Chapter 21
Muckrakers - Journalists who wrote articles exposing urban political corruption and corporate wrongdoing. President Roosevelt originally coined
the phrase, using it as a criticism that the authors were "obsessed with dredging up the worst in American life", but the term has now become a
badge of honor.
Robert La Follette - Nicknamed "Fighting Bob", this Wisconsin governor, who served in office from 1901-1906 who took the lead in regulating
railroads, mines, and other businesses.
Anti-Saloon League - Group that advocated legislating a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages.
Ida Wells-Barnett - African-American journalist and activist who mounted a national anti-lynching campaign.
W. E. B. Du Bois - African-American educator and activist who demanded full racial
equality, including the same educational opportunities open to whites, and called on blacks to resist all forms of racism.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) - Organization that called for sustained activism, including legal
challenges, to achieve political equality for blacks and full integration into American life. Attracting the urban black middle class, the NAACP by
1914 had six thousand members in fifty branches.
Carrie Chapman Catt - Succeeded Susan B. Antony as head of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Under her
direction, the organization adopted the so-called Winning Plan: grass-roots organization with tight central coordination.
Margaret Sanger - Crusader for birth control, a term she coined. Sanger opened the nation's first birth control clinic, launched a new journal, the
Birth Control Review;
and founded the American Birth Control League, the ancestor of today's Planned Parenthood Federation.
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) - Union that targeted the most exploited workers. The organization, nicknamed the "Wobblies, led mass
strikes of Nevada gold miners; Minnesota iron miners; and timber workers in Louisiana, Texas, and the Northwest.
Eugene V.Debs - Indiana labor leader and a popular orator. Debs was the Socialist Party of America's presidential candidate five times between
1900 and 1920.
Theodore Roosevelt - 26th President of the United States, serving in office from 1901-1909
Hepburn Act - This law empowered the Interstate Commerce Commission to set maximum railroad rates and to examine railroads' financial
records. It also curtailed the railroads' practice of distributing free passes to ministers and other shapers of public opinion.
Pure Food and Drug Act - Law that banned the sale of adulterated foods or drugs and required accurate ingredient labels.
National Reclamation Act (Newlands Act) - Funded dams and irrigation projects in the West.
William Howard Taft - 27th President of the United States, serving in office from 1909-1913.
Progressive Party - Political party that believes in continuing social advancement, improvement, or reform.
Woodrow Wilson - 28th President of the United States, serving in office from 1913-1921.
Federal Reserve Act - This compromise measure created twelve regional Federal Reserve banks under mixed public/private control.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - Federal watchdog agency over corporations.
Louis Brandeis - Supreme Court Justice, whose 1916 nomination by President Wilson faced opposition because he was Jewish.
Chapter 22
Boxer Rebellion - In 1899, a fanatical anti-foreign secret society known as the Harmonious Righteous Fists (called "Boxers" by Western
journalists) killed thousands
of foreigners and Chinese Christians. In June 1900, the Boxers occupied Beijing (Peking), the Chinese capital, and besieged the foreign legations.
Open Door notes - Foreign policy proposed by U.S. Secretary of State John Hay, where he asked the major European powers to assure trading
rights in China by opening the ports in their spheres of influence to all countries. A year later, Hays reaffirmed the principle of open trade in
China for all nations and announced America's determination to preserve China's territorial and administrative integrity. In general, China
remained open to U.S. business interests and Christian missionaries.
Panama Canal - Major ship canal that traverses the Isthmus of Panama in Central America, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. After
many years of financing and negotiating problems, construction began in 1906, and in 1914the first ship sailed through the Panama Canal.
John J. Pershing - U.S. General who led the 1916 expedition against Pancho Villa in Mexico.
Selective Service Act - Law that required all men between twenty-one and thirty (later expanded to eighteen through forty-five) to register with
local draft boards.
Commission on Training Camp Activities - Agency that presented soldiers with films, lectures, and posters on the dangers of alcohol and
prostitution.
American Expeditionary Force - Name for the United States military in the United States force in World War I.
