KP 7A ID's 296-359

296. The Influence of Sea Power on History

American naval officer and historian who was a highly influential exponent of sea power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1890 Mahan published his college lectures as The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783. In this book he argued for the paramount importance of sea power in national historical supremacy. The book, which came at a time of great technological improvement in warships, won immediate recognition abroad. In his second book, The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793-1812 (1892), Mahan stressed the interdependence of the military and commercial control of the sea and asserted that the control of seaborne commerce can determine the outcome of wars.

336. Red Scare

As the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States intensified in the late 1940s and early 1950s, hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the U.S. became known as the Red Scare. (Communists were often referred to as "Reds" for their allegiance to the red Soviet flag.) The Red Scare led to a range of actions that had a profound and enduring effect on U.S. government and society. Federal employees were analyzed to determine whether they were sufficiently loyal to the government, and the House Un-American Activities Committee, as well as U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, investigated allegations of subversive elements in the government and the Hollywood film industry. The climate of fear and repression linked to the Red Scare finally began to ease by the late 1950s.

303. Teller Amendment

In April 1898 Senator Henry M. Teller (Colorado) proposed an amendment to the U.S. declaration of war against Spain which proclaimed that the United States would not establish permanent control over Cuba. It stated that the United States "hereby disclaims any disposition of intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island except for pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people." The Senate passed the amendment on April 19. True to the letter of the Teller Amendment, after Spanish troops left the island in 1898, the United States occupied Cuba until 1902.

305. Jingoism

It is an extreme patriotism, especially in the form of aggressive or warlike foreign policy. It is fanatical, over-the-top patriotism. If you refuse to eat, read, wear, or discuss anything that wasn't made in your own country, people might accuse you of jingoism.

314. Moral Diplomacy

Moral diplomacy was President Woodrow Wilson's attempt to bolster the international affairs with the Latin-American nations by lending a helping hand to nations with democratic government. It replaced William Howard Taft's dollar diplomacy, which stressed on the importance of economic support to improve bilateral ties between two nations. Unlike Taft's policy, which was based on economic support, Wilson's policy was based on economic power.

339. Ku Klux Klan (1920s)

Spreading far beyond its roots in the Reconstruction South, the resurgent Klan of the 1920s was a short-lived but potent phenomenon. By equating white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism with "true Americanism," it fueled intolerance for blacks, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants. In the guise of protecting community morals, it expanded its victims of vigilante justice to those it deemed lawbreakers, bootleggers, unfaithful spouses, corrupt politicians, etc.—all with no judge or jury beyond the local secret "klavern." Whippings, tar-and-featherings, threats of violence, and for black victims, lynching, became common practice in some regions of the South, Southwest, and Midwest.

311. Roosevelt Corollary

Convinced that all of Latin America was vulnerable to European attack, President Roosevelt dusted off the Monroe Doctrine and added his own corollary. While the Monroe Doctrine blocked further expansion of Europe in the Western Hemisphere, the Roosevelt Corollary went one step further. Should any Latin American nation engage in "CHRONIC WRONGDOING," a phrase that included large debts or civil unrest, the United States military would intervene. Europe was to remain across the Atlantic, while America would police the Western Hemisphere.

310. Big Stick Policy

In American history, this policy popularized and named by Theodore Roosevelt that asserted U.S. domination when such dominance was considered the moral imperative. "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." This phrase was also used later by Roosevelt to explain his relations with domestic political leaders and his approach to such issues as the regulation of monopolies and the demands of trade unions. The phrase came to be automatically associated with Roosevelt and was frequently used by the press, especially in cartoons, to refer particularly to his foreign policy; in Latin America and the Caribbean, he enacted the Big Stick policy (in foreign policy, also known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine) to police the small debtor nations that had unstable governments.

371. Fireside chats

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in early 1933, would become the only president in American history to be elected to four consecutive terms. He would lead his nation through two of the greatest crises in its history—the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II (1939-45)—and would exponentially expand the role of the federal government through his New Deal reform program and its legacy. From March 1933 to June 1944, Roosevelt addressed the American people in some 30 speeches broadcast via radio, speaking on a variety of topics from banking to unemployment to fighting fascism in Europe. Millions of people found comfort and renewed confidence in these speeches, which became known as the "fireside chats."

321. Allies and Central Powers

The Central Powers were Germany, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. These nations banded together, mostly out of national pride, and for revenge for previous losses (i.e the Bulgarians to the Serbs in 1913). These alliances were sloppy: some of the nations were not aligned with others at all times, or declarations of war were not made against all the Allied Powers. The Powers known as the Allies in World War I were predominantly: Great Britain, France, Russia and Italy. Italy initially had a treaty with Germany, but recanted and secretly allied with the Allied Powers. The United States joined the Allied Powers in 1917 after the country could no longer stay neutral, as Woodrow Wilson had planned in the Proclamation of Neutrality and other reasons involving kinship and propaganda. The Allies were ultimately comprised of 25 nations.

