Glossary for United States History
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| Definition | |
|---|---|
| 13th Amendment | The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, formally abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States. This groundbreaking amendment represented the culmination of the abolitionist movement and marked a fundamental shift in American society, though its promise of complete freedom w |
| 14th Amendment | Constitutional amendment passed during Reconstruction to guarantee equal protection and due process for all citizens, particularly addressing the rights of recently freed slaves. |
| 15th Amendment | Constitutional amendment prohibiting the denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude, passed in 1870 as a key Reconstruction-era civil rights measure. |
| abolitionist | a believer in the complete elimination of slavery |
| al-Qaeda | a militant Islamist group originally founded by Osama bin Ladenboomerang generationyoung people who must return to their parents’ home in order to make ends meetBush Doctrinethe belief that the United States has the right to protect itself from terrorist acts by engaging in pre-emptive wars or oust… |
| alcalde | a Mexican official who often served as combined civil administrator, judge, and law enforcement officer |
| American individualism | The belief, strongly held by Herbert Hoover and others, that hard work and individual effort, absent government interference, comprised the formula for success in the U.S. |
| American Party | Also called the Know-Nothing Party, a political party that emerged in 1856 with an anti-immigration platform |
| American System | the program of federally sponsored roads and canals, protective tariffs, and a national bank advocated by Henry Clay and enacted by President Adams |
| Americanization | the process by which an Indian was “redeemed” and assimilated into the American way of life by changing his clothing to western clothing and renouncing his tribal customs in exchange for a parcel of land |
| antebellum | a term meaning “before the war” and used to describe the decades before the American Civil War began in 1861 |
| Anti-Federalists | those who opposed the 1787 Constitution and favored stronger individual states |
| Anti-Imperialist League | a group of diverse and prominent Americans who banded together in 1898 to protest the idea of American empire building |
| appeasement | The policy of giving in to threats and aggression in the hopes that the aggressor will be satisfied and make no more demands |
| Army of the Potomac | The Union fighting force operating outside Washington, DC |
| Army of the West | The Union fighting force operating in Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Mississippi River Valley |
| artisan | skilled, experienced worker who produces specialized goods by hand |
| Atlanta Compromise | Booker T. Washington’s speech, given at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895, where he urged African Americans to work hard and get along with others in their white communities, so as to earn the goodwill of the country |
| baby boom | A marked increase in the U.S. birthrate during 1946–1964 |
| bank run | The withdrawal by a large number of individuals or investors of money from a bank due to fears of the bank's instability, with the ironic effect of increasing the bank's vulnerability to failure |
| Barnburners | northern Democrats loyal to Martin Van Buren who opposed the extension of slavery into the territories and broke away from the main party when it nominated a pro-popular sovereignty candidate |
| Battle of Wounded Knee | an attempt to disarm a group of Lakota Sioux Indians near Wounded Knee, South Dakota, which resulted in members of the Seventh Cavalry of the U.S. Army opening fire and killing over 150 Indians |
| Beringia` | an ancient land bridge linking Asia and North America |
| bicameral | having two legislative houses, an upper and a lower house |
| Big Three | The nickname given to the leaders of the three major Allied nations: Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin |
| Bill of Rights | the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, which guarantee individual rights |
| Black Codes | Discriminatory state laws passed across the South in 1865-1866 that restricted formerly enslaved people's civic rights and tied them to plantation labor in the absence of slavery itself. |
| Black Death | two strains of the bubonic plague that simultaneously swept western Europe in the fourteenth century, causing the death of nearly half the population |
| Black Legend | Spain’s reputation as bloodthirsty conquistadors |
| Black Power | a political ideology encouraging African Americans to create their own institutions and develop their own economic resources independent of whites |
| Black Pride | a cultural movement among African Americans to encourage pride in their African heritage and to substitute African and African American art forms, behaviors, and cultural products for those of whites |
| black separatism | an ideology that called upon African Americans to reject integration with the white community and, in some cases, to physically separate themselves from whites in order to create and preserve their self-determination |
| Black Tuesday | October 29, 1929, when a mass panic caused a crash in the stock market and stockholders divested over sixteen million shares, causing the overall value of the stock market to drop precipitously |
| blacklist | A list of people suspected of having Communist sympathies who were denied work as a result |
| Bleeding Kansas | A reference to the violent clashes in Kansas between Free-Soilers and slavery supporters |
| bloody shirt campaign | the strategy of Republican candidates to stress the sacrifices that the nation had to endure in its Civil War against Democratic southern secessionists |
| bonanza farms | large farms owned by speculators who hired laborers to work the land; these large farms allowed their owners to benefit from economies of scale and prosper, but they did nothing to help small family farms, which continued to struggle |
| Bonus Army | A group of World War I veterans and affiliated groups who marched to Washington in 1932 to demand their war bonuses early, only to be refused and forcibly removed by the U.S. Army |
| border ruffians | Proslavery Missourians who crossed the border into Kansas to influence the legislature |
| Boston Massacre | a confrontation between a crowd of Bostonians and British soldiers on March 5, 1770, which resulted in the deaths of five people, including Crispus Attucks, the first official casualty in the war for independence |
| Brains Trust | An unofficial advisory cabinet to President Franklin Roosevelt, originally gathered while he was governor of New York, to present possible solutions to the nations' problems; among its prominent members were Rexford Tugwell, Raymond Moley, and Adolph Berle |
| California Gold Rush | the period between 1848 and 1849 when prospectors found large strikes of gold in California, leading others to rush in and follow suit; this period led to a cycle of boom and bust through the area, as gold was discovered, mined, and stripped |
| Californios | Mexican residents of California |
| Calvinism | a branch of Protestantism started by John Calvin, emphasizing human powerlessness before an omniscient God and stressing the idea of predestination |
| Carpetbagger | A term of abuse for northerners accused of moving south during Reconstruction to profit from political power at former Confederates' expense. |
