Georgia

Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in 1832 that the Cherokee tribe comprised a "domestic dependent nation" within Georgia and thus deserved protection from harassment—in this case, from forced migration out of Georgia. Known to be vehemently racist against Indians and eager to secure Native American land for U.S. settlement, Andrew Jackson refused to abide by the decision, reportedly sneering, "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it." The Cherokee removal continued on unabated and as aggressively as ever.

John Marshall

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1801 until his death in 1835. Under Marshall's leadership, the Court became as powerful a federal force as the executive and legislative branches. Marshall's most notable decision came in the 1803 Marbury v. Madison case, in which he asserted the principle of judicial review. During James Monroe's presidency, Marshall delivered two rulings that curtailed states' rights and exposed the latent conflicts in the Era of Good Feelings.

Roger B. Taney

Chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1836 to 1864. In support of slavery laws, he delivered the majority opinion on Dred Scott v. Sanford.

Earl Warren

Chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969. Warren's liberal court made a number of important decisions, primarily in the realm of civil rights, including Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954.

Congregationalism

Church system set up by the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in which each local church served as the center of its own community. This structure stood in contrast to the Church of England, in which the single state church held sway over all local churches. Congregationalism assured colonists a role in directing the individual congregations, which became the center of religious, and often political, life in New England communities.

ironclad ship

Civil War-era ships that were totally encased in iron, thus making them very difficult to damage; the iron clad of the Confederate army was the "Virginia" (it had been the "Merrimac" when it was captured from the Union), whereas the Union ship was the "Monitor". The two ships battled each other in March 1862, with both being badly damaged.

Allied powers

Coalition of nations that opposed Germany,Italy,and Japan in World War II; led by England, the Soviet Union, and the United States. In World War I, the coalition consisted of France,Russia, and Great Britain. This Group opposed the Central powers (Germany,Austria-Hungary, and Italy).

Black Power

Coined by Stokely Carmichael, and adopted by Malcom X, the Black Panthers, and other civil rights groups. The term embodied the fight against oppression and the value of ethnic heritage.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

Collective alliance of the United States and most of the Western European nations that was founded in 1949; an attack of one member of NATO was considered an attack on all. Many United States troops served in Europe during the Cold War era because of the NATO alliance. To counter NATO, the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact in 1955.

King William's War

Colonial war against the French that lasted from 1689 to 1697; army from New England colonies attacked Quebec, but were forced to retreat because of the lack of strong colonial leadership and an outbreak of smallpox among colonial forces.

Tories

Colonists who disagreed with the move for independence and did not support the Revolution.

Ulysses S. Grant

Commanding general of western Union forces for much of the war, and for all Union forces during the last year of the war. Grant later became the nation's eighteenth president, serving from 1869 to 1877 and presiding over the decline of Reconstruction. His administration was marred by corruption.

HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee)

Committee of the House of Representatives that beginning in 1947 investigated possible communist infiltration of the entertainment industry and, more importantly, of the government. Most famous investigations of the committee were the investigation of the "Hollywood Ten" and the investigation of Alger Hiss, a former High-ranking member of the state department.

Hooverville

Communities of destitute Americans living in shanties and makeshift shacks. Hoovervilles sprung up around most major U.S. cities in the early 1930s, providing a stark reminder of Herbert Hoover's failure to alleviate the poverty of the Great Depression.

Compromise of 1850

Complex agreement that temporarily lessened tensions between Northern and Southern political leaders, and prevented a possible secession crisis; to appease the South, the Fugitive Slave Act was strengthened; to appease the North, California entered the Union as a free state.

Old Age Revolting Pension Plan

Conceived by California doctor Francis Townsend in 1934, this plan would give every retired American $200 a month, with the stipulation that it would have to be spent by the end of the month ; Townsend claimed this would revitalize the economy by putting more money in circulation. A national tax of 2 percent of all business transactions was supposed to finance this plan. A large number of Townsend clubs were formed to support this plan.

New South

Concept promoted by Southerners in the late 1800s that the South had changed dramatically and was now interested in industrial growth and becoming a part of the national economy. A large textile industry did develop in the South beginning in the 1880s.

Berlin Wall

Concrete structure built in 1961 by Soviets and East Germany physically dividing East and West Berlin; to many in the West, the Wall was symbolic of communist repression in the Cold War era. The wall was finally torn down in 1989.

Battle of Britain

Conducted during the summer and fall of 1940. In preparation for an amphibious assault, Germans lauched airstrikes on London. Hitler hoped the continuous bombing would destroy British industry and sap morale, but the British successfully avoided a German invasion.

Boston Massacre

Conflict between British soldiers and Boston civilians on March 5, 1770; after civilians threw rocks and snowballs at the soldiers, the soldiers opened fire, killing five and wounding six.

Wade-Davis Act

Congress passed this bill in 1864 in response to the "10 percent Plan" of Abraham Lincoln; this legislation wet out much more difficult conditions than had been proposed by Lincoln for Southern states to reenter the Union. According to Wade-Davis, all former officers of the Confederacy would be denied citizenship; to vote, a person would have to take an oath that he had never helped the Confederacy in any way, and half of all white males in a state would have to swear loyalty to the Union before statehood could be considered. Lincoln prevented this from becoming law by using the pocket veto.

McCarran Internal Security Act

Congressional act enacted in 1950 that stated all members of the Communist party had to register with the office of the Attorney General and that it was a crime to conspire to foster communism in the United States.

Social Security Act

Considered by many to be the most important act passed during the entire New Deal, this 1935 bill established a system that would give payments to Americans after they reached retirement age; provisions for unemployment and disability insurance were also found in this bill. Political leaders of recent years have wrestled with the problem of keeping the Social Security system solvent.

Berlin Wall

Constructed by the USSR and completed in August 1961 to prevent East Berliners from fleeing to West Berlin. The wall cemented the political split of Berlin between the communist and authoritian East and the capitalist and democratic West. The Berlin wall was torn down on November 9, 1989, setting the stage for the reunification of Germany and signifying the end of the Cold War.

Smoot-Hawley Tariff

One of Herbert Hoover's early efforts to protect the nation's farmers following the onset of the Great Depression. Unfortunately, the tariff raised rates to an all-time high, hurting farmers more than it helped them. Ninety-four percent of the imports taxed were agricultural imports.

Head Start

One of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty programs that gave substantial funding for a nursery school program to prepare children of poor parents for kindergarten.

recall

One of a number of reforms of the governmental system proposed by progressive-era thinkers; by the process of this, the citizens of a city or state could remove an unpopular elected official from office in midterm. This was adopted in only a small number of communities.

referendum

One of a series of progressive-era reforms designed to improve the political system; with the referendum, certain issues would be decided not by elected representatives as voters are called upon to approve or disapprove specific government programs. Consistent with populist and progressive era desire to return government "to the people."

Teapot Dome Scandal

One of many scandals that took place during the presidency of warren G. Harding. The Secretary of the Interior accepted bribes from oil companies for access to government reserves as Teapot Dome. Wyoming; other cabinet members were later convicted of accepting bribes and using their influence to make millions. The Harding administration in American political history.

Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA)

One of the New Deal's most comprehensive measures, passed May 1933. FERA appropriated $500 million to support state and local treasuries that had run dry.

John Jay

One of the authors of The Federalist Papers. Jay was instrumental in the drafting of the Constitution.

Ernest Hemingway

One of the best-known writers of the 1920s' "lost generation." An expatriate, Hemingway produced a number of famous works during the 1920s, including The Sun Also Rises (1926) and A Farewell to Arms (1929). A member of the Popular Front, Hemingway fought in the Spanish Civil War, depicted in his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. His work, like that of many of his contemporaries, reflects the disillusionment and despair of the time.

Daniel Webster

One of the country's leading statesmen in the first half of the nineteenth century. Webster was a Federalist lawyer from New Hampshire who won, most notably, the Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) and McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) Supreme Court cases. First elected to Congress in 1822, he became a powerful defender of northern interests, supporting the 1828 tariff and objecting to nullification. Webster opposed many of President Jackson's policies and became a leader of the Whig Party. He was instrumental in negotiating the Compromise of 1850.

Battle of Chateau-Thierry

One of the first 1918 World War I battles where soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force fought and suffered severe casualties.

Knights of Labor

One of the first major labor organizations in the U.S., founded in 1869. The Knights fell into decline after one of several leaders was executed for killing a policeman in the Haymarket riot of1886.

Francisco Franco

Controlled the rightist forces during the Spanish Civil War. His fascist government ruled Spain from 1939 until 1975.

internment camps

Controversial decision was made after the bombing of Pearl Harbor to place Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast in these camps. President Roosevelt authorized this by Executive Order #9066; this order was validated by the Supreme Court in 1944. In 1988 the U.S. government paid compensation to surviving detainees.

Second Continental Congress

Convened in May 1775 after fighting broke out in Massachusetts between the British and the colonists. Most delegates opposed the drastic move toward complete independence from Britain. In an effort to reach a reconciliation, the Congress sent the Olive Branch Petition to King George III, offering peace under the conditions that there be a cease-fire in Boston, that the Coercive Acts (part of the Intolerable Acts) be repealed, and that negotiations between the colonists and Britain begin immediately. When King George III rejected the petition, the Congress created the Continental Army and elected George Washington its commander in chief.

First Continental Congress

Convened on September 5, 1774, with all the colonies but Georgia sending delegates chosen by the Committees of Correspondence. The congress endorsed the Suffolk Resolves, voted for an organized boycott of British imports, and sent a petition to King George III that conceded to Parliament the power of regulation of commerce, but stringently objected to Parliament's arbitrary taxation and unfair judicial system.

American System

Crafted by Henry Clay and backed by the National Republican Party. The American System proposed a series of tariffs and federally funded transportation improvements, geared toward achieving national economic self-sufficiency.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

Created as a part of the first New Deal to increase faith in the banking system by insuring individual deposits with federal funds.

Joint Chiefs of Staff

Created by FDR in February 1942 to oversee the rapidly growing military. The Joint Chiefs included representatives from the army, navy, and air force.

Civil Works Administration (CWA)

Created by FDR to cope with the added economic difficulties brought on by the cold winter months of 1933. The CWA spent approximately $1 billion on short-term projects for the unemployed but was abolished in the spring of that year.

Peace Corps

Created by JFK in 1961. The Corps sends volunteer teachers, health workers, and engineers on two-year aid programs to Third World countries.

Civil Service Commission

Created by Pendelton Civil Service Act of 1883, this body was in charge of testing applicants and assigning them to appropriate government jobs; filling jobs on the basis of merit replaced the spoils system, in which government jobs were given as rewards for political service.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)

Created by President Hoover in 1932 to make loans to large economic institutions such as railroads and banks. The RFC loaned over $2 billion in 1932, but that amount was too little, too late in the fight against the Great Depression. The RFC continued operating under FDR.

Committee on Public Information

Created by Woodrow Wilson during World War I to mobilize the public opinion for the war, this was the most intensive use of propaganda until that time by the United States. The image of "Uncle Sam" was created for this propaganda campaign.

Public Works Administration (PWA)

Created by the National Industrial Recovery Act as part of the New Deal. The PWA spent over $4 million on projects designed to employ the jobless and reinvigorate the economy.

United States Forest Service

Created during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, this body increased and protected the number of national forests and encouraged through numerous progress the efficient use of America's natural resources.

National Conservation Commission

Created in 1909 by Theodore Roosevelt. The National Conservation Commission aimed to achieve more efficient and responsible management of the nation's resources.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

Created in 1933 as part of FDR's New Deal, the CCC pumped money into the economy by employing the destitute in conservation and other projects.

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)

Created in 1933 as part of FDR's New Deal. The AAA controlled the production and prices of crops by offering subsidies to farmers who stayed under set quotas. The Supreme Court declared the AAA unconstitutional in 1936. Was designed to restore economic position of farmers by paying them not to farm goods that were being overproduced.

Second New Deal

Created in 1935 after FDR's first New Deal began to crumble in the face of opposition and antagonistic Supreme Court rulings. The Second New Deal was characterized by greater government spending and increased numbers of work relief programs. The most lasting measure of the Second New Deal was the creation of the Social Security system.

War Production Board

Created in 1942. The War Production Board oversaw the production of the thousands of planes, tanks, artillery pieces, and munitions that FDR requested once the U.S. entered the war. The board allocated scarce resources and shifted domestic production from civilian to military goods.

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

Created in 1962. SDS united college students throughout the country in a network committed to achieving racial equality, alleviating poverty, and ending the Vietnam War.

Office of Censorship

Created in December 1941. The Office of Censorship examined all letters sent overseas and worked with media firms to control information broadcast to the people in an attempt to limit information leaks during World War II.

Truman Doctrine

Created in response to 1947 requests by Greece and Turkey for American assistance to defend themselves against potentially pro-Soviet elements in their countries, this policy stated that the United States would be ready to assist any free nation trying to defend itself against "armed minorities or...outside pressures." This would become the major American foreign policy goal throughout the Cold War.

Judiciary Act of 1789

Created the American court system. The act established a federal district court in each state and gave the Supreme Court final jurisdiction in all legal matters.

Federal Trade Commission Act

Created the Federal Trade Commission in 1914 to monitor and investigate firms involved in interstate commerce and to issue "cease and desist" orders when business practices violated free competition. The act was a central part of Wilson's plan to aggressively regulate business.

Ballinger-Pinchot Affair

Crisis that occurred when William Howard Taft was president, further distancing himself from Progressive supporters of Theodore Roosevelt. Richard Ballinger, Taft's Secretary of the Interior, allowed private businessmen to purchase large amounts of public land in Alaska; Forest Service head Gifford Pinchot (a Roosevelt supporter) protested to Congress and was fired by Taft.

Anaconda Plan

Critical component of initial Union plans to win the Civil War; called for capture of critical Southern ports and eventual control of the Mississippi River, which would create major economic and strategic difficulties for the Confederacy.

Panama Canal

Crucial for American economic growth, the building of this canal was begun by American builders in 1904 and completed in 1914; the United States had to first engineer a Panamanian revolt against Colombia to guarantee a friendly government in Panama that would support the building of the canal. In 1978 the U.S. Senate voted to return the Panama Canal to Panamanian control.

Anti-Imperialist League

Organization formed in 1898 to oppose American annexation of the Philippines and American imperialism in general; focused the public on the potential financial,military, and especially moral costs of imperialism.

Anti-Saloon League

Organization founded in 1893 that increased public awareness of the social effects of alcohol on society; supported politicians who favored prohibition and promoted statewide referendums in Western and Southern states to ban alcohol.

National Security League

Organization founded in 1914 that preached patriotism and preparation for war; om 1915 they successfully lobbied government officials to set up camps to prepare men for military life and combat. The patriotism of this group became more strident as the war progressed; in 1917 they lobbied Congress to greatly limit immigration into the country.

Ku Klux Klan

Organization founded in the South during the Reconstruction era by whites who wanted to maintain white supremacy in the region. KKK used terror tactics, including murder. The Klan was revitalized in the 1920s; members of the 1920s Klan opposed Catholics and Southern and Eastern European immigrants. The KKK exists to this day, with recent efforts to make the Klan appear to be "respectable."

Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA)

Organization that attempted to alleviate some of the struggles of the poor by providing young people with affordable shelter and recreational facilities. Founded in America in 1851.

United Farm Workers

Organized by Cesar Chavez in 1961, this union represented Mexican-Americans engaged in the lowest levels of agricultural work. In 1965 Chavez organized a strike against grape growers that hired Mexican-American workers in California, eventually winning the promise of benefits and minimum wage guarantees for the workers.

Seneca Falls Convention

Organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1848. The Seneca Falls Convention issued a Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence, declaring that all men and women were created equal.

Committees of Correspondence

Organized by New England patriot leader Samuel Adams. The Committees of Correspondence comprised a system of communication between patriot leaders in the towns of New England and provided the political organization necessary to unite the colonies in opposition to Parliament. These committees were responsible for sending delegates to the First Continental Congress.

Black Panthers

Organized in 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The Black Panthers stressed a black pride, economic self-sufficiency, and armed resistance to white oppression.

March on Washington

Over 200,00 came to Washington for this August 1963 event demanding civil rights for blacks. A key moment of the proceedings was Martin Luther King's " I have a dream" speech; the power of the civil rights movement was not lost on Lyndon Johnson, who pushed for civil rights legislation when he became president the following year.

Joseph Pulitzer

Owner of the New York World, the main competitor of William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Though the World was the (slightly) more reputable of the two papers, both engaged in yellow journalism, exaggerating facts and sensationalizing stories about the Spanish-American War.

greenbacks

Paper money issued by the American government during and immediately after the Civil War that was not backed up by gold or silver.

Social Darwinism

Darwin's theories of evolution and survival of the fittest as applied to human societies. Andrew Carnegie and others cited social Darwinist theories to justify the widening gap between the rich and the poor during the era of industrialization.

Battle of the Bulge

December 1944 German attack that was the last major offensive by the Axis powers in World War II; Germans managed to push forward into Belgium but were then driven back. Attack was costly to the Germans in terms of material and manpower.

Battle of Trenton

December 26, 1776, surprise attack by forces commanded by George Washington on Hessian forces outside of Trenton, New Jersey. Nearly 950 Hessians were captured and 30 were killed by Washington's forces; three Americans were wounded in the attack. The battle was a tremendous psychological boost for the American war effort.

Massacre at Wounded Knee

December 28, 1890, "battle" that was the last military resistance of Native Americans of the Great Plains against American encroachment. Minneconjou Indians were at Wounded Knee Creek. American soldiers attempted to take their arms from them; after shooting began, 25 American soldiers died, along with more than 200 men, women, and children of the Indian tribe.

Second Battle of Bull Run

Decisive victory by General Robert E. Lee and Confederate forces over the Union army in August 1862.

Embargo of 1807

Declaration by President Thomas Jefferson that banned all American trade with Europe. As a result a war between England and Napoleon's France, America's sea rights as a neutral power were threatened; Jefferson hoped the embargo would force England and France to respect American neutrality.

Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

Declared (during Roosevelt's 1904 State of the Union address) that the United States, not Europe, should dominate the affairs of Latin America, and that although the U.S. had no expansionist intentions, any "chronic wrongdoing" by a Latin American nation would justify U.S. intervention as a global police power.

Suffolk Resolves

Declared that the colonies need not obey the 1773 Coercive Acts, since they infringed upon basic liberties. The Suffolk Resolves were endorsed by the First Continental Congress.

Bear Flag Republic

Declaring independence from Mexican control, this republic was declared in 1846 by American settlers living in California; this political act was part of a larger American political and military strategy to wrest Texas and California from Mexico.

Warsaw Pact

Defensive military alliance created in 1955 by the Soviet Union and all of the Eastern European satellite nations loyal to the Soviet Union; it was formed as a reaction against NATO and NATO's 1955 decision to invite West Germany to join the organization.

Northwest Ordinance

Defined the process by which new states could be admitted into the Union from the Northwest Territory. The ordinance forbade slavery in the territory but allowed citizens to vote on the legality of slavery once statehood had been established.

Annapolis Convention

Delegates from five states met in Annapolis in September 1786 to discuss interstate commerce. However, discussions of weaknesses in the government led them to suggest to Congress a new convention to amend the Articles of Confederation.

Freeport Doctrine

Democrat Stephen A. Douglas's attempt to reconcile his belief in popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision. In the famed Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, Douglas argued that territories could effectively forbid slavery by failing to enact slave codes, even though the Dred Scott decision deprived government of the right to restrict slavery in the territories.

Woodrow Wilson

Democrat, president from 1913 to 1921. An enthusiastic reformer, Wilson supported measures to limit corporate power, protect laborers, and aid poor farmers. In foreign relations, he advocated the principles of "new freedom," encouraging democracy and capitalism worldwide. During the early years of World War I, Wilson struggled to preserve American neutrality. Once the U.S. entered the war, he charged ahead aggressively. Wilson's key contributions to the war, beyond providing American forces, were the elucidation of his Fourteen Points and his advocacy of the League of Nations.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Democrat, president from 1933 until his death in 1945. FDR broke the unofficial tradition initiated by George Washington of presidents serving no more than two terms in office. FDR was the architect of the New Deal and the visible force behind the United States' efforts at recovery from the Great Depression. In forging the New Deal, FDR exercised greater authority than perhaps any president before him, giving rise to a new understanding of the role and responsibility of the president. Under FDR's leadership, the modern Democratic Party was formed, garnering support from labor unions, blacks, urban workers, and farmers. In the later years of his presidency, FDR heavily supervised both the civilian and military effort in World War II. He has been called the most popular president in American history.