War Industries Board - Board set up by the Council of Defense to coordinate.
military purchasing; ensure production efficiency; and provide weapons, equipment, and supplies to the military.
Committee on Public Information - Wartime propaganda agency, headed by journalist George Creel. While claiming merely to combat rumors
with facts, the Creel committee in reality publicized the government's version of events and discredited all who questioned that version.
Espionage Act - Law that set fine and prison sentences for a variety of loosely defined anti war activities.
Sedition Amendment - Amendment to the Espionage Act that imposed stiff penalties on anyone convicted of using "disloyal, profane . . . or
abusive language" about the government, the Constitution, the flag, or the military.
Nineteenth Amendment - Amendment to the Constitution that granted women the right to vote.
influenza pandemic - 1918 global outbreak of influenza, a highly contagious viral infection, killing as many as 30 million people worldwide.
Eighteenth Amendment - Amendment to the Constitution that established national prohibition of alcohol.
War Labor Board (WLB) - Agency that encouraged workers to join unions and guaranteed unions' right to bargain with management. The WLB
also pressured factory owners to introduce the eight-hour workday, end child labor, and open their plants to safety and sanitation inspectors.
Bureau of War Risk Insurance - Agency created in October 1917 to aid soldiers' families, established a precedent of government help for families
at risk.
Fourteen Points - President Wilson's summation of the U.S. war aims in fourteen points.
Versailles Peace Conference - Conference where the victorious nations of WWI came together to negotiate peace treaties.
League of Nations - International organization established during the Versailles Peace Conference. The agreement to establish the League, written
into the treaty, embodied Wilson's vision of a new world order of peace and justice.
Warren G.Harding - 29th President of the U.S. serving in office from 1921 to 1923. He died while in office.
Chapter 23
Henry Ford - Founder of the Ford Motor Company and pioneer of modern assembly lines used in mass production.
Warren G.Harding - 29th President of the U.S. serving in office from 1921 to 1923. He died while in office.
Charles Evans Hughes - Secretary of State under the Harding administration. He served as Governor of New York from 1907-1910.
Andrew Mellon - Pittsburgh financier and treasury secretary under the Harding administration.
Herbert Hoover - 31st President of the United States, serving in office from 1929-1933.
Teapot Dome - Oil field on public land in Wyoming. The name is associated with the scandals that rocked the Harding administration after
Harding's Interior Secretary was found guilty of leasing government oil reserves to two oilmen in exchange for a $40,000 bribe.
Calvin Coolidge - 30th President of the United States. He succeeded to office upon the death of President Harding.
McNary-Haugen Bill - Price-support plan under which the government would annually purchase the surplus of six basic farm commodities at
their average price and then sell these surpluses abroad at market prices and recover the difference, if any, through a tax on domestic sales of these
commodities.
Washington Naval Arms Conference - Conference called by Secretary of State Hughes to address the problem of the United States, Great Britain
and Japan edging toward a dangerous (and costly) naval-arms race.
Ku Klux Klan - White supremacy movement that demonized only African-Americans but also Catholics, Jews, and aliens. Some Klan groups
targeted whites suspected of sexual immorality or prohibition-law violation and some Klan groups employed threats, beatings, and lynchings.
Alfred E. Smith - New York Governor who ran for President in 1928.
Sheppard-Towner Act - Act that funded rural prenatal and baby-care centers staffed by public-health nurses.
Charles Lindbergh - Daredevil stunt pilot who flew solo across the Atlantic in his small single engine plane, The Spirit of St. Louis, on May 20 21, 1927.
H. L.Mencken - Journalist, editor, and critic, in 1924 launched the iconoclastic American Mercury magazine, an instant success with the decade's
alienated intellectuals and young people.
National Origins Act - 1924 revision of the immigration law, restricted annual immigration from any foreign country to two percent of the
number of persons of that "national origin" in the United States in 1890.
Sacco-Vanzetti Case - Massachusetts murder case involving two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were found
guilty of the crime and sentenced to death. Sacco and Vanzetti were also anarchists and much of the case focused on their radicalism.
