APUSH Vocab Unit 7
The Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply (OPA)
A New Deal organization created in 1942 to control prices after WWII in order to control inflation and stabilize rents to prevent speculation, profiteering, hoarding, and price administration. They froze wages and prices and initiated a rationing program for scarce items such as gas, oil, butter, meat, sugar, coffee, and shoes in order to support the war effort and to curb inflation. It was abolished in 1947.
Securities and Exchange Comm. (SEC)
A New Deal program and Congressional commission created in 1934 that provided reparations in the stock market, requiring full financial disclosure by companies wishing to sell stock to prevent the unfair manipulation of stock exchanges and to protect people from fraud in stock investments. Established to provide a public "watchdog" against deception and fraud in stock trading, it was designed to regulate the issue of new securities and is still around to this day.
Schenk v US
A Supreme Court case that took place in 1919 when Schenck was convicted for mailing pamphlets urging potential army inductees to resist conscription. Justice Holmes and the Supreme Court declared that Congress could restrict or limit free speech if the words "are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger" to the United States public or government. It claimed that one's civil liberties could be curtailed if it posed a danger to others.
The Revenue Act of 1932
A huge tax increase, mainly on the wealthy, that raised US tax rates across the board, with the rate on top incomes rising from 25 percent to 63 percent. The estate tax was doubled and corporate taxes were raised by almost 15 percent.
Muller v. Oregon
A landmark decision in the United States Supreme Court history. In 1908, Louis D. Brandeis persuaded the Supreme Court to accept the constitutionality of laws protecting women workers. By presenting evidence of the harmful effects of factory labor on women's weaker bodies, the Supreme Court upheld Oregon state restrictions as justified by the special state interest in protecting women's health, establishing a 10-hour workday for women laundry workers on health and community concerns.
The Revenue Act of 1942
A law that raised taxes as an effort to increase tax revenues to cover the cost of WWII. It added addition graduated steps to the income tax and lowered the threshold at which lower income earners began to pay tax, raising them for the wealthiest Americans. It raised corporation taxes and required nearly all Americans to pay income taxes, and raised the top income tax rate from 60% to 90% and added middle class and lower income groups to the tax bracket to meet Roosevelt's desire to pay for as much of the expenditure on the war as possible through taxes.
Ida Tarbell
A leading Muckraker and magazine editor who wrote in the magazine McClure's in 1921. As a younger woman, in 1904, she exposed the corruption of the oil industry by publishing "The History of the Standard Oil Company," also known as the Mother of Trusts and owned by Rockefeller, which grew to be a nineteen-party series. She detailed Rockefeller's unethical tactics and sympathetically portrayed the plight of Pennsylvania's independent oil workers.
Lend-Lease Act
A legislation passed by Congress in March 1941 that gave President Franklin D Roosevelt the powers to sell, transfer, exchange, or lend equipment to any country to help it defend itself against the Axis Powers, whom they claimed as victims of aggression who would in turn finish fighting and would keep the war overseas from the US. Promising to make the US an "arsenal for democracy," this act, which provided supposedly "temporary" military aid to the Allies, appropriated $50b to Congress, which went to 38 different countries with Britain receiving over $31b. Over the next few years Britain repaid $650m of this sum that arose from the act that allowed sales or loans of war materials to any country whose defense the president deems vital to that of the US.
Dollar Diplomacy
A method of ensuring protection and peace between other countries and America by investing money in foreign outlets, allowing the US to further its foreign policy by guaranteeing loans to foreign countries in exchange for some form of financial control over the country. Used primarily by President Taft, he sought to address international problems by extending American investment overseas, believing that such activity would both benefit the US economy and promote stability around the world. This policy would improve the relationship between the US and foreign countries, as well as US trade, and it was used successfully and unsuccessfully in China, East Asia, and the Dominican Republic, among others, by Taft.
Margaret Sanger
American nurse and leader of the movement to legalize birth control during the early 1900s. She campaigned for birth control and planned parenthood, and as a nurse in the poor sections of New York City, she had a firsthand account of the suffering caused by unwanted pregnancies within the poor sectors of society. She founded the first birth control clinic in the United States and the American Birth Control League, which later became Planned Parenthood.
Ida B. Wells
An African-American journalist who was outraged by the lynching of blacks and was very passionate about it. In her newspaper, "Free Speech," she urged African Americans to protest lynchings by refusing to ride streetcars or shop in white-owned stores. She called for boycotts of segregated streetcars and certain stores, continuing to speak out despite threats to her life and family.
Henry Kaiser
An American industrialist and "miracle-man shipbuilder" who won a government contract to build "Liberty Ships", which were cargo ships used in WWII. Known for particularly fast construction of vessels, he made records when he churned out 1 ship every 14 days and became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. He established the Kaiser Shipyard after which he formed Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Steel. He had also supervised the construction of Boulder Dam and reduced the production time to less than two weeks instead of 6 months and then to one ship a day.
The Roosevelt Recession
1937-38 this crisis was due to the fact that FDR decided to pull back on government spending; as a result of this recession, he initiated an increase in spending on public works & other programs, marginally increasing employment/investment 1937 economic downturn caused by sound fiscal policy due to cut spending and higher taxes This financial crisis had impacted the economy in 1937 and 1938 due to the fact that President Roosevekt had decided to "pull back" on government spending. Reluctantly, FDR initiated an icrease in speding on public works projects and other programs, which almost magically increased investment and employment, temporary reversal of the pre-war 1933 to 1941 economic recovery, which occurred in 1937-38. It was part of the Great Depression in the United States, and had serious political results, and helped strengthen the new Conservative Coalition led by Senators Robert A. Taft and Richard B. Russell. Economic historians have not agreed on the causes, but many of the causes show that because the New Deal involved spending money from the Federal budget, President Roosevelt had to end New Deal spending, and thus programs, as a result. Depression suddenly intensifies A 1937 economic downturn caused primarily by the decrease in New Deal spending from the federal budget which cut New Deal programs as a result. This crisis suddenly intensified the Great Depression and its results helped strengthen the new Conservative Coalition led by senators Robert A Taft and Richard B Russell. This impact in the economy between the years of 1937 and 1938 caused Roosevelt to reluctantly initiate an increase in spending public works projects and other New Deal programs, which almost instantly increased investment and employment, marginally increasing these fields of employment.