370. Emergency Banking Relief Act

The Emergency Banking Act Of 1933 was a bill passed during the administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in reaction to the financially adverse conditions of the Great Depression. The measure, which called for a four-day mandatory shutdown of U.S. banks for inspections before they could be reopened, sought to re-instill investor confidence and stability in the banking system. Banks were only allowed to re-open once they were deemed financially sound. The act was passed during this shutdown, in hopes that Americans would renew their confidence by the time the banks re-opened. It also extended the power of the president during this time of hardship, allowing him the executive power to make the decisions necessary to salvage the economy.

304. Rough Riders

The most famous of all the units fighting in Cuba, the "Rough Riders" was the name given to the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt resigned his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in May 1898 to join the volunteer cavalry. The original plan for this unit called for filling it with men from the Indian Territory, New Mexico, Arizona, and Oklahoma. However, once Roosevelt joined the group, it quickly became the place for a mix of troops ranging from Ivy League athletes to glee-club singers to Texas Rangers and Indians. They are responsible for the success of the battle of San Juan hill.

378. Good Neighbor Policy

A United States foreign policy doctrine, adopted by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, designed to improve relations with Latin America. A reaction to the exploitative dollar diplomacy of the early 1900s, the Good Neighbor policy encouraged interaction between the United States and Latin America as equals. In the post- World War II era, however, the United States has often reverted to dollar diplomacy and gunboat diplomacy to impose its will on the countries of Latin America.

374. National Labor Relations Act

After the National Industrial Recovery Act was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, organized labor was again looking for relief from employers who had been free to spy on, interrogate, discipline, discharge, and blacklist union members. In the 1930s, workers had begun to organize militantly, and in 1933 and 1934, a great wave of strikes occurred across the nation in the form of citywide general strikes and factory takeovers. Violent confrontations occurred between workers trying to form unions and the police and private security forces defending the interests of anti-union employers. In a Congress sympathetic to labor unions, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was passed in July of 1935. The broad intention of the act, commonly known as the Wagner Act after Senator Robert R. Wagner of New York, was to guarantee employees "the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection."

333. Kellogg-Briand pact

Also called Pact of Paris, multilateral agreement attempting to eliminate war as an instrument of national policy. It was the most grandiose of a series of peacekeeping efforts after World War I. Hoping to tie the United States into a system of protective alliances directed against a possible resurgence of German aggression, the French foreign minister, Aristide Briand, first suggested a bilateral nonaggression pact in the spring of 1927. The U.S. secretary of state, Frank B. Kellogg, prodded by the American "outlawry of war" movement and supported by those who were disappointed at the failure of the United States to join the League of Nations, proposed that the pact be converted into a general multilateral treaty, which the French accepted. U.S. Pres. Calvin Coolidge and Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg signing the Kellogg-Briand Pact, January 1929. French statesman Aristide Briand signing the Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928.

332. Washington Disarmament Conference

Also called Washington Naval Conference, byname of International Conference On Naval Limitation , (1921-22), international conference called by the United States to limit the naval arms race and to work out security agreements in the Pacific area. Held in Washington, D.C., the conference resulted in the drafting and signing of several major and minor treaty agreements. The Four-Power Pact, signed by the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and France on Dec. 13, 1921, stipulated that all the signatories would be consulted in the event of a controversy between two of them over "any Pacific question." An accompanying agreement stated they would respect one another's rights regarding the various Pacific islands and mandates that they possessed. These agreements ensured that a consultative framework existed between the United States, Great Britain, and Japan, the three great powers whose interests in the Pacific were most likely to lead to a clash between them.

319. World War I

Also known as the Great War, an international conflict that in 1914-18 embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and other regions. The war pitted the Central Powers—mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey—against the Allies—mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United States. It ended with the defeat of the Central Powers. The war was virtually unprecedented in the slaughter, carnage, and destruction it caused.

347. Charles Lindbergh

American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974) rose to fame by piloting his monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, on the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris in 1927. After the kidnap and murder of his infant son, he moved to Europe in the 1930s and became involved with German aviation developments. Despite objecting to American involvement in World War II, Lindbergh eventually flew 50 combat missions. Appointed a reserve brigadier general by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954, Lindbergh assisted in selecting sites for air bases overseas until turning to environmental causes late in life.

349. F. Scott Fitzgerald

American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) rose to prominence as a chronicler of the jazz age. Born in St. Paul, Minn., Fitzgerald dropped out of Princeton University to join the U.S. Army. The success of his first novel, "This Side of Paradise" (1920), made him an instant celebrity. His third novel, "The Great Gatsby" (1925), was highly regarded, but "Tender is the Night" (1934) was considered a disappointment. Struggling with alcoholism and his wife's mental illness, Fitzgerald attempted to reinvent himself as a screenwriter. He died before completing his final novel, "The Last Tycoon" (1941), but earned posthumous acclaim as one of America's most celebrated writers.

317. Zimmerman telegram

British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt, offering United States territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause. This message helped draw the United States into the war and thus changed the course of history. In an effort to protect their intelligence from detection and to capitalize on growing anti-German sentiment in the United States, the British waited until February 24 to present the telegram to Woodrow Wilson. The American press published news of the telegram on March 1. On April 6, 1917, the United States Congress formally declared war on Germany and its allies.