| Carter Doctrine | Jimmy Carter’s declaration that efforts to interfere with American interests in the Middle East would be considered a act of aggression and be met with force if necessary |
| cash crop | a crop grown to be sold for profit instead of consumption by the farmer’s family |
| chasquis | Incan relay runners used to send messages over great distances |
| chattel slavery | a system of servitude in which people are treated as personal property to be bought and sold |
| checks and balances | the system that ensures a balance of power among the branches of government |
| chinampas | floating Aztec gardens consisting of a large barge woven from reeds, filled with dirt and floating on the water, allowing for irrigation |
| Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 | Federal law prohibiting the immigration of Chinese laborers. First major law restricting immigration by nationality. |
| Citizen Genêt affair | the controversy over the French representative who tried to involve the United States in France’s war against Great Britain |
| City Beautiful | a movement begun by Daniel Burnham and Fredrick Law Olmsted, who believed that cities should be built with three core tenets in mind: the inclusion of parks within city limits, the creation of wide boulevards, and the expansion of more suburbs |
| Civil Rights Act of 1866 | First federal law to define citizenship and protect civil rights for recently freed slaves, passed over President Andrew Johnson's veto. |
| Civil Rights | Legal and political rights guaranteed to all citizens, at issue in Reconstruction-era debates over the status of formerly enslaved African Americans. |
| civil service | the contrast to the spoils system, where political appointments were based on merit, not favoritism |
| Civil War Aftermath | The period immediately following the Civil War, characterized by massive social, political, and economic transformation as the United States sought to reunify and address the consequences of slavery. |
| Civilian Conservation Corps | A public program for unemployed young men from relief families who were put to work on conservation and land management projects around the country |
| Clark Memorandum | Hoover's repudiation of the Roosevelt Corollary that justified American military intervention in Latin American affairs; this memorandum improved relations with America's neighbors by reasserting that intervention would occur only in the event of European interference in the Western Hemisphere |
| clear and present danger | The expression used by Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in the case of Schenck v. United States to characterize public dissent during wartime, akin to shouting "fire!" in a crowded theater |
| code of deference | the practice of showing respect for individuals who had distinguished themselves through accomplishments or birth |
| Coercive Acts | four acts (Administration of Justice Act, Massachusetts Government Act, Port Act, Quartering Act) that Lord North passed to punish Massachusetts for destroying the tea and refusing to pay for the damage |
| Cold War | The prolonged period of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, based on ideological conflicts and competition for military, economic, social, and technological superiority, and marked by surveillance and espionage, political assassinations, an arms race, attempts to secure alliance… |
| colonization | the strategy of moving African Americans out of the United States, usually to Africa |
| Columbian Exchange | the movement of plants, animals, and diseases across the Atlantic due to European exploration of the Americas |
| Committees of Correspondence | colonial extralegal shadow governments that convened to coordinate plans of resistance against the British |
| commodification | the transformation of something—for example, an item of ritual significance—into a commodity with monetary value |
| Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad | May 10, 1869 |
| Compromise of 1850 | Five laws passed by Congress to resolve issues stemming from the Mexican Cession and the sectional crisis |
| Compromise of 1877 | The informal 1877 agreement that awarded Rutherford B. Hayes the contested 1876 presidential election in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction. |
| Comstock Lode | the first significant silver find in the country, discovered by Henry T. P. Comstock in 1859 in Nevada |
| concurrent majority | a majority of a separate region (that would otherwise be in the minority of the nation) with the power to veto or disallow legislation put forward by a hostile majority |
| Confederacy | The new nation formed by the seceding southern states, also known as the Confederate States of America (CSA) |
| confiscation acts | state-wide acts that made it legal for state governments to seize Loyalists’ property |
| Connecticut Compromise | also known as the Great Compromise, Roger Sherman’s proposal at the Constitutional Convention for a bicameral legislature, with the upper house having equal representation for all states and the lower house having proportional representation |
| conscientious objectors | Those who, for religious or philosophical reasons, refuse to serve in the armed forces |
| conservative Whigs | the politically and economically elite revolutionary class that wanted to limit political participation to a few powerful families |
| containment | The U.S. policy that sought to limit the expansion of Communism abroad |
| Continental currency | the paper currency that the Continental government printed to fund the Revolution |
| contrabands | Slaves who escaped to the Union army's lines |
| Contract with America | a list of eight specific legislative reforms or initiatives that Republicans representatives promised to enact if they gained a majority in Congress in the 1994 midterm elections |
| Copperheads | Democrats who opposed Lincoln in the 1864 election |
| Corps of Discovery | the group led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on the expedition to explore and map the territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase |
| corrupt bargain | the term that Andrew Jackson’s supporters applied to John Quincy Adams’s 1824 election, which had occurred through the machinations of Henry Clay in the U.S. House of Representatives |
| cotton boom | the upswing in American cotton production during the nineteenth century |
| cotton gin | a device, patented by Eli Whitney in 1794, that separated the seeds from raw cotton quickly and easily |
| counterculture | a culture that develops in opposition to the dominant culture of a society |
| counterinsurgency | a new military strategy under the Kennedy administration to suppress nationalist independence movements and rebel groups in the developing world |
| coverture | the legal status of married women in the United States, which included complete legal and economic dependence on husbands |
| Coxey’s Army | an 1894 protest, led by businessman Jacob Coxey, to advocate for public works jobs for the unemployed by marching on Washington, DC |
| Crittenden Compromise | A compromise, suggested by Kentucky senator John Crittenden, that would restore the 36°30′ line from the Missouri Compromise and extend it to the Pacific Ocean, allowing slavery to expand into the southwestern territories |
| Crop-Lien System | A credit system in which store owners advanced goods to farmers against a share of their future harvest, at high interest rates that trapped freed people in debt. |
| Crusades | a series of military expeditions made by Christian Europeans to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries |
| Cultural Assimilation | Late 19th-century U.S. policy aimed at integrating Native Americans into mainstream society. |
| Cumberland Road | a national highway that provided thousands with a route from Maryland to Illinois |
| D-day | June 6, 1944, the date of the invasion of Normandy, France, by British, Canadian, and American forces, which opened a second front in Europe |
| détente | the relaxation of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union |
| Daughters of Liberty | well-born British colonial women who led a non-importation movement against British goods |
| Dawes Act of 1887 | Federal law that divided tribal lands into individual allotments to promote assimilation of Native Americans. |
| Deep Throat | the anonymous source, later revealed to be associate director of the FBI Mark Felt, who supplied reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein with information about White House involvement in the Watergate break-in |
| deism | an Enlightenment-era belief in the existence of a supreme being—specifically, a creator who does not intervene in the universe—representing a rejection of the belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind |
| democracy | a system of government in which the majority rules |
| Democratic-Republicans | advocates of limited government who were troubled by the expansive domestic policies of Washington’s administration and opposed the Federalists |
| desegregation | The removal of laws and policies requiring the separation of different racial or ethnic groups |
| deskilling | breaking an artisanal production process into smaller steps that unskilled workers can perform |
| direct primary | a political reform that allowed for the nomination of candidates through a direct vote by party members, rather than by the choice of delegates at conventions; in the South, this strengthened all-white solidarity within the Democratic Party |
| direct tax | a tax that consumers pay directly, rather than through merchants’ higher prices |
| Dixiecrats | conservative southern Democrats who opposed integration and the other goals of the African American civil rights movement |
| dollar diplomacy | Taft’s foreign policy, which involved using American economic power to push for favorable foreign policies |
| domestic slave trade | the trading of slaves within the borders of the United States |
| Dominion of New England | James II’s consolidated New England colony, made up of all the colonies from New Haven to Massachusetts and later New York and New Jersey |
| domino theory | The theory that if Communism made inroads in one nation, surrounding nations would also succumb one by one, like a chain of dominos toppling one another |
| Double V campaign | A campaign by African Americans to win victory over the enemy overseas and victory over racism at home |
| Dred Scott v. Sandford | An 1857 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that blacks could not be citizens and Congress had no jurisdiction to impede the expansion of slavery |
| Dunmore’s Proclamation | the decree signed by Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, which proclaimed that any slaves or indentured servants who fought on the side of the British would be rewarded with their freedom |
| Dust Bowl | The area in the middle of the country that had been badly overfarmed in the 1920s and suffered from a terrible drought that coincided with the Great Depression; the name came from the "black blizzard" of topsoil and dust that blew through the area |
| Economic Opportunity | Economic incentives were central to westward migration, attracting settlers, immigrants, and entrepreneurs. |
| Electoral College | the mechanism by which electors, based on the number of representatives from each state, choose the president |
| Emancipation of Slaves | The legal and practical process of freeing enslaved African Americans during the Civil War, culminating in the 13th Amendment and fundamental transformation of American society. |
| Emancipation Proclamation | Signed on January 1, 1863, the document with which President Lincoln transformed the Civil War into a struggle to end slavery |
| empresario | a person who brought new settlers to Texas in exchange for a grant of land |
| encomienda | legal rights to native labor as granted by the Spanish crown |
| English interregnum | the period from 1649 to 1660 when England had no king |
| Enlightenment | an eighteenth-century intellectual and cultural movement that emphasized reason and science over superstition, religion, and tradition |
| Enola Gay | The plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima |
| Erie Canal | a canal that connected the Hudson River to Lake Erie and markets in the West |
| Executive Order 9066 | The order given by President Roosevelt to relocate and detain people of Japanese ancestry, including those who were American citizens |
| executive privilege | the right of the U.S. president to refuse subpoenas requiring him to disclose private communications on the grounds that this might interfere with the functioning of the executive branch |
| exodusters | a term used to describe African Americans who moved to Kansas from the Old South to escape the racism there |
| Fair Deal | President Harry Truman's program of economic and social reform |
| Farmers’ Alliance | a national conglomeration of different regional farmers’ alliances that joined together in 1890 with the goal of furthering farmers’ concerns in politics |
| Fascism | A political ideology that places a heightened focus on national unity, through dictatorial rule, and militarism |
| Federalists | those who supported the 1787 Constitution and a strong central government; these advocates of the new national government formed the ruling political party in the 1790s |
| Fence Cutting War | this armed conflict between cowboys moving cattle along the trail and ranchers who wished to keep the best grazing lands for themselves occurred in Clay County, Texas, between 1883 and 1884 |
| feudal society | a social arrangement in which serfs and knights provided labor and military service to noble lords, receiving protection and land use in return |
| filibuster | a person who engages in an unofficial military operation intended to seize land from foreign countries or foment revolution there |
| Fire-Eaters | Radical southern secessionists |
| First Great Awakening | an eighteenth-century Protestant revival that emphasized individual, experiential faith over church doctrine and the close study of scripture |
| Five Civilized Tribes | the five tribes—Cherokee, Seminole, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw—who had most thoroughly adopted Anglo-American culture; they also happened to be the tribes that were believed to stand in the way of western settlement in the South |
| flexible response | a military strategy that allows for the possibility of responding to threats in a variety of ways, including counterinsurgency, conventional war, and nuclear strikes |
| Fort Sumter | A fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, where the Union garrison came under siege by Confederate forces in an attack on April 12, 1861, beginning the Civil War |
| forty-niners | the nickname for those who traveled to California in 1849 in hopes of finding gold |
| Fourteen Points | Woodrow Wilson's postwar peace plan, which called for openness in all matters of diplomacy, including free trade, freedom of the seas, and an end to secret treaties and negotiations, among others |
| free moral agency | the freedom to change one’s own life and bring about one’s own salvation |