John F. Kennedy

Democrat, served as president from 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. A young and charismatic leader, Kennedy cultivated a glorified image in the eyes of the American public. His primary achievements came in the realm of international relations, most notably the peaceful resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Franklin Pierce

Democrat, served as president of the United States from 1853 to 1857. Pierce was the last president until 1932 to win the popular and electoral vote in both the North and South. Pierce was little more than a caretaker of the White House in the years leading up to the Civil War.

William Jennings Bryan

Democratic candidate for president in 1896. His goal of "free silver" (unlimited coinage of silver) won him the support of the Populist Party. Though a gifted orator, Bryan lost the election to Republican William McKinley. He ran again for president and lost in 1900. In the 1920s, Bryan made his mark as a leader of the fundamentalist cause and the key witness in the Scopes Monkey Trial.

Jimmy Carter

Democratic president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. Carter is best known for his commitment to human rights. During his term in office, he faced an oil crisis, a weak economy, and severe tension in the Middle East.

Copperheads

Democrats in Congress in the first years of the Civil War who opposed Abraham Lincoln and the North's attack on the South, claiming that the war would result in massive numbers of freed slaves entering the North and a total disruption of the Northern economy.

Compromise of 1850

Designed by Henry Clay and pushed through Congress by Stephen A. Douglas. The Compromise of 1850 aimed to resolve sectional conflict over the distribution of slave-holding versus free states. It stipulated the admission of California as a free state; the division of the remainder of the Mexican cession into two separate territories, New Mexico and Utah, without federal restrictions on slavery; the continuance of slavery but abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia; and a more effective Fugitive Slave Law. The compromise, however, proved incapable of stemming controversy over slavery's expansion.

Revenue Act of 1942

Designed to raise money for the war, this bill dramatically increased the number of Americans required to pay income tax. Until this point, roughly 4 million Americans paid income tax; as a result of this legislation, nearly 45 million did.

Trail of Tears

Despite the Supreme Court decision in Worcester v. Georgia, federal troops forced bands of Cherokee Indians to move west of the Mississippi between 1835 and 1838. Their journey, in which 2,000-4,000 of the 16,000 Cherokee died, became known as the Trail of Tears.

Open Door policy

Developed by Secretary of State John Hay in 1899. The Open Door policy aimed to combat the European spheres of influence that threatened to squeeze American business interests out of Chinese markets. It pressured European powers to open key ports within their spheres of influence to U.S. businessmen.

Lowell System

Developed in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1820s, in these factories as much machinery as possible was used, so that few skilled workers were needed in the process, and the workers were almost all single young farm women, who worked for a few years and then returned home to be housewives. Managers found these young women were the perfect workers for this type of factory life.

Dawes Plan

Devised by banker Charles G. Dawes in 1924. The Dawes plan scaled back U.S. demands for debt payments and reparations from World War I, and established a cycle of U.S. loans to Germany. These loans provided Germany with funds for its payment to the Allies, thus funding Allied debt payments to the U.S.

Joseph Stalin

Dictator of the Soviet Union from 1928 until 1953. Stalin coordinated Soviet involvement in World War II, intitially cooperating with U.S. forces. The relationship between the USSR and the U.S. soured during World War II, eventually leading to the Cold War.

Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur was an American general who commanded the United States army in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he oversaw the American occupation of Japan and later led American troops in the Korean War. Though MacArthur pushed for total victory in the Korean War, seeking to conquer all of Korea and perhaps move into China, Harry S. Truman held him back from this aggressive goal. After a month of publicly denouncing the administration's policy, MacArthur was relieved from duty in April 1951.

Declaration of Independence

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence was approved by Congress on July 4, 1776. The document enumerated the reasons for the split with Britain and laid out the Enlightenment ideals (best expressed by John Locke) of natural rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" upon which the American Revolution was based.

Panic of 1873

Due to overexpansion and overspeculation, the nation's largest bank collapsed, followed by the collapse of many smaller banks, business firms, and the stock market. The panic of 1873 precipitated a five-year national depression.

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

During McCarthyism, provided the congressional forum in which many hearings about suspected communists in the government took place.

Axis powers

During World War II, the Axis powers included Germany, Italy, and Japan. The three powers signed the Tripartite Pact in September 1940.

martial law

During a state of emergency, when rule of law may be suspended and government is controlled by military or police authorities. During the Civil War, Kentucky was placed under martial law by President Lincoln.

Anti-federalists

During ratification, anti-federalists opposed the Constitution on the grounds that it gave the federal government too much political, economic, and military control. They instead advocated a decentralized governmental structure that granted the most power to the states.

Impressment

During the 1800s, a British policy whereby the British boarded American ships in search of British naval deserters, whom they would force (impress) back into service. Often naturalized or native-born Americans were also seized, provoking outrage in America. Impressment was one of a string of British violations against U.S. neutrality rights that helped spark the War of 1812.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Part of FDR's New Deal. The TVA worked to develop energy production sites and conserve resources in the Tennessee Valley. It pumped money into the economy and completed a number of major projects, but eventually faced heavy criticism from environmentalists, advocates of energy conservation, and opponents of nuclear power.

Medicare

Part of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program, this program acted as a form of health insurance for retired Americans (and disabled ones as well). Through this, the federal government would pay for services received by elderly patients at doctor's offices and hospitals.

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

Part of the 1935 Wagner Act, which was a huge victory for organized labor. It ensured that factory owners did not harass union organizers, ensured that collective bargaining was fairly practiced in labor disputes, and supervised union elections. It was given the legal "teeth" to force employees to comply with all of the above.

Fugitive Slave Act

Part of the Compromise of 1850, this legislation set up special commissions in the Northern states to determine if an accused runaway slave really was one; according to regulations, after the verdict, commissioners were given more money if the accused was found to be a runaway than if he or she was found not to be one. Some Northern legislatures passed laws attempting to circumvent the Fugitive Slave Act.

Palmer Raids

Part of the Red Scare, these were measures to hunt out political radicals and immigrants who were potential threats to American security. Organized by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer in 1919 and 1920 (and carried out by J. Edgar Hoover), these raids led to the arrest of nearly 5500 people and the deportation of nearly four hundred.

Removal Act of 1830

Part of the effort to remove Native Americans from "Western" lands so that American settlement could continue westward, this legislation gave the president authorization (and money) to purchase from Native Americans all of their lands east of the Mississippi, and gave him the money to purchase lands west of the Mississippi for Native Americans to move to.

Populist party

Party that represented the farmers that scored major electoral victories in the 1890s, including the election of several members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the election of on U.S. senator.Their candidates spoke against monopolies, wanted government to become "more democratic," and wanted more direct government action to help the working class.

Neutrality Acts

Passed by Congress between 1935 and 1937. The acts made arms sales to warring countries illegal and forbade American citizens to travel aboard the ships of belligerent nations in an effort to keep the U.S. out of World War II.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Passed by Congress in 1882 amid a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment among American workers. The act banned Chinese immigration for ten years.

Alien and Sedition Acts

Passed by Federalists in 1798 in response to the XYZ Affair and growing Republican support. On the grounds of "national security," the Alien and Sedition Acts increased the number of years required to gain citizenship, allowed for the imprisonment and deportation of aliens, and virtually suspended freedom of speech. Popular dissatisfaction with the acts secured Republican Thomas Jefferson's bid for presidency in 1800, and were the undoing of the Federalist Party. Proposed and supported by John Adams, gave the president the power to expel aliens deemed "dangerous to the country's well-being" and outlawed publication and public pronouncement of "false, scandalous, and malicious" statements about the government.

Gag rule

Passed by Southerners in Congress in 1836. The gag rule tabled all abolitionist petitions in Congress and thereby prevented antislavery discussions. The gag rule was repealed in 1845, under increased pressure from Northern abolitionists and those concerned with the rule's restriction of the right to petition.

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Passed by a narrow margin in Congress in November 1993. NAFTA removed trade barriers between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. President Bill Clinton championed this and other efforts to integrate the U.S. into the international economy.

Personal liberty laws

Passed by nine northern states to counteract the Fugitive Slave Act. These state laws guaranteed all alleged fugitives the right to a lawyer and a trial by jury, and prohibited state jails from holding alleged fugitives.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Passed by the Senate in 1964 following questionable reports of a naval confrontation between North Vietnamese and U.S. forces. The resolution granted President Johnson broad wartime powers without explicitly declaring war.

Kentucky and Virginia Resolves

Passed by the legislature in these two states, these resolutions maintained that the Alien and Sedition Acts championed through Congress by John Adams went beyond the powers that the Constitution stated belonged to the federal government. These resolves predated that later Southern argument that individual states could "nullify" federal laws that deemed unconstitutional by the states.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

Passed during the first Hundred Days of the administration of Franklin Roosevelt, this body insured individual bank deposits up to $2500 and helped to restore confidence in America's banks.

Tea Act

Passed in 1773. The Tea Act eliminated import tariffs on tea entering England, and allowed the British East India Company to sell directly to consumers rather than through merchants. This lowered the price of British tea to below that of smuggled tea, which the British hoped would end the boycott. The British government hoped to use revenue from the Tea Act to pay the salaries of royal governors in the colonies, a plan that outraged many colonists and prompted the Boston Tea Party.

Sherman's March to the Sea

During the Civil War, Union general William T. Sherman led his forces on a march from Atlanta to Savannah and then to Richmond. Sherman brought the South "to its knees" by ordering large-scale destruction.

Whigs

During the Revolutionary War, the Whigs were colonists who supported the move for independence. In the mid-1830s, the Whigs arose in opposition to President Jackson. The party consisted of the core of the National Republican Party as well as some Northern Democrats who had defected in protest against Jackson's strong-armed leadership style and policies. The Whigs promoted protective tariffs, federal funding for internal improvements, and other measures that strengthened the central government. Reaching its height of popularity in the 1830s, the party disappeared from the national political scene by the 1850s, when its Northern and Southern factions irrevocably split over the slavery issue.

Vietcong

During the Vietnam war, forces that existed within South Vietnam that were fighting for the victory of the North Vietnamese. Its forces were pivotal in the initial successes of the Tet Offensive, which did much to make many in America question the American war effort in Vietnam and played a crucial role in the eventual defeat of the South Vietnamese government.

Chancellor of the Exchequer

During the era prior to and during the Revolutionary War, this was the head of the department in the British government that issued and collected taxes; many acts issued by the Chancellor of the Exchequer created great resentment in the American colonies.

Declaratory Act

Passed in 1776 just after the repeal of the Stamp Act. The Declaratory Act stated that Parliament could legislate for the colonies in all cases. Most colonists interpreted the act as a face-saving mechanism and nothing more. Parliament, however, continually interpreted the act in its broadest sense in order to control the colonies.

Three-fifths clause

During the framing of the Constitution, Southern delegates argued that slaves should count toward representative seats, while the delegates of Northern states argued that to count slaves as members of the population would grant an unfair advantage to the Southern states in Congress. The result of this debate was the adoption of the three-fifths clause, which allowed three-fifths of all slaves to be counted as people.

Federalists

During the period when the Constitution was being ratified, these were the supporters of the larger national government as outlined in the Constitution; the party of Washington and John Adams, it was supported by commercial interests. Federalists were opposed by Jeffersonians, who favored a smaller federal government and a society dominated by agrarian values. Federalists influence in national politics ended with the presidential election of 1816.

Iran-Contra Affair

During the second term of the Reagan administration, government officials sold missiles to Iran (hoping that this would help free American hostages held in Lebanon); money from this sale was used to aid anti-communist Contra forces in Nicaragua. Iran was a country that was supposed to be on the American "no trade" list because of their taking of American hostages, and congressional legislation had been enacted making it illegal to give money to the Contras. A major scandal for the Reagan administration.

Fugitive Slave Act

Passed in 1793 and strengthened as part of the Compromise of 1850. The act allowed Southerners to send posses into Northern soil to retrieve runaway slaves. During the early 1850s, Northerners mounted resistance to the act by aiding escaping slaves and passing personal liberty laws.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Passed in 1854. The act divided the Nebraska territory into two parts, Kansas and Nebraska, and left the issue of slavery in the territories to be decided by popular sovereignty. It nullified the prohibition of slavery above the 36º30' latitude established by the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

Homestead Act

Passed in 1862. The Homestead Act encouraged settlement of the West by offering 160 acres of land to anyone who would pay $10, live on the land for five years, and cultivate and improve it.

Pendleton Act

Passed in 1883. The Pendleton Act established a civil service exam for many public posts and created hiring systems based on merit rather than on patronage. The act aimed to eliminate corrupt hiring practices.

Interstate Commerce Act

Passed in 1887, the bill created Americas's first regulatory commission, the Interstate Commerce Committee. The task of this commission was to regulate the railroad and railroad rates, and to ensure that rates were "reasonable and just."

Dawes Severalty Act

Passed in 1887. The Dawes Severalty Act called for the breakup of Indian reservations and the treatment of Native Americans as individuals rather than as tribes. Any Native American who accepted the act's terms received 160 acres of farmland or 320 acres of grazing land and was guaranteed U.S. citizenship in twenty-five years. Intended to help Native Americans integrate into white society, in practice the Dawes Act caused widespread poverty and homelessness.

Interstate Commerce Act

Passed in 1887. The Interstate Commerce Act forbade price discrimination and other monopolistic practices of the railroads.

Sherman Antitrust Act

Passed in 1890 with the intention of breaking up business monopolies. The act outlawed "every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in the restraint of trade." The Sherman Antitrust Act was largely used to break up union strikes in the 1890s. It was not until the early 1900s that the government launched an aggressive antitrust campaign.

Platt Amendment

Passed in 1901. The Platt Amendment authorized American withdrawal from Cuba only on the following conditions: Cuba must make no treaty with a foreign power limiting its independence; the U.S. reserved the right to intervene in Cuba when it saw fit; and the U.S. could maintain a naval base at Guantánamo Bay.

Pure Food and Drug Act

Passed in 1906 in response to questionable packaging and labeling practices of food and drug industries. The act prohibited the sale of adulterated or inaccurately labeled foods and medicines.

Meat Inspection Act

Passed in 1906. The act set federal regulations for meatpacking plants and established a system of federal inspection after the muckrakers' exposés revealed the unsanitary and hazardous conditions of food processing plants.

Federal Securities Act

Passed in 1914. The act made corporate executives liable for any misrepresentation of securities issued by their companies. It paved the way for future acts to regulate the stock market.

Espionage Act

Passed in 1917, the act enumerated a list of antiwar activities warranting fines or imprisonment.

Sedition Amendment

Passed in 1918 as an amendment to the Espionage Act. The Sedition Amendment provided for the punishment of anyone using "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" in regard to the U.S. government, flag, or military.

National Origins Act

Passed in 1924. The National Origins Act established maximum quotas for immigration into the United States. This law severely restricted immigration from southern and eastern Europe, and excluded Asians entirely.

Smith-Connolly War Labor Disputes Act

Passed in 1930. The act limited the right to strike in key industries and authorized the president to intervene in any strike, eroding the generally amiable relationship between the government and organized labor during World War II.

Fair Labor Standards Act

Passed in 1938. The Fair Labor act provided for a minimum wage and restricted shipment of goods produced with child labor, and symbolized the FDR administration's commitment to working with with labor forces.

Smith Act

Passed in 1940. The act made it illegal to speak of, or advocate, overthrowing the U.S. government. During the presidential campaign of 1948, Truman demonstrated his aggressive stance against communism by prosecuting eleven leaders of the Communist Party under the Smith Act.

Civil Rights Act

Passed in 1964, the act outlawed discrimination in education, employment, and all public accommodations.

Voting Rights Act

Passed in 1965. The Voting Rights Act guaranteed all Americans the right to vote and allowed the federal government to intervene in elections in order to ensure that minorities could vote.

Wade-Davis Bill

Passed in July 1864. The Wade-Davis Bill set forth stringent requirements for Confederate states' readmission to the Union. President Lincoln, who supported a more liberal Reconstruction policy, vetoed the Wade-Davis Bill by leaving it unsigned more than ten days after the adjournment of Congress.

National Defense Act

Passed in June 1916. The National Defense Act called for the buildup of military forces in anticipation of war and was largely a response to German threats to American neutrality.

Lend-Lease Act

Passed in March 1941. The act allowed the president to lend or lease supplies to any nation deemed "vital to the defense of the United States," such as Britain, and was a key move in support of the Allied cause before the U.S. formally entered World War II. Lend-lease was extended to Russia in November 1941 after Germany invaded Russia.

Frederick Douglass

Perhaps the most famous of all abolitionists. An escaped slave, Douglass worked closely withWilliam Lloyd Garrison to promote abolitionism in the 1830s.

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

Perhaps the most important element of the first New Deal, the NRA established a forum in which business and government officials met to set regulations for fair competition. These regulations bound industry from 1933 until 1935, when the Supreme Court declared the NRA unconstitutional.

Cold War

Period between 1945 and 1991 of near continuous struggle between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its allies; Cold War tensions were made even more intense by the existence of the atomic bomb.

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

Early 1950s book and movie that compares the sterility, sameness, and lack of excitement postwar work and family life with the vitality felt by many World War II veterans during their wartime experiences.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Early American fiction writer. His most famous work, The Scarlet Letter (1850), explored the moral dilemmas of adultery in a Puritan community.

hunter-gatherers

Early civilization that existed not by farming but by moving from region to region and taking what was necessary at the time from the land; some early Native American tribes in northern New England lived as hunter-gatherers.

satellite countries

Eastern European countries that remained under the control of the Soviet Union during the Cold War era. Most were drawn together militarily by the Warsaw Pact; satellite nations that attempted political or cultural rebellion, such as Hungary in 1956 or Czechoslovakia in 1968, faced invasion by Soviet forces.

American System

Economic plan promoted by Speaker of the House Henry Clay in years following the War of 1812; promoted vigorous growth of the American economy and the use of protective tariffs to encourage Americans to buy more domestic goods.

mercantilism

Economic policy practiced by most European states in the late seventeenth century that stated the power of any state depended largely on its wealth; thus it was the state's duty to do all that it could to build up wealth. A mercantilist country would not want to import raw materials from other countries; instead, it would be best to have colonies from which these raw materials could be imported.

deficit spending

Economic policy where government spends money that it "doesn't have," thus creating a budget deficit. Although "conventional" economic theory disapproves of this, it is commonplace during times of crisis or war (e.g., the New Deal; post-September 11, 2001).

gold standard

Economic system that bases all currency on gold, meaning that all paper currency could be exchanged at a bank for gold. Business interests of the late nineteenth century supported this; William Jennings Bryan ran for president three times opposing the gold standard, and supported the free coinage of silver instead.

supply-side economics

Economic theory adopted by Ronald Reagan stating that economic growth would be best encouraged by lowering the taxes of wealthy businessmen and investors; this would give them more cash, which they would use to start more businesses, make more investments, and in general stimulate the economy. This theory of "Reaganomics" went against economic theories going back to the New Deal that claimed to efficiently stimulate the economy, more money needed to be held by consumers (who would in turn spend it).

laissez-faire economic principles

Economic theory derived from eighteenth-century economist Adam Smith, who stated that for the economy to run soundly the government should take a hands-off role in economic matters. Those who had favored policies such as high import tariffs do not follow laissez-faire policies; a policy like NAFTA has more support amongst the "free market" supporters of Adam Smith.

Emancipation Proclamation

Edict by Abraham Lincoln that went into effect on January 1, 1863, abolishing slavery in the Confederate states; proclamation did not affect the four slave states that were still part of the Union (so as not to alienate them).

Enlightenment

Eighteenth-century European intellectual movement that attempted to discover the natural laws that governed science and society and taught that progress was inevitable in the Western world. Americans were greatly influenced by the Enlightenment, especially by the ideas of John Locke, who stated that government should exist for the benefit of the people living under it.

New Look

Eisenhower's Cold War strategy, preferring deterrence to ground force involvement, and emphasizing the massive retaliatiory potential of a large nuclear stockpile. Eisenhower worked to increase nuclear spending and decrease spending on ground troops.

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

Emerged from within the American Federation of Labor in 1938. The CIO became an influential labor group, operating during an era of government and business cooperation. In 1955, it merged with the AFL to become the AFL-CIO.