337. Sacco and Vanzetti trial

Despite worldwide demonstrations in support of their innocence, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for murder. On April 15, 1920, a paymaster for a shoe company in South Braintree, Massachusetts, was shot and killed along with his guard. The murderers, who were described as two Italian men, escaped with more than $15,000. After going to a garage to claim a car that police said was connected with the crime, Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested and charged with the crime. Although both men carried guns and made false statements upon their arrest, neither had a previous criminal record. On July 14, 1921, they were convicted and sentenced to die.

355. Radio

During the 1920s, the radio was considered the most powerful way of communication. By the end of the decade, nearly 60% of American homes had a radio to listen in on current events right as they were happening. Americans quickly warmed up to the idea of hearing the president's voice or listening to the World Series while it was on. They began broadcasting things like popular music, classical music, sporting events, lectures, fictional stories, newscasts, weather reports, market updates, political commentary, religious stories/events, and even operas during certain seasons. The most famously known broadcast show during this time period was called KDKA, but as the number of radios sold increased, so did the number of radio stations.

348. Jazz Age

During this time many young people wanted to go dancing. they did dances such as the Charleston, the cake walk, the black bottom, the flea hop. Jazz bands played at dance halls like the Savoy in New York City and the Aragon in Chicago; radio stations and phonograph records (100 million of which were sold in 1927 alone) carried their tunes to listeners across the nation. Some older people objected to jazz music's "vulgarity" and "depravity" (and the "moral disasters" it supposedly inspired), but many in the younger generation loved the freedom they felt on the dance floor.

343. Speakeasies

First used in the early 19th century to describe an old English smugglers den, the Speak Softly Shop came to define a place where patrons were required to keep their voices down to avoid detection. While the word became re popularised during American prohibition, it was just one of many description used to describe a prohibition bar. Black neighborhoods such as New York's Harlem, referred to them as Hooch Joints, Buffet Flats or Beer Flats. The name Blind Tiger, Blind Bull or Blind Pig also became common. While a little less obvious than the other name, Blind Pig can be referenced back to a 19th century tavern in the state of Maine where a proprietor "sold patrons tickets to view a blind pig he kept in the back room. Along with every admission, every customer was treated with a free glass of rum".

309. Insular Cases

Following its victory in the Spanish-American War (1898), the United States acquired Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. In the Insular Cases (1901-1922), the U.S. Supreme Court determined the constitutional and political status of the new territories. In De Lima v. Bidwell (1901), a customs dispute, a 5-to-4 majority ruled that Puerto Rico was not a "foreign country" for tariff purposes. In subsequent cases, the Court addressed the territories' relationship to the United States and whether "the Constitution follows the flag"; that is, whether and how constitutional provisions applied to these acquisitions. Many of the later cases were also decided by divided Courts, reflecting disagreement about the constitutional issues under-lying American expansionism.

372. Huey P. Long

Huey Long (1893-1935) was a powerful Louisiana governor and U.S. senator. A successful lawyer, he rose through the ranks of the Louisiana government to take over the state's top post in 1928. The charismatic Long dominated virtually every governing institution within Louisiana, using that power to expand programs for underdeveloped infrastructure and social services. He entered the U.S. Senate in 1935, where he developed a fervent following for his promises of a radical redistribution of wealth. Long had launched his own national political organization and was prepared to run for the presidency when he was killed by the son-in-law of a political opponent.

324. Schenck v. United States

I was a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on March 3, 1919, that the freedom of speech protection afforded in the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment could be restricted if the words spoken or printed represented to society a "clear and present danger." With Schenck's counsel arguing that the Espionage Act was unconstitutional and that his client was simply exercising his freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. On March 3 the court issued a unanimous ruling upholding the Espionage Act and Schenck's conviction.

345. Scopes Trial

In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins with John Thomas Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law. The law, which had been passed in March, made it a misdemeanor punishable by fine to "teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." With local businessman George Rappalyea, Scopes had conspired to get charged with this violation, and after his arrest the pair enlisted the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to organize a defense. Hearing of this coordinated attack on Christian fundamentalism, William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential candidate and a fundamentalist hero, volunteered to assist the prosecution. Soon after, the great attorney Clarence Darrow agreed to join the ACLU in the defense, and the stage was set for one of the most famous trials in U.S. history.

300. Annexation of Hawaii

In January 1893, the planters staged an uprising to overthrow the Queen. At the same time, they appealed to the United States armed forces for protection. Without Presidential approval, marines stormed the islands, and the American minister to the islands raised the stars and stripes in HONOLULU. The Queen was forced to abdicate, and the matter was left for Washington politicians to settle. By this time, Grover Cleveland had been inaugurated President. Cleveland was an outspoken anti-imperialist and thought Americans had acted shamefully in Hawaii. He withdrew the annexation treaty from the Senate and ordered an investigation into potential wrongdoings. Cleveland aimed to restore Liliuokalani to her throne, but American public sentiment strongly favored annexation. Eventually President William McKinley signed a joint resolution annexing the islands, much like the manner in which Texas joined the Union in 1845. Hawaii remained a territory until granted statehood as the fiftieth state in 1959.