Fundamentalism - Religious movement whose members insisted on the Bible's literal truth. The movement was named after The Fundamentals, a
series of essays published 1909-1914.
Scopes Trial - Trial that took place after teacher T. Scopes summarize Darwin's theory of evolution to his class, violating Tennessee's law that
barred the teaching of evolution in the state's public schools. Scopes was found guilty, though the decision was later reversed on a technicality.
Marcus Garvey - Magnetic black leader with a riveting message of racial pride.
Prohibition - Era during which the U.S. government banned the consumption, manufacture, transportation, import and export of alcohol.
Chapter 24
Franklin Delano Roosevelt - 32nd President of the United States, serving in office from 1933-1945.
Eleanor Roosevelt - First lady of the United States from 1933-1945.
Reconstruction Finance Corporation - Agency set up under the Hoover administration to make loans to banks and other lending institutions.
Frances Perkins - Secretary of Labor under the Roosevelt administration, she was the first woman cabinet member.
Harold Ickes - Interior Secretary under the Roosevelt administration. He organized liberal Republicans for Roosevelt in 1932.
Civilian Conservation Corps - Relief program that employed jobless youths in such government projects as reforestation, park maintenance, and
erosion control.
Federal Emergency Relief Act - Program that appropriated $500 million for state and local relief agencies that had exhausted their funds.
Harry Hopkins - Head of the Federal Emergency Relief Act program.
Agricultural Adjustment Administration - Agency that supervised the Agricultural Adjustment Act, a law that gave subsidies to producers of the
major agricultural commodities in return for cutting production. A tax on grain mills and other food processors (a tax ultimately passed on to
consumers) financed these subsidies.
Public Works Administration - Agency that ran a program that appropriated $3.3 billion for large-scale public works projects to provide jobs and
stimulate the economy.
National Recovery Administration - Agency that brought together business leaders to draft codes of "fair competition" for their industries. These
codes set production limits, prescribed wages and working conditions, and forbade price-cutting and unfair competitive practices.
Tennessee Valley Authority - This program had its origins in a World War I hydroelectric station on the Tennessee River in Alabama built by the
War Department to power a nearby munitions plant. In the 1920s, Senator George Norris of Nebraska had urged the use of this facility to supply
electricity to nearby farmers.
Works Progress Administration - Agency responsible for overseeing the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, which provided employment
assistance directly to the poor.
National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) Guaranteed unions' collective-bargaining rights and outlawed anti-union practices.
Social Security Act - Launched a federal-state program of workers' pensions, unemployment insurance, and other welfare benefits.
Farm Security Administration (FSA) - Created by the Farm Tenancy Act to aid small farmers. Replaced 1935 Resettlement Administration.
Fair Labor Standards Act - Banned child labor and set a national minimum wage.
Congress of Industrial Organizations - 2 million member association of industrial unions including the autoworkers.
Indian Reorganization Act - 1934 compromise measure, halted the sale of tribal lands and enabled tribes to regain title to unallocated lands.
Popular Front - Worldwide alliance against Adolf Hitler and his fascist ally, Benito Mussolini.
Chapter 25
"Good Neighbor" policy - This policy, which was implemented by President Roosevelt, renounced any nation's right to intervene in the affairs of
another.
Benito Mussolini - Dictator who ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943, Mussolini suppressed dissent and liberty, imposed one-party rule and strictly
controlled business and labor.
Adolf Hitler - German chancellor who imposed a brutal dictatorship on Germany and began a program to purify it of Jews - whom he considered
an "inferior race" responsible for Germany's defeat in World War I.
Appeasement - The process of making concessions to pacify, quiet, or satisfy the other party.
Joseph Stalin - Former dictator of the Soviet Union.
Winston Churchill - Prime Minister of Britain from 1940 - 1955.
"lend-lease" - program proposed by Roosevelt to supply war materiel to cash-strapped Britain.
Atlantic Charter - Document that condemned international aggression, affirmed the right of national self-determination, and endorsed the
principles of free trade, disarmament, and collective security.
