US History Since 1877 - Study Guide
Spring 2025 Final Exam Review
Industrialization & The Gilded Age (1877-1900)
Surus the Elephant:
●​ Surus I was a war elephant belonging to Carthaginian general Hannibal during the
Second Pu nic War. He is believed to have been a Syrian or Indian elephant, not an
African forest elephant; he was the only survivor of Hannibal's original 37 war elephants
that crossed the Alps. Surus gained a reputation for being Hannibal's bravest and largest
elephant, and some believe he was Hannibal's personal elephant. He lost an eye after
single handedly destroying the Roman cavalry units at the battle of Trebia. He is forever
remembered as the destroyer of armies, supreme commander of the elephants, chief of
the calvary, major of the grand army, Carthage’s 1st citizen, God of war to the Egyptians,
The last of the Syrians, trampler of dreams, destructor of spirits, “Old Wise,” and mighty
Zeus's glorious sage of wisdom–the bringer of peace.
Key Industrial Innovations to Know:
●​ Bessemer process
o​ Process that allowed for the cheap and affordable production of strong steel.
Allowed for the creation of large buildings such as skyscrapers. Pioneered by
Andrew Carngie.
●​ Edison's incandescent light bulb
o​ Allowed factories to stay open 24/7 = more production
●​ McCormick's mechanical reaper
o​ Easier harvesting of crops
●​ Ford's Assembly Line = easy and cheap production of vehicles, and later, other goods
Government-Business Relationship:
●​ Know the federal government's approach to business during this era
o​ Mostly Laissez-faire approach. Interventionist against labor strikes; pro-business.
●​ Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) - purpose and effectiveness
o​ Attempted to outlaw trusts / monopolies. Didn't work and often targeted labor
unions instead of intended purpose.
o​ Clayton Antitrust Act later expanded on the Sherman Antitrust Act, making it
more effective
Key Industrialists:
●​ Andrew Carnegie (Steel)
o​ American Steel
o​ Utilizes the bessemer process to efficiently and cheaply make steel.
o​ Gospel of Wealth = he thought the rich had an obligation to spread wealth through
charity.
o​ Utilized vertical integration (ownership of all processes in supply chain)
●​ John D. Rockefeller (Oil)
o​ Founder of standard oil. Ruthlessly monopolizes: undercuts competition and buys
competitors.
o​ Horizontal integration
●​ J.P. Morgan (Banking/Finance)
o​ Buys companies and undergoes many mergers
▪​ Merger of Carnegie's American Steel and of companies results in US
Steel, the first billion dollar company.
▪​ JP Morgan & Company = bank; now known as Chase Bank
●​ Cornelius Vanderbilt (Railroads)
o​ Expanded railroad system in US; known as Commodore
o​ Horizontal
●​ Be able to describe their business practices and philanthropic efforts
Early Labor Unions:
●​ National Labor Union (1866): organized workers across all states; demand for higher
wages and 8-hour workdays
●​ Knights of Labor (1869): included both skilled and unskilled workers; decline after
Haymarket riot
●​ American Federation of Labor (1886): Largest and most successful union. Focused on
wages and working conditions. Didn't include unskilled workers. Founded by Samuel
Gompers.
Early Strikes:
●​ The Great Railroad Strike of 1877: wages are cut by 10%. Strike begins in Baltimore and
spreads from there. Ends in Chicago Haymarket riot which ends in violence. Makes
Knights of Labors very unpopular among the general public.
●​ Homestead Strike: steel workers take over Carnegie plant. Failed negotiation ends in the
governor sending in the Pennsylvania militia to end the strike.
●​ Pullman Strike of 1894: George Pullman cuts wages by 25%. Workers refuse to handle
Pullman cars. Strike led by Eugene V. Debs.
Political Parties:
●​ Eugene V. Debs = leader of US socialist party. Argued for workers and against
industrialists. Ideas and the party as a whole falter after rise of the USSR/ red scare.
●​ Populist Party = party for farmers. Want expanded federal power, income tax, silver
inflation and other reforms. Similar to Democrats during this time period.