298. Treaty of Kanagawa

In Tokyo, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, representing the U.S. government, signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade and permitting the establishment of a U.S. consulate in Japan. In July 1853, Commodore Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay with a squadron of four U.S. vessels. For a time, Japanese officials refused to speak with Perry, but eventually they accepted letters from U.S. President Millard Fillmore, making the United States the first Western nation to establish relations with Japan since it was declared closed to foreigners in 1683.

334. Ohio Gang

In U.S. history, a group of politicians who achieved high office during the presidential administration of Warren G. Harding and who betrayed their public trust through a number of scandals. Leader of the Ohio Gang was Harry M. Daugherty, a long-time political operative who was the principal manager of Harding's political ascendancy and who was named attorney general of the United States. Other members of the gang included Albert B. Fall, secretary of the interior; Will H. Hays, postmaster general; Charles R. Forbes, head of the Veteran's Bureau; and Jess Smith, an official of the Justice Department.

350. Consumer culture

It is a form of capitalism in which the economy is focused on the selling of consumer goods and the spending of consumer money. Most economists agree that the United States is a consumer culture. A significant part of consumer culture is an emphasis on lifestyle and using material goods to attain happiness and satisfaction. Businesses large and small can capitalize by focusing their marketing on this culture.

315. Isolationism

It is a policy of remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially the political affairs of other countries. During the 1930s, the combination of the Great Depression and the memory of tragic losses in World War I contributed to pushing American public opinion and policy toward isolationism. Isolationists advocated non-involvement in European and Asian conflicts and non-entanglement in international politics. Although the United States took measures to avoid political and military conflicts across the oceans, it continued to expand economically and protect its interests in Latin America. The leaders of the isolationist movement drew upon history to bolster their position. In his Farewell Address, President George Washington had advocated non-involvement in European wars and politics.

302. Yellow journalism

It is journalism that is based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration. It was a style of newspaper reporting that emphasized sensationalism over facts. During its heyday in the late 19th century it was one of many factors that helped push the United States and Spain into war in Cuba and the Philippines, leading to the acquisition of overseas territory by the United States.

322. Committee on Public Information

It provided propaganda during WW1 to rally the support of American citizens for all aspects of the war effort. President Woodrow Wilson considered that public support was to the entire wartime effort. Information in the form of propaganda was provided by the Committee on Public Information (CPI) and used in many different forms such as posters, pamphlets, magazines, billboards, movies, photographs, public speakers called the "Four Minute Men" and daily press releases to shape public opinion to build support for the war. The Committee on Public Information (CPI), aka the Creel Committee, was also tasked with censorship of potentially damaging material.

299. Open Door Policy

It statement of principles initiated by the United States in 1899 and 1900 for the protection of equal privileges among countries trading with China and in support of Chinese territorial and administrative integrity. The statement was issued in the form of circular notes dispatched by U.S. Secretary of State John Hay to Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Russia. The Open Door policy was received with almost universal approval in the United States, and for more than 40 years it was a cornerstone of American foreign policy in East Asia.

313. Dollar Diplomacy

It was a foreign policy created by U.S. Pres. William Howard Taft (served 1909-13) and his secretary of state, Philander C. Knox, to ensure the financial stability of a region while protecting and extending U.S. commercial and financial interests there. It grew out of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt's peaceful intervention in the Dominican Republic, where U.S. loans had been exchanged for the right to choose the Dominican head of customs (the country's major revenue source).

316. Sussex Ultimatum

It was a torpedoing of a French cross-channel passenger steamer, the Sussex, by a German submarine, leaving 80 casualties, including two Americans wounded. The attack prompted a U.S. threat to sever diplomatic relations. The German government responded with the so-called Sussex pledge (May 4, 1916), agreeing to give adequate warning before sinking merchant and passenger ships and to provide for the safety of passengers and crew. The pledge was upheld until February 1917, when unrestricted submarine warfare was resumed.

344. Fundamentalism

It was a type of militantly conservative religious movement characterized by the advocacy of strict conformity to sacred texts. Once used exclusively to refer to American Protestants who insisted on the inerrancy of the Bible, the term fundamentalism was applied more broadly beginning in the late 20th century to a wide variety of religious movements. Indeed, in the broad sense of the term, many of the major religions of the world may be said to have fundamentalist movements. For a discussion of fundamentalism in American Protestantism, see fundamentalism, Christian.

307. Philippine-American War

It was a war between the United States and Philipino revolutionaries from 1899 to 1902, an insurrection that may be seen as a continuation of the Philippine Revolution against Spanish rule. The Treaty of Paris (1898) had transferred Philippine sovereignty from Spain to the United States but was not recognized by Filipino leaders, whose troops were in actual control of the entire archipelago except the capital city of Manila. Although an end to the insurrection was declared in 1902, sporadic fighting continued for several years thereafter. The Philippines never gained their independence until after WWII.

335. Teapot Dome scandal

It was also called Oil Reserves Scandal or Elk Hills Scandal, in American history, scandal of the early 1920s surrounding the secret leasing of federal oil reserves by the secretary of the interior, Albert Bacon Fall. After Pres. Warren G. Harding transferred supervision of the naval oil-reserve lands from the navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921, Fall secretly granted to Harry F. Sinclair of the Mammoth Oil Company exclusive rights to the Teapot Dome (Wyoming) reserves (April 7, 1922). He granted similar rights to Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum Company for the Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills reserves in California (1921-22).