Edward Hopper
A 1926 American realist painter who focused on the solitude and loneliness of American life, painting Early Sunday Morning which displayed personal cityscapes. As the most well-known realist painter in the US by the midcentury, his paintings portrayed the starkness and often the loneliness of American life and were landmarks of American realism, and he was often associated with Cold War culture. His best known piece is entitled "Nighthawks", featuring isolated customers in an all-night diner.
The Wagner Act (NLRA)
A New Deal legislation that was supported by R F Wagner and in 1935 gave workers the right to organize and bargain collectively. It created the National Labor Relations Board and established defined unjust labor practices, secured workers the right to bargain collectively, protected the rights of most workers in the private sector to organize labor unions, and allowed people to take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in support of their demands. It also allows the NLRB to supervise union elections and unfair labor practices by employers.
Atlantic Charter
A US and Great Britain agreement made in August 1941 that outlined a vision in which a world would abandon their traditional beliefs in military alliances and spheres of influence and govern their relations with one another though democratic process, with an international organization serving as the arbiter of disputes and the protector of every nation's right of self determination. They pledged not to acquire new territory as a result of WWII and to work for peace after the war, promoting democracy and intentions for improvement.
Manhattan Project
A code name for the American secret research commission established in 1942 to develop the atomic bomb. Much of the early research was done in new York City by refugee physicists in the United States, and most famously, scientists like Albert Einstein pushed ahead to discover the secret of the atomic bomb. Funded by the government of $2b, the first experimental bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the desert of New Mexico, and were later dropped on two cities in Japan in hopes of bringing the war to an end: Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Its success in Japan granted the US bombs that ended the war as well as ushered the country into the atomic era.
Zimmerman Telegram
A coded telegram dispatched by the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur Zimmermann, on January 16, 1917, to the German ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt, at the height of World War I. The telegram instructed the ambassador to approach the Mexican government with a proposal to form a military alliance against the United States, urging Mexico to join the Central Powers for helping Mexico take back the territory that the US had acquired in return. It was intercepted and decoded by the British and its contents hastened the entry of the United States into World War I against Germany, which had proven it was hostile.
Okies
A derogatory nickname given to victims of the Dust bowl, poor farmers and their families who came from the panhandled regions of Oklahoma or Texas to California in search of a "promised land," or a place for work. These people were discriminated against in California because it was believed that they took work away from the Californians as a result of the terrible droughts and dust storms.
National Recovery Administration (NRA)
A government agency directed by Hugh John in 1933 that was part of the New Deal and dealt with the industrial sector of society, designed to set up a system of codes and business practices including giving fair wages and work hours. It allowed industries to create fair competition which were intended to reduce destructive competition and to help workers by setting minimum wages and maximum weekly hours, allowing businesses and labor unions who followed such codes to advertise as such, with the symbol as a Blue Eagle in order to gain more membership. This attempt to achieve economic advance through planning and cooperation among labor business and government was limited in success and was declared unconstitutional in 1935.
The Emergency Bank Act
A government legislation and relief effort for the unemployed passed during the Depression in order to deal with the bank problem. Looking for long-term relief, it allowed for a plan which would close down insolvent banks and would reorganize and reopen banks strong enough to survive, giving the President power to regulate banking transactions and to open or close national banks, setting up a system by which banks would be reorganized or reopened.
Serviceman's Readjustment Act
A government legislation designed to solve the problem of what the 15m soldiers would do once they returned home from WWII, providing for college or vocational education for veterans (commonly known as GIs) as well as one year of unemployment compensation at government expense. It created the Veterans' Administration, allowing them to take out loans to buy homes and start businesses. Veterans also received $16b in low interest, and the federal government stimulated the postwar economic expansion.
NYE Committee
A group that concluded in 1934 that was formed to investigate whether or not munitions manufacturers and bankers were pro-war in WWI solely to make profits. They claimed that these industries had caused America's entry into WWI, and these reasons increased anti-war sentiment and pushed Congress to pass the Neutrality Acts to keep the US out of WWI. Established by Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota, they claimed that the main reason for US participation in the first World War was to serve the greed of bankers and arms manufacturers, resulting in many of the neutrality acts of the 1930s.
Influenza 1918-19
A highly contagious respiratory disease also known as the flu. In 1918-1919, a particularly severe form of influenza, known as the Spanish flu, killed millions worldwide. More US soldiers in WWI died of influenza than of war-related injuries, killing nearly 20 million people worldwide. Much of the care for the sick came from Red Cross nurses and volunteers, and in two years, nearly a fifth of the world's population was infected, including 28% of all Americans.
National Women's Party (Alice Paul)
A militant feminist group headed by Alice Paul that was founded in 1916 and fought for women's rights in the United States, particularly for the right to vote on the same terms of men. By leading women in mass pickets, parades, and hunger strikes to convince the government of the need for women's suffrage, the group's militant approach to gaining the right to vote got little support from Congress and other feminist groups. They believed that they needed a more constitutional amendment that would clearly provide legal protection of their rights and prohibit sex-based discrimination.
Sec. of Treasury Andrew Mellon
A millionaire financier who was Secretary of the Treasury under President Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, who instituted a Republican policy of reduced government spending and theorized that high taxes forced the rich to invest in tax-exempt securities rather than factories that provided prosperous payrolls. Thus, he pushed Congress to lower taxes for the wealthy and reduced the national debt by $10b, regarded as a genius of rapid economic growth during the Roaring Twenties. However, after the Great Crash, he was blamed by many for unwisely promoting wealth inequality and an unsustainable financial bubble.
Muckrakers
A nickname given to young, popular, investigative journalists who used their careers to publicly expose corruption and attack abuses of power in big businesses and the government. This name was created in 1906 by President Roosevelt, as these journalists spent a lot of money on researching and digging up "muck." It was a collective name for middle-class reformers who were trying to make the public aware of problems that needed fixing by exposing political corruption and industrial conditions in cities.