○​ William Jennings Bryan
■​ "Cross of Gold" Speech
Western Expansion & Native American Policy:
●​ Homestead Act of 1862
o​ Act encouraging people to settle throughout continental United States. 160 acres
of land if settled and developed for 5 years. Passed by Lincoln. Must be a citizen/
filed for citizenship and 21 or older.
o​ Frontier closed in 1890
●​ Transcontinental railroad completed in 1869; stopped building at Promontory Point,
Utah.
●​ Gustavus Swift = Invention of refrigerated boxcar
●​ Native American boarding schools (Carlisle Indian Industrial School)
o​ Attempted to assimilate Natives into US culture.
o​ Run by Captain Richard H. Pratt.
o​ Very poor conditions for inhabitants.
●​ Reservation system
o​ Natives pushed onto reservations as the US took their land.
●​ Assimilation policies
●​ Dawes Act
o​ Divided Native American land equally among them. Leftover land was taken by
the US. Natives had to assimilate in order to take land = forced assimilation.
Natives generally had communal land ownership and pushed back against these
policies but lost.
American Imperialism & Spanish-American War
Causes of American Imperialism:
●​ Economic factors​
o​ Opening of foreign markets (mercantilism) and access to goods
●​ Strategic/military considerations
o​ Naval bases were sought after
o​ Alfred T. Mahaon says Navy is most important part of nation
●​ Cultural/ideological factors
o​ "Anglos are superior and must colonize to spread wealth"
●​ Hawaii:
o​ Sanford B Dole overthrows Queen Lili'uokalani. Tries to get Hawaii annexed by
US and forms Republic of Hawaii temporarily. Hawaii annexed under McKinley
in 1897.
Spanish-American War (1898):
●​ USS Maine
o​ Explosion of USS Maine leads to conflict with Cuba = leads to Spanish
American war
●​ De Lome Letter: Letter from Spanish ambassador to Spain that calls president McKinely
weak and stupid. The US does not take this letter kindly.
●​ Yellow journalism (Hearst and Pulitzer)
o​ Exaggerates Spanish American conflict; encourages public to go to war.
●​ Battle of Manila Bay
o​ Quick defeat of Spanish in Philippines by George Dewey.
●​ Battle of San Juan Hill
o​ Success by Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders
●​ Treaty of Paris results
o​ Spain surrenders; Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the U.S.
●​ Territorial acquisitions
Theodore Roosevelt
●​ Big Stick Diplomacy = diplomacy first, military as last resort for negotiations
●​ Square Deal = consumers need protection, corporations need control, & conservationism
●​ Steps down after the 2nd term, letting Taft run in his place. Eventually comes to dislike
taft, forming a third party, the "Bull Moose Party" in the 1912 election. Leads to split in
republican vote, leading to democrat victory in Wilson.
○​ Why?: Taft supports Payne-Aldrich Tariff; Pinchot-Ballot controversy happens
under Taft where he fires the Chief of Forest Service
Woodrow Wilson:
●​ Underwood Tariffs = lowers tariffs
●​ Federal Trade commission = investigates monopolies & Clayton Antitrust Act as
expansion of Sherman Antitrust Act
●​ Federal Reserve Act = regulates the government's supply of money
●​ Child Labor Act = Prohibits interstate commerce of products made by children
●​ Federal Farm Loan Act = low loan interest rates for farmers
Progressive Era (1890s-1920s)
●​ 16th Amendment: income tax
●​ 17th Amendment: direct election of senators
●​ 18th Amendment: prohibition
●​ 19th Amendment: women's suffrage
Political Reforms:
●​ Initiative: Voters petitions for new laws
●​ Referendum: voters vote directly on the law
●​ Recall: voters can remove politicians from office
●​ Direct election of senators (17th Amendment)
●​ Women's suffrage
o​ NAWSA: National Woman's Suffrage Association
▪​ Led by Carrie Chapman Catt; Fighting state by state to win voting rights
o​ NWP: National Women's Party
▪​ More militant approach to gaining voting rights
●​ Muckrakers = journalists who expose corruption; coined by Theodore Roosevelt
●​ Muller v. Oregon: protects Women from 10 hour workday
●​ Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: Women are locked in factory during fire; leads to public outrage
and introduction of safety standards
●​ Temperance = stopping drinking for religious purposes; Prohibition = banning of alcohol
Key Reformers:
●​ Jane Addams
o​ Opened Hull Houses for immigrants and impoverished individuals offering
services such as healthcare, childcare, etc.