338. Palmer Raids

It was also called Palmer Red Raids, raids conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1919 and 1920 in an attempt to arrest foreign anarchists, communists, and radical leftists, many of whom were subsequently deported. The raids, fueled by social unrest following World War I, were led by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and are viewed as the climax of that era's so-called Red Scare. Palmer was a latecomer to the anticommunist cause and had a history of supporting civil liberties. However, he was ambitious to obtain the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1920 and believed that he could establish himself as the law-and-order candidate. Together with J. Edgar Hoover, Palmer created the General Intelligence Division in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and secured an increase in funds from Congress to devote to anticommunist activities by the Justice Department.

340. Emergency Quota Act and National Origins Act

It was also known as the Emergency Immigration Act and Immigration Restriction Act, which restricted the number of new immigrants per year to 3 percent of the number of residents from that country already in the U.S. Let's examine the basis of the act, why it was passed, and the impact it left. People began to push the federal government to restrict the number of foreigners who could enter the country. This is ironic given that there were already many people here that were in fact foreign-born. There was an inherent prejudice and fear against those who were born elsewhere. Known as xenophobia, this fear contributed to the Nativist movement, which believed in rejection of anyone foreign-born. There were also economic reasons. In 1919, a recession hit the United States. Mainly caused by a decline in the economy after World War I, there was also an increase of the inflation rate. Unemployment was also very high, and many people who were out of work blamed recent immigrants for taking the few jobs that were out there.

352. The Jazz Singer

It was an American musical film, released in 1927, that was the first feature-length movie with synchronized dialogue. It marked the ascendancy of "talkies" and the end of the silent-film era.Comedians Eddie Cantor and George Jessel (who played the lead role in the 1925 play on which the movie is based) both turned down the film, leaving the historic role for Jolson. Studio executive Sam Warner, one of the founders of Warner Brothers and the creative force behind the film, died one day before the movie's premiere, which was intentionally set for the day before Yom Kippur. The film's financial success established Warner Brothers as a major studio, and the studio won an honorary Academy Award for "producing The Jazz Singer, the pioneer outstanding talking picture, which has revolutionized the industry." There have been many remakes of the story onscreen and onstage, Jolson's performance in blackface has long been studied for what it says about stereotypes and the problems of assimilation often encountered by ethnic groups.

331. Dawes Plan

It was arrangement for Germany's payment of reparations after World War I. On the initiative of the British and U.S. governments, a committee of experts, presided over by an American financier, Charles G. Dawes, produced a report on the question of German reparations for presumed liability for World War I. The report was accepted by the Allies and by Germany on Aug. 16, 1924. The plan provided for the reorganization of the Reichsbank and for an initial loan of 800,000,000 marks to Germany. The Dawes Plan seemed to work so well that by 1929 it was believed that the stringent controls over Germany could be removed and total reparations fixed. This was done by the Young Plan.

325. National War Labor Board

It was authorized in March 1918 for the purpose of preventing strikes that would disrupt production in war industries. The first appointments were made the next month. Under the direction of former president William Howard Taft and the labor lawyer Frank Walsh, the board persuaded industry to improve working conditions and wages and open themselves to negotiations with their employees for labor contracts. In exchange for not striking, unions were able to add more than a million members in two years.

358. Marcus Garvey and the United Negro Improvement Association

It was primarily in the United States, organization founded by Marcus Garvey, dedicated to racial pride, economic self-sufficiency, and the formation of an independent black nation in Africa. Though Garvey had founded the UNIA in Jamaica in 1914, its main influence was felt in the principal urban black neighbourhoods of the U.S. North after his arrival in Harlem, in New York City, in 1916. Garvey had a strong appeal to poor blacks in urban ghettos, but most black leaders in the U.S. criticized him as an imposter, particularly after he announced, in New York, the founding of the Empire of Africa, with himself as provisional president. In turn, Garvey denounced the NAACP and many black leaders, asserting that they sought only assimilation into white society.

353. The Lost Generation

It was the post-World War I generation, but specifically a group of U.S. writers who came of age during the war and established their literary reputations in the 1920s. The term stems from a remark made by Gertrude Stein to Ernest Hemingway, "You are all a lost generation." Hemingway used it as an epigraph to The Sun Also Rises (1926), a novel that captures the attitudes of a hard-drinking, fast-living set of disillusioned young expatriates in postwar Paris. The generation was "lost" in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alienation from a U.S. that, basking under Pres. Warren G. Harding's "back to normalcy" policy, seemed to its members to be hopelessly provincial, materialistic, and emotionally barren. The term embraces Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, E.E. Cummings, Archibald MacLeish, Hart Crane, and many other writers who made Paris the centre of their literary activities in the '20s.

359. Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston

Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston were the most famous advocates of the black folk. Both Hughes and Hurston rebuffed arguments that writing about the black middle class would improve race relations by showing white readers that many African Americans were like them. Critics of Hurston and Hughes felt that embracing the black folk would reinforce primitive stereotypes about black people instead of setting the record straight. Others had simply internalized feelings that African American life and culture was inferior to that of white Americans.