Fourteen Points
A peacemaking plan and the war aims proposed by President Wilson in 1918 to Congress, which called for peace without victory so that a fair and stable international situation in the postwar world would ensure lasting peace. Each of the points, designed to prevent future wars, included freedom of the seas, no secret treaties, free trade, arms reduction, self-determination, and a league of nations. He compromised each point at the Paris Peace Conference in 191, with the only point remaining being the 14th (League of Nations, which the Americans didn't join). The Europeans weren't happy with "peace without victory" because they wanted to punish Germany, but Americans just didn't want to be involved in another European war.
Stimson Doctrine
A policy declared in 1932 by Secretary of State Henry Stimson as a note to Japan and China that the US would not recognize any international territorial changes brought about by force, enacted after Japan's military seizure of Manchuria in 1931. It upheld the obligations under the Nine-Power Treaty of 1922 and refused to recognize the legitimacy of any regime like Manchukuo that was established by force. The League of Nations endorsed the Stimson Doctrine and issued a similar declaration.
Election of 1912
A presidential campaign involved Taft of the Republican Party, Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive Party) , Eugene V. Debs (Socialist Party), and Woodrow Wilson (Democratic Party). Wilson had a strong progressive platform called the "New Freedom" program, while the Republicans were split between Taft and Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party with its "New Nationalism" program. Through this division of the Republican Party, a Democratic victory was ensured, and Wilson won the popular vote through a landslide and crushed his opponents in the Electoral College, the second election in 72 years where a Democrat won, thrusting Republicans into a minority status in Congress for the next 6 years.
Rosie the Riveter
A propaganda character and symbol of American women who went to work in factories during the war, designed to increase production of female workers in the factories. It became a rallying symbol for women to do their part during the war, and helped American women overcome several stereotypes, showing them that women could be strong and still remain attractive and feminine, explained the importance of the war effort and the need for women to join the workforce, and conveyed the idea that this help was temporary so that men would not be threatened by thinking they would eventually lose their jobs to women.
Committee on Public Information & 4-Minute Men
A propaganda committee headed by George Creel that built support for the war effort for Americans, with the purpose being to mobilize people's minds for war, both in America and abroad. It attempted to get the entire US public support the country's involvement in WWI, depicting Germans and other enemies on bad terms and serving censor the press, helping to spur up anti-German feelings in America. The organization employed around 150k workers both at home and overseas, and proved that words were indeed weapons, dedicated to winning everyday Americans' support for the war effort, regularly distributing pro-war propaganda and sending out an army of "four minute men" to rally crowds and deliver "patriotic pep." These "4 minute men" gave pep talks in theaters and town squares around four minute longs in order to gain Americans' support.
Progressivism
A reform movement beginning in the late 1800s in response to a desire to improve life in the industrial age as well as to increase democracy in America by curbing the power of the corporation. By favoring or promoting reform, often by government action, progressivists sought to build on existing society, make moderate political changes and social improvements, share goals of limiting big business, end corruption in government and business, strengthen social justice, and to bring equal rights to women and other groups who had been left behind during the industrial revolution.
Bonus Army
A self-proclaimed group of more than 20k WWI veterans who marched on Washington in 1932 to demand early release of bonuses promised by Congress. They camped there, vowing to stay until Congress approved legislation to pay the bonus immediately, and eventually the group was joined by thousands more veterans and their families. When the proposal to authorize immediate assurance of $2.4b was voted down by Congress, a clash ensued with police that resulted in the death of two marches. President Hoover called in the police and then the Army to end the riot, and they used tear gas and tanks on the unarmed protesters, ending the Army burning the encampment and driving the veterans from Washington DC.
Smith v Allwright
A supreme court case in 1944 that ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny membership in political parties to African Americans as a way of excluding them from voting in primaries. This case destroyed the previous Jim Crow laws and "Grandfather clauses" that had been dominating the polls in the South for many years prior.
Pearl Harbor
A surprise attack made by the Japanese naval air force on December 7, 1941 on the main US Pacific Fleet harbored in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Several battleships of the US Pacific fleet were damaged or sunk, wiping out 18 ships, 200 aircraft, and killing 3000 American men, with Japanese losses being less than 100. The attack resulted in an American declaration of war the following day, with Canada also declaring war in Japan. The next day, Germany and Italy declared war on the US, and the US decided war was the only way to keep the country safe from anarchy.
Trust Busting
A type of government activity designed to break up trusts or monopolies, and making up a large part of the goal of progressives. Theodore Roosevelt is the U.S. President most associated with dissolving the trusts that had formed during the Gilded Age that were designed to make more money of the capitalists and not to help out the people. He pursed this as a way of making business more fair and competitive to the advantage of consumers, trying to regulate them to behave responsibly, and filing lawsuits against corporations with trusts and monopolies. However, Taft signed twice as much trust-busting legislation during his presidency.
National War Labor Board (NWLB)
A wartime agency created in 1918 and chaired by former president Taft that aimed to prevent labor disputes between workers and employers by encouraging high wages and an eight-hour workday. It settled any possible labor difficulties that might hamper the war efforts and, while granting some concessions to labor, stopped short of demanding labor's most important demand: a government guarantee of the right to organize into unions.
Hoovervilles
After the crash of the stock market, many people lost their jobs and homes because they could not pay their mortgages. With no choice but to seek alternative forms of shelter, shanty towns of shacks made by the homeless appeared throughout the United States. Built of cardboard, scrap metal, packing boxes and tar paper, Hoovervilles were named after President Hoover because he was blamed for the problems that led to the Depression and his attempts to fight it were failing.
Blitzkreig
Also known as "lightning war," it was a form of fast-moving warfare used by the German forces during WWII. It used tactics such as moving troops and fast-moving tanks and making quick surprise strikes with the support from airplanes, resulting in the swift German conquest of France and Poland in 1940. Poland was the first country to fall to Germany's overwhelming and rapid use of the military strategy, and resulted in Denmark and Norway's surrender after only a few days and France in only a week.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
An early New Deal agency and relief, recovery, and reform effort that worked to solve the problems of unemployment by giving 2.5 million poor citizens jobs and land. This federal business to compete with private enterprises brought cheap electric power, low-cost housing, cheap nitrates, the restoration of eroded soil, a hydroelectric network that supplied cheap power while also developing a flood-control system, recreational facilities, a soil conservation program, dams for flood control, and other projects to combat erosion and deforestation.