●​ Upton Sinclair
o​ Writes "The Jungle"; calls for workers rights. Depicts grotesque images of food
which leads to regulation: FDA, pure food and drug act, meat inspection act
●​ Ida B. Wells
o​ Writes "Souther Horrors"; exposes lynching and other atrocities in the South
●​ W.E.B. Du Bois
o​ Created the NAACP
o​ Argues for immediate political and social equality
o​ PhD from harvard
●​ Booker T. Washington
o​ Ex-Slave
o​ Created Tuskegee institute to train African Americans in vocational skills
o​ Argues for gradual rights
Legal Precedents & The Old South:
●​ Plessy v. Ferguson
o​ "Separate but equal"
●​ Jim Crow Laws = Laws that instituted racism in the South.
o​ Mandated segregation of places like schools, buses, bathrooms, etc.
●​ KKK = cult that terrorized black communities
o​ Lynchings = public killing of accussed without proper trial. Used by KKK.
Mexico:
●​ Huerta = dictator who takes control of Mexico
●​ Wilson tries to take Mexico back by force, arming revolutionaries and sending in the
American Expeditionary Force under John J Pershing (unsuccessful)
World War I (1914-1918)
Causes:
●​ Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
o​ Austrian
o​ Assassinated by Gavrilo Princip in 1914; he was a member of a Serbian terrorist
group "The Black Hand." Austria blamed Serbia for the death, causing them to
declare war on them. This caused a domino effect in which every major power
declared war on their enemies.
●​ European alliance system
o​ Before:
▪​ Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy
▪​ Triple Entente: France, Russia, Great Britain
o​ During:
▪​ Allied Powers: France, Russia, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, United States
(joined 1917)
▪​ Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria
●​ Militarism, nationalism, imperialism
US Entry and Mobilization:
●​ Initial US policy
o​ US initially wanted to stay out of the war and remain neutral
●​ Selective Service Act of 1917
o​ Required men aged between 21 and 30 to register for the draft
●​ Reasons for US entry
o​ Sinking of the RMS Lusitania: had 128 Americans on board.
▪​ Germany initially ended unrestricted submarine warfare after this incident
to appease the US but they eventually resumed it.
▪​ Reason: it was carrying war supplies to Britain.
o​ Zimmerman Telegraph
▪​ Germany sends telegraph to Mexico offering to help them get the land
back they lost in the Mexican-American war; they decline.
Home Front:
●​ War industries
o​ Liberty gardens = grow crops for men at war
●​ Women's roles
o​ Women take over factory work with men at war. Demonstrated they had same
capacity as men, furthering the goal for equal rights in the workplace.
o​ Leads to push for 19th amendment.
●​ African American migration
o​ African Americans take jobs in cities that are left over. Leads to conflict in cities
after war (Red Summer)
●​ Civil liberties during wartime
o​ Espionage Act: disallowed interference with the draft
Aftermath:
●​ Woodrow Wilson's 14 points:
○​ Freedom of the seas
○​ No more trade barriers
○​ Reduce militaries
○​ Self determinization/self-government
○​ League of Nations (most important)
●​ Treaty of Versailles
○​ Woodrow's 14 points are rejected but league of nations is formed
○​ US doesn't join due to return to isolationist policies
New Era:
●​ Charles Lindbergh = first solo flight around the world
●​ Prohibition in 18th amendment; reversed in 21st
○​ Speakeasies = secret illegal bars
○​ Rise in crime rate and gangsterism
●​ Scopes Monkey Trial: ACLU challenges law in Tennessee against teaching evolution in
public schools. John Scopes = teacher who taught evolution, loses.