War Production Board - Government agency which allocated materials, limited the production of civilian goods, and distributed contracts among
manufacturers
Office of Price Administration - Government agency that rationed scarce products and imposed price and rent controls to check inflation.
Manhattan Project - Secret program launched to develop the atomic bomb.
Operation OVERLORD - Invasion led by General Eisenhower. Troops stormed a sixty-mile stretch of the Normandy coast in the largest
amphibious invasion in history.
Battle of the Bulge - month-long military offensive led by Hitler. Named for the eighty-mile-long and fifty-mile-wide "bulge" that the German
troops drove inside the American lines.
"Rosie the Riveter" - Symbol of the woman war worker, who was characterized by her bulging muscles and the pneumatic gun she held.
A. Philip Randolph - Organizer of the "thundering march" of one thousand blacks on Washington to protest discrimination in the armed forces.
His efforts led to FDR to compromise on this issue.
Braceros Mexican farm laborers brought into the United States under contract for seasonal work who are then expected to return to their country
internment of Japanese-Americans - The confinement of about thirty-seven thousand first generation Japanese immigrants (Issei) and nearly
seventy-five thousand native-born Japanese-American citizens of the United States (Nisei) in "relocation centers" guarded by military police.
Yalta accords - Agreement reached at Yalta Conference by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin.
Holocaust - The name given to the systematic effort of the Nazis to annihilate all European Jews.
Potsdam Declaration - Ultimatum Truman gave to Japan to surrender unconditionally
or face "prompt and utter destruction."
Chapter 26
GI Bill - Bill of rights that guaranteed veterans four years of education and job training, guidance and unemployment benefits, as well as
establishing veterans' hospitals and provided low-interest home and farm loans.
Employment Act of 1946 - Enacted by Truman, it committed the federal government to ensuring economic growth and established the Council of
Economic Advisers to confer with the president and formulate policies for maintaining employment, production, and purchasing power.
George F. Kennan - American diplomat who, while living in Moscow, advised Truman that U.S. policy must be the "long-term, patient but firm
and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies."
Containment - Policy uniting military, economic, and diplomatic strategies to "contain"
any further Soviet communist expansion and to enhance America's security and influence abroad.
Truman Doctrine - Policy designed to contain by giving economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey in an effort to prevent those nations
from falling under Soviet orbit.
National Security Act of 1947 - Act that unified the armed forces under a single Department of Defense.
Marshall Plan - The Truman administration's proposal for massive U.S. assistance for European recovery in 1947.
Berlin airlift - American program to deliver food and supplies to the children of the blockaded city of Berlin, Germany during World War II.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) - International organization of nations who signed the North Atlantic Treaty, establishing a mutual
defense pact in which "an armed attack against one or more of them . . . shall be considered an attack against them all."
Mao Zedong - Chinese military and political leader who established the People's Republic of China.
NSC-68 - Secret report completed by the National Security Council, emphasizing
the Soviet Union's military strength and aggressive intentions.
Korean War - War between North Korea and South Korea with heavy U.S. and Soviet involvement and each seeking to undermine the other with
economic pressure and military raids.
Taft-Hartley Act - Bill that barred the closed shop - a workplace where only union members could be hired - outlawed secondary boycotts,
required union officials to sign loyalty oaths, and permitted the president to call a cooling-off period to delay any strike that might endanger
national safety or health.
President's Committee on Civil Rights - Established by President Truman, this committee published a report that emphasized reasons for the
government to enact federal legislation to end desegregation and the unfair treatment of African-Americans.
Fair Deal - Agenda proposed by President Truman that included civil rights, national
health-care legislation, and federal aid to education.
Second Red Scare - Post World War II resurgence of Anti-communist sentiment that influenced governmental and personal actions.
House Un-American Activities Committee - Committee that held hearings to expose communist influence in American life.
Joseph McCarthy - Wisconsin senator who launched a campaign against Communism and the Soviet spies and sympathizers that he claimed were
inside the federal government.
Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers - Chambers, who was a former Soviet agent, identified Hiss to the House Un-American Activities
Committee as an underground communist in the 1930s.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg - Couple found guilty by a jury of conspiracy to commit espionage and sentenced to death. They protested their
innocence until, claiming that they were victims of anti-Semitic and anti-Leftist sentiment.
McCarran Internal Security Act - Act that required organizations deemed communist by the attorney general to register with the Department of
Justice and also authorized the arrest and detention of suspected spies during times of national emergency.
Chapter 27
Dwight David Eisenhower - President of the United States from 1953 - 1961. He was known for his moderate politics, steering a middle course
between Democratic liberalism and traditional Republican conservatism.
Earl Warren - Supreme Court Chief Justice who incurred conservatives' wrath for defending the rights of persons accused of subversive beliefs.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka - Landmark court case that resulted in the Supreme Court deciding to outlaw racial segregation of public
education facilities.
Southern Manifesto - Document signed by more than one hundred members of Congress, denouncing Brown v. Board of Education as "a clear
abuse of judicial power."
John Foster Dulles - Secretary of State under Dwight D. Eisenhower. He spoke of a holy war against "atheistic communism" and rejected the
policy of containment.
Allen Dulles - Director of CIA, appointed by Eisenhower. He was a veteran of wartime OSS cloak-and-dagger operations. He was also the
brother of John Foster Dulles.
domino theory - Eisenhower's prediction that if Vietnam went communist, then Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, and ultimately all of Asia would fall
like dominos.
Eisenhower Doctrine - President Eisenhower's 1957 proclamation that the United States would send military aid and, if necessary, troops to any
Middle Eastern nation threatened by "Communist aggression."
military-industrial complex - The aggregate of a nation's armed forces and the industries that supply their equipment, materials, and armaments.
Sunbelt - Region of the United States that stretches from the old Confederacy across Texas to southern California.
baby boom - Period during the 1950s, during which an American baby was born every seven seconds. The immense size of the baby-boom
generation (the 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964) ensured its impact and historical importance.
Dr. Benjamin Spock - Pediatrician and author of the Common Sense Book of
Baby and Child Care (1946), which emphasized children's need for the love and care of full-time mothers.
Billy Graham - Influential evangelist who peddled potent mixture of religious salvation and aggressive anticommunism
Rosa Parks - Civil rights protester who sparked a massive nonviolent civil disobedience movement when she protested bus segregation by
refusing to give up her seat to a white man.
Martin Luther King, Jr. - African-American minister whose philosophy of civil disobedience fused the spirit of Christianity with the strategy of
achieving racial justice by nonviolent resistance.
bracero program - Wartime "temporary worker" measure that brought in seasonal farm laborers.
Sputnik - The first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. Its launch dashed the American myth of unquestioned technological
superiority.
Elvis Presley - Popular rock and roll musician who melded his boyhood influence of Pentecostal music with the powerful beat and sexual energy
of the rhythm-and-blues music.
Beats - Non-conformist writers, such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, who expressed scorn against the middle-class ideals of conformity,
religion, family values and materialism.
Chapter 28 John F.Kennedy - President from who served in office from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.
Cuban missile crisis - Confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States regarding the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in
Cuba.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) - Organization that stressed both the nonviolent civil disobedience strategy of Martin
Luther King, Jr., and the need to stimulate local, grass-roots activism and leadership.
Martin Luther King, Jr. African-American minister whose philosophy of civil disobedience fused the spirit of Christianity with the strategy of
achieving racial justice by nonviolent resistance.
Civil Rights Act - The most significant civil rights law in U.S. history, banned racial discrimination and segregation in public accommodations.
Voting Rights Act - Law that invalidated the use of any test or device to deny the vote and authorized federal examiners to register voters in states
that had disenfranchised blacks.
Black Power - Movement that expressed the eagerness of militant activists for militant self-defense and rapid social change.
Lyndon Baines Johnson - 36th President of the United States, he succeeded President Kennedy after his assassination in 1963 and continued to
serve in office until 1969.