Triangle Shirt Waist Fire
An industrial disaster in New York City taking place on March 25, 1911 in the Asch Building that caused the death of 146 garment workers who either died from fire or jumped to their deaths. It was the worst workplace disaster in New York City until September 11, 2001. This disastrous industrial fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and spurred the workmen's compensation laws and some state regulation of wages and hours in New York. It also led to the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, who fought for safer and better working conditions for sweatshop workers.
Luisa Moreno
As a source of inspiration for Nieto Gomez, she was a labor rights activist for CIO in the 1930s and fought for Mexican civil rights. By the early 1930s Moreno found work as a sewing machine operator in Spanish Harlem. She quickly became aware of the poor conditions for workers and she founded a Latina garment workers union. This brought her to the attention of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), who hired her to help organize, but she soon moved on to their more progressive rival, the CIO the Congress of Industrial Organizations. On behalf of the CIO, she formed the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA). In 1939 she pulled together the first Latino civil rights assembly (El Congreso de Pueblos que Hablan Español).
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)
As an attempt at trickle-down economics, this agency became a government lending bank established under the Hoover administration in which Congress made loans in order to assist insurance companies, banks, agricultural organizations, railroads, and local governments. It was a precursor to later agencies that grew out of the New Deal and symbolized a recognition by the Republicans that some federal action was required to address the Great Depression.
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
As part of the New Deal, the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act placed restrictions on farm production and paid government subsidies to growers of staple crops, essentially paying farmers not to plant part of their land and to kill off excess livestock. They also started educational programs to teach methods of preventing soil erosion and provided for price support to be mandatory on corn, cotton, and wheat, and regulated supply and market demand. Money for these payments were raised by a processing tax on middlemen, with the main purpose to raise farm prices and reduce crop surplus so as to effectively raise the value of crops, but it proved counterproductive for tenant farmers and sharecroppers.
President Coolidge
As the President who took office after Harding's death, he was a taciturn and pro-business president who tried to clean up Harding's scandals by returning honesty to government. He continued the laissez-fair policies of Harding and accelerated the tax-cutting and anti regulation policies of his predecessor, wanted to keep tariffs in palace, and brought short-term prosperity from 1923 to 1929.
Red Scare Palmer Raids
Attempts by the United States Department of Justice coordinated in 1920 by Attorney General Mitchell Palmer to arrest and deport radical leftists, especially anarchists, from the United States, raiding the homes of suspected radicals and the headquarters of radical organizations in 32 cities. These raids and arrests occurred in November 1919 and January 1920 and led to the deportation of more than 500 foreign citizens, including a number of prominent leftist leaders. However, Palmer's efforts were largely frustrated by officials at the US Department of Labor who was responsible for deportations and objected to Palmer's methods. These raids occurred during the Red Scare, a term given to the widespread fear of and reaction against political radicals, communists, socialists, anarchists, and other dissidents in the US in the years immediately following World War I and a series of anarchist bombings after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.
President Woodrow Wilson (Pre-WWI)
Born in Virginia and raised in a very religious family, he was widely known for his political sermons and was an aggressive leader who believed that Congress could not function properly without good leadership provided by the president. He was the Democratic representative in the presidential elections of 1912 and 1916, holding a progressive program known as "New Freedom" and a foreign policy program known as Moral Diplomacy. He was elected into the presidency as a minority president.
Bolsheviks & US Intervention
Communists in Russia forming a Radical Marxist political party created by Vladimir Lenin in 1903. Under Lenin's leadership, they seized power in November 1917 during the Russian Revolution. From 1904-1905, Japan and Russia battled for control of southern Manchuria, and Roosevelt persuaded Russia to accept Japan's territorial gains, and with a secret Japanese and US treaty, US trade and access to the region was ensured, allowing Roosevelt to win a Nobel Peace Prize in 1906.
Black Tuesday
Considered to be the immediate cause of the Great Depression, it was the day (10/29/29) that the New York Stock Exchange crashed, resulting from inflated stock prices and the ability for citizens to purchase stock on credit. The inflation caused the stocks' worth to plummet, resulting to a frenzy on Wall Street in which millions of panicked investors were willing to sell their shares for pennies on the dollars or were simply owning worthless certificates. Plunging over $10m, stock prices rapidly collapsed and within a month stocks had lost half their September value and continued to decline for several years. It marked the beginning of the Great Depression, a period of economic hardship in the US lasting from 1929 to 1939.
Treaty of Versailles & why we don't join
Controversial peace agreement that compromised many of Wilson's Fourteen Points but retained his league, created to solve problems made by World War I, with Germany forced to accept. It was composed of only four of the original points made by Woodrow Wilson, punishing Germany and doing nothing to prevent the threat of future wars, maintaining the pre-war power structure. Every nation that had fought with the Allies was represented, and Germany was disarmed and stripped of its colonies in Asia and Africa, forced to admit guilt for the war, and pay a huge sum of money in reparations. Signers of the treaty would join an international peacekeeping organization, the League of Nations. However, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, headed by Senator Henry Cabot Loge, wanted to amend the treaty ("Americanize, Republicanize, Senatorialize it" and used delay tactics to develop opposition to Wilson's treaty and the League.
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
Created in 1933, this unemployment relief act hired young men for reforestation programs, firefighting, flood control, and spawn drainage, sending 250k young men to work camps to perform reforestation and conservation tasks and employing about 3m men to work on projects that benefited the public, planting trees to reforest areas, building levees for flood control and by improving national parks. This was the most pop form of legislation, and allowed men to keep 25% of money with the rest being sent back to their family. It removed surplus of workers from cities, provided healthy conditions for boys, and provided money for poor families.
Revolutions in Mexico & U.S. involvement Madera, Huerta, and Carranza
Diaz was the original dictator of Mexico who, in 1913, was overthrown and murdered by radicals such as Madera. In the same year, Madera was murdered by conservative-backed General Huerta who took control of the government on his own, and although the US had many economic interests in Mexico, Wilson refused to recognize Huerta. Huerta's rise to power led to a widespread migration by Mexicans across the border and angered the United States, especially Wilson, who saw him as dictator. Carranza led a revolutionary movement against Huerta with the support from the US and was formally recognized as the de facto leader of Mexico. He later pressed on his own war against bandits. The Mexican Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist and agrarianism movements.