●​ Palmer Raids: series of raids and arrests on suspected socialists
●​ Sacco and Vanzetti
○​ Italian anarchists; found guilty on murder and robbery charges even though there
is no real proof. Result of anti-communist sentiment.
●​ Immigration is targeted due to nativist sentiments.
○​ Quota Act of 1921 = 3% cap of 1910 census
○​ National Quota Act of 1921 = 2% cap of 1890 census
○​ Japanese immigration prohibited
●​ KKK arises again as ultraconservative group; anti-diversity and modernity; nativist/
white supremicist
The Great Depression (1929-1939)
Causes:
●​ Stock market crash ("Black Tuesday")
o​ Due to rampant speculation and buying on the margin. Investors used money from
banks to buy stock and now couldn't give it back = banks ran out of money.
●​ Agricultural sector issues
o​ Dust Bowl
●​ Banking system problems
o​ People try to withdraw all of their cash in run to the banks
●​ Government economic policies
●​ Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act: raises tariffs in order to protect economy; only worsens great
depression.
Key Terminology:
●​ Hoovervilles
o​ Shantytowns resulting from increased poverty and loss of housing
●​ Dust Bowl
o​ Large amounts of fine soil/ sand produced due to excessive plowing and lack of
rain
●​ Stock Market
●​ Black Tuesday
o​ Day of stock market crash
●​ Recession
●​ Credit
●​ Economy
●​ Stock
Impact and Response:
●​ Groups most affected
o​ Farmers
o​ African Americans
●​ Herbert Hoover's approach
o​ Smoot-Hawley Tariffs; worsened the depression
o​ Limited government intervention and voluntary actions; "hands off" approach
●​ Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal
o​ Keynesian Economics = running deficits during times of poor economy.
Borrowed money would be payed back later.
o​ First New Deal: Short term issues
▪​ March 9, 1933 – Emergency Banking Relief Act: Gave the president the
power to regulate banking transactions; foreign and domestic
▪​ March 12, 1933 – first of 30 “fireside chats”: assured the public that it was
safer to keep the money in the bank
▪​ March 1933 – Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): Employed 3 million
young men; jobs like reforestation, firefighting, flood control, swamp
drainage.
▪​ May 1933 – Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA): 3 billion dollars
granted to the states for social welfare and public works projects
▪​ May 1933 – Civil Works Administration (CWA): Branch of FERA;
offered temporary jobs in the winter
▪​ June 1933 – Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act: Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC); insured individuals would deposit up to
$5000. Ended US banking failures
o​ Second New Deal:
▪​ 1938 – Fair Labor Standards Act (Wages and Hours Bill)
▪​ Set minimum wages (40 cents per hours)
▪​ Set maximum hours (40 hours per week)
▪​ Ban of child labor for those under 16 (18 if the occupation was
dangerous)
▪​ Excluded agricultural, service, domestic workers
▪​ African Americans and Women concentrated in these
industries
▪​ 1935 – Social Security Act: federal unemployment insurance. The
unemployed received 10 to 85 dollars in monthly payments. Helped the
disabled, elderly and other dependents
▪​ 1935 – John L. Lewis (United Mine Workers) formed Committee for
Industrial Organization (CIO) within the American Federation of Labor
(AFL)
▪​ CIO broke away from AFL after being suspended
▪​ Wanted to organize unskilled workers.
▪​ CIO sit-down strike + no government interference = recognition
▪​ 1937: recession due to excess spending
●​ What ultimately ended the economic crisis
o​ Really ended due to emerging global tensions in Europe
World War II (1939-1945)
Road to War:
●​ Rise of fascism
o​ Blackshirts = Mussolini
o​ Hitler
▪​ Joins Bavarian army and fights in World War 1. Mad about treaty of
Versailles not favoring Germans.
▪​ Joins German Workers Party and eventually becomes leader; renamed to
Nazi party later.