| Free-Soil Party | A political party committed to ensuring that white laborers would not have to compete with unpaid slaves in newly acquired territories |
| Freedmen's Bureau | A federal agency (1865-1872) created to assist formerly enslaved people and poor whites in the postwar South with food, housing, education, labor contracts, and legal disputes. |
| Freemasons | a fraternal society founded in the early eighteenth century that advocated Enlightenment principles of inquiry and tolerance |
| Freeport Doctrine | A doctrine that emerged during the Lincoln-Douglas debates in which Douglas reaffirmed his commitment to popular sovereignty, including the right to halt the spread of slavery, despite the 1857 Dred Scott decision affirming slaveholders' right to bring their property wherever they wished |
| French and Indian War | the last eighteenth-century imperial struggle between Great Britain and France, leading to a decisive British victory; this war lasted from 1754 to 1763 and was also called the Seven Years’ War |
| Frontier Thesis | an idea proposed by Fredrick Jackson Turner, which stated that the encounter of European traditions and a native wilderness was integral to the development of American democracy, individualism, and innovative character |
| gender gap | the statistical differences between the voting preferences of women and men, with women favoring Democratic candidates |
| general in chief | The commander of army land forces |
| Gettysburg Address | A speech by Abraham Lincoln dedicating the military cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863 |
| GI Bill | A program that gave substantial benefits to those who served in World War II |
| Gilded Age | the period in American history during which materialism, a quest for personal gain, and corruption dominated both politics and society |
| Glorious Revolution | the overthrow of James II in 1688 |
| graft | the financial kickback provided to city bosses in exchange for political favors |
| Grange | a farmers’ organization, launched in 1867, which grew to over 1.5 million members in less than a decade |
| Great Migration | the name for the large wave of African Americans who left the South after the Civil War, mostly moving to cities in the Northeast and Upper Midwest |
| Great Society | Lyndon Johnson’s plan to eliminate poverty and racial injustice in the United States and to improve the lives of all Americans |
| Green Party | a political party founded in 1984 that advocates environmentalism and grassroots democracy |
| greenbacks | Paper money the United States began to issue during the Civil War |
| habeas corpus | The right of those arrested to be brought before a judge or court to determine whether there is cause to hold the prisoner |
| Half-Breeds | the group of Republicans led by James G. Blaine, named because they supported some measure of civil service reform and were thus considered to be only “half Republican” |
| Harlem Hellfighters | A nickname for the decorated, all-black 369th Infantry, which served on the frontlines of France for six months, longer than any other American unit |
| Harpers Ferry | The site of a federal arsenal in Virginia, where radical abolitionist John Brown staged an ill-fated effort to end slavery by instigating a mass uprising among slaves |
| Haymarket affair | the rally and subsequent riot in which several policemen were killed when a bomb was thrown at a peaceful workers rights rally in Chicago in 1886 |
| headright system | a system in which parcels of land were granted to settlers who could pay their own way to Virginia |
| Heritage Foundation | a professional organization conducting research and political advocacy on behalf of its values and perspectives |
| Hessians | German mercenaries hired by Great Britain to put down the American rebellion |
| Hispaniola | the island in the Caribbean, present-day Haiti and Dominican Republic, where Columbus landed on his first voyage to the Americas and established a Spanish colony |
| HIV/AIDS | a deadly immune deficiency disorder discovered in 1981, and at first largely ignored by politicians because of its prevalence among gay men |
| holding company | a central corporate entity that controls the operations of multiple companies by holding the majority of stock for each enterprise |
| Homestead Act of 1862 | Federal law granting 160 acres of public land to settlers for a small fee after five years of residence and improvement. Aimed to encourage western migration and settlement. |
| horizontal integration | method of growth wherein a company grows through mergers and acquisitions of similar companies |
| identity politics | political movements or actions intended to further the interests of a particular group membership, based on culture, race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, or sexual orientation |
| immediatism | the moral demand to take immediate action against slavery to bring about its end |
| impressment | the practice of capturing sailors and forcing them into military service |
| indenture | a labor contract that promised young men, and sometimes women, money and land after they worked for a set period of years |
| indirect tax | a tax imposed on businesses, rather than directly on consumers |
| indulgences | documents for purchase that absolved sinners of their errant behavior |
| initiative | a proposed law, or initiative, placed on the ballot by public petition |
| Inquisition | a campaign by the Catholic Church to root out heresy, especially among converted Jews and Muslims |
| instrumentalism | a theory promoted by John Dewey, who believed that education was key to the search for the truth about ideals and institutions |
| internment | The forced incarceration of the West Coast Japanese and Japanese American population into ten relocation centers for the greater part of World War II |
| Interregnum | The period between the election and the inauguration of a new president; when economic conditions worsened significantly during the four-month lag between Roosevelt's win and his move into the Oval Office, Congress amended the Constitution to limit this period to two months |
| Intolerable Acts | the name American Patriots gave to the Coercive Acts and the Quebec Act |
| Iron Curtain | A term coined by Winston Churchill to refer to portions of Eastern Europe that the Soviet Union had incorporated into its sphere of influence and that no longer were free to manage their own affairs |
| Ironclad Oath | The oath the 1864 Wade-Davis Bill would have required a majority of southern voters and officials to swear, affirming they had never supported the Confederacy. |
| Irreconcilables | Republicans who opposed the Treaty of Versailles on all grounds |
| Jesuits | members of the Society of Jesus, an elite Catholic religious order founded in the 1540s to spread Catholicism and to combat the spread of Protestantism |
| joint stock company | a business entity in which investors provide the capital and assume the risk in order to reap significant returns |
| Kitchen Cabinet | a nickname for Andrew Jackson’s informal group of loyal advisers |
| Koran | the sacred book of Islam, believed by Muslims to be the word of God, dictated to Muhammad through an angel, in the seventh century |
| Ku Klux Klan Violence | Systematic campaign of terror and intimidation against African Americans and their supporters during the Reconstruction era, aimed at maintaining white supremacy and undermining racial equality. |
| Ku Klux Klan | A white-supremacist vigilante organization founded in Tennessee in 1866 that used terror, arson, and murder to stop Reconstruction and suppress Black political participation. |