The War Production Board (WPB)
Established in 1942 during WWII by the executive order of Franklin D Roosevelt, it allocated scarce materials, limited or stopped the production of civilian goods, and distributed contracts among competing manufacturers. American factories up to this time had produced an enormous amount of weaponry, and the WPB halted the manufacture of nonessential items such as passenger cars and assigned priorities for transportation and access to raw materials, taking America out of the Great Depression. It rationed things such as gasoline, heating oil, metals, rubber, and plastics, and dissolved shortly after the defeat of Japan in 1945.
War Industries Board
Established in July 1917 and headed by Bernard Bruch, this federal agency controlled industrial production, raw materials, prices, and labor relations during World War I. It set production quotas and pushed companies to increase efficiency and eliminated waste, intended to restore economic order and to make sure the United States was producing enough materials at home and abroad. This group never had more than feeble formal powers and was disbanded a few days after the armistice, but under the economic mobilization of this board, industrial production in the United States increased 20 percent during the war.
Standard Oil and Rockefeller
Founded by John D Rockefeller, the company was formed in 1870 and came to symbolize the trusts and monopolies of the Gilded age as it was the largest unit in the American oil industry in 1881. By 1877 it controlled 95% percent of oil refineries in the US and was one of the first multinational corporations, distributing more than half of the company's kerosene production outside the US. Known as the AD Trust, in 1899, it had become a target for trust-busting reformers, and in 1911 the Supreme Court ordered it to break up into several smaller companies, and eventually it was replaced by the Standard Oil Company of New jersey.
Roosevelt's Four Freedoms
Goals famously articulated by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the State of the Union Address he delivered to the 77th United States Congress on January 6, 1941. In an address also known as the Four Freedoms speech, Roosevelt proposed four points as fundamental freedoms humans "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy: speech and expression, religion, want, fear. Want and fear were new ideas which excited Americans by going beyond the Constitutional values. In this address FDR called on Americans to support those who were fighting in WWII, using "Freedom from fear and want" from the Atlantic Charter.
Woodrow Wilson (make this one big) WWI
In 1916, Wilson ran for re-election on a platform of peace, progressivism, and preparedness. Barely defeating Republican Charles Evans Hughes, he was able to re-enter office, and worked to increase government regulation of the economy due to World War I. Although much of the country was originally against entering the war, Wilson was able to persuade the American people to joining World War I by pledging to make it "a war to end all wars" and by promising to make the world safe for democracy. He viewed America's entry into World War I as an opportunity for the United States to shape a new international order based on democratic ideals. The war aims outlined by Wilson in 1918 were based on the belief that they would promote lasting peace. His 14 Points post-war plan called for self-determination, freedom of the seas, free trade, an end to secret agreements, reduction of arms, and a League of Nations, which America never joined. After the end of the war, regulatory measures were subdued, and he also increased cooperation between public and private sectors of society.
Lumberton Oaks
In late summer and fall 1944 at the Lumberton Oaks conference in Washington DC, and again in 1945 in San Francisco, the allies worked to shape the UN as a world organization that would alibi ate disputes among members as well as impede aggressors, by military force if necessary
Huey Long & Share Our Wealth
Known as "The Kingfish," he was a politician and Senator from Louisiana who was Roosevelt's biggest threat. As a left-wing critic of the New Deal, he increased the share of state taxes paid by corporations and also embarked on public works projects including new schools, highways, bridges, and hospitals, advocating a "Share Our Wealth" program to transfer wealth from the rich to the poor, planning to give $5k to all families. He criticized the New Deal, believing it not radical enough and doing too little to help the poor. His program was unsuccessful, and was later assassinated in 1935.
President Taft
Known as "peaceful Bill," he graduated Yale and was eventually the 27th president of the U.S. as a successor of Roosevelt. He supported conservatism rather than progressivism and angered progressives by moving cautiously toward reforms, drawing back some of Roosevelt's policies, firing some of Roosevelt's workers, and by supporting the Payne-Aldrich Tariff, yet he was more of a trustbuster than Roosevelt. These acts were seen as a public assault against Roosevelt, and after he passed the 16th amendment, he lost Roosevelt's supported and was defeated for a second term.
Schecter vs United States & SC fight
Known as the "sick chicken case," it took place in May 1935 when a New York company was charged with a violation of an NRA (National Recovery Act) poultry code. In this case, the Court struck down on the National Recovery Act and declared it unconstitutional on three counts: the act delegated legislative power to the executive, that there was a lack of constitutional authority for such legislation, and that it sought to regulate the businesses that were wholly intrastate in character. The Court declared that the NRA gave the executive branch regulatory powers that belonged exclusively to Congress, trying to regulate interstate commerce which was a violation of federal regulation.
Korematsu v U.S.
Korematsu had been arrested by the FBI for failing to report for relocation and was convicted in federal court in September 1942. The Supreme Court, in a divided decision, upheld Korematsu's confection in late 1944, with the majority opinion, written by Justice Hugo black, upholding the government's right to relocate citizens in the face of wartime emergency, declaring the constitutionality of the Japanese relocation camps. The Court ruled that an entire race could be labeled as a "suspect classification," allowing the government to deny the Japanese their constitutional rights due to military considerations.
Espionage (1917) and Sedition (1918) Acts
Law that prohibited interference with the draft and other acts of national "disloyalty" and providing for the imprisonment of up to 20 years for persons who either tried to incite rebellion in the armed forces or obstruct the operations of the draft. Anyone found guilty of aiding the enemy, obstructing recruitment of soldiers, encouraging disloyalty, or refusing military duty during World War I. It allowed the postmaster general to remove from the mail any materials that incited treason or insurrection. The Sedition Acts were added to the Espionage act and deemed "disloyal,profane, scurrilous, for abusive language" about the American government, the Constitution, the flag, or the armed forces as criminal as worthy of prosecution. It made it a crime to criticize the government or officials, and opponents claimed it violated citizens' rights to freedom of speech and the press.
Wendell Willkie
Leading the opposition of ututlities companies to competition from the federally funded Tennessee Valley authority, his criticism of President Franklin D Roosevelt's domestic policy led to his dark-horse victory at the 1940 Republican party presidential convention, After a vigorous campaign in which the Republicans gained much support in his quest for presidency, he won only 10 states but received over 22m votes, the largest number received by a Republican at that time. In the end, FDR was re-elected because the people believed that he would be a better wartime leader.