War on Poverty - Name of campaign launched by Lyndon B. Johnson to bring the poor into mainstream society by promoting greater opportunity
through public works and training programs.
Great Society - President Johnson's vision for America, which included "an end to poverty and racial injustice."
Barry Goldwater - Arizona senator who was a fervent anticommunist and a proponent of individual freedom. Creator of modern conservatism.
Medicare - Program created by President Johnson to provide health insurance for the aged under social security.
Medicaid - Program created by President Johnson to provide health care for the poor.
Immigration Act of 1965 - Law that abolishing the national-origins quotas of the 1920s and transforming America's racial and ethnic
kaleidoscope.
Miranda v. Arizona - Court case that resulted in the enactment of a law that police must advise suspects of their right to remain silent and to have
counsel during questioning.
American Indian Movement - Militant Native American group promoted the traditional ways of Native Americans, prevented police brutality and
harassment of Indians in urban "red ghettos," and established "survival schools" to teach Indian history and values.
Chicano and Chicana Pejorative terms used by Latino activists to express a militant sense of collective identity and solidarity for all those of
Mexican descent.
César Estrada Chávez - Chicano activist who combined religion, labor militancy,
and Mexican heritage to stimulate ethnic pride and politicization.
Asian American Political Alliance - Organization that encouraged Asian-Americans to claim their own cultural identity and, in racial solidarity
with their "Asian brothers and sisters," to protest against the U.S. war in Vietnam.
National Organization for Women (NOW) - Civil-rights group for women that lobbied for equal opportunity, filed lawsuits against gender
discrimination, and mobilized public opinion against sexism.
"hawks" - Term for people for Americans who would accept little short of total victory in the Vietnam War.
"doves" - Term for people for Americans who insisted on negotiating, not fighting, in the Vietnam War.
Chapter 29 Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) - Nonviolent youth movement that tried to transform the United States into a "participatory
democracy".
Berkeley Free Speech Movement (FSM) - coalition of student groups that insisted on the right to campus political activity.
Jackson State College - Famous for being the site of a student protest that ended with Mississippi patrolmen killing two students and wounding a
dozen more, sparking nationwide student strikes.
hippies - Youth culture that rejected the repressed authority of the established order and adopted love, cooperation, community and immediate
gratification as their mantra.
Counterculture - Term coined by historian Theodore Roszack describing hippies as a ". . . a culture so radically disaffiliated from the mainstream
assumptions of our society that it scarcely looks to many as a culture at all, but takes on the alarming appearance of a barbarian intrusion."
Woodstock festival - 1969 music festival attended by four hundred thousand young people in 1969 to celebrate their vision of freedom and
harmony.
Roe v.Wade - Court case where the Supreme Court struck down state laws infringing on a woman's right to abortion during the first trimester
(three months) of pregnancy.
Eugene McCarthy - Longtime U.S. Congress member who also served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949-1959 and the U.S. Senate
from 1959-1971. In 1968 he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Presidential nomination.
Tet offensive - Attack launched by the National Liberation Front and North Vietnamese forces, attacking more than a hundred South Vietnamese
cities and towns.
Robert Kennedy - Served as U.S. Attorney General from 1961-1964. He was also the younger brother of John F. Kennedy.
Hubert Humphrey - 38th Vice President of the United States, serving under President Johnson. He also served two terms as a Senator in
Minnesota.
"Yippies" - Anarchistic group led by counterculture guru Abbie Hoffman, who sought to ridicule the political system during the Democratic
National Convention by threatening to dump LSD in Chicago's water system and to release greased pigs into the city streets.
Henry Kissinger - German-born diplomat who served as National Security Advisor and later Secretary of State during the Nixon and Ford
administrations.
My Lai - Massacre in Vietnam, where soldiers gang-raped girls, lined up women and children in ditches and shot them, and then burned the
village.
détente - Period of reduced tensions between rival nations.
Neil Armstrong - Astronaut who became the first person to walk on the moon. Upon landing on the moon, he proclaimed, "That's one small step
for man, one giant leap for mankind."