| labor theory of value | an economic theory holding that profits from the sale of the goods produced by workers should be equitably distributed to those workers |
| land offices | sites where prospective landowners could buy public land from the government |
| las Gorras Blancas | the Spanish name for White Caps, the rebel group of Hispanic Americans who fought back against the appropriation of Hispanic land by whites; for a period in 1889–1890, they burned farms, homes, and crops to express their growing anger at the injustice of the situation |
| League of Nations | Woodrow Wilson's idea for a group of countries that would promote a new world order and territorial integrity through open discussions, rather than intimidation and war |
| letters of marque | French warrants allowing ships and their crews to engage in piracy |
| Levittowns | Suburban housing developments consisting of acres of mass-produced homes |
| liberty bonds | The name for the war bonds that the U.S. government sold, and strongly encouraged Americans to buy, as a way of raising money for the war effort |
| Liberty Party | a political party formed in 1840 by those who believed political measures were the best means by which abolition could be accomplished |
| Little Rock Nine | The nickname for the nine African American high school students who first integrated Little Rock's Central High School |
| log cabin campaign | the 1840 election, in which the Whigs painted William Henry Harrison as a man of the people |
| Louisiana Purchase | the U.S. purchase of the large territory of Louisiana from France in 1803 |
| Loyalists | colonists in America who were loyal to Great Britain |
| machine politics | the process by which citizens of a city used their local ward alderman to work the “machine” of local politics to meet local needs within a neighborhood |
| machine tools | machines that cut and shape metal to produce standardized, interchangeable parts for mechanical devices such as clocks or guns |
| majority rule | a fundamental principle of democracy, providing that the majority should have the power to make decisions binding upon the whole |
| Manhattan Project | The code name given to the research project that developed the atomic bomb |
| Manifest Destiny | The 19th-century doctrine that the expansion of the United States across the American continents was both justified and inevitable. Rooted in the 1840s, Manifest Destiny became a rallying cry for expansionists and was used to justify the annexation of Texas, the Oregon Trail, and the Mexican-America |
| manumission | the freeing of a slave by his or her owner |
| Marbury v. Madison | the landmark 1803 case establishing the Supreme Court’s powers of judicial review, specifically the power to review and possibly nullify actions of Congress and the president |
| maroon communities | groups of runaway slaves who resisted recapture and eked a living from the land |
| Marshall Plan | A program giving billions of dollars of U.S. aid to European countries to prevent them from turning to Communism |
| Massachusetts Circular | a letter penned by Son of Liberty Samuel Adams that laid out the unconstitutionality of taxation without representation and encouraged the other colonies to boycott British goods |
| massive retaliation | A defense strategy, sometimes called "mutually assured destruction" or MAD, adopted by Eisenhower that called for launching a large-scale nuclear attack on the Soviet Union in response to a first Soviet strike at the United States |
| materiel | Equipment and supplies used by the military |
| matriarchy | a society in which women have political power |
| Mecklenburg Resolves | North Carolina’s declaration of rebellion against Great Britain |
| mercantilism | the protectionist economic principle that nations should control trade with their colonies to ensure a favorable balance of trade |
| Mexican Cession | the lands west of the Rio Grande ceded to the United States by Mexico in 1848, including California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado |
| Middle Passage | the perilous, often deadly transatlantic crossing of slave ships from the African coast to the New World |
| military-industrial complex | The matrix of relationships between officials in the Defense Department and executives in the defense industry who all benefited from increases in defense spending |
| millennialism | the belief that the Kingdom of God would be established on earth and that God would reign on earth for a thousand years characterized by harmony and Christian morality |
| minutemen | colonial militias prepared to mobilize and fight the British with a minute’s notice |
| miscegenation | Race-mixing through sexual relations or marriage |
| Missouri Compromise | an agreement reached in Congress in 1820 that allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, brought Maine into the Union as a free state, and prohibited slavery north of 36° 30' latitude |
| mita | the Incan labor tax, with each family donating time and work to communal projects |
| Mohawk and Hudson Railroad | the first steam-powered locomotive railroad in the United States |
| Molly Maguires | a secret organization made up of Pennsylvania coal miners, named for the famous Irish patriot, which worked through a series of scare tactics to bring the plight of the miners to public attention |
| monarchy | a form of government with a monarch at its head |
| monopoly | the ownership or control of all enterprises comprising an entire industry |
| monster bank | the term Democratic opponents used to denounce the Second Bank of the United States as an emblem of special privilege and big government |
| moral suasion | an abolitionist technique of appealing to the consciences of the public, especially slaveholders |
| Mormons | members of an American denomination of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that emphasized patriarchal leadership |
| mourning wars | raids or wars that tribes waged in eastern North America in order to replace members lost to smallpox and other diseases |
| muckrakers | investigative journalists and authors who wrote about social ills, from child labor to the corrupt business practices of big businesses, and urged the public to take action |
| Mugwumps | a portion of the Republican Party that broke away from the Stalwart-versus-Half-Breed debate due to disgust with their candidate’s corruption |
| musket | a light, long-barreled European gun |
| NAACP | the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights organization formed in 1909 by an interracial coalition including W. E. B. Du Bois and Florence Kelley |
| naturalism | a theory of realism that states that the laws of nature and the natural world were the only relevant laws governing humanity |
| naval quarantine | Kennedy’s use of ships to prevent Soviet access to Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis |
| Navigation Acts | a series of English mercantilist laws enacted between 1651 and 1696 in order to control trade with the colonies |
| neutrality | Woodrow Wilson's policy of maintaining commercial ties with all belligerents and insisting on open markets throughout Europe during World War I |
| New Freedom | Woodrow Wilson’s campaign platform for the 1912 election that called for a small federal government to protect public interests from the evils associated with bad businesses |
| New Nationalism | Theodore Roosevelt’s 1912 campaign platform, which called for a powerful federal government to protect the American public |
| New Right | a loose coalition of American conservatives, consisting primarily of wealthy businesspeople and evangelical Christians, which developed in response to social changes of the 1960s and 1970s |
