US History
1877-Present
Populism
• political movement founded in the
1890s representing mainly farmers,
favoring free coinage of silver and
government control of railroads and
other industries
Industrialization
• the large-scale
introduction of
manufacturing
Labor union
• organization of
workers
formed for the
purpose of
advancing its
members'
interest
Entrepreneur
• One who
organizes,
manages, and
assumes the risk
of a business or
enterprise.
Free enterprise/Free Market
• A system of economic
exchange in which
prices of goods, labor,
capital are determined
by supply and demand
and no producer or
consumer dominates
the market.
Urbanization
• rapid
growth of
cities
Philanthropy
• providing money
to support
humanitarian or
social goals
Isolationism
• a national
policy of
avoiding
involvement in
world affairs
Neutrality
• The policy or status of a nation that
does not participate in a war between
other nations.
Progressive Era/Progressivism
• A political movement that
believed that
industrialism and
urbanization had created
many social problems
and that government
should take more active
role in dealing with these
problems.
Jane Addams
Immigration
• To move to a
country which is
not a person’s
native country,
usually for
permanent
residence.
Social Darwinism
• Adaptation of Charles Darwin’s theory
of evolution, this theory held that the
“laws” of evolution applied to human life.
It promoted the ideas of competition and
individualism; it saw as futile any
intervention of government into human
affairs.
Eugenics
• The “science” of
human breeding,
grounded in the Social
Darwinist idea that the
progress of human
evolution is hampered
when “unfit” people are
permitted to
reproduce.
Nativism
• A preference for
native-born
people and a
desire to limit
immigration.
Red Scare
• A wave of anti-communist,
anti-foreign, and anti-labor
hysteria that swept over
America at the end of WWI.
It resulted in the deportation
of many immigrants and the
violation of civil liberties.
Prohibition
• Laws banning the
manufacture,
transportation, and
sale of alcoholic
beverages.
Dictatorship
• Form of government
in which absolute
power is exercised
by a dictator.
• Examples:
– Nazi leader Adolf
Hitler
– Fascist leader Benito
Mussolini
– Russian Leader
Joseph Stalin
Holocaust
• Name given to the
mass slaughter of
Jews and other
groups by the
Nazis during
World War II.
War Bonds
• War bonds are debt securities
issued by a government to
finance military operations
and other expenditure in times
of war.
Tuskegee Airmen
• The Tuskegee
Airmen were a
group of AfricanAmerican pilots
who fought in World
War II.
Flying Tigers
• The 1st American Volunteer
Group (AVG) of the Chinese
Air Force in 1941–1942,
composed of pilots from the
United States' Army Air Forces
(USAAF), Navy (USN), and
Marine Corps (USMC),
recruited under presidential
authority and commanded by
Claire Lee Chennault.
Navajo Code Talkers
• During WWII,
Native Americans
used
undecipherable
code to relay
messages.
Truman Doctrine
• US commitment to
support free people
resisting communist
attack or rebellion.
• Led to monetary aid
to the Greek and
Turkish governments.
Marshall Plan
• Massive economic
aid program to
rebuild the wartorn countries of
western European
nations.
North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO)
• Military mutual-defense pact formed by
the US, Canada, and ten European
nations.
Berlin Airlift- 1948
• In response to a Soviet
land blockade of Berlin,
the US carried a
massive effort to supply
the 2 million Berlin
citizens with food, fuel,
and other goods by air
for more than six
months.
Containment policy
• The policy or
process of
preventing the
expansion of a
hostile power.
Civil Rights Movement
• African Americans’
struggle for equal rights
in the 1950s and 1960s.
• Leaders:
– Martin Luther King Jr
– Rosa Parks
– Malcolm X
Camp David Accords
• Peace agreement
between the leaders
of Egypt and Israel
at Camp David.
Iran Contra Affair
• Officials in the Reagan administration
sold arms to Iran using the proceeds to
finance the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
This illegal transaction took away
congressional power over US funds.
Iran Hostage Crisis
• 1979- Iranian
fundamentalists
seized the American
embassy in Teheran
and held fifty-three
American diplomats
hostages until 1981.
Cold War
• The ideological and
often confrontational
conflict between the
US and the Soviet
Union between
1946-1990.
Persian Gulf War
• President Bush and
the U.S. led coalition
ousted Iraq and
Saddam Hussein
from Kuwait in 1990.