Second Great Awakening

Emerged in the early 1800s as part of a backlash against America's growing secularism and rationalism. A wave of religious revivals spread throughout the nation, giving rise to a number of new (largely Protestant) denominations during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Revivalist ministers often stressed self-determination and individual empowerment.

Fundamentalism

Emerged in the early 1900s as a reaction to the many scientific and social challenges facing conservative American Protestantism. Protestant fundamentalists insisted upon the divine inspiration and absolute truth of the Bible, and sought to discredit or censure those who questioned the tenets of Protestant faith. Fundamentalism peaked in the 1920s with the anti-evolution movement, culminating in the Scopes Monkey Trial.

Office of War Information

Employed artists, writers, and advertisers to shape public opinion concerning World War II. The office publicized reasons for U.S. entry into the war, often portraying the enemy Axis powers as barbaric and cruel.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Ended the Mexican War in 1848. The treaty granted the U.S. control of Texas, New Mexico, and California. In return, the U.S. assumed all monetary claims of U.S. citizens against the Mexican government and paid Mexico $15 million.

Treaty of Paris (1763)

Ended the Seven Years War in Europe and the parallel French and Indian War in North America. Under the treaty, Britain acquired all of Canada and almost all of the modern United States east of the Mississippi.

Embargo Act

Endorsed by Thomas Jefferson and passed in December 1807. The act ended all importation and exportation in response to the Chesapeake-Leopard affair. Jefferson hoped the embargo would put enough economic pressure on the French and British that the two nations would be forced to recognize U.S. neutrality rights in exchange for U.S. goods. The embargo, however, hurt the American economy more than it did Britain's or France's, leading to the act's repeal in March 1809.

Separatists

English Protestants who would not offer allegiance in any form to the Church of England. One Separatist group, the Pilgrims, founded Plymouth Plantation and went on to found other settlements in New England. Other notable Separatist groups included the Quakers and Baptists.

William Penn

English Quaker who founded Pennsylvania in 1682 after receiving a charter from King Charles II. Penn launched the colony as a "holy experiment" based on religious tolerance.

Glorious Revolution

English revolution of 1688 to 1689 where King James II was removed from the throne and his Protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband William began to rule. Reaction to this in the American colonies varied: There was a revolt against appointed Catholic officials in New York and Maryland, and in Massachusetts the governor was sent back to England with the colonial demand that the Dominion of New England be disbanded.

Birth of a Nation

Epic movie released in 1915 by director D.W. Griffith; portrayed the Reconstruction as a period when Southern blacks threatened basic American values, which the Ku Klux Klan tried to protect; film was lauded by many, including President Woodrow Wilson.

Judicial review

Established by Chief Justice John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison (1803). The principle of judicial review held that the Supreme Court could declare an act of Congress unconstitutional.

Federal Reserve System

Established by Federal Reserve Act of 1913, this system established 12 district reserve banks to be controlled by the banks in each district; in addition, a Federal Reserve Board was established to regulate the entire structure. This act improved public confidence in the banking system.

Hull House

Established by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in Chicago in 1889, this was the first settlement house in America. Services such as reading groups, social clubs, an employment bureau, and a "day care center" for working mothers could be found at Hull House. The Hull House model was later copied in many other urban centers.

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)

Established by the Agricultural Act of 1932, a New Deal bureau designed to restore economic position of farmers by paying them not to farm goods that were being overproduced.

Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

Established by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1942 to conduct espionage, collect information crucial to strategic planning, and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy.

Social Security

Established by the Social Security Act of August 1935. Social Security provides benefits to the elderly and disabled. These benefits are subsidized by income tax withholdings.

Freedmen's Bureau

Established in 1865 and staffed by Union army officers. The Freedmen's Bureau worked to protect black rights in the South and to provide employment, medical care, and education to Southern blacks.

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Established in 1905, this union attempted to unionize the unskilled workers who were usually not recruited by the American Federation of Labor. The I.W.W. included blacks, poor sharecroppers, and newly arrived immigrants from Eastern Europe. Members of the union were called "Wobblies," and leaders of the union were inspired by Marxist principles.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Established in 1909 by a group of African Americans (led byW.E.B. Du Bois) who joined with white reformers. The NAACP called for an end to racial discrimination, attacked Jim Crow laws, and fought to overturn the 1896 Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson. In the 1920s, it served as a counterpoint to the more radical black rights group, the UNIA, led by Marcus Garvey.

Reconstruction Finance Corparation

Established in 1932 by Herbert Hoover to offset the effects of the Great Depression; the RFC was authorized to give federal credit to banks so that they could operate efficiently. Banks receiving these loans were expected to extend loans to businesses providing jobs or building low-cost housing.

Kerner Commission

Established in 1967 to study the reason for urban riots, the commission spoke at length about the impact of poverty and racism on the lives of urban blacks in America, and emphasized that white institutions created and condoned the ghettos of America.

House of Burgesses

Established in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. The House of Burgesses is considered to be the New World's first representative government. It consisted of 22 representatives from 11 districts of colonists.

Confederate States of America

Eventually made up of 11 former states with Jefferson Davis as its first and only president. Was unable to defeat the North because of lack of railroad lines, lack of industry, and an inability to get European nations to support their cause.

Social Darwinism

Philosophy that evolved from the writings of Charles Darwin on evolution that stated that people inevitably compete with each other, as do societies; in the end the "survival of the fittest" would naturally occur. It was used to justify the vast differences between the rich and the poor in the late nineteenth century, as well as the control that the United States and Europe maintained over other parts of the world.

Nez Perce

Plains Native American tribe that attempted to resist reservation life by traveling 1500 miles with American military forces in pursuit. After being tracked and suffering cold and hardship, the Nez Perce finally surrendered and were forced onto a reservation in 1877.

Sioux

Plains tribe that tried to resist American westward expansion; after two wars the they were resettled in South Dakota. In 1876 their fighters defeated the forces of General Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. In 1890 almost 225 of their men , women, and children were killed by federal troops as the Massacre at Wounded Knee.

Marshall Plan

Plan announced in 1947 whereby the United States would help to economically rebuild Europe after the war; 17 Western European nations became part of the plan. The United States introduced the plan so that communism would not spread across the war-torn Europe and bring other European countries into the communist camp.

Southern Strategy

Plan begun by Richard Nixon that has made the Republican party dominant in many areas of the South that had previously voted Democratic. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and countless Republican congressional candidates have emphasized law and order and traditional values in their campaigns, thus winning over numerous voters. Support from the South had been part of the New Deal Democratic coalition crafted by Franklin Roosevelt.

Great Compromise

Plan drafted by Roger Sherman of Connecticut that stated one house of the United States Congress would be based on population (the House of Representatives), while in the other house all states would be represented equally (the Senate). This compromise greatly speeded the ratification of the Constitution.

Reconstruction Act

Plan of Radical Republicans to control the former area of the Confederacy and approved by Congress in March 1867; former Confederacy was divided into five military districts, with each controlled by a military commander (Tennessee was exempt from this). Conventions were to be called to create new state governments (former Confederate officials could not hold office in these governments).

national bank

Planned by Alexander Hamilton to be similar to the Bank of England, this bank was funded by government and private sources. Hamilton felt a national bank would give economic security and confidence to the new nation; Republicans who had originally opposed the bank felt the same way in 1815 when they supported Henry Clay's American System.

Ocala Platform

Platform of the Farmer's Alliance, formulated at an 1890 convention held in Ocala, Florida. This farmer's organization favored a graduated income tax, government control of the railroad, the unlimited coinage of silver, and the direct election of United States senators. Candidates supporting the farmers called themselves Populists and ran for public offices in the 1890s.

affirmative action

Policies that began in the 1970s to make up for the past discrimination and give minorities and women advantages in applying for certain jobs and in applying for admission to certain universities.

Eisenhower Doctrine

Policy established in 1957 that promised military and economic aid to "friendly" nations in the Middle East; policy was established to prevent communism from gaining a foothold in the region. Policy first utilized later that year when United States gave large amounts to King Hussein of Jordan to put down internal rebellion.

Compromise of 1877

Political arrangement that ended the contested presidential election of 1876. Representatives of Southern states agreed not to oppose the official election of Republican Rutherford B. Hayes as president despite massive election irregularities. In return, the Union army stopped enforcing Reconstruction legislation in the South, thus ending Reconstruction.

Bank War

Political battles surrounding the attempt by President Andrew Jackson to greatly reduce the power of the Second Bank of the United States; Jackson claimed the bank was designed to serve special interests in America and not the common people.

John C. Calhoun

Political figure throughout the Era of Good Feelings and the Age of Jackson. Calhoun served as James Monroe's secretary of war, as John Quincy Adams's vice president, and then as Andrew Jackson's vice president for one term. A firm believer in states' rights, Calhoun clashed with Jackson over many issues, most notably nullification.

Tammany Hall

Political machine that ran New York City Democratic and city politics beginning in 1870, and a "model" for the political machines that dominated politics in many American cities well into the twentieth century. William Marcy "Boss" Tweed was the head of it for several years and was the most notorious of all of the political bosses.

Greenback party

Political party of the 1870s and early 1880s that stated the government should put more money in circulation and supported an eight -hour workday and female suffrage. The party received support from farmers but never built a national base. The Greenback party argued into the 1880s that more greenbacks should be put in circulation to help farmers who were in debt and who saw the prices of their products decreasing annually.

Whig Party

Political party that came into being in 1834 in opposition to the presidency of Andrew Jackson. This party opposed Jackson's use of the spoils system and extensive power held by President Jackson; for much of their existence, however, they favored an activist federal government (while their opponents the Democrats, favored limited government). William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor were the two from this party elected president. This party dissolved in the 1850s.

Know-Nothing party

Political party that developed in the 1850s that claimed that the other political parties and the entire political process was corrupt, that immigrants were destroying the economic base of America by working for low wages, and that Catholics in America were intent on destroying American democracy. Know-Nothings were similar in many ways to other nativist groups that developed at various points in America's history.

Free-Soil party

Political party that won 10 percent of the in the 1848 presidential election; they were opposed to the spread of slavery into any of the recently acquired American territories. Free-Soil supporters were mainly many former members of the Whig party in the North.

GI

Popular term for American servicemen during World War II; refers to the fact that virtually anything they wore or used was "government issued".

National Labor Relations Act

Popularly known as the Wagner Act. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 provided a framework for collective bargaining. It granted workers the right to join unions and bargain, and forbade employers from discriminating against unions. The act demonstrated FDR's support for labor needs and unionization.

realpolitik

Pragmatic policy of leadership, in which the leader "does what he or she has to do" in order to be successful. Morality has no place in the mind-set of a leader practicing it. The late nineteenth-century German chancellor Otto von Bismarck is the best modern example of a leader practicing this.

New Jersey Plan

Presented at the Constitutional Convention as an alternative to the Virginia Plan. The New Jersey Plan proposed a unicameral Congress with equal representation for each state.

colonial assemblies

Existed in all of the British colonies in America; House of Burgesses in Virginia was the first one. Members of colonial assemblies were almost always members of the upper classes of colonial society.

John Cabot

Explored the northeast coast of North America in 1497 and 1498, claiming Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the Grand Banks for England.

Good Neighbor policy

FDR's policy toward Latin America, initialized in 1933. He pledged that no nation, not even the U.S., had the right to interfere in the affairs of any other nation.

Fireside chats

FDR's public radio broadcasts during his presidency. Through these broadcasts he encouraged confidence and national unity and cultivated a sense of governmental compassion.

New Deal

FDR's strategy for relief and recovery in the United States during the Great Depression. Most New Deal measures emerged during the first hundred days of FDR's presidency.

Bay of Pigs

Failed 1961 invasion of Cuba by the United States-supported anti-Castro refugees designed to topple Castro from power; prestige of the United States, and of the newly elected president, John Kennedy, was damaged by this failed coup attempt.

Atlantic Charter

Fall 1941 agreement between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, stating that America and Great Britain would support a postwar world based on self-determination and would endorse a world body to ensure "general security"; U.S. agreement to convoy merchant ships across part of the Atlantic inevitably drew America closer to conflict with Germany.

Strict constructionists

Favored a strict reading of the Constitution, especially of the "elastic clause," in order to limit the powers of the central government. Led by Thomas Jefferson, strict constructionists comprised the ideological core of the Republican Party.

Operation Desert Storm

February 1991 attack on Iraqi forces in Kuwait by United States and other allied forces; although Iraq was driven from Kuwait, Saddam Hussein remained in power in Iraq.

Fort Sumter

Federal fort located in Charleston, South Carolina, that was fired on by Confederate artillery on April 12, 1861; these were the first shots actually fired in the Civil War. A public outcry immediately followed across the Northern states, and the mobilization of a federal army began.

Battle of Shiloh

Fierce Civil War battle in Tennessee in April 1862; although the union emerged victorious, both sides suffered a large number of casualties in this battle. Total casualties in this battle were nearly 25,000. General U.S. Grant commanded the Union forces at Shiloh.

Popular sovereignty

First espoused by Democratic presidential candidate Lewis Cass in 1848 and eventually championed by Stephen A. Douglas. The principle of popular sovereignty stated that Congress should not interfere with the issue of slavery in new territories. Instead each territory, when seeking admission into the Union, would draw up a constitution declaring slavery legal or illegal as it saw fit. Popular sovereignty became the core of the Democratic position on slavery's expansion during the 1850s.

Committees of Correspondence

First existed in Massachusetts, and eventually in all of the colonies; leaders of resistance to British rule listed their grievances against the British and circulated them to all the towns of the colony.

Sputnik

First man-made satellite sent into space, this 1957 scientific breakthrough by the Soviet Union caused great concern in the United States. The thought that the United States was "behind" the Soviet Union in anything worried many, and science and mathematics requirements in universities across the country increased as a result.

George Washington

First president of the United States. Commander in chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution, Washington led the Continentals to victory. He defined the role of the president by setting precedents—Washington intervened little in legislative affairs and concentrated mostly on diplomacy and finance. A Federalist, he supported Alexander Hamilton's economic campaign. Washington officially resigned from office in 1796 after serving two terms in office, establishing an unofficial policy that presidents serve no more than two terms in office.

Bessemer Steel

First produced in 1856 in converter (furnace) invented by Henry Bessemer; was much more durable and harder than iron. Steel was a critical commodity in the Second Industrial Revolution.

Taylorism

Following the management practices of Frederick Winslow Taylor, the belief practiced by many factory owners beginning in 1911 (when Taylor published his first book) that factories should be managed in a scientific manner, with everything done to increase the efficiency of the individual worker and of the factory process as a whole.Taylor describes the movements of workers as if they were machines; workers in many factories resisted being seen in this light.

Platt Amendment

For Cuba to receive its independence from the United States after the Spanish-American war, it had to agree to this Amendment, which stated that the United States had the right to intervene in Cuban affairs if the Cuban government could maintain control or if the independence of Cuba was threatened by external or internal forces.

Trail of Tears

Forced march of 20,000 members of Cherokee tribe to their newly designated "home-land" in Oklahoma. Federal troops forced the Cherokees westward in this 1838 event, with one out of every five Native Americans dying from hunger, disease, or exhaustion along the way.

Bataan Death March

Forced march of nearly 75,000 American and Filipino soldiers captured by the Japanese from the Bataan Peninsula in early May 1942; over 10,000 soldiers died during this one- week ordeal.

Dollar Diplomacy

Foreign policy of William Howard Taft, which favored increased American investment in the world as a major method for increasing American influence and stability abroad; in some parts of the world, such as in Latin America, the increased American influence was resented.

massive retaliation

Foreign policy officials in the Eisenhower administration believed the best way to stop communism was to convince the communists that every time they advanced, there would be massive retaliation against them. This policy explains the desire in this era to increase the nuclear arsenal of the United States.

National Women's Party

Formed by Alice Paul after women got the vote, this group lobbied unsuccessfully in the 1920s to get Equal Rights Amendment for women added to the Constitution. Desire for this amendment would return among some feminist groups in the 1970s.

New England Confederation

Formed by New England colonies of Massachusettes, Connecticut, New Haven, and Plymouth in 1643 as a defense against local Native American tribes and the encroaching Dutch. The colonists formed the alliance without the English crown's authorization.

American Colonization Society

Formed in 1817, stated that the best way to end the slavery problem in the United States was for blacks to emigrate to Africa; by 1822 a few American blacks emigrated to Liberia. Organization's views were later rejected by most abolitionists.

Republican Party

Formed in 1854 during the death of the Whig party, this party attracted former members of the Free-Soil party and some in the Democratic party who were uncomfortable with the Democratic position on slavery. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president. For much of the twentieth century, the party was saddled with the label of being "the party of big business," although Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and others did much to pull middle class and Southern voters into the party.

Liberal Republicans

Formed in 1872 when a faction split from the ranks of the Republican Party in opposition to President Ulysses S. Grant. Many Liberals argued that the task of Reconstruction was complete and should be put aside. Their defection served a major blow to the Republican Party and shattered what congressional enthusiasm remained for Reconstruction.

Populist Party

Formed in 1892 through farmers' alliances in the Midwest and South with poor laborers. The Populist Party agitated for various reforms that supported farmers and the poor, including "free silver" (the unlimited coinage of silver), which would ease debt payments. In 1896, the Democrats appropriated parts of the Populist platform and nominated William Jennings Bryan for president. Bryan lost the election despite the joint backing of the Democrats and Populists.

National Consumers League

Formed in 1899, this organization was concerned with improving the working and living conditions of women in the workplace.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Formed in 1909, this organization fought for and continues to fight for the rights of blacks in America. The NAACP originally went to court for the plaintiff in the "Brown v. Board of Education" case, and Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP's chief counsel and later a Supreme Court justice, was the main attorney in the case.

American Liberty League

Formed in 1934 by anti-New Deal politicians and business leaders to oppose policies of Franklin Roosevelt; stated that New Deal policies brought America closer to fascism.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Formed in 1949 to counter the Soviet threat in Eastern Europe. NATO members agreed to be a part of a unified coalition in the event of an attack on one of the nations. Throughout the Cold War, NATO was the primary Western alliance in opposition to communist forces.

NOW (National Organization for Women)

Formed in 1966, with Betty Friedan as its first president. It was at first interested in publicizing inequalities for women in the workplace; focus of the organization later turned to social issues and eventually the unsuccessful effort to pass an Equal Rights Amendment for women.

National Organization for Women (NOW)

Formed in 1966. NOW was a central part of the 1960s women's liberation movement. The organization lobbied Congress for equal rights, initiated lawsuits, and raised public awareness of women's issues.

Joint-stock companies

Formed in the absence of support from the British Crown, joint-stock companies accrued funding for colonization through the sale of public stock. These companies dominated English colonization throughout the seventeenth century.

Jefferson Davis

Former secretary of war, Davis was elected president of the Confederacy shortly after its formation. Davis was never able to garner adequate public support and faced great difficulties in uniting the Confederate states under one central authority.

containment policy

Formulated by George Kennan, a policy whereby the United States would forcibly stop communist aggression whenever and wherever it occurred; containment was the dominant American policy of the Cold War era, and forced America to become involved in foreign conflicts such as Vietnam.

War of 1812

Fought between the U.S. and Great Britain from 1812-14. Although it ended in stalemate with the Treaty of Ghent, the American public believed the U.S. had won the war after news spread of General Andrew Jackson's decisive victory at the Battle of New Orleans, which occurred two weeks after the signing of the treaty. For years following this apparent victory, an ebullient spirit of nationalism and optimism pervaded America.

Russo-Japanese War

Fought from 1904-1905. The war pitted Russia against Japan in a battle over Manchuria, China. Roosevelt aided in the negotiation of a peace treaty in the interest of maintaining the balance of power in the Far East, an area recently opened to American business through the Open Door policy.

Battle of Antietam

Fought in Maryland on September 17, 1863. Considered the single bloodiest day of the Civil War, casualties totalled more than 8,000 dead and 18,000 wounded. Although Union forces failed to defeat Lee and the Confederates, they did halt the Confederate advance through Northern soil.

French and Indian War

Fought in North America from 1754-1763. The war mirrored the Seven Years War in Europe (1756-1763). English colonists and soldiers fought the French and their Native American allies for dominance in North America. England's eventual victory brought England control of much disputed territory and eliminated the French as a threat to English dominance in the Americas.

Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

Founded in 1874. The WCTU worked alongside the Anti-Saloon League to push for prohibition. Notable activists included Susan B. Anthony and Frances Elizabeth Willard.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Founded in 1886. The AFL sought to organize craft unions into a federation. The loose structure of the organization differed from its rival, the Knights of Labor, in that the AFL allowed individual unions to remain autonomous. Eventually the AFL joined with the Congress of Industrial Organizations to form the AFL-CIO.

Anti-Saloon League

Founded in 1895, the league spearheaded the prohibition movement during the Progressive Era.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Founded in 1920. The ACLU seeks to protect the civil liberties of individuals, often by bringing "test cases" to court in order to challenge questionable laws. In 1925, the ACLU challenged a Christian fundamentalist law in the Scopes Monkey Trial.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

Founded in 1957 by Martin Luther King Jr. and other prominent clergymen. The SCLC fought against segregation using nonviolent means.

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

Founded in 1960, this group was part of the "New Left" movement of the 1960s. It believed in more participatory society, in a society that was less materialistic, and in university reform that would give students more power. By 1966 it concentrated much of its efforts on organizing opposition to the war in Vietnam. The "Port Huron Statement" was the original manifesto of it and was written by its founder Tom Hayden.

Ms.

Founded in 1972 by Gloria Steinem, this glossy magazine was aimed at feminist readers.

Eugenics

Founded on the premise that the "perfect" human society could be achieved through genetic tinkering. Popularized during the Progressive era, writers on eugenics often used this theory to justify a supremacist white Protestant ideology, which advocated the elimination of what they considered undesirable racial elements from American society.

Mao Zedong

Founder of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1921. In 1949, Mao defeated Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist forces and established the People's Republic of China (PRC).

William Lloyd Garrison

Founder of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator. Garrison was the most famous white abolitionist of the 1830s. Known as a radical, he pushed for equal legal rights for blacks and encouraged Christians to abstain from all aspects of politics, including voting, in protest against the nation's corrupt and prejudicial political system.

Dynamic conservatism

President Eisenhower's philosophy of government. He called it "dynamic conservatism" to distinguish it from the Republican administrations of the past, which he deemed backward-looking and complacent. He was determined to work with the Democratic Party rather than against it and at times opposed proposals made by more conservative members of his own party.

James Madison

Fourth president of the United States (1809-1817). Madison began his political career as a Federalist, joining forces with Alexander Hamilton during the debate over the Constitution. He was one of the authors of The Federalist Papers and a staunch advocate of strong central government. Madison later became critical of excessive power in central government and left the Federalist Party to join Thomas Jefferson in leading the Republican Party.

Neutrality Act of 1939

Franklin Roosevelt got Congress to amend the Neutrality Act of 1935; new legislation stated that England and France could buy arms from the United States as long as there was cash "up front" for these weapons. This was the first military assistance that the United States gave the Allied countries.

Justice Reorganization Bill

Franklin Roosevelt's 1937 plan to increase the number of Supreme Court justices. He claimed that this was because many of the judges were older and needed help keeping up with the work; in reality he wanted to "pack the court" because the Court had made several rulings outlawing New Deal legislation. Many Democrats and Republicans opposed this plan, so it was finally dropped by Roosevelt.

White Man's Burden

From the poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling, this view justified imperialism by the "white man" around the world, but also emphasized the duty of the Europeans and Americans who were occupying new territories to improve the lives of those living in the newly acquired regions.

Crusades

From these attempts to recapture the Holy Land, Europeans acquired an appreciation of the benefits of overseas expansion and an appreciation of the economic benefits of slavery.

U-boat

German submarines in World War I. German U-boat attacks against French and British passenger ships carrying American citizens provoked outrage among the American public, strengthening calls for the U.S. to join the war against the Central Powers.

Hessians

German troops who fought in the Revolutionary war on the side of Great Britain; Hessian troops were almost all paid mercenaries.

Central Powers

Germany and Austria-Hungary during World War I. The Central powers fought against the Allies (Great Britain, France, and Italy). In 1917, the U.S. joined the war effort against the Central Powers.

conscription

Getting recruits for military service using a draft; this method was used by the American government in all of the wars of the twentieth century. Conscription was viewed most negatively during the Vietnam War.

professional bureaucracy

Government officials that receive their positions after taking competitive civil service tests; they are not appointed in return for political favors. Many government jobs at the state and national level are filled in this manner beginning in the 1880s.

tight money

Governmental policy utilized to offset the effects of inflation; on numerous occasions the Federal Reserve Board has increased the interest rate on money it loans to member banks; these higher interests rates are passed on to customers of member banks. With higher interest rates, there are fewer loans and other business activity, which "slows the economy down" and lowers inflation.

Puppet governments

Governments set up and supported by outside powers. Puppet governments were established by both the U.S. and the USSR. during the Cold War. The two superpowers hand-picked the leaders of developing nations in order to maintain influence over those countries.

John Winthrop

Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Winthrop was instrumental in forming the colony's government and shaping its legislative policy. He envisioned the colony, centered in present-day Boston, as a "city upon a hill" from which Puritans would spread religious righteousness throughout the world.

Indian Removal Act

Granted Jackson the funds and authority to move Native Americans to assigned lands in the West. Passed in 1830, the Indian Removal Act primarily targeted the Cherokee tribe in Georgia as part of the federal government's broad plan to claim Native American lands inside the boundaries of the states.

Black codes

Granted freedmen a few basic rights but also enforced heavy civil restrictions based on race. The codes were enacted in Southern states under Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction plan.

Dust Bowl

Great Plains region suffered severe drought and experienced massive dust storms during the 1930s; because of the extreme conditions many who lived in the Dust Bowl left their farms and went to California to work as migrant farmers.

Lost Generation

Group of American intellectuals who viewed America in the 1920s as bigoted, intellectually shallow, and consumed by the quest for the dollar; many became extremely disillusioned with American life and went to Paris. Ernest Hemingway wrote of this group in "The Sun Also Rises".

Essex Junto

Group of Massachusetts Federalists who met to voice their displeasure with the policies of Thomas Jefferson during Jefferson's second term, and proposed that the New England states and New York secede the Union.

Radical Republicans

Group of Republicans after the Civil War who favored harsh treatment of the defeated South and dramatic restructuring of the economic and social systems in the South; favored a decisive elevation of the political, social, and economic position of former slaves.

Bonus Army

Group of nearly 17,000 veterans who marched on Washington in May 1932 to demand the military bonuses they had been promised; this group was eventually driven from their camp city by the United States Army. This action increased the public perception that the Hoover administration cared little about the poor.

Puritans

Group of religious dissidents who came to the New World so they would have a location to establish a "purer" church than the one that existed in England. They began to settle the Plymouth Colony in 1620 and settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony beginning in 1630. They were heavily influenced by John Calvin and his concept of predestination.

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

Group of unions that broke form the AFL in 1938 and organized effective union drives in automobile and rubber industries; supported sit-down strikes in major rubber plants reaffiliated with the AFL in 1955.

Black Panthers

Group originally founded in Oakland, California, to protect blacks from police harassment; promoted militant black power; also ran social programs in several California cities. Founded by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton.

Antifederalists

Group that opposed the ratification of the proposed Constitution of the United Sates in 1787; many feared that strong central government would remove the process of government "from the people" and replicate the excesses of the British monarchy.

Hoovervilles

Groups of crude houses made of cardboard and spare wood that sprang up on the fringes of many American cities during the first years of the Great Depression. These shacks were occupied by unemployed workers; the name of these communities demonstrated the feeling that President Hoover should have been doing more to help the downtrodden in America.

Democratic party

Had its birth during the candidacy of Andrew Jackson; originally drew its principles from Thomas Jefferson and advocated limited government. In modern times many Democrats favor domestic programs that a larger, more powerful government allows.

Monroe Doctrine

President James Monroe's 1823 statement that an attack by a European state on any nation in the Western Hemisphere would be considered an attack on the United States; Monroe stated that the Western Hemisphere was the hemisphere of the United States and not of Europe. Monroe's statement was scoffed at by certain European political leaders, especially those in Great Britain.

James Monroe

President from 1817 until 1825. His presidency was at the core of the Era of Good Feelings, characterized by a one-party political system, an upsurge of American nationalism, and Monroe's own efforts to avoid political controversy and conflict.

Andrew Jackson

President from 1829 to 1837. A strong-willed and determined leader, Jackson opposed federal support for internal improvements and the Second Bank of the United States and fought for states' rights and Native American removal. His opponents nicknamed him "King Andrew I" because of his extensive and unprecedented use of the veto power, which they deemed to be tyrannical and against the spirit of democracy. Before becoming president, Jackson gained popularity as a general who launched aggressive military campaigns against Native Americans and led the U.S. to a stunning victory over British forces at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815.

Martin Van Buren

President from 1837 to 1841. Beset by the panic of 1837 and unable to win over Jackson's opposition, the Whigs, Van Buren lost his bid for reelection in 1840.

James K. Polk

President from 1845 to 1849. A firm believer in expansion, Polk led the U.S. into the Mexican War in 1846, after which the U.S. acquired Texas, New Mexico, and California. Many Northerners saw Polk as an agent of Southern will aiming to expand the nation in order to extend slavery into the West.

Zachary Taylor

President from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor, a Whig, advocated popular sovereignty and in 1849 encouraged California to apply for statehood as a free state, thereby igniting the controversy that led to the Compromise of 1850.

Andrew Johnson

President from 1865 (after Lincoln's assassination) until 1869. Johnson's plan for Reconstruction in the South was considered too lenient by the Radical Republicans in Congress; as a result, Congress fought his initiatives and undertook a more retributive Reconstruction plan. Johnson's relationship with Congress declined steadily during his presidency, culminating in impeachment proceedings in 1868. He was ultimately acquitted.

Theodore Roosevelt

President from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt rose to fame as the leader of the Rough Riders, a volunteer unit during the Spanish-American War. He went on to become governor of New York and was vice president to William McKinley during McKinley's second term in office. After McKinley's assassination in 1901, Roosevelt assumed the presidency, and served until 1909 (he won the 1904 election). A Progressive reformer, he worked to regulate the activities of corporations and protect consumers and workers. Roosevelt pursued an aggressive style of foreign relations known as "big stick" diplomacy.

William Howard Taft

President from 1909 to 1913. Though handpicked by Roosevelt, he was not as enthusiastic about progressive reform, and soon allied himself with the conservative wing of the Republican Party by raising tariffs. In doing so, he offended many Progressive Republicans, including Roosevelt, and precipitated a split in the Republican Party.

Warren G. Harding

President from 1921 until his death in 1923. Harding ushered in a decade of Republican dominance in the U.S. He accommodated the needs of big business and scaled back government involvement in social programs. After his death, Harding's administration was found to be rife with corruption.

Calvin Coolidge

President from 1923 to 1929, nicknamed "Silent Cal." The reticent Coolidge believed that government should interfere with the economy as little as possible and spent his time in office fighting congressional efforts to regulate business.

Herbert Hoover

President from 1929 to 1933, during the stock market collapse and the height of the Great Depression. A conservative, Hoover made only limited efforts to control the economic and social problems of the nation—efforts that were generally considered to be too little, too late. He did, however, set the stage for many future New Deal measures.

Boris Yeltsin

President of the Russian Republic in 1991, when hard-line Communists attempted to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev. After helping to repel these hard-liners, Yeltsin and the leaders of the other Soviet republics declared an end to the USSR, forcing Gorbachev to resign. Yeltsin played an increasingly important role in global politics thereafter.

Abraham Lincoln

President of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln's eloquent and forceful performance in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 earned him the Republican nomination for president in 1860. His victory in the election precipitated the secession of the first southern states, paving the way for the Civil War. A moderate Republican, Lincoln's primary goal during and after the Civil War was to restore the Union. He began planning for a lenient Reconstruction in 1863, but was assassinated before it could be fully implemented.

J. Edgar Hoover

Head of the FBI from 1924 until his death in 1972. He aggressively investigated suspected subversives during the Cold War.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Head of the Manhattan Project, the secret American operation to develop the atomic bomb.

Potsdam Conference

Held July 17-August 2, 1945. At the conference Truman, Churchill, and Stalin met to coordinate the division of Germany into occupation zones and plan for the Nuremberg Trials. Potsdam was the final meeting between the Big Three powers under the pretense of a wartime alliance.

blacklist

Prevented persons accused of being communist from getting work in entertainment and other industries during the period of anticommunist fervor of the late 1940s and early 1950s; some entertainers waited until the mid-1960s before working publicly again.

ration cards

Held by Americans during World War II, these recorded the amount of rationed goods such as automobile tires, gasoline, meat, butter, and other materials an individual had purchased Where regulation in World War I had been voluntary, consumption in World War II was regulated by government agencies.

Virtual representation

Held that the members of Parliament not only represented their specific geographic constituencies but also took into consideration the well-being of all British subjects when deliberating on legislation. Prime Minister George Grenville invoked the concept to explain why Parliament could legally tax the colonists even though the colonists could not elect any members of Parliament.

Emergency Committee for Unemployment

Herbert Hoover's principal effort to lower the unemployment rate. Established in October 1930, the committee sought to organize unemployment relief by voluntary agencies, but Hoover granted the committee only limited resources with which to work.

Speakeasies

Hidden bars during the Prohibition Era that offered live jazz music and hard liquor. Speakeasies were often run by organized crime rings.

Holocaust

Historical term used for the extermination of more than 6 million Jewish victims by Nazi Germany during World War II. Much has been written on the reasons for the Holocaust and why it occurred in Germany.

The Rosenbergs

Husband and wife who, in 1950, were accused of spying for the Soviets. The Rosenbergs countered the accusation on the grounds that their Jewish background and leftist beliefs made them easy targets for persecution. In a trial closely followed by the American public, the Rosenbergs were convicted and sentenced to death. They were executed on June 19, 1953.

Rosie the Riveter

Image of a factory women drawn by Norman Rockwell for the "Saturday Evening Post" during World War II. Women were needed to take on factory jobs that had been held by departing soldiers; by 1945 women made up nearly 37 percent of the entire domestic workforce.

new immigrants

Immigrants that came from Southern and Eastern Europe, who made up the majority of immigrants coming into the United States after 1900. Earlier immigrants from Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia appeared to be "like" the groups that were already settled in the United States; these immigrants were very different. As a result, resentment and nativist sentiment developed against this group, especially in the 1920s.

London Company

In 1603 King James I gave the London Company a charter to settle the Virginia territory. In April 1607, the first settlers from this company settled at Jamestown.

Bacon's Rebellion

In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon, a Virginia planter, accused the royal governor of failing to provide poorer farmers protection from raiding tribes. In response, Bacon led 300 settlers in a war against local Native Americans, and then burned and looted Jamestown. The rebellion highlighted the increasing rift between rich and poor in the Chesapeake region.

religious right

Primarily Protestant movement that greatly grew beginning in the 1970s and pushed to return "morality" to the forefront in American life. The religious right has been especially active in opposing abortion, and since the 1980s has extended its influence in the political sphere by endorsing and campaigning for specific candidates.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

Primarily concerned with international espionage and information gathering. In the 1950s, the CIA became heavily involved in many civil struggles in the Third World, supporting groups likely to cooperate with the U.S. rather than the USSR.

Winston Churchill

Prime minister of England from 1940 to 1945. Churchill was known for his inspirational speeches and zealous pursuit of war victory. Together he, FDR, and Stalin mapped out the post-war world order as the "Big Three." In 1946, Churchill coined the term "iron curtain" to describe the USSR's division of eastern Europe from the West.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that no black, whether slave or free, could become a citizen of the United States or sue in federal court. The decision further argued that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because it violated the Fifth Amendment's protection of property, including slaves, from being taken away without due process.

Scopes Monkey Trial

In 1925, Tennessee teacher John T. Scopes willfully violated a state statute prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools. Prosecutor William Jennings Bryan and Scopes's lawyer Clarence Darrow faced off during the highly publicized trial, and although Darrow lost the case he made a fool out of Bryan, substantially weakening the anti-evolution cause throughout the U.S.

Cuban Missile Crisis

In 1962, a year after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, the U.S. government learned that Soviet missile bases were being constructed in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy demanded that the USSR stop shipping military equipment to Cuba and remove the bases. U.S forces set up a naval blockade, preventing Soviet ships from reaching Cuba without inspection. After a stressful waiting period during which nuclear war seemed imminent, Soviet Premier Khrushchev backed down and began dismantling the bases in return for a U.S. promise not to invade Cuba.

Oil embargo

In 1973, OPEC (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) nations refused to export oil to Western nations. The embargo, in effect until 1974, sparked rapid inflation in the West and had a crippling effect on the U.S. economy. The ensuing economic crisis plagued Gerald Ford's tenure as president.

My Lai Massacre

In 1986 a unit under the command of Lieutenant William Calley killed over 300 men, women, and children in this small Vietnamese village. The anti-war movement took the attack as a symbol of the "immorality" of United States efforts in Vietnam.

Shays's Rebellion

In August 1786, western Massachusetts farmers, led by Daniel Shays, violently tried to shut down three county courthouses in order to prevent foreclosure proceedings. The rebellion was easily put down, but it alerted many government officials to the weaknesses of the nation under the Articles of Confederation.

Women's Strike for Equality

In August 1970, tens of thousands of women around the country held demonstrations to demand the right to equal employment and legal abortions. This coordinated effort was known as the Women's Strike for Equality.

Chesapeake-Leopard affair

In June 1807, the British naval frigate HMS Leopard opened fire on the American naval frigate USS Chesapeake, killing three men and wounding twenty. British naval officers then boarded the American ship, seized four men who had deserted the Royal Navy, hanged them from a yardarm, and sailed away. Outraged, Thomas Jefferson responded with the Embargo Act in an attempt to force Britain to respect American neutrality rights.

Berlin Blockade

In June 1948, the Soviets attempted to cut off Western access to Berlin by blockading all road and rail routes to the city. In response, the U.S. airlifted supplies to the city, a campaign known as "Operation Vittles." The blockade lasted until May 1949.

Boston Massacre

In March 1770, a crowd of colonists protested against Boston customs agents and the Townsend Duties. Violence flared and five colonists were killed.

Truman Doctrine

In March 1947, Truman proclaimed before Congress that the U.S. would support people anywhere in the world facing "attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." The Truman Doctrine committed the U.S. to a role of global policeman.

March Against Death

In November 1969, 300,000 people marched in a long, circular path through Washington, D.C. for 40 hours straight, each holding a candle and the name of a soldier killed or a village destroyed in Vietnam. The march was a high point in the student antiwar movement and a poignant symbol of antiwar sentiment in the United States.

Cash-and-carry

In September 1939, FDR persuaded Congress to pass a new, amended Neutrality Act, which allowed warring nations to purchase arms from the U.S. as long as they paid in cash and carried the arms away on their own ships. This cash-and-carry program allowed the U.S. to aid the Allies but stay officially out of the war.

iron curtain

In a March 5, 1946, speech in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill used this term to describe the division that the Soviet Union had created between itself and its Eastern European allies and Western Europe and the United States. Churchill emphasized the need for the United States to stand up to potential Soviet aggression in the future.

Missouri Compromise

In a continued effort to maintain a balance between free and slave states, Henry Clay proposed this 1820 compromise, which admitted Maine to the Union as a free state, Missouri to the Union as a slave state, and stated that any part of the Louisiana Territory north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes would be nonslave territory.

Electoral College

Procedure outlined in the Constitution for the election of the president; under this system, votes of electors from each state, and not the popular vote, determine who is elected president. As was demonstrated in 2000 presidential election, this system allows a person to be elected president who does not win the nationwide popular vote.

Resettlement Administration

In an attempt to address the problems of Dust Bowlers and other poor farmers, this 1935 New Deal program attempted to provide aid to the poorest farmers, resettle some farmers from the Dust Bowl, and establish cooperatives. This program never received the funding it needed to be even partially successfully, and in 1937 the Farm Security Administration was created to replace it.

initiative process

Procedure supported by the Populist party in the 1890s where any proposed law could go on the public ballot as long as a petition with an appropriate number of names is submitted before hand supporting the proposed law.

Manhattan Project

Program begun in 1942 to develop an atomic weapon for the United States; project was aided by German scientists added to to the research team who had been working on a similar bomb in Germany. First test of the bomb took place in New Mexico on July 16, 1945.

VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America)

Program instituted in 1964 that sent volunteers to help poor Americans living in both urban and rural settings; this program was sometimes described as a domestic peace corps. This was one of many initiatives that were part of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty program.

ratifying conventions

In late 1787 and 1788 these were held in all states for the purpose of ratifying the new Constitution of the United States. In many states, approval of the Constitution was only approved by a small margin; in Rhode Island ratification was defeated. The Founding Fathers made an intelligent decision in calling for ratifying conventions to approve the Constitution instead of having state legislatures do it, since under the system proposed by the Constitution,some of the powers state legislatures had at the time would be turned over to the federal government.

Circular Letter

In reaction to the 1767 Townshend Acts, the Massachusetts assembly circulated a letter to the other colonies, asking that they work together and jointly issue a petition of protest. Strong-willed response of British authorities to the letter influenced the colonial assemblies to work together on a closer basis.

direct primary

Progressive-era reform adopted by some states that allowed candidates for state offices to be nominated by the rank-and-file party members in the statewide primaries instead of by the party bosses, who had traditionally dominated the nominating process.

XYZ affair

In response to continued French aggression at sea, John Adams sent a diplomatic envoy to France to negotiate for peace in 1797. Charles de Talleyrand, the French foreign minister, refused to meet with the U.S. delegation and instead sent three anonymous agents, X, Y, and Z, to try to extort over $12 million from the Americans in exchange for negotiation rights. This widely publicized attempt at extortion aroused public outrage among the American people, some of whom called for war.

Virginia Resolves

In response to the 1765 Stamp Act, Patrick Henry persuaded the Virginia House of Burgesses to adopt several strongly worded resolutions that denied Parliament's right to tax the colonies. Known as the Virginia Resolves, these resolutions persuaded many other colonial legislatures to adopt similar positions.

Boston Tea Party

In response to the Tea Act and additional British taxes on Tea, Boston radicals disguised as Native Americans threw nearly 350 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773.

Compromise of 1833

In response to the escalating Nullification Crisis, Andrew Jackson signed two laws aimed at easing the crisis. Together, these laws were known as the Compromise of 1833. The first measure provided for a gradual lowering of import duties over the next decade, and the second measure, known as the Force Bill, authorized the president to use arms to collect customs duties in South Carolina.

Non-Intercourse Act

In response to the failure of France and Britain to respect the rights of American ships at sea, President Madison supported this legislation in 1809, which authorized trade with all countries except Britain and France, and stated that trade exist with those countries as soon as they respected America's rights as a neutral power. The British and French largely ignored this act.

Hawley-Smoot Tariff

In response to the initial effects of the Great Depression, Congress authorized this tariff in 1930; this established tariff rates on imported goods at this highest level of any point in United States history. Some American companies benefited in the short term, although the effect on world trade was disastrous, as many other countries erected tariff barriers on American imports.

judicial review

In the 1803 "Marbury v. Madison" decision, Chief Justice John C. Marshall stated that the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately had the power to decide on the constitutionality of any law passed by the U.S. Congress or by the legislature of any state. Many had argued that individual states should have the power to do this; the "Marbury" decision increased the power of the federal government.

Declaration of the United Nations

Prompted by American entry into World War II, representatives from 26 nations signed the declaration on January 1, 1942. The signing countries vowed not to make separate peace agreements with the enemy and to uphold the Atlantic Charter.

Alien and Sedition Acts

Proposed and supported by John Adams, gave the president the power to expel aliens deemed "dangerous to the country's well-being" and outlawed publication and public pronouncement of "false, scandalous, and malicious" statements about the government.

tenant farmers

In the Reconstruction South, a step up from sharecropping; these people rented their land from the landowner, freeing themselves from the harsh supervision that sharecroppers suffered under.

Wilmot Proviso

Proposed in 1846 before the end of the Mexican War. The Wilmot Proviso stipulated that slavery be prohibited in any territory the U.S. gained from Mexico in the upcoming negotiations. The proviso passed in the House of Representatives due to strong support from the North, but stalled in the Senate.

Wilmot Proviso

In the aftermath with Mexico, in 1846 Representative David Wilmont proposed in an amendment to a military bill that slavery should be prohibited in all territories gained in the treaty ending the war. This never went into law, but in the debate over it in both houses, Southern representatives spoke passionately in defense of slavery; John C. Calhoun even suggested that the federal government had no legal jurisdiction to stop the existence of slavery in any new territory.

Appomattox

In the courthouse of Virginia city Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate army to Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865.

Calvinism

Protestant faith that preached salvation "by faith alone" and predestination; desire by Calvinists in England to create a "pure church" in England was only partially successful, thus causing Calvinists Puritans to come to the New World starting in 1620.

Molasses Act

In the early 1700s colonists traded for molasses with the French West Indies. British traders wanted to reduce trade between the colonies and the French; in 1773 they pressured Parliament to pass this act, which prohibitively high duties on imported molasses.Colonists continued to smuggle French molasses in the Americas in spite of British efforts to prevent this.

Proclamation of American Neutrality

In the early 1790s, Britain and France went to war with each other. The American public was torn over which nation to support: the South largely backed France, while the North favored the British. Issued in 1793, the Proclamation was George Washington's response to the public division, and it stated that the U.S. would maintain neutral during the war.

Huguenots

Protestants in France, who by the 1630s were believers in Calvinism. Few Huguenots ended up setting in the Americas, as French officials feared they would disrupt the unity of the colonial settlements.

Free Speech Movement

Protests at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964 and 1965 that opposed the control that the university, and "the establishment" in general, had over the lives of university students. Protesters demanded changes in university regulations and also broader changes in American society.

Spoils system

Provided for the removal and replacement of high-ranking officials from the previous president's term with loyal members of the winning party. Andrew Jackson was one of the first presidents to use the spoils system extensively, claiming it was necessary to liberty. Based on the adage "to the victor go the spoils."

Marbury v. Madison

In this 1803 case, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional because Congress had overstepped its bounds in granting the Supreme Court the power to issue a writ of mandamus (an ultimatum from the court) to any officer of the United States. This ruling established the principle of judicial review.

Korematsu v. U.S.

In this 1944 case, the Supreme Court upheld FDR's 1942 executive order for the evacuation of all Japanese-Americans on the West Coast into internment camps. The camps operated until March 1946.

loyalists

Individuals who remained loyal to Great Britain during the years up to and during the Revolutionary War. Many who were loyalists were from the higher strata of the colonial society; when war actually broke out and it became apparent that the British were not going to quickly win, almost all went to Canada, the West Indies, or back to Great Britain.

Assembly line

Industrialist Henry Ford installed the first assembly line while developing his Model T car in 1908, and perfected its use in the 1920s. Assembly line manufacturing allowed workers to remain in one place and master one repetitive action, maximizing output. It became the production method of choice by the 1930s.

Deists

Influenced by the spirit of rationalism, Deists believed that God, like a celestial clockmaker, had created a perfect universe and then stepped back to let it operate according to natural laws.

Grange

Initially formed in 1867, the Grange was an association of farmers that provided social activities and information about new farming techniques. Some local Grange organizations became involved in cooperative buying and selling.

Meat Inspection Act

Inspired by Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle", this 1906 bill established a government commission that would monitor the quality of all meat sold in America and inspect the meatpacking houses for safety and cleanliness.

Turner Thesis

Published by Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893, "The Significance of the West in American History" stated that western expansion had played a fundamental role in defining the American character, and that the American tendencies toward democracy and individualism were created by the frontier experience.

Selective Service Act

Instituted a draft to build up U.S. military forces. Passed in May 1917, the act required all men aged 21 to 30 to register for military duty.

Domination of New England

Instituted by King James II in 1686. Sir Edmund Andros governed the colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Plymouth, and New Hampshire as a single entity without an elective assembly; Andros was finally overthrown by militiamen in Boston in April 1689 (after the Glorious Revolution).

astrolabe

Instrument that enabled navigators to calculate their latitude using the sun and the stars; allowed more accuracy in plotting routes during the Age of Discovery.

League of Nations

International body of nations that was proposed by Woodrow Wilson and was adopted at the Versailles Peace Conference ending World War I. The League was never an effective body in reducing international tensions, at least partially because the United States was never a member of it.

Freeport Doctrine

Introduced by Stephen Douglas in the Lincoln-Douglas debates, the idea that despite the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, a territory could still prevent slavery by electing officials who were opposed to it and by creating laws and regulations that would make slavery impossible to enforce.

Cotton gin

Invented in 1793 by Eli Whitney. The cotton gin separated the fibers of short-staple cotton from the seeds. The mechanization of this task made cotton plantations much more efficient and profitable, giving rise to a cotton-dominated economy in the South.

Panic of 1837

Punctured the economic boom sparked by state banks' loose lending practices and overspeculation. Contraction of the nation's credit in 1836 led to widespread debt and unemployment. Martin Van Buren spent most of his time in office attempting to stabilize the economy and ameliorate the depression.

Benjamin Franklin

Inventor, patriot, and statesman. Franklin served as an ambassador to France during the Revolutionary War, playing a key role in getting France to recognize the United States' independence. As the oldest delegate to the Constitutional Convention, the other delegates admired his wisdom, and his advice proved crucial in the drafting of the Constitution. Franklin has often been held up as the paradigm of Enlightenment thought in Colonial America because of his fascination with—and contributions to—the fields of science and philosophy.

Muckrakers

Investigative journalists who worked during the early 1900s to expose the corruption in American industry and politics. Their writings and publications encouraged widespread political and social reform. Important muckrakers include Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, and Lincoln Steffens.

America First Committee

Isolationist group in America that insisted that America stay out of World War II; held rallies from 1939 to 1941; argued that affairs in Europe should be settled by Europeans and not Americans and stated that the Soviet Union was a greater eventual threat than Nazi Germany.

Emancipation Proclamation

Issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. The proclamation freed all slaves under rebel (Confederate) control. It did not affect the slave states within the Union or Confederate states under Union control, and therefore in practice freed few slaves. Nevertheless, the proclamation gave the war a new objective—emancipation—and crystallized the tension between the Union and the Confederacy.

Stamp Act

Issued by England in 1765. The Stamp Act required colonial Americans to buy special watermarked paper for newspapers and all legal documents. Violators faced juryless trials in vice-admiralty courts, as under the 1764 Sugar Act. The Stamp Act provoked the first organized response to British impositions.

Monroe Doctrine

Issued by President Monroe in December 1823. The doctrine asserted that the Americas were no longer open to European colonization or influence, and paved the way for U.S. dominance of the Western Hemisphere.

Declaration of Neutrality

Issued by President Woodrow Wilson after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, stating that the United States would maintain normal relations with and continue to trade with both sides in the conflict; factors including submarine warfare made it difficult for America to maintain this policy. Also declared by George Washington in 1793 to allow American merchants to trade with those on both sides of the French Revolution.

Sussex Pledge

Issued in 1916 by Germany after the U.S. threatened to break off diplomatic relations with Germany following a German U-boat attack against the French ship Sussex, which carried U.S. civilians. Germany pledged not to attack merchant ships without warning, temporarily easing the diplomatic tension between the U.S. and Germany.

Shoot-on-sight order

Issued in 1941 in response to German submarine attacks on American ships in the Atlantic ocean. The order authorized naval patrols to fire on any Axis ships found between the U.S. and Iceland.

Atlantic Charter

Issued on August 14, 1941 during a meeting between President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The charter outlined the ideal postwar world, condemned military aggression, asserted the right to national self-determination, and advocated disarmament.

Underwood Tariff

Pushed through Congress by President Wilson in 1913. The Underwood Tariff reduced average tariff duties by almost 15 percent, and established a graduated income tax to cover the lost tariff revenue.

McKinley Tariff

Raised protective tariffs by nearly 50 percent in 1890, the highest in U.S. history.

Revenue Act of 1942

Raised taxes to help finance the war effort. The act hiked rates for the wealthiest Americans and included new middle- and lower-income tax brackets, vastly increasing the number of Americans responsible for paying taxes.

Thirteenth Amendment

Ratified December 6, 1865. The Thirteenth Amendment prohibited slavery in the United States.

Articles of Confederation

Ratified in 1781, this document established the first official government of the United States; allowed much power to remain in the states, with the federal government possessing only limited powers. Articles replaced by the Constitution in 1788.

Fourteenth Amendment

Ratified in 1868, this amendment stated that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States " were citizens. In addition, all former Confederate supporters were prohibited from holding office in the United States.

Fifteenth Amendment

Ratified in 1870, this amendment stated that a person could not be denied the right to vote because of the color of their skin or whether or not they had been a slave. This extended the rights of blacks to vote to the North (which the Emancipation Proclamation had not done); some in the women's movement opposed the amendment on the grounds that it did nothing for the rights of women.

Seventeenth Admendment

Ratified in 1913, this amendment allowed voters to directly elect United States senators. Senators had previously been elected by state legislatures; this change perfectly reflected the spirit of progressive-era political reformers who wanted to do all they could to put political power in the hands of the citizenry.

Seventeenth Amendment

Ratified in 1913. The Seventeenth Amendment provided for the direct election of U.S. senators rather than their selection by state legislatures.

Sixteenth Amendment

Ratified in 1913. The Sixteenth Amendment allowed the federal government to collect a direct income tax. Shortly thereafter, Congress instituted a graduated income tax with an upper tax rate of 7 percent.

NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)

Ratified in 1994 by the U.S. Senate, this agreement established a free trade zone between the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Critics of the agreement claim that many jobs have been lost in the United States because of it.

Nineteenth Amendment

Ratified in August 1920. The Nineteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote.

Kitchen Cabinet

Jackson's presidential cabinet, dubbed so because the members were his close political allies and many had questionable political skill. Instead of serving as a policy forum to help shape the president's agenda, as previous cabinets had done, Jackson's cabinet assumed a mostly passively supportive role.

Macon's Bill No. 2

James Madison's 1810 ploy to induce either Britain or France to lift trade restrictions. Under the bill, U.S. trade sanctions were lifted with the promise that if one country agreed to free trade with the U.S., sanctions would be reimposed against the other nation.

Zimmerman Telegram

January 1917 telegram sent by the German foreign minister to Mexico suggesting that the Mexican army should join forces with the Germans against the United States; when the Germans ans Mexicans were victorious, the Mexicans were promised most of the southwestern part of the United States. The British deciphered the code of the telegram and turned it over to the United States; the release of its content caused many in America to feel that war against the Germans was essential.

Tet Offensive

January 1968 attack launched on American and South Vietnamese forces by North Vietnamese and Vietcong soldiers. Although Vietcong troops actually occupied the American embassy in Vietnam for several hours, the and result was a crushing defeat for the anti-American forces. However, the psychological effect of it was exactly the reverse: Vietcong forces were convinced they could decisively strike at South Vietnamese and American targets, and many in America ceased to believe that victory was "just around the corner."

napalm

Jellylike substance dropped from American planes during the Vietnam conflict that horribly burned the skin of anyone that came into contact with it. On several occasions, it was accidentally dropped "friendly" villages.

New Frontier

John F. Kennedy's domestic policy. The "New Frontier" focused on reform at home and victory in the Cold War.

Lyndon B. Johnson

John F. Kennedy's vice president until Kennedy's assassination made him president in 1963. He stayed in office until 1968, when he declined to seek reelection. Johnson is best known for his attempts to enact his Great Society program at home and his decision to commit troops to Vietnam.

muckrakers

Journalists of the Progressive era who attempted to expose the evils of government and big businesses. Many wrote of the corruption of city and state political machines. Factory conditions and the living and working conditions of workers were other topics that some of them wrote about.

midnight appointments

Judicial or other appointments made by an outgoing president or governor in the last hours before he or she leaves office. The most famous were the judicial appointments made by John Adams in the hours before Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated as president.

Potsdam Conference

July 1945 conference between new president Harry Truman, Stalin, and Clement Atlee, who had replaced Churchill. Truman took a much tougher stance toward Stalin than Franklin Roosevelt had; little substantive agreement took place at this conference. Truman expressed reservations about the future role of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe at this conference.

First Battle of Bull Run

July 21, 1861 Confederate victory over Union forces, which ended in Union forces fleeing in disarray toward Washington; this battle convinced Lincoln and others in the North that victory over the Confederates would not be as easy as they initially thought.

Battle of Bunker Hill

June 1775 British attack on colonial forces at Breed's Hill outside Boston; despite the frightful losses, the British emerged victorious in this Battle.

Battle of Midway

June 4, 1942, naval battle that crippled Japanese offensive capabilities in the Pacific; American airplanes destroyed four aircraft carriers and over 200 Japanese planes. After Midway, Japanese military operations were mainly defensive.

Gospel of Success

Justification for the growing gap between rich and poor during the Industrial Revolution. The "Gospel" centered on the claim that anyone could become wealthy with enough hard work and determination. Writers like Horatio Alger incorporated this ideology into their work.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Key piece of civil rights legislation that made discrimination on the basis of race,sex,religion, or national origin illegal; segregation in public restrooms, bus stations, and other public facilities also was declared illegal.

King George III

King of England from 1760-1820. Colonists were torn between loyalty to the king and resistance to acts carried out in his name. After George III rejected the Olive Branch Petition, the colonists considered him a tyrant.

bonanza farms

Large farms that came to dominate agricultural life in much of the West in the late 1800s; instead of plots farmed by yeoman farmers, large amounts of machinery were used, and workers were hired laborers, often performing only specific tasks (similar to work in a factory).

baby boom

Large increase in birthrate in United States that began in 1945 and lasted until 1962; new and larger families fueled the move to suburbia that occurred in the 1950s and produced the "youth culture" that would become crucial in the 1960s.

Anaconda Copper Company

Large mining syndicate typical of many companies involved in mining in the western United States in the 1860s and 1870s; used heavy machinery and professional engineers. Many prospectors who found gold,silver, or copper sold their claims to companies such as this.

Exodusters

Large number of Southern blacks who left the South and moved to Kansas for a "better life" after Reconstruction ended in 1877; many failed to find satisfaction in Kansas because of lack of opportunities and hostility from Kansas residents.

Social Gospel movement

Late nineteenth-century Protestant movement preaching that all true Christians should be concerned with the plight of immigrants and other poor residents of American cities and should financially support efforts to improve the lives of these poor urban dwellers. Progressive-era settlement houses were often financed by funds raised by ministers of this movement.

trusts

Late nineteenth-century legal arrangement that allowed owners of one company to own stock in other companies in the same industry. By this arrangement, John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil were able to buy enough stock to control other oil companies in existence as well. The Sherman Anti trust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act were efforts to "break up" the numerous trusts that were created during this period.

Black Codes

Laws adopted by the Southern states in the Reconstruction era that greatly limited the freedom of Southern blacks; in several states blacks could not move,own land, or do anything but farm.

Henry Cabot Lodge

Leader of a group of senators known as "reservationists" during the 1919 debate over the League of Nations. Lodge and his followers supported U.S. membership in the League of Nations only if major revisions were made to the covenant (part of the Treaty of Versailles). President Wilson, however, refused to compromise, and the treaty was rejected. The U.S. never joined the League of Nations.

Federalists

Led by Alexander Hamilton. Federalists believed in a strong central government at the expense of state powers and were staunch supporters of the Constitution during the ratification process. They remained a political force throughout the first thirty or so years of the United States. The Federalists entered into decline after the election of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency and disappeared as a political party after the the Hartford Convention, at the close of the War of 1812.

National Republican Party

Led by Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams. The National Republicans were one of the two new political parties that emerged in the late 1820s to challenge the dominant Republican Party. The National Republican Party found its core support in the industrial Northeast. During Jackson's second term in office, the party reconfigured into the Whig Party.

Battle of Tippecanoe

Led by future president William Henry Harrison, U.S. forces defeated Shawnee forces in the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. The U.S. victory lessened the Native American threat in Ohio and Indiana.

indentured servants

Legal arrangement when an individual owed compulsory service (in some cases only 3 years, in others up to 10) for free passage to the American colonies. Many of the early settlers in the Virginia colony came as indentured servants.

Writs of assistance

Legalized by Parliament during the French and Indian War. Writs of assistance were general search warrants that allowed British customs officers to search any colonial building or ship that they believed might contain smuggled goods, even without probable cause for suspicion. The colonists considered the writs to be a grave infringement upon their personal liberties.

Lend-Lease Act

Legislation proposed by Franklin Roosevelt and adopted by Congress in 1941, sating that the United States could either sell or lease arms and other equipment to any country whose security was vital to America's interest. After the passage of this bill, military equipment to help the British war effort began to be shipped from the United States.