| Niagara Movement | a campaign led by W. E. B. Du Bois and other prominent African American reformers that departed from Booker T. Washington's model of accommodation and advocated for a “Declaration of Principles” that called for immediate political, social, and economic equality for African Americans |
| no taxation without representation | the principle, first articulated in the Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions, that the colonists needed to be represented in Parliament if they were to be taxed |
| non-importation movement | a widespread colonial boycott of British goods |
| nonconformists | Protestants who did not conform to the doctrines or practices of the Church of England |
| Northwest Passage | the nonexistent all-water route across the North American continent sought by European and American explorers |
| nullification | the theory, advocated in response to the Tariff of 1828, that states could void federal law at their discretion |
| Open Door notes | the circular notes sent by Secretary of State Hay claiming that there should be “open doors” in China, allowing all countries equal and total access to all markets, ports, and railroads without any special considerations from the Chinese authorities; while ostensibly leveling the playing field, thi… |
| Operation Desert Storm | the U.S. name of the war waged from January to April 1991, by coalition forces against Iraq in reaction to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 |
| Ostend Manifesto | the secret diplomatic memo stating that if Spain refused to sell Cuba to the United States, the United States was justified in taking the island as a national security measure |
| paternalism | the premise that southern white slaveholders acted in the best interests of their slaves |
| patroonships | large tracts of land and governing rights granted to merchants by the Dutch West India Company in order to encourage colonization |
| Pentagon Papers | government documents leaked to the New York Times that revealed the true nature of the conflict in Vietnam and turned many definitively against the war |
| phrenology | the mapping of the mind to specific human attributes |
| pietistic | the stressing of transformative individual religious experience or piety over religious rituals and formality |
| Pilgrims | Separatists, led by William Bradford, who established the first English settlement in New England |
| plumbers | men used by the White House to spy on and sabotage President Nixon’s opponents and stop leaks to the press |
| Political Representation Challenges | The systematic efforts to undermine and restrict African American political participation during and after the Reconstruction era, including legal, social, and violent methods of voter suppression. |
| Political Representation | The process of including marginalized groups, particularly African Americans, in political institutions and decision-making processes during the Reconstruction era. |
| Political Struggles in the South | Intense political conflicts in Southern states during Reconstruction, characterized by struggles over governance, representation, and the fundamental restructuring of social and political systems. |
| polygenism | the idea that blacks and whites come from different origins |
| polygyny | the practice of taking more than one wife |
| popular sovereignty | the practice of allowing the citizens of a state or territory to decide issues based on the principle of majority rule |
| Populist Party | a political party formed in 1890 that sought to represent the rights of primarily farmers but eventually all workers in regional and federal elections |
| Port Huron Statement | the political manifesto of Students for a Democratic Society that called for social reform, nonviolent protest, and greater participation in the democratic process by ordinary Americans |
| pragmatism | a doctrine supported by philosopher William James, which held that Americans needed to experiment and find the truth behind underlying institutions, religions, and ideas in American life, rather than accepting them on faith |
| privateers | sea captains to whom the British government had given permission to raid Spanish ships at will |
| probanza de mérito | proof of merit: a letter written by a Spanish explorer to the crown to gain royal patronage |
| Proclamation Line | a line along the Appalachian Mountains, imposed by the Proclamation of 1763, west of which British colonists could not settle |
| Progressive Party | a political party started by Roosevelt and other Progressive Republicans who were unhappy with Taft and wanted Roosevelt to run for a nonconsecutive third term in 1912 |
| Progressivism | a broad movement between 1896 and 1916 led by white, middle-class professionals for legal, scientific, managerial, and institutional solutions to the ills of urbanization, industrialization, and corruption |
| prohibition | The campaign for a ban on the sale and manufacturing of alcoholic beverages, which came to fruition during the war, bolstered by anti-German sentiment and a call to preserve resources for the war effort |
| proportional representation | representation that gives more populous states greater political power by allowing them more representatives |
| proprietary colonies | colonies granted by the king to a trusted individual, family, or group |
| Protestant Reformation | the schism in Catholicism that began with Martin Luther and John Calvin in the early sixteenth century |
| Puritans | a group of religious reformers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who wanted to “purify” the Church of England by ridding it of practices associated with the Catholic Church and advocating greater purity of doctrine and worship |
| putting-out system | a labor system whereby a merchant hired different families to perform specific tasks in a production process |
| quipu | an ancient Incan device for recording information, consisting of variously colored threads knotted in different ways |
| Racial Integration | The complex process of breaking down racial barriers and creating more inclusive social, political, and economic institutions during the Reconstruction era. |
| Radical Republicans | Northern Republicans in Congress who rejected Lincoln's and Johnson's lenient terms for the South and demanded stronger guarantees of Black civil and political rights. |
| radical Whigs | revolutionaries who favored broadening participation in the political process |
| Reaganomics | Ronald Reagan’s economic policy, which suggested that lowering taxes on the upper income brackets would stimulate investment and economic growth |
| realism | a collection of theories and ideas that sought to understand the underlying changes in the United States during the late nineteenth century |
| recall | to remove a public official from office by virtue of a petition and vote process |
| Reconquista | Spain’s nearly eight-hundred-year holy war against Islam, which ended in 1492 |
| Reconstruction Acts | Series of federal laws passed in 1867 to govern the Reconstruction of Southern states, mandating political reforms and establishing conditions for readmission to the Union. |
| Reconstruction | The post-Civil War process (roughly 1865-1877) of readmitting the former Confederate states to the Union and defining the citizenship and rights of formerly enslaved people. |
| Red Scare | The term used to describe the fear that Americans felt about the possibility of a Bolshevik revolution in the United States; fear over Communist infiltrators led Americans to restrict and discriminate against any forms of radical dissent, whether Communist or not |