▪​ Revolt against Democratic Weimar republic in Germany = Beer Hall
Putsch
▪​ Mein Kampf = blames Jews and communists for Germany's failure in
WW1
▪​ SA Brownshirts = military group supporter hitler
▪​ SA (assault division)
▪​ SS (security division)
▪​ Led by Heinrich Himmler
o​ Nuremberg Laws = took away Jewish rights in Germany
o​ Spanish Civil War: Precursor to WW2
▪​ Franciso Franco = Spanish dictator
▪​ German technology on the revolting side, British and US technology on
the non-revolting side. Franco won, demonstrating that the German
technology had the capacity to beat that of other Western powers.
●​ Appeasement policy
o​ Give Hitler Rhineland, Sudetenland, and merge with Austria = he won't attack;
doesn't work
●​ German invasion of Poland
o​ Blitzkrieg tactics; no threat of 2 front war atm
●​ Pearl Harbor attack
o​ Japan attacks US Pearl Harbor due to sanctions on steel, oil, and other goods
Military Strategies:
●​ Blitzkrieg
o​ Quickly rushing and taking out enemy
●​ Island hopping
o​ Going between islands important to Japanese and taking them
●​ Soviet Eastern Front contributions
o​ Stalled Hitler with scorched-earth tactics
Pre-War US Policies:
●​ Cash and Carry policy
o​ Countries buying non-war supplies from America had to use cash and pay for
their own transport of goods.
●​ Lend-Lease Act (1941)
o​ Allowed FDR to aid any country vital to US national security
During the War:
●​ Atlantic Charter: Secret meeting between FDR and Churchill. How to win the war and
what would happen after the war. Left Stalin out.
●​ Two Theaters:
○​ European/ North African Theater
■​ Invasion of Italy by general George Patton
●​ Won with battle of Anzio
■​ Soviet Union invasion by Germans = slow
●​ Scorched Earth tactic = destroying surrounding environments and
their resources; slowed German invasion
●​ Battle of Stalingrad = turning point in Soviet Union
●​ D-Day:
○​ Before: Ghost Armies made location/ attacks unpredictable
■​ Ghost Army = fake army
○​ Beaches: Omaha (US), Utah (US), Sword (UK + CA),
Gold, Juno
●​ Battle of the Bulge: last German offensive; allied victory
○​ Largest battle fought by the US
●​ Dresden Terror Bombings: Allied bombings of German cities after
Battle of the Bulge
●​ Soviet and American troops meet at Elbe River through invasion of
Germany
○​ Pacific Theater
■​ Doolittle Raids = bombing of Tokyo by US 4 months after Pearl Harbor
■​ Bataan Death March: American POW are marched through Bataan
peninsula; 76k total, 10k are killed
■​ Battle of Midway = turning point in the Pacific; US loses 1 air carrier;
Japan 4
■​ Battle of Guadalcanal: US takes island to prevent Japanese using it as an
airbase
●​ jungle warfare; forced Japan out
■​ Island-Hopping: selectively attacking or passing by enemy-held islands
■​ Philippines Campaign: US takes Leyte island. Japanese attempt to repel
them. US wins in largest naval battle.
■​ Battle of Okinawa: One of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific theater.
Close to Japan. Preparation for American invasion of Japan (doesn't
happen, nukes dropped instead)
■​ Nuking of Japan:
●​ Under US Manhattan project nukes are developed
●​ Enola Gay dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima
●​ Fat Man (aiden xander morris)dropped on Nagasaki
●​ Nukes lead to tensions in Cold War
Home Front:
●​ Women in the workforce
o​ Women became more prominent in workforce due to men being at war = leads to
more rights for women in workplace as happened in WW1
●​ African American civil rights movement
●​ Japanese American internment
o​ Allowed under executive order 9066. Over 100k Japanese-Americans were
interned.
●​ Industrial mobilization
●​ Wind Talkers = Navajo code using their language; practically uncrackable since the
language was little known in the broader world
●​ GI Bill/ Serviceman's Readjustment Act (1944) = passed after WW2 that allowed US
veterans to attend college for free
After the War:
●​ Yalta: WW2 conference between powers on how to divide Poland. Leads to significant
conflict between the US and USSR.
○​ The Soviets were an ally of convenience against Hitler and now they are the only
major power = insuing conflict.