354. Mass media

Mass media largely consisted of newspapers, although radio and film began to become important new media tools during the decade. The mass media was dominated by newspaper syndicates, consisting of papers in multiple cities owned by a single owner or organized under one corporation. Advancements in electronic communication, from the telegraph to the telephone to wireless radio, allowed the rapid transmission of information across long distances. This allowed newspapers to receive stories from far afield and report on news as it happened. Many papers published multiple editions in a single day in order to provide the most up-to-the-minute coverage for their readership. Electronic communication also allowed newspapers to share stories by transmitting a single piece over the "wire" to every paper in a syndicate. This capacity gave publishers immense power to shape public opinion through their many outlets.

376. Court-packing scheme

On February 5, 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt announces a controversial plan to expand the Supreme Court to as many as 15 judges, allegedly to make it more efficient. Critics immediately charged that Roosevelt was trying to "pack" the court and thus neutralize Supreme Court justices hostile to his New Deal. During the previous two years, the high court had struck down several key pieces of New Deal legislation on the grounds that the laws delegated an unconstitutional amount of authority to the executive branch and the federal government. Flushed with his landslide reelection in 1936, President Roosevelt issued a proposal in February 1937 to provide retirement at full pay for all members of the court over 70. If a justice refused to retire, an "assistant" with full voting rights was to be appointed, thus ensuring Roosevelt a liberal majority. Most Republicans and many Democrats in Congress opposed the so-called "court-packing" plan.

308. Anti-Imperialist League

On June 15, 1898, the Anti-imperialist league formed to fight U.S. annexation of the Philippines, citing a variety of reasons ranging from the economic to the legal to the racial to the moral. It included among its members such notables as Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain, William James, David Starr Jordan, and Samuel Gompers with George S. Boutwell, former secretary of the Treasury and Massachusetts, as its president. Following the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the league began to decline and eventually disappeared.

323. Sedition Act of 1918

On May 16, 1918, the United States Congress passes the Sedition Act, a piece of legislation designed to protect America's participation in World War I. Along with the Espionage Act of the previous year, the Sedition Act was orchestrated largely by A. Mitchell Palmer, the United States attorney general under President Woodrow Wilson. The Espionage Act, passed shortly after the U.S. entrance into the war in early April 1917, made it a crime for any person to convey information intended to interfere with the U.S. armed forces' prosecution of the war effort or to promote the success of the country's enemies.

330. League of Nations

President Wilson urged a just and lasting peace, but England and France disagreed, forcing harsh war reparations on their former enemies. The League of Nations was approved, however, and in the summer of 1919 Wilson presented the Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant of the League of Nations to the U.S. Senate for ratification. During the 1920s, the League, with its headquarters in Geneva, incorporated new members and successfully mediated minor international disputes but was often disregarded by the major powers. The League's authority, however, was not seriously challenged until the early 1930s, when a series of events exposed it as ineffectual. Japan simply quit the organization after its invasion of China was condemned, and the League was likewise powerless to prevent the rearmament of Germany and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. The declaration of World War II was not even referred to by the then-virtually defunct League.

306. Platt Amendment

Rider appended to the U.S. Army appropriations bill of March 1901, stipulating the conditions for withdrawal of U.S. troops remaining in Cuba since the Spanish-American War, and molding fundamental Cuban-U.S. relations until 1934. Formulated by the secretary of war, Elihu Root, the amendment was presented to the Senate by Sen. Orville H. Platt of Connecticut. By its terms, Cuba would not transfer Cuban land to any power other than the United States, Cuba's right to negotiate treaties was limited, rights to a naval base in Cuba (Guantánamo Bay) were ceded to the United States, U.S. intervention in Cuba "for the preservation of Cuban independence" was permitted, and a formal treaty detailing all the foregoing provisions was provided for.

297. Anglo-Saxonism and the White Man's Burden

Rudyard Kipling's famous poem "The White Man's Burden" was published in 1899, during a high tide of British and American rhetoric about bringing the blessings of "civilization and progress" to barbaric non-Western, non-Christian, non-white peoples. In Kipling's often-quoted phrase, this noble mission required willingness to engage in "savage wars of peace."

318. Jeannette Rankin

She was the first woman to serve in the U.S. Congress. She helped pass the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote, and was a committed pacifist. Rankin helped pass the 19th Amendment and was the only Congressperson to vote against both WWI and WWII. In 1917 Rankin proposed the formation of a Committee on Woman Suffrage, of which she was appointed leader. In 1918, she addressed the House Floor after the committee issued a report for a constitutional amendment on the women's right to vote.

357. Harlem Renaissance

Spanning the 1920s to the mid-1930s, the Harlem Renaissance was a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that kindled a new black cultural identity. Its essence was summed up by critic and teacher Alain Locke in 1926 when he declared that through art, "Negro life is seizing its first chances for group expression and self determination." Harlem became the center of a "spiritual coming of age" in which Locke's "New Negro" transformed "social disillusionment to race pride." Chiefly literary, the Renaissance included the visual arts but excluded jazz, despite its parallel emergence as a black art form. The Harlem Renaissance influenced future generations of black writers, but it was largely ignored by the literary establishment after it waned in the 1930s. With the advent of the civil rights movement, it again acquired wider recognition. Much of the literature focusing on a realistic portrayal of black life, conservative black critics feared that the depiction of ghetto realism would impede the cause of racial equality. The intent of the movement, however, was not political but aesthetic. Any benefit a burgeoning black contribution to literature might have in defraying racial prejudice was secondary to, as Langston Hughes put it, the "expression of our individual dark-skinned selves."