"the plumbers" - Whitehouse unit created by Nixon to discredit his opposition and ensure executive secrecy. The nickname came from the unit's
assignment to plug government leaks.
Pentagon Papers - Secret documentary history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, revealing a long history of White House lies to Congress, foreign
leaders, and the American people.
George McGovern - Democratic nominee in the Presidential election of 1972. He lost the election to incumbent Richard Nixon.
"Deep Throat" - Secret informant who provided reporters Woodward and Bernstein with information about the Watergate break-ins.
Chapter 30 AIDS - Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a deadly virus that was first diagnosed in 1981.
Three Mile Island - Site of a partial nuclear power plant partial that deepened public concerns about nuclear power
Equal Rights Amendment - 1972 Constitutional amendment that barred discrimination on the basis of sex.
William F. Buckley - Conservative who launched the conservative National Review magazine in 1955; founded Young Americans for Freedom in
1960; and started a conservative TV talk show, Firing Line, in 1966.
Ronald Reagan - 40th President of the United States, serving in office from 1981-1989. He also served as Governor of California from
1967-1975.
Engel v. Vitale - 1962 Supreme Court decision banning organized prayer in public schools.
Deindustrialization - Industrial stagnation.
affirmative action - Actions taken to compensate for past racial discrimination, which included some cities setting aside a percentage of building
contracts for minority businesses and Some educational institutions reserved slots for minority applicants.
Indian Self-Determination Act - 1974 act that granted Native American tribes control of federal aid programs on the reservations and oversight of
their own schools.
Immigration Reform and Control Act - A 1986 update of the 1965 Immigration Act, this act outlawed the hiring of undocumented immigrants,
but offered legal status to aliens who had lived in the United States for five years.
Gerald Ford - 38th President of the United States, serving in office from 1974-1977. Ford also served as the 40th Vice President from 1973-1974.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) - international organization that controls oil prices.
Jimmy Carter - 39th President of the United States, serving in office from 1977- 1981. Former Governor of Georgia, serving in office from
1971-1975.
Alaska Lands Act - Act passed by Congress that set aside more than 100 million
acres of public land in Alaska for parks, wildlife refuges, and national forests, and added twenty-six rivers to the nation's Wild and Scenic River
System.
Camp David Accords - Agreements that were signed by Egypt's President Sadat and Israel's Prime Minister Begin following twelve days of secret
negotiations at Camp David.
Stagflation Combination of business stagnation and price inflation that characterized the U.S. economy through much of the 1970s.
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) - Computerized anti-missile system involving space based lasers and other high-tech components.
Jesse Jackson African-American civil-rights leader., who proposed a "rainbow coalition" of African-Americans, Hispanics, displaced workers,
and other outsiders.
Democratic Leadership Council - Group formed by Arkansas governor
Bill Clinton, Senator Al Gore of Tennessee, and other moderates who were frustrated by the perception of Democrats as "big government" and a
"tax and spend party" and sought to stake out a more centrist party position.
Iran-contra scandal - Political scandal that involved Lt. Colonel Oliver North, a National Security Council aide in the White House, secretly
diverting profits from the sale of arms to Iran (an avowed enemy of the U.S) to the Nicaraguan contras at a time when Congress had forbidden
such aid.
Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty - Treaty signed by President Reagan and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, eliminating 2,500
U.S. and Soviet missiles from Europe.
Chapter 31
George Bush - 41st President of the United States, serving in office from 1989 - 1993.
Persian Gulf War - Conflict that was triggered by a dispute over oil-drilling rights, leading to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. This war
ended when the U.S. intervened, crushing Iraqi resistance and liberating Kuwait.
Americans with Disabilities Act - Law that barred discrimination against disabled
persons in hiring or education.
Clarence Thomas - Supreme Court Justice, who upheld executive power, interpreting the Constitution narrowly, and championing conservative
social issues.
Anita Hill - Former associate of Clarence Thomas, who accused him of sexual harassment in Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.
Albert Gore, Jr. - 45th U.S. Vice President, serving in the Clinton administration. He ran for President in the Election of 2000, narrowingly losing
after a controversial ballot-counting recount.