●​ Potsdam: How to divide Germany. Divides into 50% USSR and 50% Western European
and US. Berlin is split down the middle between the two factions.
○​ 4 occupation zones: France, Britain, US, USSR
The Cold War (1945-1991)
Containment Policy: Policy of restricting communist forces geopolitical expansion
●​ Get Tough Policy = policy to contain Soviet control by Truman
●​ Truman Doctrine
o​ Give Turkey and Greece aid against communist parties/ forces.
●​ Marshall Plan
o​ Plan to aid Western Europe with $13 billion dollars to promote economic and
industrial growth; Eastern Europe countries under Soviet satellite not allowed to
be given aid
●​ NATO formation
o​ Mutual defense pact between US, Canada, and key Western European powers.
o​ Warsaw pact in Eastern bloc and Soviet Union is a counter to this with a similar
pact but between the Soviet Union and its satellite states.
●​ Korean War
o​ Between Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea, Soviet) and Republic of
Korea (US). North Korea is winning at first but is pushed back to Chinese border
when US intervenes led by general Douglass MacArthur. Chinese forces attack
and stalemate emerges. MacArthur argues for nuclear war but is fired for
insubordination. Stalemate emerges at 38th parallel.
Major Events and Crises:
●​ Berlin Blockade/Airlift
o​ Soviet blockades Berlin. US and other forces have to airdrop supplies in order to
supply the city.
●​ Cuban Missile Crisis
o​ Cuba alights with Soviets after (failed) Bay of Pigs invasion by US and Cuban
exiles. Soviets put missiles on Cuba as seen by US spy planes. Response to US
putting Jupiter missiles in Turkey and Italy. Leads to escalating conflict that
teeters on nuclear war. Blockade of Cuba to prevent further imports. Eventually
settled with no major conflict.
●​ Space Race
o​ Soviets lead the way: Sputnik = first satellite
o​ US wins with first man on the moon
●​ Vietnam War
o​ Ho Chi Minh speaks out against French colonial rules at UN press conference.
Promptly ignored. Sides with Soviet and Chinese communist powers and founds
Indochinese Communist party. Leads First Indochinese war against France but is
quickly shut down.
o​ Vietminh in North Vietnam = communists. South Vietnam = as whole under US
control; Vietcong = radical party in South Vietnam, communists.
o​ Gulf of Tonkin: USS Maddox attacked; leads to escalation of Vietnam conflict.
Lindon B Johnson escalates the war with Operation Rolling Thunder which
bombs the country. A stalemate eventually emerges due to guerilla warfare by the
Vietcong in the dense jungles; no major progress, just large causality counts by
US.
o​ Tet Offensive = US attacks during peace holiday. Vietcong also attack but much
more spread out, taking many cities. Leads to unpopular view of Vietnam war
because no progress was being made. Antiwar especially popular among college
students.
o​ Nixon draws US out of Vietnam gradually: Vietnamization. Paris Peace Accords
= ends war in Vietnam.
Preventing Direct Conflict:
●​ Know what factor most effectively prevented direct military conflict between the US and
USSR
o​ Mutually assured destruction (MAD); both thought nuclear war would lead to
total atomic inhalation
o​ Brinkmanship pushed conflict to the brink of explosion but not quite to the edge
Civil Rights Movement
Key Events and Legislation:
●​ Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
o​ Overturning of separate but equal in Plessy v. Ferguson. Makes segregation illegal
in US school system. Takes a while to happen; only until 1970s are ~80% of
schools integrated.
●​ Montgomery Bus Boycott
o​ Boycott of montgomery bus system due to planned arrest of Rosa Parks. Lasted
381 days and led to desegregation of Montgomery bus system.
●​ Freedom Rides
o​ Activists traveled through bus through still segregated South. Due to interstate bus
travel being required as non segregated by US supreme court. Organized by the
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
●​ March on Washington
o​ Roughly 300k people attend march. Protest for equal rights. "I Have a Dream
Speech" by Martin Luther King.
●​ Civil Rights Act of 1964
o​ Banned discrimination.