| Red Summer | The summer of 1919, when numerous northern cities experienced bloody race riots that killed over 250 persons, including the Chicago race riot of 1919 |
| Redeemers | Southern Democrats committed to overturning Radical Reconstruction and restoring white political control, who succeeded across the South by 1877. |
| referendum | a process that allows voters to counteract legislation by putting an existing law on the ballot for voters to either affirm or reject |
| repartimiento | a Spanish colonial system requiring Indian towns to supply workers for the colonizers |
| Republican Party | An antislavery political party formed in 1854 in response to Stephen Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Act |
| republicanism | a political philosophy that holds that states should be governed by representatives, not a monarch; as a social philosophy, republicanism required civic virtue of its citizens |
| Reservationists | Republicans who would support the Treaty of Versailles if sufficient amendments were introduced that could eliminate Article X |
| Restoration colonies | the colonies King Charles II established or supported during the Restoration (the Carolinas, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) |
| Revolution of 1800 | the peaceful transfer of power from the Federalists to the Democratic-Republicans with the election of 1800 |
| Roanoke | the first English colony in Virginia, which mysteriously disappeared sometime between 1587 and 1590 |
| robber baron | a negative term for the big businessmen who made their fortunes in the massive railroad boom of the late nineteenth century |
| rock and roll | A musical form popular among the baby boomers that encompassed styles ranging from county to blues, and embraced themes such as youthful rebellion and love |
| Roosevelt Corollary | a statement by Theodore Roosevelt that the United States would use military force to act as an international police power and correct any chronic wrongdoing by any Latin American nation threatening the stability of the region |
| Rosie the Riveter | A symbol of female workers in the defense industries |
| rotation in office | originally, simply the system of having term limits on political appointments; in the Jackson era, this came to mean the replacement of officials with party loyalists |
| Rough Riders | Theodore Roosevelt’s cavalry unit, which fought in Cuba during the Spanish-American War |
| salutary neglect | the laxness with which the English crown enforced the Navigation Acts in the eighteenth century |
| Sand Creek Massacre | November 29, 1864 |
| Scalawags | A pejorative term for white southerners who supported Reconstruction and cooperated with Republican state governments, viewed by other white southerners as traitors. |
| scientific management | mechanical engineer Fredrick Taylor’s management style, also called “stop-watch management,” which divided manufacturing tasks into short, repetitive segments and encouraged factory owners to seek efficiency and profitability over any benefits of personal interaction |
| Scottsboro Boys | A reference to the infamous trial in Scottsboro, Alabama in 1931, where nine African American boys were falsely accused of raping two white women and sentenced to death; the extreme injustice of the trial, particularly given the age of the boys and the inadequacy of the testimony against them, garn… |
| Second Great Awakening | a revival of evangelical Protestantism in the early nineteenth century |
| second middle passage | the internal forced migration of slaves to the South and West in the United States |
| second party system | the system in which the Democratic and Whig Parties were the two main political parties after the decline of the Federalist and Democratic-Republican Parties |
| Seneca Falls | the location of the first American conference on women's rights and the signing of the "Declaration of Rights and Sentiments" in 1848 |
| Separatists | a faction of Puritans who advocated complete separation from the Church of England |
| serf | a peasant tied to the land and its lord |
| settlement house movement | an early progressive reform movement, largely spearheaded by women, which sought to offer services such as childcare and free healthcare to help the working poor |
| Seward’s Folly | the pejorative name given by the press to Secretary of State Seward’s acquisition of Alaska in 1867 |
| Shakers | a religious sect that emphasized communal living and celibacy |
| Sharecropping | A postwar southern farm-labor system in which freed people rented land -- often on the same plantations where they had been enslaved -- and paid landlords with a share of the crop they grew. |
| Sherman's March to the Sea | The scorched-earth campaign employed in Georgia by Union general William Tecumseh Sherman |
| silent majority | a majority whose political will is usually not heard—in this case, northern, white, blue-collar voters |
| Silent Sentinels | women protesters who picketed the White House for years to protest for women’s right to vote; they went on a hunger strike after their arrest, and their force-feeding became a national scandal |
| Slave Power | a term northerners used to describe the disproportionate influence that they felt elite southern slaveholders wielded in both domestic and international affairs |
| smallpox | a disease that Europeans accidentally brought to the New World, killing millions of Indians, who had no immunity to the disease |
| Smoot-Hawley Tariff | The tariff approved by Hoover to raise the tax on thousands of imported goods in the hope that it would encourage people to buy American-made products; the unintended result was that other nations raised their tariffs, further hurting American exports and exacerbating the global financial crisis |
| social Darwinism | Herbert Spencer’s theory, based upon Charles Darwin’s scientific theory, which held that society developed much like plant or animal life through a process of evolution in which the most fit and capable enjoyed the greatest material and social success |
| social gospel | the belief that the church should be as concerned about the conditions of people in the secular world as it was with their afterlife |
| Social Register | a de facto directory of the wealthy socialites in each city, first published by Louis Keller in 1886 |
| Social Security | A series of programs designed to help the population's most vulnerable—the unemployed, those over age sixty-five, unwed mothers, and the disabled—through various pension, insurance, and aid programs |
| sod house | a frontier home constructed of dirt held together by thick-rooted prairie grass that was prevalent in the Midwest; sod, cut into large rectangles, was stacked to make the walls of the structure, providing an inexpensive, yet damp, house for western settlers |
| Sons of Liberty | artisans, shopkeepers, and small-time merchants who opposed the Stamp Act and considered themselves British patriots |
| southern strategy | a political strategy that called for appealing to southern whites by resisting calls for greater advancements in civil rights |
| specie | “hard” money, usually in the form of gold and silver coins |
| speculation | The practice of investing in risky financial opportunities in the hopes of a fast payout due to market fluctuations |
| sphere of influence | the goal of foreign countries such as Japan, Russia, France, and Germany to carve out an area of the Chinese market that they could exploit through tariff and transportation agreements |