Naval Act of 1900

Legislation that authorized a large increase in the building of ships to be used for offensive purposes; this measure helped ensure the creation of a world-class American navy.

Nullification Crisis

Like the tariff bills of 1816 and 1824, the Tariff of 1828 hurt the Southern economy while benefiting Northern and Western industries. For this reason, Southerners called it the "Tariff of Abominations." Vice President John C. Calhoun denounced the tariff as unconstitutional on the grounds that federal laws must benefit all states equally, and urged that states nullify the tariff within their own borders. South Carolina did so in November 1832, punctuating a debate over tariffs and states' rights that raged within the administration and the entire federal government between 1828 and 1833.

Gettysburg Address

Lincoln's famous "Four score and seven years ago" speech. Delivered on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a cemetery for casualties of the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln's speech recast the war as a historic test of the ability of a democracy to survive.

Ten percent plan

Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction in the South following the Civil War. The plan was more lenient than many members of Congress, especially the Radical Republicans, wanted—Southern states would be readmitted to the Union once 10 percent of the state's voting population took an oath of loyalty to the Union and the states established new non-Confederate governments. Congress proposed its own, more punitive, Reconstruction plan with the 1864 Wade-Davis Bill.

Beat Generation

Literary movement of the 1950s that criticized the conformity of American society and the ever-present threat of atomic warfare; "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac, "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg, and "Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs were key works of the Beat Generation.

Haymarket Square

Location in Chicago of labor rally called by anarchist and other radical labor leaders on May 2, 1886. A bomb was hurled toward police officials, and police opened fire on the demonstrators; numerous policemen and demonstrators were killed and wounded. Response in the nation's press was decidedly anti-union.

Valley Forge

Location where General Washington stationed his troops for the winter of 1777 to 1778. Soldiers suffered hunger, cold, and disease: nearly 1300 deserted over the course of the winter. Morale of the remaining troops was raised by the drilling and discipline instilled by Baron von Steuben, a former Prussian officer who had volunteered to aid the colonial army.

Fourteenth Amendment

Ratified in July 1868. The Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed the rights of citizenship to all people, black or white, born or naturalized in the United States. It also provided for the denial of congressional representation for any state that denied suffrage to any of its male citizens.

Alger Hiss

Longtime government employee who, in 1948, was accused by Time editor Whitaker Chambers of spying for the USSR. After a series of highly publicized hearings and trials, Hiss was convicted of perjury in 1950 and sentenced to five years imprisonment, emboldening conservatives to redouble their efforts to root out subversives within the government.

Great Society

Lyndon B. Johnson's program for domestic policy. The Great Society aimed to achieve racial equality, end poverty, and improve health-care. Johnson pushed a number of Great Society laws through Congress early in his presidency, but the Great Society failed to materialize fully, as the administration turned its attention toward foreign affairs—specifically, Vietnam.

John Steinbeck

Major American author in the 1930s. Steinbeck's novels depict simple, rural lives. His most famous work is The Grapes of Wrath (1939).

Fifteenth Amendment

Ratified in March 1870. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibited the denial of voting rights to any citizen based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

domino theory

Major tenet of Cold War containment policy of the United States held that if one country in a region turned communist, other surrounding countries would soon follow; this theory convinced many that to save all of Southeast Asia, it was necessary to resist communist aggression in Vietnam.

consumer society

Many Americans in the 1950s became infatuated with all of the new products produced by technology and went out and purchased more than any prior generation; consumer tastes of the decade were largely dictated by advertising and television.

Eighteenth Amendment

Ratified on January 16, 1919. The Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the manufacture, transport, or sale of alcoholic beverages. It was sporadically enforced, violated by many, and repealed in 1933.

Whiskey Rebellion

Many settlers in Western frontier territory in the early 1790s questioned the power that the federal power had over them. In 1793 settlers in Ohio territory refused to pay federal excise taxes on whiskey and attacked tax officials who were supposed to collect these taxes; large numbers of "whiskey rebels" threatened to attack Pittsburgh and other cities. In 1794 President Washington was forced to send in federal troops to put down the rebellion.

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

March 1911 fire in New York factory that trapped young women workers inside locked exit doors; nearly 50 ended up jumping to their death, while 100 died inside the factory. Many factory reforms, including increasing safety precautions for workers, came from the investigation of this incident.

Lexington

Massachusetts town where the first skirmish between British troops and colonial militiamen took place; during this April 19, 1775, "battle" eight colonists were killed and another nine were wounded.

Battle of the Coral Sea

May 1942 American naval victory over the Japanese; prevented Japanese from attacking Australia. First naval battle where losses on both sides came almost exclusively from bombing from airplanes.

Yalta Conference

Meeting between Stalin, Churchill, And Roosevelt held two months before the fall of Nazi Germany in February of 1945. At this meeting Stalin agreed to assist the Americans against the Japanese after the Germans were defeated; it was decided that Germany would be divided into zones (each controlled by one of the victors), and Stalin promised to hold free elections in the Eastern European nations the Soviet army had liberated from the Nazis. Critics of this event maintain that Roosevelt was naive in his dealings with Stalin at this meeting (he was only months from his own death), and that Churchill and Roosevelt essentially handed over control of Eastern Europe to Stalin.

Hartford Convention

Meeting of New England Federalists in the closing months of the War of 1812 where they threatened that New England would secede from the United States unless trade restrictions imposed by President Madison were lifted. American victory in the war made their protests seem pointless.

Second Continental Congress

Meeting of delegates from the American colonies in May 1775; during the sessions some delegates expressed hope that the differences between the colonies and Britain could be reconciled, although Congress authorized that the Continental Army be created and that George Washington be named commander of that army.

Sons of Liberty

Men who organized opposition to the British policies during the late 1760s and 1770s. They were founded in and were most active in Boston, where in response to Stamp Act they burned the local tax collector in effigy and burned a building that he owned. They also organized the Boston Tea Party. Samuel Adams was one of the leaders of this group.

Lewis and Clark

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. The two were commissioned by Thomas Jefferson to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. They traveled 3,000 miles between 1804 and 1806, collecting scientific data and specimens and charting the territory to the west of the Mississippi. Their journey spurred national interest in exploration and settlement of the West.

Congressional caucus

Met during the early years of the United States to choose presidential candidates. The caucus is significant in that it denied the public any voice in the nomination process, instead leaving the choice up to a centralized group of politicians based in Washington, DC. By the election of 1824, the congressional caucus had become a symbol of undemocratic elitist rule. Resented by much of the American public, the caucus lost its political influence in the early 1820s.

Great Migaration

Migration of large numbers of American blacks to Midwestern and Eastern industrial cities that began during World War I and continued throughout the 1920s because of immigration restrictions; blacks were willing to leave the South because of continued lynchings there and the fact that their economic situation was not improving.

Franciscans

Missionaries who established settlements in the Southwestern United States in the late 1500s; at their missions Christian conversion was encouraged, but at the same time Native Americans were used as virtual slaves. Rebellions against the missions and the soldiers sent to protect them began in 1598.

Jesuits

Missionary group who established settlements in Florida, New Mexico, Paraguay, and several areas within French territory in North America. They were organized with military precision and order.

Neoconservativism

Modern American political philosophy that opposes big-government approaches to domestic issues yet favors an interventionist and aggressive foreign policy; most advocated American intervention in Iraq in 2003.

National War Labor Board

Monitored and regulated the efforts of organized labor during World War II. Although the board restricted wage increases, it encouraged the extension of many fringe benefits to American workers.

Elvis Presley

Most famous rock star of the 1950s. His sexually charged dance moves and unique sound played a major role in defining the growing genre of rock-and-roll, which became prominent during the 1950s.

abolitionist movement

Movement dedicated to the abolition of slavery that existed primarily in the North in years leading up to the Civil War; had both white and black members.

black power

Movement of black Americans in the mid-1960s that emphasized [ride in racial heritage and black econmic and political self-reliance; term coined by black civil rights leader Stokely Carmichael.

temperance movement

Movement that developed in America before the Civil War that lamented the effect that alcohol had on American society. After the Civil War, members of this movement would become especially concerned about the effect of alcohol on immigrants and other members of the urban poor; out of this movement came the drive for nationwide prohibition.

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

Much of the $5 billion allocated to FDR by the Emergency Relief Allocation Act of 1935 went to the creation of the WPA. Over eight years, the WPA provided work for the unemployed of all backgrounds, from industrial engineers to authors and artists. Partially owing to WPA efforts, unemployment fell by over 5 percent between 1935 and 1937.

Connecticut Compromise

Reconciled the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan for determining legislative representation in Congress. The Connecticut Compromise established equal representation for all states in the Senate and proportional representation by population in the House of Representatives.

Sexual revolution

Refers to the easing of sexual taboos in some segments of society during the 1920s. Female sexuality and fashion were celebrated, divorce laws were relaxed in many states, and casual dating became more common.

First hundred days

Refers to the first hundred days of FDR's presidency, from March 4 to June 16, 1933. During this period of dramatic legislative productivity, FDR laid out the programs that constituted the New Deal.

Navigation Acts

Regulated trade in the colonies (1651-1673) in order to exclusively benefit the British economy. The acts restricted trade between England and the colonies to English or colonial ships; required certain colonial goods to pass through England or Scotland before being exported to foreign nations; provided subsidies for the production of certain raw goods in the colonies; and banned the colonists from competing with the English in large-scale manufacturing.

Ghost Dances

Religion practiced by Lakota tribesmen in response to the repeated incursions by the American settlers. Ghost dancers thought that a Native American messiah would come and banish the whites, return the buffalo, and give all former Native American land back to the Native Americans. Worried territorial officials had Sitting Bull arrested (he was later killed under uncertain circumstances) and killed another 240 Lakota at Wounded Knee Creek.

Seperatists

Religious group that opposed the Church of England. This group first went to Holland, and then some went on to the Americas.

revival meetings

Religious meetings consisting of soul-searching, preaching, and prayer that took place during the Second Great Awakening at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Some meetings lasted over one week.

Second Great Awakening

Religious revival movement that began at the beginning of the nineteenth century; revivalist ministers asked thousands of worshippers at revival meetings to save their own souls. This reflected the move away from predestination in Protestant thinking of the era.

Camp meetings

Religious revivals on the frontier during the Second Great Awakening. Hundreds or even thousands of people—members of various denominations—met to hear speeches on repentance and sing hymns.

Farmers' Alliance

Replaced the Grange as a support group for the nation's farmers during the 1880s. The alliances were politically active in the Midwest and South, and were central to the founding of the Populist Party.

Sharecropping system

Replaced the plantation system after the Civil War as the primary method of agricultural production in the South. Sharecropping consisted of plantations, subdivided into small farms, that were rented to freedmen for leases paid in the form of a share (usually half) of the crop produced. The system gave freedmen a measure of independence but also ensured that whites maintained control of the land.

Stamp Act Congress

Representatives of nine colonial assemblies met in New York City in October 1765 in anger over the Stamp Act. The colonies agreed that Parliament could not tax anyone outside of Great Britain and could not deny anyone a fair trial, both of which had been dictates of the Stamp Act. The meeting marked a new level of colonial political organization.

Stamp Act Congress

Representatives of nine colonies went to this meeting held in New York in October 1765; the document produced by this congress maintained the loyalty of the colonies to the Crown but strongly condemned the Stamp Act. Within one year the Stamp Act was repealed.

yellow journalism

This method uses accounts and illustrations of lurid and sensational events to sell newspapers. Newspapers using this strategy covered the events in Cuba leading up to the Spanish-american War, and did much to shift American opinion toward desiring war in Spain; some critics maintain that many tactics of this were used during the press coverage of the Whitewater investigation of Bill Clinton.

Stamp Act

To help pay for the British army in North America, Parliament passed this act in 1765, under which all legal documents in the colonies had to be issued on officially stamped paper. A tax was imposed on all of these documents, as well as on all colonial newspapers. The resistance to this act was severe in the colonies, and it was eventually repealed.

Neutrality Act of 1935

To prevent the United States from being drawn into potential European conflicts, this bill said that America would not trade arms with any country at war, and that any American citizen traveling on a ship of a country at war was doing so at his or her own risk.

Oregon Trail

Trail that took the settlers from the Ohio River Valley through the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains to Oregon. Settlers began moving westward along this trail in 1842; by 1860 over 325,000 Americans had traveled westward along the trail.

Camp David Accords

Treaty between Egypt and Israel brokered by President Jimmy Carter and signed in early 1797; Israel agreed to give back territory in the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, while Egypt agreed to recognize Israel's right to exist as a nation.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Treaty ending the war with Mexico that was ratified by the Senate in March of 1848 and for $15 million gave the United States Texas territory to the Rio Grande River, New Mexico, and California.

Nuremberg Trials

Trials of Nazi war criminals that began in November 1945. More than 200 defendants were indicted in the thirteen trials. All but thirty-eight of the defendants were convicted of conspiring to wage aggressive war and of mistreating prisoners of war and inhabitants of occupied territories.

Fair Deal

Truman's attempt to extend the policies of the New Deal. Beginning in 1949, the Fair Deal included measures to increase the minimum wage, expand Social Security, and construct low-income housing.

vertical intergration

Type of industrial organization practiced in the late nineteenth century and pioneered by Andrew Carnegie and U.S. Steel; under this system all of the various business activities needed to produce and sell a finished product (procuring the raw materials, preparing them, producing them, marketing them, and then selling them) would be done by the same company.

Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD)

U.S. Cold War policy, developed in the 1960s, that acknowledged that both the U.S. and the Soviet Union had enough nuclear weaponry to destroy each other many times over. MAD policy hoped to prevent outright war with the Soviet Union on the premise that any attack would lead to the complete destruction of both powers.

Maine

U.S. battleship sunk by an explosion in Havana harbor in February 1898. Though later investigations suggested that an onboard fire had caused the blast, popular rumor was that the Spanish were responsible. The sinking of the Maine, combined with sensationalist news reports of Spanish atrocities, led the American public to push for war against Spain.

Merrimack

Union ironclad ship captured by Confederates during the Civil War and renamed the "Virginia".

Monitor

Union ironclad ship utilized during the Civil War; fought one battle against the "Virginia", the South's ironclad ship, and never left port again.

speakeasies

Urban clubs that existed in the 1920s where alcohol was illegally sold to patrons. The sheer number of speakeasies in a city such as New York demonstrated the difficulty of enforcing a law such as prohibition.

The Influence of Sea Power upon History

Very influential 1890 book by Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, which argued that throughout history the most powerful nations have achieved their influence largely because of powerful navies. Mahan called for a large increase in the size of the American navy, the acquisition of American bases in the Pacific, and the building of the Panama Canal.

Common Sense

Very popular 1776 publication in the colonies written by Englishman Thomas Paine, who had come to America in 1774; repudiated the entire concept of government by monarchy. After publication of this document, public sentiment in the colonies turned decisively toward a desire for independence.

National Origins Act

Very restrictive immigration legislation passed in 1924, which lowered immigration to 2 percent of each nationality as found in the 1890 census. This lowered immigration dramatically and, quite intentionally, almost eliminated immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe.

Gerald Ford

Vice president to Nixon after Spiro Agnew. Ford took over the presidency after the Watergate scandal forced Nixon to resign on August 9, 1974. Ford pardoned Nixon and pushed a conservative domestic policy, but was little more than a caretaker of the White House until his defeat in the election of 1976.

Millard Fillmore

Vice president to Zachary Taylor until Taylor's death in 1850. Fillmore took over as president and served out the remainder of Taylor's term, until 1853. He helped to push the Compromise of 1850 through Congress.

Red Scare

Vigorous repression of radicals, "political subversives." and "undesirable" immigrant groups in the years immediately following World War I. Nearly 6500 "radicals" were arrested and sent to jail; some sat in jail without ever being changed with a crime, while nearly 500 immigrants were deported.

War of 1812

War between the British and Americans over British seizure of American ships, connections between the British and Native American tribes, and other tensions. Treaty ending war restored diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Mexican-American War

War fought over possession of Texas. The settlement ending this war gave the United States the northern part of Texas territory and the territories of New Mexico and California.

Spanish-American War

War that began in 1898 and stemmed from furor in America over treatment of Cubans by Spanish troops that controlled the island. During the war the American navy led by Admiral Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet in the Pacific, the American ship the "Maine" was sunk in Havana harbor, and Teddy Roosevelt led the Rough Riders up San Juan Hill. A major result of the war was the acquisition by the United States of the Philippines, which made America a major power in the Pacific.

Robber barons

Wealthy entrepreneurs and businessmen during the Industrial Age. Notable robber barons include Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.

national culture

When a general unity of tastes and commonality of cultural experience exist in a nation; in a general sense, when a country starts to "think the same." This occurred in America for the first time in the 1920s; as many people saw the same movies, read the same magazines, and heard the same things on the radio, a national culture was born.

Dollar diplomacy

William Howard Taft's foreign policy. Taft sought to address international problems by extending American investment overseas, believing that such activity would both benefit the U.S. economy and promote stability abroad.

New freedom

Woodrow Wilson's approach to foreign relations. Unlike Roosevelt's "big stick" policies and Taft's dollar diplomacy, Wilson's foreign policy denounced imperialism and economic meddling, and focused instead on spreading democracy throughout the world.

League of Nations

Woodrow Wilson's idea for a collective security body meant to provide a forum for the resolution of conflict and to prevent future world wars. The League's covenant was written into the Treaty of Versailles. The U.S. Senate, however, voted against joining the League, making it a weak international force.

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson's liberal and idealistic peace program. His plan, outlined January 1918, called for unrestricted sea travel, free trade, arms reduction, an end to secret treaties, the territorial reorganization of Europe in favor of self-rule, and most importantly, the creation of "a general association of nations" to protect peace and resolve conflicts.

Federal Reserve Act

Woodrow Wilson's most notable legislative success. The 1913 Federal Reserve Act reorganized the American banking system by creating a network of twelve Federal Reserve banks authorized to distribute currency.

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson's view of post-World War I that had hoped the other Allied powers would endorse during the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles; Wilson's vision included elimination of secret treaties, arms reduction, national self-determination, and the creation of a League of Nations. After negotiations, only the League of Nations remained (which the United States never became a part of).

Espionage Act

World War I-era regulation passed in 1917 that ordered severe penalties for citizens who criticized the war effort of the government; mandatory prison sentences were also proclaimed for those who interfered with the draft process. Nearly 700 Americans were arrested for violating this act.

Double V campaign

World War II "policy" supported by several prominent black newspapers, stating that blacks in America should work for victory over the Axis of powers but at the same time work for victory over oppression at home; black leaders remained frustrated during the war by continued segregation of the armed forces.

H.L. Mencken

Writer who satirized political leaders and American society in the 1920s. Mencken's magazine American Mercury served as the journalistic counterpart to the postwar disillusionment of the "lost generation."

The Feminine Mystique

Written by Betty Friedan in 1963. The book was a rallying cry for the women's liberation movement. It denounced the belief that women should be tied to the home and encouraged women to get involved in activities outside their home and family.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Written by Harriet Beecher Stow and published in 1852. Uncle Tom's Cabin portrayed the evils of the institution of slavery. The novel sold 1.2 million copies in two years and reached millions more through dramatic adaptations. Uncle Tom's Cabin aroused sympathy for runaway slaves among all classes of Northerners and hardened many against the South's insistence upon continuing slavery.

A Century of Dishonor

Written by Helen Hunt Jackson and published in 1881, A Century of Dishonor attempted to raise public awareness of the harsh and dishonorable treatment of Native Americans at the hands of the United States.

The Awakening

Written by Kate Chopin in 1899. The Awakening portrays a married woman who defies social convention first by falling in love with another man, and then by committing suicide when she finds that his views on women are as oppressive as her husband's. The novel reflects the changing role of women during the early 1900s.

Silent Spring

Written by Rachel Carson and published in 1962. Silent Spring exposed the environmental hazards of the pesticide DDT. Carson's book helped spur an increase in environmental awareness and concern among the American people.

Common Sense

Written by Thomas Paine in 1776. Paine argued that the colonists should free themselves from British rule and establish an independent government based on Enlightenment ideals. Common Sense became so popular and influential that many historians credit it with dissolving the final barriers to the fight for independence.

The Age of Reason

Written by Thomas Paine. The Age of Reason was published in three parts between 1794 and 1807. A critique of organized religion, the book was criticized as a defense of Atheism. Paine's argument is a prime example of the rationalist approach to religion inspired by Enlightenment ideals.

Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

Written in 1798 by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions condemned the Federalists' broad interpretation of the Constitution and instead put forth a compact theory of the Union, which stated that states' rights superseded federal powers. Virginia and Kentucky endorsed these resolutions in opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts. The arguments outlined in these resolutions would resurface in the mid-nineteenth century in the political crises involving tariff issues and slavery—issues that divided the North and South and led to the Civil War.

Montgomery bus boycott

Year-long refusal by blacks t ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, because of their segregation policies. Boycott began in December 1955; Supreme Court finally ruled that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional. Rosa Parks began the protest when she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat for a white man, and Martin Luther King was a young minister involved in organizing the boycott.

counterculture

Youth of the 1960s who espoused a lifestyle of encompassing drug use, free love, and a rejection of adult authority; actual "hippies" were never more than a small percentage of young people.

Reaganomics

Ronald Reagan's economic philosophy which held that a that a capitalist system free from taxation and government involvement would be most productive. Reagan believed that the prosperity of a rich upper class would "trickle down" to the poor.

Stephen A. Douglas

Rose to national prominence as Speaker of the House, when he pushed the Compromise of 1850 through Congress. Douglas was the leading Northern Democrat of his day, a supporter of popular sovereignty and the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He battled Abraham Lincoln for a seat in the Senate (successfully) in 1858, and for president (unsuccessfully) in 1860.

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein was the leader of Iraq. In August 1990, he led an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, sparking the Gulf War.

Christopher Columbus

Sailed to the New World under the Spanish flag in 1492. Although not the first European to reach the Americas, he is credited with the journey across the Atlantic that opened the New World to exploration. In 1493, he established Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola as a base for further exploration.

John Smith

Saved the Jamestown colony from collapse in 1608, its first year of existence. Smith's initiatives improved sanitation, hygiene, and organized work gangs to gather food and build shelters, thereby dramatically lowering the mortality rates among Jamestown colonists.

Wagner Act

See the National Labor Relations Act.

New Deal

Series of policies instituted by Franklin Roosevelt and his advisors from 1933 to 1941 that attempted to offset the effects of the Great Depression on American society. Many New Deal policies were clearly experimental; in the end it was the onset of World War II, and not the policies of the New Deal, that pulled the United States out of the Great Depression.

proprietorships

Settlements in America that were given to individuals who could govern and regulate the territory in any manner they desire. Charles I, for example, gave Maryland territory to Lord Baltimore as on of these.

Treaty of Greenville

Signed by 12 Native American tribes after their defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. The Treaty of Greenville cleared the Ohio territory of tribes and opened it up to U.S. settlement.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Signed by Queen Isabella of Spain and King John II of Portugal in 1494. The treaty divided all future discoveries in the New World between their respective nations. This soon proved unworkable because of the flood of expeditions to the New World and the proliferation of different countries' claims to territory.

Warsaw Pact

Signed in 1954 between the USSR and its Eastern European satellites—Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The Warsaw Pact allowed the stationing of Soviet troops in each participating country. It was seen as the Soviet response to the formation of NATO.

Helsinki Accords

Signed in 1975 by Gerald Ford, Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, and the leaders of thirty-one other states in a promise to solidify European boundaries, respect human rights, and permit freedom of travel.

Treaty of Versailles

Signed in June 1919 at the end of World War I. President Woodrow Wilson had hoped for a generous peace settlement to promote democracy, peace, and liberalism throughout war-torn Europe instead of simply punishing the Central Powers. The treaty proved more vindictive against Germany than Wilson would have liked. It punished the Germans severely, forcing them to assume all blame for the war and to pay massive reparations. Other elements of the treaty included demilitarization of the west bank of the Rhine, the creation of new nations to grant autonomy to oppressed geographic and ethnic groups, and the formation of the League of Nations.

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT)

Signed in May 1972 by President Nixon. SALT I limited each of the superpowers to 200 antiballistic missiles and set quotas for intercontinental and submarine missiles.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

Signed in September 1783 and ratified by Congress in January 1784. The 1783 Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War and granted the United States its independence. It further granted the U.S. all land east of the Mississippi River, and contained clauses that bound Congress to urge state legislatures to compensate loyalists for property damage incurred during the war, and to allow British creditors to collect debts accrued before the war. The Treaty of Paris opened the door to future legislative and economic disputes.

Tripartite Pact

Signed in September 1940 by Germany, Italy, and Japan. These nations comprised the Axis powers of World War II.

Independent Treasury Bill

Signed into law in 1840. The bill established an independent treasury to hold public funds in reserve and prevent excessive lending by state banks, thus guarding against inflation. The Independent Treasury Bill was a response to the panic of 1837, which many blamed on the risky and excessive lending practices of state banks.

Treaty of Ghent

Signed on Christmas Eve in 1815. The Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812 and returned relations between the U.S. and Britain to the way things were before the war.

Paris Accords

Signed on January 27, 1973. The Paris Accords settled the terms of U.S. withdrawal from Indochina, ending the war between the U.S. and North Vietnam but leaving the conflict between North and South Vietnam unresolved.

Treaty of San Lorenzo

Signed with Spain in 1795. The Treaty of San Lorenzo granted the U.S. unrestricted access to the Mississippi River and removed Spanish troops from American land.

Kent State University

Site of May 1970 anti-war protest where Ohio National Guardsmen fired on protesters, killing four. To many, this event was symbolic of the extreme political tensions that permeated American society in this era.

gridlock

Situation when the president is a member of one political party and the U.S. Congress is controlled by the other party, causing a situation where little legislation is actually passed. This is how some describe the situation with President Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress after the 1994 congressional elections.

Utopian communities

Small, experimental communities that sprang up in the U.S. beginning in the late 1820s. In these communities, reformers attempted to build perfect societies and present models for other communities to emulate. Most of these communities collapsed by the late 1840s.

Bootleggers

Smugglers of alcohol into the United States during the Prohibition Era (1920-1933), often from Canada or the West Indies.

domesticity

Social trend of post-World War II America; many Americans turned to family and home life as a source of contentment; emphasis on family as a source of fulfillment forced some women to abandon the workforce and achieve "satisfaction" as homemakers.

Liberty Bonds

Sold to the United State civilians during World War I; a holder who paid $10 for a bond could get $13 back if the holder held onto the bond until it matured. Bonds were important in financing the war effort, and celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin made short films encouraging Americans to buy them.

Continentals

Soldiers in the "American" army commanded by George Washington in the Revolutionary War; victory at the battle of Trenton on December 16, 1776, did much to raise the morale of the soldiers (and convince many of them to reenlist). Also a term used for paper money printed in 1781 that was soon made worthless by inflation.

The Gilded Age

Some historians describe the late nineteenth century in this manner, describing it as an era with a surface of great prosperity hiding deep problems of social inequity and shallowness of culture. The term comes from the title of an 1873 Mark Twain novel.

John Quincy Adams

Son of John Adams and president from 1825 to 1829. As James Monroe's secretary of state, Adams worked to expand the nation's borders and authored the Monroe Doctrine. His presidency was largely ineffective due to lack of popular support; Congress blocked many of his proposed programs.

Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871

Sought to protect black suffrage in the wake of Klu Klux Klan activities.

Clayton Antitrust Act

Spearheaded by Woodrow Wilson in 1914. The act improved upon the vague Sherman Antitrust Act by enumerating a series of illegal business practices.

Gettysburg Address

Speech made by Abraham Lincoln at dedication ceremony for a cemetery for Union soldiers who died at the Battle of Gettysburg; in this November 19, 1863, speech, Lincoln stated that freedom should exist in the United States for all men, and that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Checkers Speech

Speech made by Richard Nixon on national television on September 23, 1952, where he defended himself against charges that rich supporters had set up a special expense account for his use; by the speech Nixon saved his spot on the 1952 Republican ticket (he was running for vice president, with Eisenhower running for president) and saved his political career.

black nationalism

Spurred by Malcolm X and other black leaders, a call for black pride and advancement without the help of whites; this appeared to be a repudiation of the calls for peaceful integration urged by Martin Luther King. Race riots in Northern cities in mid-1960s were at least partially fueled by supporters of black nationalism.

Jim Crow laws

State laws that institutionalized segregation in the South from the 1880s through the 1960s. Along with segregating schools, buses, and other public accommodations, these laws made it difficult or impossible for Southern blacks to vote.

nativism

States that immigration should be greatly limited or banned altogether, since immigrants hurt the United States economically and also threaten the the social well-being of the country. These groups and parties have developed on several occasions in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries their sentiment was especially strong in the 1920s.

Confederate States of America

States that seceded during the Civil War.

Gadsden Purchase

Strip of territory running through Arizona and New Mexico that the United States purchased from Mexico in 1853; President Pierce authorized this purchase to secure that the southern route of the transcontinental railroad (between Texas and California) would be in American territory.

Albany Plan

Submitted by Benjamin Franklin to the 1754 gathering of colonial delgates in Albany, New York. The plan called for the colonies to unify in the face of French and Native American threats. Although the delegates in Albany approved the plan, the colonies rejected it for fear of losing their independent authority. The Crown rejected the Albany Plan as well, wary of cooperation between the colonies.

Harry S. Truman

Succeeded FDR as president after FDR's death in April 1945. Truman served until 1953. Truman ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and he proved instrumental in committing the U.S. to action against the threat of Soviet aggression in Europe during the Cold War. At home, Truman attempted to extend the New Deal policies of his predecessor in what he called the Fair Deal.

Coxey's Army

Supporters of Ohio Populist Jacob Coxey who in 1894 marched on Washington, demanded that the government create jobs for the unemployed; although this group had no effect whatsoever over policy, it did demonstrate the social and economic impact of the Panic of 1893.

Nation of Islam

Supporters were called Black Muslims; this group was founded by Elijah Muhammad and preached Islamic principles along with black pride and black separatism. Malcolm X was a member of the Nation of Islam.

Dred Scott case

Supreme court case involving a man who was born a slave but had then lived in both a nonslave state and a nonslave territory and was now petitioning for his legal freedom; in 1857 the Court ruled that slaves were not people but were property, that they could not be citizens of the United States, and thus had no legal right to petition the Court for anything. Ruling also stated that the Missouri Compromise, which banned slavery in the territories, was unconstitutional.

convoy system

System used to protect American ships carrying materials to Great Britain in 1940 and 1941; merchant ships were protected by American warships. Firing took place between these ships and German submarines, with American losses. Also used in World War I by the Navy to allow American shipping to Europe.

sit-in

Tactic used by the civil rights movement in the early 1960s; a group of civil rights workers would typically occupy a lunch counter in a segregated establishment in the South and refuse to leave, thus disrupting normal business (and profits) for the segregated establishment. During sit-ins civil rights workers often suffered physical and emotional abuse. The first sit-in was at the Wordsworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina, on February 1, 1960.

Revenue Act of 1935

Tax legislation championed by Franklin Roosevelt that was called a "soak the rich" plan by his opponents. Under this bill corporate, inheritance, and gift taxes went up dramatically; income taxes for the upper brackets also rose. By proposing this, Roosevelt may have been attempting to diffuse the popularity of Huey Long and others with more radical plans to redistribute wealth.

Mexican War

Tension between the U.S. and Mexico grew after Texas accepted Congress's offer of admission to the Union despite the Mexican government's opposition. In 1846, after Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande, the U.S. declared war against Mexico. The U.S. won the war easily. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war and granted the U.S. possession of Texas, New Mexico, and California in exchange for $15 million.

manifest destiny

Term first used in the 1840s, the concept that America's expansion westward was as journalist John O'Sullivan said, " the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions."

advertising age

Term first used to describe America's consumer culture of the 1920's, when advertising began to influence the choices of purchasers.

scalawags

Term used by Southerners in the Reconstruction era for fellow Southerners who either supported Republican Reconstruction policies or gained economically as a result of these policies.

carpetbaggers

Term used by Southerners to mock Northerners who came to the South to gain either financially or politically during the Reconstruction era.

Era of Good Feelings

Term used by a newspaper of the of the period to describe the years between 1816 and 1823, when after the end of the War of 1812 the United States remained generally free of foreign conflicts and when political strife at home was at a bare minimum (because of the collapse of the Federalist party).

Intolerable Acts

Term used by anti-British speakers across the colonies for the series of bills passed in Great Britain to punish the Massachusetts colony for the Boston Tea Party of December 1773. These including the closing of Boston harbor, prohibited local meetings, and mandatory quartering of troops in the homes of Massachusetts residents.

affluent society

Term used by economist John Kenneth Galbraith to describe the American economy in the 1950s, during which time many Americans became enraptured with appliances and homes in the suburbs.

freedmen

Term used for free blacks in the South after the Civil War. Freedmen enjoyed some gains in terms of education, the ability to hold office,and economic well-being during the Reconstruction era, although many of these gains were wiped out after the Compromise of 1877.

Hun

Term used in allied propaganda during World War I to depict the German soldier; Germans were portrayed as blood thirsty beasts. World War I was the first war where propaganda was used on a widespread scale.

New Democrat

Term used to describe Bill Clinton and his congressional supporters during his two terms in office. A New Democrat was pragmatic, and not tied to the old Democratic belief in big government; New Democrats took both Democratic and Republican ideas as they crafted their policies. Some in the Democratic party maintained that Clinton had actually sold out the principals of the party.

Jazz Age

Term used to describe the image of the liberated, urbanized 1920s, with a flapper as a dominant symbol of that era. Many rural, fundamentalist Americans deeply resented the changes in American culture that occurred in the "Roaring 20s."

Louisiana Purchase

Territory purchased from Napolean by the U.S. in 1803. The Louisiana Purchase nearly doubled the size of the nation and opened the West to exploration and settlement. But the new aquisition also caused strife: border disputes with foreign powers as well as congressional debates over the admission of new states from the region (whether the states would be slave-holding or free).

Louisiana Purchase

The 1803 purchase of the huge Louisiana territory (from the Mississippi River out to the Rocky Mountains) from Napoleon for $15 million. This purchase made eventual westward movement possible for vast numbers of Americans.

Plessy v. Ferguson

The 1896 Supreme Court decision ruled that segregation was not illegal as long as facilities for each race were equal. This "separate but equal" doctrine served to justify segregation throughout the early and mid-1900s. In 1954, the Supreme Court overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.

Roe v. Wade

The 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized most first- and second-trimester abortions in the United States. Roe v. Wade represented a major victory for the women's rights movement.

Operation Overlord

The Allied air, land, and sea assault on occupied France. The operation centered on the "D-Day" invasion on June 6, 1944 in which American, British, and Canadian troops stormed the beaches at Normandy. These Allied forces sustained heavy casualties but eventually took the beach and moved gradually inland.

Know-Nothing Party

The American Party. The Know-Nothings took the place of the Whig Party between 1854 and 1856, after the latter's demise. They focused on issues of antislavery, anti-Catholicism, nativism, and temperance. The party collapsed during the latter half of the 1850s, in part because of the rise of the Republican Party.

King-Crane Commission

The American commission that went into various regions of the Middle East immediately after World War I to what political future was desired by residents of the region. It was determined that many did not want to be controlled by Britain and France, and saw the United States in a favorable light. Predictably, the British and French saw to it that the findings of the commission were largely kept quiet.

Panic of 1837

The American economy suffered a deep depression when Great Britain reduced the amount of credit it offered to the United States; American merchants and industrialists had to use their available cash to pay off debts, thus causing businesses to cut production and lay off workers.

Mormonism

The Church of Latter-Day Saints, founded by Joseph Smith in 1831. The church's core tenets derive from the Book of Mormon, a book of revelation similar to the Bible. Led by Smith, the Mormons moved steadily westward during the early 1830s, seeking to escape religious persecution. After Smith was murdered in 1844, a new leader, Brigham Young, led the Mormons to Utah, where they settled and are still centered today.

Constitution

The Constitution is the document that outlines the operation and central principles of American government. As opposed to the Articles of Confederation, which it replaced, the Constitution created a strong central government with broad judicial, legislative, and executive powers, though it purposely restricted the extent of these powers through a system of checks and balances. Written at the Constitutional Convention, the Constitution was ratified by the states in 1789.

Salutary neglect

The English government's policy of not enforcing certain trade laws it imposed upon the American colonies throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The purpose of salutary neglect was largely to ensure the loyalty of the colonists in the face of the French territorial and commercial threat in North America. Following British victory in the French and Indian War, the English ceased practicing salutary neglect.

Unrestricted submarine warfare

The German U-boat policy in which submarines attacked any ship—military, merchant, or civilian—without warning. After a period in which Germany practiced limited submarine warfare as promised by the Sussex Pledge, the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in January 1917 pushed the U.S. even closer to entering World War I.

unrestricted submarine warfare

The German policy announced in early 1917 of having their U-boats attack all ships attempting to land at British or French ports, despite their origin or purpose; because of this policy, the rights of the United States as a neutral power were being violated, stated Woodrow Wilson in 1917, and America was forced to declare war on Germany.

Holocaust

The Nazis' systematic persecution and extermination of European Jews from 1933 until 1945. More than 6 million Jews died in concentration camps throughout Germany and Nazi-occupied territory.

Grange

The Patrons of Husbandry, known as "the Grange." Formed in 1867 as a support system for struggling western farmers, the Grange offered farmers education and fellowship, and provided a forum for homesteaders to share advice and emotional support at biweekly social functions. The Grange also represented farmers' needs in dealings with big business and the federal government.

Dartmouth College v. Woodward

The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the state of New Hampshire could not convert Dartmouth College to a state university because doing so would violate the college's contract, granted by King George III in 1769, and the Constitution forbids states from interfering with contracts. Republicans interpreted the decision and phrasing of the opinion as a shocking defeat for states' rights. Their reaction exposed political conflicts concealed under the facade of cooperation during the Era of Good Feelings.

Leif Ericson

The alleged leader of a group of Vikings who sailed to the eastern coast of Canada and attempted, unsuccessfully, to colonize the area around the year 1000—nearly 500 years before Columbus arrived in the Americas.

Central Powers

The alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria that opposed England, France, Russia, and later the United States in World War I.

suburbia

The area outside of the cities massive numbers of families flocked to in the 1950s and 1960s. Suburban parents often still worked in the cities, but the suburban lifestyle shared little with urban life. Critics of 1950s suburbia point to the sameness and lack of vitality noted by some suburban residents and to the fact that suburban women had to forget past dreams to accept the role of "housewife."

Manifest destiny

The belief of many Americans in the mid-nineteenth century that it was the nation's destiny and duty to expand and conquer the West. Journalist John L. O'Sullivan first coined the phrase "manifest destiny" in 1845, as he wrote of "our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of our continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty."

nullification

The belief that an individual state has the right to get rid of any federal law that the state felt was unjust. Andrew Jackson was able to resolve a Nullification Crisis in 1832, but the concept of it was still accepted by many Southerners, and controversy over this was a cause of the Civil War.

proportional representation

The belief that representation in a legislature should be based on population; the states with the largest populations should have the most representatives. When the Constitution was being formulated, the larger states wanted this; the smaller states favored "one vote per state." The eventual compromise, termed the Connecticut plan, created a two-house legislature.

feminism

The belief that women should have the same rights and benefits in American society that men do. Feminism gained supporters during the Progressive era, and in the 1960s drew large numbers of supporters. The National Organizations for Women (NOW) was established in 1966 by Betty Friedan and had nearly 200,000 members in 1969.

Tax Reform Act of 1986

The biggest tax cut in American history, this measure cut taxes by $750 billion over five years and cut personal income taxes by 25 percent. Tax cuts were consistent with President Reagan's belief that more money in the hands of the wealthy would stimulate the economy. Critics of this tax cut would argue that the wealthy were the ones that benefited from it, as little of the money that went to the hands of the rich actually "trickled down" to help the rest of the economy. Critics would also argue that the national deficits of the late 1980s and early 1990s were caused by these tax cuts.

Watergate Affair

The break-in into Democratic campaign headquarters was one of a series of dirty tricks carried out by individuals associated with the effort to reelect Richard Nixon as president in 1972. Extensive efforts were also made to cover up these activities. In the end, numerous government and campaign officials spent time in jail for their role in this , as President Nixon was forced to resign in disgrace.

Taft-Hartley Act

The centerpiece of a congressional effort to restrict union activity. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 banned certain union practices and allowed the president to call for an eighty-day cooling off period to delay strikes thought to pose risks to national safety. Truman vetoed the measure, and though his veto was overridden, his actions roused the support of organized labor, a group crucial to his election victory in 1948.