●​ Voting Rights Act of 1965
o​ Removed voting tax that primarily inhibited Black and other minority voters due
to increased poverty among these individuals.
Civil Rights Leaders and Approaches:
●​ NAACP legal strategy
o​ Lawyers orchestrate lawsuits against government for segregationist policies.
●​ Martin Luther King Jr. - nonviolent civil disobedience
o​ Sit-ins, bus boycotts, and otherwise peaceful method of protests against
segregation.
●​ Malcolm X and Black Nationalism
o​ Blacks should be able to defend themselves by any means necessary. Did not
advocate for violent directly but still challenged the idea that non-violence was
the only way of legitimate protest.
o​ Advocating for Black self-reliance and defense.
●​ Black Panther Party
o​ Communist radical African American party. Demonstrated use of militant and
otherwise violent practices as a result of police brutality and institutionalized
racism. Striking contrast to peaceful protests by Martin Lurther King.
Late 20th/Early 21st Century
●​ Lyndon B Johns
○​ Great Society:
■​ Series of domestic programs that aimed to address poverty, discrimination
and other societal issues.
●​ Richard Nixon
○​ Vietnamization = slow removal from troops out of Vietnam; Paris Peace Accords
end American military involvement there, but funds were still sent to South
Vietnam until its collapse in 1975
○​ Detente: strategy employed by Nixon and Carter that negotiated with communist
powers to ease relations
■​ Arms controls agreements with the Soviet Union
●​ Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT I) and Anti-Ballistic
Missile (ABM) Treaty
○​ Watergate = illegal activities by Nixon's party; spying and burglary. Leds to him
stepping down and Gerald Ford (vice president) taking over. He pardons Nixon
leading to public outrage.
●​ Jimmy Carter
○​ Elected due republican party's unpopularity after watergate scandal.
○​ Stagflation = high inflation and high unemployment
○​ Camp David Accords: Eased tensions between Israel and Egypt
■​ Led to signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty (1979) = Egypt first arab
country to recognize Israel
■​ Notable success
○​ Foreign Policy Challenges:
■​ Iranian Hostage Crisis: 52 American diplomats and citizens held captive in
Tehran for 444 days
■​ Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
■​ Arab-Israeli/ Tom-Kippur War
○​ Economic Shift = de-industrialization and more focus on service sector of the
economy
○​ "Crisis of Confidence"/ malaise speech = speech by Jimmy Carter arguing there
was a moral and spiritual decline in US due to consumerism, selfishness and loss
of faith
●​ Women's Movement/ Second Wave Feminism:
○​ National Organization for Women (NOW): Women's rights; end gender
discrimination
■​ Founded by Betty Friedan
○​ Equal rights amendment: would have provided equal rights under the law
regardless of gender; failed to ratify
○​ Roe v. Wade = Reproductive rights; legalized abortion
●​ The New Right: Opposition to social and political changes of the 1960s
○​ Religious Right: Evangelical Christians; focus = anti-abortion, school prayer,
traditional family values
○​ Movements laid groundwork for election of Ronald Reagan
○​ Sun Belt = South half of US
■​ Population and economic growth, weaker unions, lower taxes = more
favorable business climate
■​ Growth in political influence over time
■​ Conservative
●​ Ronald Reagan:
○​ Economic Policies:
■​ supply-side economics/ trickle-down economics; deficit spending
●​ trickle-down economics = theory that tax cuts for the rich and
corporations will trickle down and benefit everyone
●​ Economic Recovery Tax Act
○​ Tax on rich from 70% to 50%
●​ Deregulated key industries
○​ Decline in labor unions
●​ results:
○​ inflation falls from 12.5% to 4.4%
○​ GDP grows 7.2%, unemployment falls to 5.3%
○​ Federal deficits: 74 billion to 221 billion
○​ National debt balloons as well: 906 billion to 2.6 trillion
○​ Greater inequality among the poor and rich
■​ Overturning of keynesian economic practices
■​ Increase in military budget and spending from $303 billion to $421 billion
●​ "Star Wars"= Space based anti-ballistic missile system
○​ Rejected use of detente
○​ War on Drugs = $3 billion dollar federal anti-drug campaign
■​ Harsher sentences for crack = tougher on minorities since crack use was
higher among them.