341. Great Migration

The Great Migration, or the relocation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest and West from 1916 to 1970, had a huge impact on urban life in the United States. Driven from their homes by unsatisfactory economic opportunities and harsh segregationist laws, many blacks headed north, where they took advantage of the need for industrial workers that first arose during the First World War. As Chicago, New York and other cities saw their black populations expand exponentially, migrants were forced to deal with poor working conditions and competition for living space, as well as widespread racism and prejudice. During the Great Migration, African Americans began to build a new place for themselves in public life, actively confronting economic, political and social challenges and creating a new black urban culture that would exert enormous influence in the decades to come.

312. Great White Fleet

The Great White Fleet, a product of the Theodore Roosevelt administration, was unveiled and launched as a symbol of the power and prestige of the United States. Former president Teddy Roosevelt crafted the idea for the Great White Fleet, which contained four squadrons of warships that were commanded by nearly 15,000 naval sailors. The fleet, although impressive and intimidating in size, was built during a time of peace and served as a symbol of power rather than a means of achieving military victory. Roosevelt called it a tour of peace and friendship.

346. Model T

The Model T, also known as the "Tin Lizzie," changed the way Americans live, work and travel. Henry Ford's revolutionary advancements in assembly-line automobile manufacturing made the Model T the first car to be affordable for a majority of Americans. For the first time car ownership became a reality for average American workers, not just the wealthy. More than 15 million Model Ts were built in Detroit and Highland Park, Michigan, and the automobile was also assembled at a Ford plant in Manchester, England, and at plants in continental Europe.

369. Relief, recovery, reform

The Relief, Recovery and Reform programs, known as the 'Three R's', were introduced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression to address the problems of mass unemployment and the economic crisis. FDR's Three R's - Relief, Recovery and Reform - required either immediate, temporary or permanent actions and reforms and were collectively known as FDR's New Deal. The many Relief, Recovery and Reform programs were initiated by a series of laws that were passed between 1933 and 1938. The initiatives were called "Alphabet Soup Agencies" as they were referred to by their acronyms. FDR's Relief, Recovery and Reform programs focused on emergency relief programs, regulating the banks and the stock market, providing debt relief, managing farms, initiating industrial recovery and introducing public works construction projects.

377. Roosevelt Recession

The Roosevelt recession refers to a period from mid-1937 to 1938 when the economic recovery from the Great Depression temporarily stalled, lasting about 13 months. The unemployment rate jumped from 14.3% to 19.0%, the first increase since FDR took office, and manufacturing output fell by 37% to 1934 levels. In response, in April 1938 Roosevelt got $3.75 billion in new spending from Congress, which was split among various recovery agencies, and the economy once again began to recover. Economists still argue over what caused this dip, but Keynesians point to FDR's spending cuts in June of 1937. Some of his advisers urged him to balance the budget, and he cut government spending. After FDR reversed course in 1938 and went back to deficit spending, the unemployment rate began to fall, and kept falling until there was virtually no unemployment by 1945. The Roosevelt recession can serve as a lesson for our current situation. Even as the economy's recovery is still extremely fragile, conservatives are calling on President Obama to reduce the deficit and cut spending. But many progressives fear that it would only repeat FDR's mistakes and choke off any chance for economic growth.

375. Schechter v. United States

The Supreme Court case that invalidated as unconstitutional a provision of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) that authorized the President to approve "codes of fair competition" for the poultry industry and other industries. These codes regulated schedules of minimum wages, prices, maximum work hours, collective bargaining, and other rules that would be binding upon entire industries. Drawing upon the nondelegation doctrine and the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, the Court struck down this piece of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal legislation. First, the Court characterized this activity as intrastate transactions with effects that were only indirect in the sphere of interstate commerce. Thus, Congress had overstepped its bounds by regulating local commercial activity. Second, by giving the Agency for Industrial Recovery a broad mandate to ensure "fair competition," Congress had effectively delegated legislative power to the Executive. This Congress could not do. The Court found an absence of standards and procedures in the statute to guide the President in deciding which regulations to impose upon various industries.

342. Volstead Act

The Volstead Act provided for the enforcement of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, also known as the Prohibition Amendment. The movement for the prohibition of alcohol began in the early 19th century, when Americans concerned about the adverse effects of drinking began forming temperance societies. By the late 19th century, these groups had become a powerful political force, campaigning on the state level and calling for national liquor abstinence. In December 1917, the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes," was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. In January 1919, the 18th amendment achieved the necessary two-thirds majority of state ratification, and prohibition became the law of the land.