William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton - 42nd U.S. President, serving from 1993 - 2001. Also, he served as the Governor of Arkansas for twelve years
prior to his election to the U.S. Presidency.
Madeleine K. Albright - First female secretary of state, serving in office under the Clinton administration.
North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) - Pact which admitted Mexico to the free-trade zone that the United States and Canada had
created earlier.
Christian Coalition - Nationwide organization led by Pat Robertson that controlled several state Republican parties.
Newt Gingrich - Republican Congressman who wrote a "Contract with America" pledging to propose tax cuts, congressional term limits, tougher
crime laws, anti-pornography measures, a balanced-budget amendment, and other reforms.
Welfare Reform Act of 1996 - Landmark act that reversing sixty years of welfare policy, the law ended the largest federal program, AFDC. It
changed funding limits and guidelines and limited most recipients to two years of continuous coverage, with a five-year lifetime total.
Globalization - term for the increasing interdependence among people and corporations around the globe.
Kosovo - province of Serbia where Serbian forces attacked Muslims in 1998, triggering ongoing battles.
Strategic Arms ReductionTreaty - Agreement between the United States and Russia to cut their long-range nuclear arsenals by half.
Osama bin Laden - A wealthy Saudi Arabian and Islamic fundamentalist militant, bin Laden had been expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1991 and
taken refuge in Sudan, where he financed
large-scale construction and agricultural projects
Monica Lewinsky - Woman who had an affair with President Clinton while she was interning the White House.
George W. Bush - Current (and 43rd) President of the United States, serving in office from 2001 to the present.
Hillary Rodham Clinton - Wife of Bill Clinton. She was directly involved in policy-making during her husband's presidency
Oklahoma City Bombing of Murrah Federal Building. The blast, set off by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, killed 168 people, including 19
children in the building's day-care center.
Chapter 32
Richard (Dick) Cheney - Current (and 46th) U.S. Vice President, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to the present.
Colin Powell - Secretary of State under George W. Bush, he held the highest ranking office any African-American has served in a presidential
administration.
Condoleezza Rice - National security advisor under George W. Bush.
Donald Rumsfeld - Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush. He had also served as Secretary of Defense under President Ford.
September 11, 2001 - Fateful morning when three commercial airplanes hijacked by terrorists slammed into the Pentagon outside Washington,
D.C. and the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. As Americans watched in horror, the blazing towers collapsed, carrying more than
2,800 men and women to their deaths.
al Qaeda - terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Guantánamo Bay - U.S. naval base that has been used as a detainment camp for hundreds of captured al Qaeda fighters.
USA-Patriot Act - Anti-terrorist bill which extended the government's power to monitor telephone and e-mail communications and library
patrons' Internet searches.
Department of Homeland Security - Cabinet-level department created by Congress to coordinate anti-terrorism efforts. The new department
absorbed the Coast Guard, the Customs Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, and other agencies.
Neoconservatives Republicans who advocated an aggressive foreign policy dedicated to spreading democracy in the Arab world and beyond and
believed that the United States, as the world's superpower, should act alone to pursue its goals.
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - Refuge located in northeastern Alaska. Proposals by the George W. Bush administration to permit oil drilling in
the refuge stirred bitter controversy.
No Child Left Behind Act - Education reform program that called for standardized
national tests in grades four and eight to measure reading and math skills, with penalties for schools that fell short.
John Kerry - Massachusetts Senator and Democratic presidential nominee in the 2004 Election.
World Trade Organization - International organization which regulates the global trading system and provides dispute resolution between member
nations.
global warming - An increase in the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere, especially a sustained increase sufficient to cause climatic
change.
Kyoto Accords - A protocol setting strict emission targets for industrialized nations. President Bush refused to sign the agreement, making
America one of only four nations that refused to cooperate.
Hurricane Katrina - Hurricane that struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, with especially catastrophic devastation occurring in New Orleans. The Bush
administration's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, which took as many as 1,400 lives, brought new charges of incompetence.