●​ Cocaine had lighter sentences
○​ 80% of crack convictions = minorities, 30% powder
Key Events: 09
●​ North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): eliminated trade barriers between the
US, Mexico, and Canada
●​ End of Cold War
o​ Mikhail Gorbachev = leader of Soviet Union
o​ Fall of the Berlin Wall (9 Nov 1989): televised breach ends the physical division
of East/West Berlin and signals collapse of communist countries across Eastern
Europe.
o​ Dissolution of the USSR (25 Dec 1991): 15 Soviet republics declare
independence; Boris Yeltsin heads the Russian Federation;
▪​ Shift to a unipolar U.S.–led world order.
o​ Arms‑reduction & realignment – INF Treaty (1987) → START I (1991); NATO
begins eastward expansion; U.S. cuts but re‑tools defense spending for
“peace‑dividend” technologies.
●​ Technological revolution
o​ Information Age: personal computers (IBM PC 1981 → Windows ’95) & the
commercial Internet (WWW goes public 1991) transform work and
communication.
o​ Dot‑com Boom & Bust (1995‑2000): surge in e‑commerce & venture capital,
crash resets tech sector but leaves infrastructure in place for future giants (Google,
Amazon, etc.).
o​ Mobile & Social Media era: smartphones (iPhone 2007), social networks
(Facebook 2004, Twitter 2006) globalize real‑time news, activism (Arab
Spring 2011), and disinformation challenges.
▪​ Arab Spring = Series of anti-government protests in arab countries. Starts
in Tunisia → spreads throughout entire Middle Eastern region
o​ Shift to knowledge/service economy, off‑shoring of manufacturing, widening
digital divide, rise of cyber‑security & privacy debates.
●​ 9/11 attacks
o​ 19 Al‑Qaeda operatives hijack 4 airliners → Twin Towers collapse; Pentagon hit;
Flight 93 crashes in PA;
▪​ 2,977 victims – deadliest foreign attack on U.S. soil.
o​ Aftermath = creation of Department of Homeland Security & USA PATRIOT Act
expands government surveillance; large spike in Islamophobia & hate crimes.
o​ Invokes NATO article. 5; bipartisan support for a global “War on Terror.”
●​ War on Terror
o​ Afghanistan:
▪​
Operation Enduring Freedom deposes Taliban (Oct 2001)
▪​
U.S./NATO withdrawal Aug 2021 → Taliban regain control
o​ Iraq:
▪​
2003 invasion (WMD justification) topples Saddam
▪​
U.S. combat troops out 2011; power vacuum contributes to rise of ISIS.
o​ Global CT toolkit:
▪​ drone warfare (Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia), extraordinary rendition,
Guantánamo Bay detentions
▪​ legal/ethical debates over torture & civil liberties.
o​ Counter‑terror alliances & domestic security layers (TSA, NSA metadata
collection) define 21st‑century national‑security state.
●​ Al-Qaeda
o​ Founded late‑1980s by Osama bin Laden & Ayman al‑Zawahiri out of Afghan
mujahideen networks. Ideology of global jihad vs. U.S. “far enemy.”
o​ Key Attacks:
▪​ U.S. embassy bombings (Kenya/Tanzania); 1998
▪​ USS Cole (2000)
▪​
9/11
o​ Post‑9/11 decentralization: bin Laden is killed in May 2011 but regional branches
(AQAP, AQIM, al‑Nusra) pursue local insurgencies; rivalry with ISIS after 2014.
Terms to Define
Define these key terms as part of your review:
●​ Laissez-faire
●​ Yellow journalism
●​ Muckraking
●​ Manifest Destiny
●​ Jim Crow laws
●​ Isolationism
●​ Appeasement
●​ Containment
●​ Détente
●​ Great Migration
●​ Kamikaze
●​ Great Society
●​ Imperialism
●​ Total war
●​ New Deal
●​ Nonviolent civil disobedience
●​ Black nationalism