373. American Liberty League

The group was formed to defend the Constitution, to protect private property rights, and to encourage the public to support traditional American political values. The league's founders were disgruntled business conservatives, Wall Street financiers, right-wing opponents of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, and defeated rivals within Roosevelt's Democratic Party. The league's benefactors included the du Pont brothers (Pierre, Irenee, and Lammot); their business partner and former Democratic Party chairman, John J. Raskob; financier E. F. Hutton; and executive Sewell Avery of Montgomery Ward. Many of the politicians active in the league were Republicans, but more visible were anti-Roosevelt Democrats such as 1924 and 1928 presidential nominees John W. Davis and Alfred E. Smith. Many league activists had worked together earlier for the relegalization of the U. S. liquor industry through the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment.

327. Fourteen Points

The peace proposal, based on Wilson's concept of peace without victory, called for the victorious Allies to set unselfish peace terms, including freedom of the seas, the restoration of territories conquered during the war and the right to national self-determination in such contentious regions as the Balkans. Most famously, Wilson called for the establishment of a general association of nations—what would become the League of Nations—to guarantee political independence to and protect the territorial lines of great and small States alike. This was written prior to America's entrance into WWI in order to be prepared for the end of the war where both sides make peace.

301. Spanish-American War

The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, which began in February 1895. Spain's brutally repressive measures to halt the rebellion were graphically portrayed for the U.S. public by several sensational newspapers, and American sympathy for the rebels rose. The growing popular demand for U.S. intervention became an insistent chorus after the unexplained sinking in Havana harbour of the battleship USS Maine, which had been sent to protect U.S. citizens and property after anti-Spanish rioting in Havana. Spain announced an armistice on April 9 and speeded up its new program to grant Cuba limited powers of self-government, but the U.S. Congress soon afterward issued resolutions that declared Cuba's right to independence, demanded the withdrawal of Spain's armed forces from the island, and authorized the President's use of force to secure that withdrawal while renouncing any U.S. design for annexing Cuba.

351. Flappers

They were northern, urban, single, young, middle-class women. Many held steady jobs in the changing American economy. The clerking jobs that blossomed in the Gilded Age were more numerous than ever. Increasing phone usage required more and more operators. The consumer-oriented economy of the 1920s saw a burgeoning number of department stores. Women were needed on the sales floor to relate to the most precious customers — other women. But the flapper was not all work and no play.

329. Irreconcilables and Article X

When President Woodrow Wilson presented his negotiated Treaty of Versailles to the Senate in 1919, the agreement faced immediate Senate opposition. At issue was a controversial proposal establishing a League of Nations to assure peace through collective action. In particular, Article X of the League's proposed covenant required each participating nation to "respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all Members." Some senators sought to amend the treaty through reservations, but one group of senators,"The Irreconcilables",opposed the treaty in any form. Led by William Borah of Idaho, the group also included Wisconsin's Robert La Follette and California's Hiram Johnson.

326. Food Administration

When the United States entered the War, President Wilson appointed Herbert Hoover to the post of United States Food Administrator (1917). Food had become a weapon in World War I and no country produced more food than America. Hoover succeeded in cutting consumption of foods needed overseas and avoided rationing at home, yet kept the Allies fed. America had to produce the food needed by the new large army America was building as well as for Allied armies and civilians. Hoover designed a voluntary program. He called it food conservation, but many Americans took to calling it "Hooverizing." Various promotions were devised, such as wheatless Wednesdays and meatless Mondays. Hoover was convinced that Americans would cooperate voluntarily to support the boys overseas. He did not want a mandatory program and Government regulated rationing. The idea was that American civilians would have to modify their eating habits voluntarily so that more food was available for shipment overseas.

356. Telephone

Within 50 years of its invention, the telephone had become an indispensable tool in the United States. In the late 19th century, people raved about the telephone's positive aspects and ranted about what they anticipated would be negatives. Their key points, recorded by Ithiel de Sola Pool in his 1983 book "Forecasting the Telephone." lead to additional advances in networked communications; allow social decentralization, resulting in a movement out of cities and more flexible work arrangements; change marketing and politics; alter the ways in which wars are fought; cause the postal service to lose business; open up new job opportunities; allow more public feedback; make the world smaller, increasing contact between peoples of all nations and thus fostering world peace; increase crime and aid criminals; be an aid for physicians, police, fire, and emergency workers; be a valuable tool for journalists; bring people closer together, decreasing loneliness and building new communities; inspire a decline in the art of writing; have an impact on language patterns and introduce new words; and someday lead to an advanced form of the transmission of intelligence.

328. Treaty of Versailles

World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. Negotiated among the Allied powers with little participation by Germany, its 15 parts and 440 articles reassigned German boundaries and assigned liability for reparations. After strict enforcement for five years, the French assented to the modification of important provisions. Germany agreed to pay reparations under the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan, but those plans were cancelled in 1932, and Hitler's rise to power and subsequent actions rendered moot the remaining terms of the treaty.

320. American Expeditionary Force

World War I was the first time in American history that the United States sent soldiers abroad to defend foreign soil. On April 6, 1917, when the United States declared war against Germany, the nation had a standing army of 127,500 officers and soldiers. By the end of the war, four million men had served in the United States Army, with an additional 800,000 in other military service branches. Once war was declared, the army attempted to mobilize the troops very quickly. The fatigued British and French troops, who had been fighting since August 1914, sorely needed the relief offered by the American forces.