V-E & V-J Days
May 8, 1945, when the German government surrendered unconditionally and known as Victory in Europe Day. Victory over Japan Day is the day on which the Empire of Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect completely ending the war.
Indian Reorganization Act 1934
Nicknamed the "Indian New Deal," this 1934 Act (also known as the Wheeler-Howard Act) partially reserved the individualistic approach and belatedly tried to restore the tribal basis of Indian life, securing certain rights to Native Americans, including a reversal of the Dawes-Severalty Act's privatization of common holdings of American Indians and a return to local self-government on a tribal basis. It provided the Indians direct ownership of their land, credit, a constitution, and a charter in which Indians could manage their own affairs. It willingly shrank the authority of the US government and included provisions intended to create a sound economic foundation for the inhabitants of Indian reservations.
Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930
Passed by Congress in 1930, it was the highest protective level tariff in US history. President Hoover desired a limited upward revision of tariff rates with general increases on farm products and industries, but a congressional joint committee arrived at new high rates by adopting the increased rates of the Senate on farm products and those of the House on manufactures. It raised tariffs on many imported goods, and despite wide protests, was signed by President Hoover. It brought retaliatory tariff acts from foreign countries and US foreign trade suffered a sharp decline, dragging the country deeper into depression. It may have contributed to the spread of an international economic depression.
Federal Deposit Insurance Co. (FDIC)
Passed during the first Hundred Days of FDR's administration, it was an independent federal agency created by the Glass-Steagall Reform Act. It provided insurance to personal banking accounts up to $4,00 assuring people that their money was safe and secure and helping to put faith and confidence back into the banks. This agency still functions today and now insures up to $100000 in bank deposits.
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
Passed in 1914, it lengthened the Sherman Anti-Trust Act's list of anti-trust practices and exempted labor unions and agricultural organizations from anti-monopoly constraints and from being called trusts. It legalized strikes and peaceful picketing by labor union members and forbade price discrimination (charging different customers different prices), "typing" agreements that limited the rights of dealers to handle the products of competing manufacturers, interlocking directorates , and corporations' acquisition of stock in competing ones. It ultimately helped cut down on monopolies.
Oxford Pledge
Popular in Ivy League and Big state schools, it was distributed among colleges to undergraduates and graduates. It declared that if a person signs, he would not fight anywhere at any time, under any circumstances. On 12 April 1935, 60,000 college students signed the Oxford Oath, swearing never to take up arms on behalf of king or country. At Columbia University, 3,000 students took the Oath that day during a rally featuring Roger Baldwin, Reinhold Niebuhr and James Wechsler as speakers.
President Hoover
Republican candidate who assumed the presidency in March 1929 as the 31st president of the United Sates. Originally a professional mining engineer and author, he became the US Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. He promoted partnerships between the government and business under the rubric "economic modernization." During the election of 1928, he easily won the Republican nomination despite having no previous office experience, but promising the American people prosperity, as the country was prosperous and optimistic at the time and leading to a landslide victory over Democrat Al Smith. He tried to combat the ensuing Great Depression with volunteer efforts and by trying to restore public faith in the community, but was unable to prevent the Depression and failed to produce economic recovery and the elimination of poverty.
Sherman Act
Signed into law by Harrison and used extensively by Theodore Roosevelt for trust-busting, this was the first federal action against monopolies and banned any formations that would restrict trade, not distinguishing between bad and good trusts. Although it was initially misused against labor unions, it limited monopolies in the states and worked to create a fairer competition in the workforce and to limit any takeovers of the departments of merchandise, showing that the government was slowly moving away from laissez-faire ideals.
Japanese Internment Camps
Similar to the Red Scare in WWI, many Americans feared Japanese Americans were a threat to American safety. Carried out through Executive Order 9066, which took many Japanese families away from their homes and into internment camps, 110,000 Japanese-Americans were forced into these camps because the US feared that they might act as saboteurs for Japan in case of invasion. The camps deprived the Japanese-Americans of basic rights, and the internees lost hundreds of millions of dollars in property. In the Supreme Court ruling in Korematsu v. U.S. (1944), the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the concentration camps. This suspicion due to Pearl Harbor was motivated largely by racism and fear of spies, forcing the Japanese to dispose of their property and sell their land and shops.
Works Progress Administration
Started in 1935 under Hoover and continued under Roosevelt under Harry L Hopkins, it was an agency created by Congress that provided jobs and income to the unemployed by building public buildings, roads, and projects including hiring artists to write or paint. This New Deal agency spent $11m to employ 9m men, and provided relief to the unemployed in fields such as theater, literature, entertainment, and art. It was one of the largest "alphabet agencies" of the time.
Pachuco Gangs
Street gangs that were composed of Mexican American teenagers, particularly distinctive because of their style of dress, zoot suits, which many whites considered outrageous. These hispanic teenagers in L.A. wore broad-brimmed felt hats, pegged trousers, and clunky shoes, while blacks and some working-class white teenagers wore them as a symbol of animation and self-assertion. Adults and most whites, however, considered the zoot suit style of dress to symbolize wartime juvenile delinquency.
The Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU)
Supported by the Socialist Party of America and organized by young socialist H L Mitchell, it attempted to create a biracial coalition of sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and other people to demand economic reform and to lobby the government in 1934 to halt tenant evictions and to force landowners to share payments with tenants. It never made much progress toward establishing socialism as a major force in American politics.
Major Political Reforms (3)
The "Square Deal" was President Theodore Roosevelt's plan for reform during his presidency, based on his belief in which all Americans are entitled to an equal opportunity to succeed. It revolved around the three Cs: control of the corporations, consumer protections, and the conservation of the United States' natural resources. He focused on busting trusts, government regulation of big business, fair chance for labor, and environmental conservation.
League of Nations
The 14th point of Wilson's postwar peace plan proposed in 1919. Wilson envisioned it as an Assembly with seats for all nations and a special council for the great powers. Although Wilson fought tooth-and-nail for its passage, the US voted not to join the League because, if they did, it would have taken away the US's self-determination, and it removed Congress' ability to decide whether or not to go to war. It was the precursor to the United Nations, a proposed union of world powers.