Balkan Crisis
• The Break up of
Yugoslavia 1991
• Bosnian Serbs
“ethnic cleansing” of
Muslims
• NATO forces cease
fire in 1994
vs
Klondike Gold Rush
• “Gold!”
• Words that sent
stampeders to the
Yukon Territory
looking for gold in
1897
Panama Canal
• Built across the
isthmus of Panama
by the United States
to provide a short
water route between
the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans.
Dust Bowl
• The over farming
of fields and
droughts of the
1930’s, turned
topsoil into dust
across the Great
Plains.
Demographic
• of or relating to the study of changes
that occur in large groups of people
over a period of time based on race,
sex, and income.
Migration
The movement of
people from one
area to another,
generally a
permanent move
to a new location.
Western Expansion
Movement of
settlers during the
East of the United
States to the West
of the United
States in search of
land, economic
opportunities, and
resources.
Rural
• geographic
area that is
located in the
countryside,
outside cities
and towns.
Great Migration
Movement of hundreds
of thousands of African
Americans during 1910
to 1930 from the South
to Northeast and
Midwest in search of
jobs in the nation’s
growing industrial cities
such as Chicago and
New York .
Rust Belt
Region consists of
areas of the
Northeast and
Midwest with coal
and iron resources.
Sun Belt
• Region consists of a
brad band of states
running across the
south from Florida to
Texas extending
west and North to
California and the
Pacific Northwest.
Tin Pan alley
• Section of New
York City where
music like Blues,
Jazz and ragtime
were mixed
together to form
American popular
music.
Harlem Renaissance
• African American
cultural, literary, and
artistic movement
centered in Harlem,
and area in New
York city, in 1920s.
Beat Generation
• In the late 1950s young
poets and novelists
such as Jack Kerouac
became known as the
beats or “beatniks” for
their innovative writing
and bizarre behavior.
They challenged
materialism and
consumer culture.
Chicano Mural Movement
• Chicano artists were
inspired by the great
Mexican muralist Diego
Rivera. They began
painting murals in barrios
throughout the southwest,
representing their way of
life, culture, religion and
politics.
New Deal
• Roosevelt’s
program of
legislation to
combat the Great
Depression. The
New Deal included
relief, reform, and
recovery.
World War I
1914-1918
• Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
set off a chain reaction that involved
most nations of Europe and later United
States (1917).
Great Depression 1932-1939
• A devastating economic
downturn that saw stock
prices fall, businesses
fail, and large scale
unemployment in
America and Europe.
World War II 1939-1945
• The most destructive
conflict in history in
which an estimated 70
million were killed.
Hitler launched the
war in Europe by
invading Poland in
1939.
Lobbying
• Influencing members of
Congress by Special interest
groups.
Non-violent protest
• Civil disobedience
• Protesting through
nonviolent methods
such as: protests, sit
ins, marches,
boycotts, economic
non cooperation
Litigation
• An action brought
in court to enforce
a particular right.
The act or
process of
bringing a lawsuit.
Laissez-faire
• Policy that government should
interfere as little as possible in
the nation’s economy.
Plessy v. Ferguson
• Upheld “separate
but equal” belief
used by Southern
states to perpetuate
segregation after the
Civil War officially
ended lawmandated
segregation.
Brown v. Board of Education
• Overruled Plessey v.
Ferguson
• Abandoned the separate but
equal doctrine in the context
of public schools. The
Supreme Court rejected the
idea that equivalent but
separate school for African
American and white
students would be
constitutional.
Hernandez v. Texas
• In Texas, Pete Hernandez was
convicted of murder but all the
jurors were white. He appealed
to the supreme court which
ruled that Mexican Americans
had the right to have members
of their class serve as jurors.
Tinker v. Des Moines
• John Tinker and his
sister were suspended
from school for wearing
a black armband in
protest of the Vietnam
war. The Supreme
Court ruled that this
violated their 1st
Amendment rights.
Wisconsin v. Yoder
• In Wisconsin, Amish
children were required to
attend school beyond
the 8th grade, this went
against their religion and
way of life. The
Supreme Court ruled
that this law violated the
children’s freedom of
religion.
White v. Tegester
• Texas had two big districts
where Mexican Americans
and African Americans had
little chance of being
elected. The Supreme
Court ruled that those
districts had to be made
smaller and that the state
had no right to discriminate
by setting up multi-member
districts.