Reconstruction Act of 1867

The central law passed during Reconstruction. The Reconstruction Act invalidated state governments established under Lincoln's and Johnson's plans, provided for military occupation of the former Confederacy, and bound state governments to vote for black suffrage.

New Deal Coalition

The coalition of labor unions and industrial workers, minorities, much of the middle class, and the Solid South that carried Franklin Roosevelt to victories in 1936 and 1940 and that was the basis of Democratic victories on a national level until this coalition started to break up in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A sizable number of this group voted for Ronald Reagan in the presidential elections of 1980 and 1984,

Robert E. Lee

The commanding general of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War. Lee was a brilliant strategist, commander, and fighter. Many historians believe that the Confederacy held out as long as it did only because of Lee's skill and the loyalty of his troops.

Scramble for Africa

The competition between the major European powers to gain colonial territories in Africa that took place between the 1870s and the outbreak of World War I. Conflicts created by competing visions of colonial expansion increased tensions between the European powers and were a factor in the animosities that led to World War I.

triangular trade system

The complex trading relationship that developed in the late seventeenth century between the Americas, Europe, and Africa. Europeans purchased slaves from Africa to be resold in the Americas, raw materials from the Americas were exported to European states, while manufactured products in Europe were sold throughout the Americas.

voluntarism

The concept that Americans should sacrifice either time or money for the well-being of their country; a sense of voluntarism has permeated America during much of its history, especially during the progressive era and during the administration of John Kennedy ("ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country"). President George W. Bush called for a renewed sense of voluntarism in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001.

states' rights

The concept that the individual states, and not the federal government, have the power to decide whether federal legislation or regulations are to be enforced within the individual states. The mantle of it would be taken up by New England Federalists during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, by many Southern states in the years leading up to the Civil War, and by some Southern states again i response to federal legislation during the civil rights era of the 1960s.

New Right

The conservative movement that began in the 1960s and triumphed with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. It was able to attract many middle-class and Southern voters to the Republican party by emphasizing the themes of patriotism, a smaller government, and a return to "traditional values."

Loose constructionists

The core of the Federalist Pary, led by Alexander Hamilton. They favored a loose reading of the Constitution—especially of the elastic clause—in order to expand the powers of the central government to include implied constitutional powers, not just enumerated ones.

Battle of Yorktown

The defeat of the forces of General Cornwallis in this battle in October of 1781 essentially ended the hopes of the British for winning the Revolutionary War. American and French troops hemmed the British in on the peninsula of Yorktown, while the French navy located in Chesapeake Bay made rescue of the British troops by sea impossible.

38th parallel

The dividing line between Soviet supported North Korea and U.S.-backed South Korea both before and as a result of the Korean War; American forces have been stationed on the southern side of this border continually since the Korean War ended in 1953.

labor movement

The drive that began in the second half of the nineteenth century to have workers join labor unions. Divisions existed in nineteenth century unions on whether unions should focus their energies on political gains for workers or on "bread and butter" issues important to workers. In the twentieth century, unions have broad political powers, as most endorse and financially support candidates in national and statewide elections.

Reconstruction Era

The era following the Civil War where Radical Republicans initiated changes in the South that gave newly freed slaves additional economic, social, and political rights. These changes were greatly resented by many Southerners, causing the creation of organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan. Reconstruction ended with the Compromise of 1877.

Yellow journalism

The exaggerated and sensationalized stories about Spanish military atrocities against Cuban rebels that the New York World and New York Journal, among other newspapers, published in the period leading up to the Spanish-American War (1898). Yellow journalism swayed American public opinion in favor of war against Spain.

McCarthyism

The extreme anticommunism in American politics and society during the early 1950s. The term derives from the actions of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led an intense campaign against alleged subversives during this period.

Social history

The field of history that analyzes the lives and beliefs of common people in any historical era. In American history, this field has grown dramatically since the 1960s. They believe that we can get a more accurate view of the civil rights movement, by for example, studying the actions of civil rights workers in Mississippi than we can by studying the actions and pronouncements of leaders of the civil rights movement who were active on the national stage.

Battle of the Bulge

The final German offensive in Western Europe, lasting from December 16, 1944, to January 16, 1945. Hitler amassed his last reserves against Allied troops in France. Germany made a substantial dent in the Allied front line, but the Allies recovered and repelled the Germans, clearing the way for a march toward Berlin.

Emergency Banking Relief Act

The first act of FDR's New Deal. The Emergency Banking Relief Act provided a framework for the many banks that had closed early in 1933 to reopen with federal support.

Sputnik

The first artificial satellite to orbit the earth, launched by the USSR on October 4, 1957. The launch prompted the space race between the U.S. and USSR—Americans were jealous of Soviet technological skill and afraid that the same rockets that launched Sputnik could be used to deliver nuclear warheads anywhere on the globe.

Tehran Conference

The first major meeting between the Big Three leaders. Held from November 28 to December 1, 1943, Churchill, FDR, and Stalin planned the 1944 assault on Vichy France and agreed to divide Germany into zones of occupation after the war.

Virginia Plan

The first major proposal presented to the Constitutional Convention concerning congressional representation. The Virginia Plan proposed the creation of a bicameral legislature with representation in both houses proportional to population. The plan favored the large states, which would have a much greater voice than the small states under this plan. In opposition, the small states proposed the New Jersey Plan. The two sides eventually found common ground in the Connecticut Compromise.

Railroad strike

The first nationwide strike in the U.S. In 1877, workers on nearly every rail line from New York to San Francisco struck to protest wage cuts and firing. The riots provoked widespread violence and resulted in more than 100 deaths, prompting President Hayes to send in federal troops to subdue the angry mobs and restore order.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments of the Constitution, which guarantee the civil rights of American citizens. The Bill of Rights was drafted by anti-federalists, including James Madison, to protect individuals from the tyranny they felt the Constitution might permit.

putting-out system

The first textile production system in England, where merchants gave wool to families, who in their homes created yarn and then cloth; the merchants would then buy the cloth from the families and sell the finished product. Textile mills made this procedure more efficient.

Harlem Renaissance

The flowering of black culture in New York's Harlem neighborhood during the 1920s. Black writers and artists produced plays, poetry, and novels that often reflected the unique African American experience in America and in Northern cities in particular.

Samuel Gompers

The founding leader of the American Federation of Labor. Under Gompers, the AFL rarely went on strike, and instead took a more pragmatic approach based on negotiating for gradual concessions.

Warren Commission

The group that carefully investigated the assassination of John. F. Kennedy. After hearing much testimony, the commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the president. Even today many conspiracy theorists question the findings of this commission, claiming that Oswald was part of a larger group who wanted to assassinate the president.

Inflation

The increase of available paper money and bank credit, leading to higher prices and less-valuable currency.

Deep Throat

The informant who helped Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they delved into the Watergate scandal. Deep Throat's true identity remains a mystery to this day.

Battle of Gettysburg

The largest battle of the Civil War. Widely considered to be the war's turning point, the battle marked the Union's first major victory in the East. The three-day campaign, from July 1 to 4, 1863, resulted in an unprecedented 51,000 total casualties.

Mikhail Gorbachev

The last Soviet political leader. Gorbachev become general secretary of the Communist Party in 1985 and president of the USSR in 1988. He helped ease tension between the U.S. and the USSR—work that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. He oversaw the fall of the Soviet Union and resigned as president on December 25, 1991.

Thaddeus Stevens

The leader of the Radical Republicans in Congress. Thaddeus Stevens was a gifted orator and an outspoken legislator devoted to stringent and punitive Reconstruction. Stevens worked toward social and political equality for Southern blacks.

Charles Sumner

The leading Radical Republican senator throughout the Civil War and Reconstruction. Sumner argued ardently for civil rights for blacks. He later led the defection of the Liberal Republicans from the Republican Party.

détente

The lessening of tensions between nations. A policy of détente between the United States and the Soviet Union and Communist China began during the presidency of Richard Nixon; the architect of policy was National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger.

Knights of Labor

The major labor union of the 1880s; was not a single large union, but a federation of the unions of many industries. The Knights of Labor accepted unskilled workers; publicity against the organization was intense after the Haymarket Square riot of 1886.

National American Woman Suffrage Association

The major organization for suffrage for women, it was founded in 1890 by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Supported the Wilson administration during World War I and split with the more radical National Woman's Party, who in 1917 began to picket the White House because Wilson had not forcefully stated that women should get the vote.

Port Huron Statement

The manifesto of Students for a Democratic Society, a radical student group formed in 1960. It called for a greater role for university students in the nation's affairs, rejected the traditional role of the university, and rejected the foreign policy goals that America was embracing at the time.

nuclear proliferation

The massive buildup of nuclear weapons by the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and into the 1960s; in the United States this was fostered in the belief that the threat of "massive retaliation" was the best way to keep the Soviet Union under control. The psychological effects of the atomic bomb on the populations of the Soviet Union and the United States was also profound.

Second Industrial Revolution

The massive economic growth that took place in America from 1865 until the end of the century that was largely based on the expansion of the railroad, the introduction of electric power, and the production of steel for building. By the 1890s America had replaced Germany as the major industrial producer in the world.

Machine politics

The means by which political parties during the Industrial Revolution controlled candidates and voters through networks of loyalty and corruption. In machine politics, party bosses exploited their ability to give away jobs and benefits (patronage) in exchange for votes.

Battle of Gettysburg

The most important battle of the Civil War, this July 1863 victory by the Union forces prevented General Robert E. Lee from invading the North. Defeat at Gettysburg, along with defeat at the Battle of Vicksburg during the same month, turned the tide of war firmly in the direction of the Union forces.

Square Deal

The name Theodore Roosevelt gave to his social policies, especially his intended relationships with capital and labor. Roosevelt wanted to treat everyone fairly, and, in particular, eliminate government favors to big business.

Dust bowl

The name given to the southern Great Plains region (Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma) during the 1930s, when a severe drought and fierce winds led to violent dust storms that destroyed farmland, machinery, and houses, and led to countless injuries. Roughly 800,000 residents migrated west from the dust bowl toward California during the 1930s and 1940s.

Watergate

The name of a hotel in Washington, D.C. that has come to signify one of the greatest scandals in American history. On June 17, 1972, burglars broke into Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate hotel to wiretap the phones. It was later discovered that these burglars had been employed by Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP). In the ensuing investigation, it became clear that Nixon had known of the break-in and had participated in a cover-up attempt. Faced with near-certain impeachment, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974.

Enola Gay

The name of the American bomber that on August 6,1945, dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, thus initiating the nuclear age.

Whitewater

The name of the scandal that got President Bill Clinton impeached but not convicted. It was the name of a real-estate deal in Arkansas that Clinton and his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton were both involved in; opponents claimed the actions of the Clintons concerning it were illegal, unethical, or both. Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr expanded the investigation to include the suicide of Clinton aide Vincent Foster, missing files in the White House, and the relationship of President Clinton with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.

Minutemen

The nickname given to local militiamen who fought against the British during the Revolutionary War. "Minutemen" were supposedly able to be ready for battle at a minute's notice.

Bull Moose Party

The nickname of the Progressive Republican Party, led by Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 election. The Bull Moose Party had the best showing of any third party in the history of the United States. Its emergence dramatically weakened the Republican Party and allowed Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson to win the election with only 42 percent of the popular vote.

Alexander Hamilton

The outspoken leader of the Federalists and one of the authors of The Federalist Papers. Hamilton supported the formation of the Constitution and later, as secretary of treasury under Washington, spearheaded the government's Federalist initiatives, most notably through the creation of the Bank of the United States.

Allies

The partership of Great Britain, France, and Italy during World War I. The Allies were pitted against the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. In 1917, the U.S. joined the war on the Allies' side. During World War II, the Allies included Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the U.S., and France.

Era of Good Feelings

The period between the end of the War of 1812 and the rise of Andrew Jackson in 1828, during which the United States was governed under a one-party system that promoted nationalism and cooperation. At the center was James Monroe's presidency, as Monroe strove to avoid political conflict and strengthen American nationalism and pride.

Hundred Days

The period from March through June of 1933; the first 100 days of the New Deal presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. During this period programs were implemented to assist farmers, the banks, unemployed workers, and businessmen; in addition, prohibition was repealed.

Square Deal

The philosophy of President Theodore Roosevelt; included in this was the desire to treat both sides fairly in any dispute. In the coal miner's strike of 1902 he treated the United Mine Workers representatives and company bosses as equals; this approach continued during his efforts to regulate the railroads and other businesses during his second term.

Gospel of Wealth

The philosophy of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, who stated that wealthy industrialists had an obligation to create a "trust fund" from their profits to help their local communities. By the time of his death, Carnegie had given over 90 percent of his wealth to various foundations and philanthropic endeavors.

free trade

The philosophy that trade barriers and protective tariffs inhibit long-term economic growth; this philosophy was the basis for the 1994 ratification by the United States a of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which removed trade restrictions between the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

Final Solution

The plan of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany to eliminate Jewish civilization from Europe; by the end of the war in 1945, nearly 6 million Jews had been executed. The full extent of Germany's atrocities was not known in Europe and the United States until near the end of World War II.

Open Door Policy

The policy that China should be open to trade with all of the major powers, and that all, including the United States, should have equal right to trade there. This was the official American position toward China as announced by Secretary of State John Hay in 1899.

Bleeding Kansas

The popular name for the Kansas Territory in 1856 after abolitionist John Brown led a massacre at a pro-slavery camp, setting off waves of violence. Brown's massacre was in protest to the recent establishment of Kansas as a slave state. Pro-slavery sympathizers had crossed into Kansas in order to vote illegally in the elections set up by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, resulting in the ousting of antislavery legislators.

on the margin

The practice in the late 1920s of buying stock and only paying in cash 10 percent of the value of the stock; the buyer could easily borrow the rest from his or her stockbroker or investment banker. This system worked well as long as investors could sell their stocks at a profit and repay their loans; after the 1929 stock market crash, investors had to pay these loans back in cash.

land speculation

The practice of buying up land with the intent of selling it off in the future for a profit. Land speculation existed in the Kentucky territory in the 1780s, throughout the West after the Homestead Act, and in Florida in the 1920s, when hundreds bought Florida swampland hoping to later sell it for a profit.

speculation

The practice of purchasing either land or stocks with the intent of selling them for a higher price later. After the Homestead Act and other acts opened up the western United States for settlement, many of them purchased land with no intent of ever settling on it; their goal was to later sell the land for profit.

Checks and balances

The principles established by the Constitution to prevent any one branch of government (legislative, executive, and judicial) from gaining too much power. Checks and balances represent the solution to the problem of how to empower the central government while also protecting against corruption and despotism.

Vietnamization

The process begun by Richard Nixon of removing American troops from Vietnam and turning more of the fighting of the Vietnam war over to the South Vietnamese. Nixon continued to use intense bombing to aid the South Vietnamese efforts as more American troops were being pulled out of Vietnam; in 1973 a peace treaty was finally signed with North Vietnam, allowing American troops to leave the country and all American POWs to be released. In March 1975, North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces captured Saigon and emerged victorious in the war.

impeachment

The process of removing an elected official form office; during the Progressive Era several states adopted measures making it easier to do this. Presidents Andrew Johnson and William Jefferson Clinton were both impeached by the House of Representatives, but neither was convicted by the U.S. Senate ( the procedure outlined in the Constitution of the United States).

heavy industry

The production of steel, iron, and other materials that can be used for building purposes; great increase in heavy industry fueled the massive industrial growth that took place in the last half of the nineteenth century.

New Frontier

The program of President John Kennedy to revitalize America at home and to reenergize America for continued battles against the Soviet Union. Kennedy asked young Americans to volunteer for programs such as the Peace Corps; as he said in his inaugural speech: "Ask not what your country can do for you- ask what you can do for your country."

The Liberator

The radical abolitionist journal of William Lloyd Garrison that was first published in 1831; Garrison and his journal presented the most extreme abolitionist views during the period leading up to the Civil War.

Détente

The relaxation of tensions between the U.S. and USSR in the 1960s and 1970s. During this period, the two powers signed treaties limiting nuclear arms productions and opened up economic relations. One of the most famous advocates of this policy was President Richard Nixon's secretary of state, Henry Kissinger.

Quasi-war

The series of French and American naval conflicts occurring between 1798 and 1800.

New Nationalism

The series of progressive reforms supported by Theodore Roosevelt as he ran for president on the Progressive or Bull Moose ticket in 1912. Roosevelt said that more had to be done to regulate big business and that neither of his opponents were committed to conservation.

Mayflower

The ship that carried the Pilgrims across the Atlantic, from the Netherlands to Plymouth Plantation in 1620, after intially fleeing England.

Nagasaki

The site of the second U.S. atomic bomb attack on Japan. Nagasaki was devastated by a nuclear blast on August 9, 1945. The explosion caused 40,000 immediate deaths and 60,000 injuries.

Panic of 1819

The start of a two-year depression caused by extensive speculation, the loose lending practices of state banks, a decline in European demand for American staple goods, and mismanagement within the Second Bank of the United States. The panic of 1819 exacerbated social divisions within the United States and is often called the beginning of the end of the Era of Good Feelings.

Black Thursday

The stock market crash of October 24, 1929. After a decade of great prosperity, on "Black Thursday" the market dropped in value by an astounding 9 percent, kicking off the Great Depression.

horizontal integration

The strategy of gaining as much control over an entire single industry as possible, usually by creating trusts and holding companies. The most successful example of horizontal integration was John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil, who had at one point controlled over 92 percent of the oil production in the United States.

Historiography

The study of history and how it is written. Students of historiography would analyze various historical interpretations and the viewpoints of historians. This field is not concerned with historical events themselves as it is with how these events are interpreted.

Indentured servitude

The system by which adult males—usually English—bound themselves to labor on plantations for a fixed number of years in exchange for transport to the colonies and eventual freedom. Some immigrants came willingly, while others were manipulated and kidnapped; often, the indentured servents were never able to secure their release due to debt. The first Africans brought to the colonies were also indentured servants, but in the seventeenth century, as massive, labor-intensive tobacco plantations spread throughout the South, slavery became the preferred means of labor.

Domino theory

The theory that if any nation fell to communism, the surrounding nations would likely fall as well. Expounded by Dwight D. Eisenhower, the domino theory served to justify U.S. intervention in Vietnam.

Treaty of Paris

The treaty ending the Revolutionary War, and signed in 1783; by the terms of this treaty the United States received the land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. The British did keep their Canadian territories.

Middle Passage

The voyage across the Atlantic Ocean taken by slaves on their way to the Americas. Sickness, diseases, and death were rampant as slave ships crossed the Atlantic; on some ships, over 20 percent of slaves who began the journey were dead by the time the ship landed.

Big stick diplomacy

Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy summed up his aggressive stance toward international affairs with the phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." Under this doctrine, the U.S. declared its domination over Latin America and built the Panama Canal.

Mercantilism

Theory of trade which stresses that a nation's economic strength depends on exporting more than it imports. British mercantilism manifested itself in the triangular trade and in a series of laws, such as the Navigation Acts (1651-1673), aimed at fostering British economic dominance.

Loyalty Review Boards

These were established in 1947 in an effort to control possible communist influence in the American government. These boards were created to investigate the possibility of "security risks" working for the American government, and to determine if those "security risks" should lose their jobs. Some employees were released because of their affiliation with "unacceptable" political organizations or because of their sexual orientation.

Suffolk Resolves

These were sent from Suffolk County, Massachusetts, to the meeting of the First Continental Congress in September 1774 and called for citizens of all of the colonies to prepare to take up arms against the British. After much debate, the First Continental Congress adopted this.

Thomas Jefferson

Third president of the United States (1801-1809). Jefferson resigned as George Washington's first secretary of state in opposition to Alexander Hamilton's continued efforts to centralize power in the national government. Along with James Madison, Jefferson took up the cause of the strict constructionists and the Republican Party, advocating the limitation of federal power. He organized the national government according to Republican ideals, doubled the size of the nation through the Louisiana Purchase, and struggled to maintain American neutrality in foreign affairs.

reservationists

This group in the United States Senate was led by Henry Cabot Lodge and was opposed to sections of the Versailles Treaty when it was brought home from Paris by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Reservationists were especially concerned that if the United States joined the League of Nations, American troops would be used to conduct League of Nations military operations without the approval of the Congress.