President T Roosevelt
The 26th president of the United States who, as Vice-President, was only 42 years old in September 1901 when William McKinley was assassinated, thus making him the youngest man ever to assume the presidency. He never openly rebelled against the leaders of his party and became a champion of cautious, moderate change. He believed that reform was a vehicle less for remaking society than for protecting it against more radical challenges. He is widely known for conservationism, trust-busting, initiating the Hepburn Act, regulating the food industry, the Square Deal, assuming the Panama Canal, creating the Great White Fleet, and winning the Nobel Peace Prize for the negotiation of peace during the Russo-Japanese War.
President Harding
The 29th President of the United States from Ohio who was elected partially to be a figurehead president that the Republican party believed they could manipulate. He called for a return to normalcy following WWI and tried not to make any enemies during his prescient, using laissez-faire economic policies and wanting to remove the progressive ideals that were established by Wilson. While in his office, scandals riddled his presidency (such as the Ohio Gang in which he offered his friends financial jobs), and it was very corrupt as he used the office for personal gain. He didn't follow through with enforcing laws and accepted bribes, and eventually he died in office, leading to Coolidge taking over.
Lusitania
The Lusitania was a British passenger ship that was sunk by a German U-Boat on May 7, 1915. 128 Americans died. The unrestricted submarine warfare caused Wilson to issue a stern warning to the Germans telling them not to attack unarmed vessels without warning, and creating a diplomatic crisis and outrage over the loss of the Americans. Germany agreed to pay reparations, and it was only two years later that the U.S. decided to enter World War I against the Germans.
Neutrality Acts of 1930s and Isolationism
The Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937 declared that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war certain restrictions would automatically go into effect. It prohibited all Americans from legally sailing on an armed belligerent ship, selling or transporting munitions to a belligerent nation, or making loans to a belligerent. Passed to prevent American involvement in future overseas wars, these acts upheld the traditional belief of isolationism in which the US should refrain from involvement in overseas politics, alliances, or wars, and should confine its national security interest to its own borders, displaying the forming sentiment that America was not willing to go to war and desired to remain neutral and isolationist. It preserved the idea that the US should not enter into firm commitments to preserve the security of other nations.
Amendments 16 through 19
The Sixteenth Amendment (1913) legalized a federal income tax: Congress has the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes. The Seventeenth Amendment (1913) allowed for the direct election of senators, establishing the rule in which the people will directly elect US Senators with 6 year terms, with each state composed of 2 senators. The Eighteenth Amendment (1919), also known as the Volstead/Prohibition Act abolished alcohol within the United States, to regulate the manufacture, sale, and transport of liquor, and to ensure an ample supply of alcohol for scientific research. The Nineteenth Amendment (1920) gave women the right to vote and voting protections.
Pacific + European Theaters
The South West Pacific was one of two theatres of World War II in the Pacific region, between 1942 and 1945. The South West Pacific theatre included the Philippines, the Netherlands East Indies (excluding Sumatra), Borneo, Australia, the Australian Territory of New Guinea (including the Bismarck Archipelago), the western part of the Solomon Islands and some neighbouring territories. The theatre takes its name from the major Allied command, which was known simply as the "South West Pacific Area". The European Theater was an area of heavy fighting across Europe and North Africa during World War II Allied forces fought the Axis powers in three theatres: the Eastern Front, the Western Front and the Mediterranean Theatre.
Rationing
The act of taking items that are in short supply and distributing them according to a system, and limiting the consumption of goods as a common practice during wartime.. For instance, during World War II, gas, sugar, and butter were a few of the items rationed in the United States. Sugar, tire, metal and gas rationing. Americans at home were reminded to conserve materials in all aspects of life to support the military and in order to prevent inflation, resulting in an economic boom after the war.
Scottsboro Case
The case of the Scottsboro Boys arose in Scottsboro, Alabama, during the 1930s when nine young black men were accused of raping two white women in a railway boxcar (one of whom would later recant). Although there was overwhelming evidence that the women had not been raped at al, the all-white jury in Alabama quickly convicted all nine of the Scottsboro Boys and sentenced eight of them to death. Quick trials, suppressed evidence, and inadequate legal council made them symbols of the discrimination that blacks faced during this era.
Abrams v US
The defendants were Russian immigrants and self-proclaimed "anarchists" who were convicted of writing and distributing anti-war leaflets and propaganda advocating strikes advocating for strikes and a cease in production of weapons/ammo that would be used to fight the Russians, taken to jail because their speech was not protected by the US Constitution. These convictions were upheld by the Sedition Acts, the "clear and present danger" test, a doctrine adopted by the Supreme Court to determine what circumstances limits could be placed on the First Amendment. The defendants were convicted because the Supreme Court claimed "men must be held to have intended and to be accountable for the effects which their acts are likely to produce." Thus, the Supreme Court endorsed the severe wartime restriction on free speech.
The Great Crash
The economic crisis and period of low business activity in the U.S. and other countries, roughly beginning with the stock-market crash in October, 1929, and continuing through most of the 1930s. Various causes of this crash before the Great Depression included the ability of consumers to buy stocks with credit, uninformed investors without knowledge of where they were putting their money, speculators and fraud, in which speculators bought or resold stock involving fraud, banks investing in the stock market with customer deposits, and sick industries such as steel, construction, farming, and automotive which were declining.
1932 Election
The election that took place as the effects of the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression were intensely felt around the country. It was a lopsided but bitter campaign that saw disadvantaged economic groups lined up in a type of "class warfare" against the wealthy. Due to his freshness and energy, as well as his active role in the beginning of the Depression, Roosevelt, who pushed his ambiguous New Deal, which promised relief for the unemployed, farmers, and a balanced budget, had an easy and landslide victory over Hoover. Hoover's popularity was diminishing as voters felt that he was unable to reverse the economic collapse or to deal with prohibition. 11m people were unemployed at the time of the election, and the shift in black voters tremendously influenced its outcome.
Potsdam Conference
The final wartime conference held at Potsdam, Germany that was attended by Truman, Attlee, and Stalin in July 1945. It agreed on the establishment of the Oder-Neisse line as the border of areas administrated by government of Poland, the expulsion of the German populations remaining beyond the borders of Germany, war reparations, reversion of all German annexations in Europe after 1937, statement of aims and means of the occupation of Germany, and the prosecution of Nazi war criminals. In addition, the Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration which outlined the terms of surrender for Japan. Truman, Churchill, and Stalin discussed the future of Europe but their failure to reach meaningful agreements soon led to the onset of the Cold War.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)
The first New Deal Program direct-relief operation similar to unemployment-relief efforts of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation set up by Herbert Hoover and the US Congress in 1932 as a relief effort for the unemployed with immediate relief goals rather than long-term alleviation, headed by Henry L Hopkins. Established as a result of the Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933, it was one of the New Deal's most comprehensive measures that combined cash relief to needy families with work relief, appropriating $500m to support state and local treasuries that had run.
The Social Security Act
The greatest victory for New Dealers, this 1935 Act created a federal insurance program based on the automatic collection of taxes from employees and employers throughout people's working careers. It established a system of old-age, unemployment, and survivor's insurance funded by wage and payroll taxes. Money collected would allow workers to receive it in a monthly pension when they reached the age of 65, also including the unemployed, disabled, and mothers with dependent children. It did not include health insurance and didn't originally cover many groups and individuals, especially the poor and minorities. It set up a federal-state system of unemployment insurance and care for dependent mothers, the handicapped, and public health.
Robert LaFollette
The progressive governor and later senator of Wisconsin who attacked machine politics and pressured the state legislature to require each political party to hold a direct primary. Nicknamed "Fighting Bob" and "Mr Progressive!", he developed the "Wisconsin Idea" as a model for state progressive government, using the "brain trust," a panel of experts, to help create an effective and efficient government. The Idea was created by the state's progressives to do away with monopolies, trusts, high costs of living, and predatory wealth, with one of its major aspects being in labor and worker's rights. As a leader of the national Progressive Movement, in 1924 he ran for president on the Progressive ticket after being denied the Republican nomination in favor of T Roosevelt.
The Dust Bowl
The term given to the Great Plains Regions which stretched north from Texas to the Dakotas and included parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico where a severe drought had hit, killing all of the crops in the region. The topsoil turned into a fine, powdery dust that created blinding dust storms paired with high winds, blowing away crops and farms and blowing dust all the way to New York. The drought continued for a decade, turning what had once been fertile farm regions into virtual deserts, and it ruined farms and left many farmers without crops and money.
The Good Neighbor Policy
The withdrawal of American troops from foreign nations (especially Latin America) to improve inert national relations and unite the western hemisphere as a result of President Hoover and Roosevelt's administrations new approach to relations with other surrounding nations. This less interventionist policy renounced any nation's right to intervene in the affairs of another and withdrew American troops by Latin America, promoting better relations by economic influence rather than military force in the region. It recognized the significance in US friendship with Latin countries for security purposes and created a better relation between the US and Latin America.
Selective Service Act
This act, passed in 1917, authorized President Woodrow Wilson to raise an infantry force from the general population of no more than four divisions, also creating the Selective Service System. This act provided and required all men between the ages of 21 and 30 to register for a military draft. Each man received a number, and draftees were chosen in a lottery system. In contrast to the Union's conscription during the Civil War, there was no way for men to "opt out" of this system. By the end of WWI, 24.2 million men had registered, and 2.8 million had been inducted into the army. The age limit was later changed from 18 to 45. It was passed to change the American opinion on neutrality.
Federal Reserve Bank
This act, put into effect in 1913, created a central banking system consisting of twelve regional banks governed by the Federal Reserve Board, each district with a federal reserve bank. These banks would lend money at discount rates and could increase/decrease amount of money in circulation by loosening or tightening credit with the nation's needs. As an attempt to provide the US with a sound yet flexible currency, it was the first central banking system since 1836 and created a federal reserve board which still plays a vital role in the American economy today. split the US into 12 districts each with a federal reserve bank Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created 12 district banks that would lend $ at discount rates (could increase/decrease amt. of $ in circulation); loosen/tighten credit with nation's needs; first central banking system since 1836 reformed banking system and created the federal reserve board which oversaw a nationwide system of 12 regional reserve districts each with its own central bank and had the power to issue paper money Federal Reserve Act (1913) This act created a central banking system, consisting of twelve regional banks governed by the Federal Reserve Board. It was an attempt to provide the United States with a sound yet flexible currency. The Board it created still plays a vital role in the American economy today.
War Bonds
Voluntary donations or short-term loans that individual citizens made to the government government to help pay for WWII. Buying these appealed to Americans' conscience and patriotism. They controlled inflation, and increased civilian involvement and commitment to war by financing two-thirds of its cost, raising about $21b.
Eleanor Roosevelt as 1st Lady
[FULL NAME REQUIRED] FDR's Wife and New Deal supporter. Was a great supporter of civil rights and opposed the Jim Crow laws. She also worked for birth control and better conditions for working women Wife of FDR; one of the most active First Ladies, she supported the impoverished and oppressed and commanded enormous popularity and influence during FDR's presidency. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was considered by many to be one of the most politically and socially involved first ladies of all time. Besides being wife to the president, Eleanor was an international diplomat, author, columnist, public speaker, and philanthropist. Although she did much good socially, including work with the Red Cross after World War I and touring French battlefields after an armistice, she was not recognized as a major activist and do-gooder until F.D.R. contracted polio in 1921. This was a major turning point in Eleanor's life; she nursed Franklin back into activity and became more publicly known in her own right. She became an integral part of the League of Women Voters, the National Consumers League, the Women's Trade Union League, and the women's division of New York State Democratic Committee. Aside from women, Eleanor fought for, and worked with, young people and the underprivileged. Equal rights for minorities were also a focus in her political career. In 1945 she became a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. In 1946, Eleanor was elected chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Commission and helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Several years later, after she and her husband were out of the White house, president John F. Kennedy appointed her the head of the Commission on the Status of Women. Along with being a wife, mother, social activist, and political leader, Eleanor Roosevelt was a published author and columnist. She wrote a daily column in a newspaper and many articles for magazines, as well as several books. These include This is My Story (1937), This I Remember (1950), On My Own (1958), and Tomorrow is Now (1963 - published after her death).