| spoils system | the political system of rewarding friends and supporters with political appointments |
| Sputnik | The first manmade orbital satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in October 1957 |
| Square Deal | Theodore Roosevelt’s name for the kind of involved, hands-on government he felt the country needed |
| stagflation | high inflation combined with high unemployment and slow economic growth |
| Stalwarts | the group of Republicans led by Roscoe Conkling who strongly supported the continuation of the patronage system |
| START | a treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union that limited the number of nuclear warheads, ballistic missiles, and strategic bombers held by both sides |
| states' rights | The political belief that states possess authority beyond federal law, which is usually seen as the supreme law of the land, and thus can act in opposition to federal law |
| subtreasury plan | a plan that called for storing crops in government warehouses for a brief period of time, during which the federal government would provide loans to farmers worth 80 percent of the current crop prices, releasing the crops for sale when prices rose |
| Suffolk Resolves | a Massachusetts plan of resistance to the Intolerable Acts that formed the basis of the eventual plan adopted by the First Continental Congress for resisting the British, including the arming of militias and the adoption of a widespread non-importation, non-exportation, and non-consumption agreement |
| sugarcane | one of the primary crops of the Americas, which required a tremendous amount of labor to cultivate |
| Supreme Court Packing Plan | Roosevelt's plan, after being reelected, to pack the Supreme Court with an additional six justices, one for every justice over seventy who refused to step down |
| Tallmadge Amendment | an amendment (which did not pass) proposed by representative James Tallmadge in 1819 that called for Missouri to be admitted as a free state and for all slaves there to be gradually emancipated |
| Tammany Hall | a political machine in New York, run by machine boss William Tweed with assistance from George Washington Plunkitt |
| Tariff of Abominations | a federal tariff introduced in 1828 that placed a high duty on imported goods in order to help American manufacturers, which southerners viewed as unfair and harmful to their region |
| Taylorism | a system named for Fredrick Winslow Taylor, aimed at improving factory efficiency rates through the principle of standardization; Taylor’s model limited workers to repetitive tasks, reducing human contact and opportunities to think or collaborate |
| teetotalism | complete abstinence from all alcohol |
| Tejanos | Mexican residents of Texas |
| temperance | a social movement encouraging moderation or self-restraint in the consumption of alcoholic beverages |
| Ten Percent Plan | Lincoln's 1863 proposal to readmit former Confederate states once 10 percent of their 1860 voters swore future allegiance to the Union and accepted emancipation. |
| Tennessee Valley Authority | A federal agency tasked with the job of planning and developing the area through flood control, reforestation, and hydroelectric power projects |
| the Terror | a period during the French Revolution characterized by extreme violence and the execution of numerous enemies of the revolutionary government, from 1793 through 1794 |
| thirteen colonies | the British colonies in North America that declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, which included Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, the province of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, South… |
| three-fifths compromise | the agreement at the Constitutional Convention that three out of every five slaves would be counted when determining a state's population for purposes of representation |
| Timucua | the native people of Florida, whom the Spanish displaced with the founding of St. Augustine, the first Spanish settlement in North America |
| Title VII | the section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of gender |
| total war | A state of war in which the government makes no distinction between military and civilian targets, and mobilizes all resources, extending its reach into all areas of citizens' lives |
| Trail of Tears | the route of the forced removal of the Cherokee and other tribes from the southeastern United States to the territory that is now Oklahoma |
| transcendentalism | the belief that all people can attain an understanding of the world that transcends rational, sensory experience |
| trust | a legal arrangement where a small group of trustees have legal ownership of a business that they operate for the benefit of other investors |
| tyranny of the majority | Alexis de Tocqueville’s phrase warning of the dangers of American democracy |
| Underground Railroad | A network of free blacks and northern whites who helped slaves escape bondage through a series of designated routes and safe houses |
| unicameral | having a single house (of legislative government) |
| Union Leagues | Fraternal organizations, originally founded in the North to promote Union loyalty, that expanded into the postwar South as political and civic clubs organizing Black voters for the Republican Party. |
| universal manhood suffrage | voting rights for all male adults |
| vertical integration | a method of growth where a company acquires other companies that include all aspects of a product’s lifecycle from the creation of the raw materials through the production process to the delivery of the final product |
| vice-admiralty courts | British royal courts without juries that settled disputes occurring at sea |
| Vietnam Syndrome | reluctance on the part of American politicians to actively engage U.S. forces in a foreign war for fear of suffering a humiliating defeat |
| Vietnamization | the Nixon administration’s policy of turning over responsibility for the defense of South Vietnam to Vietnamese forces |
| wampum | shell beads used in ceremonies and as jewelry and currency |
| war on drugs | a nationwide political campaign to implement harsh sentences for drug crimes, which produced an explosive growth of the prison population |
| war on poverty | Lyndon Johnson’s plan to end poverty in the Unites States through the extension of federal benefits, job training programs, and funding for community development |
| Whigs | a political party that emerged in the early 1830s to oppose what members saw as President Andrew Jackson’s abuses of power |
| White Supremacy | The racist ideology that white people are superior to other races, used during Reconstruction to justify violent resistance to Black civil and political rights. |
| Wilmot Proviso | an amendment to a revenue bill that would have barred slavery from all the territory acquired from Mexico |
| Wisconsin Idea | a political system created by Robert La Follette, governor of Wisconsin, that embodied many progressive ideals; La Follette hired experts to advise him on improving conditions in his state |
| Wobblies | a nickname for the Industrial Workers of the World, a radical Progressive group that grew out of the earlier labor movement and desired an industrial union model of labor organization |
| Working Men’s Party | a political group that radically opposed what they viewed as the exploitation of workers |
| Works Progress Administration | A program run by Harry Hopkins that provided jobs for over eight million Americans from its inception to its closure in 1943 |
| Wounded Knee Massacre | December 29, 1890 |
| XYZ affair | the French attempt to extract a bribe from the United States during the Quasi-War of 1798–1800 |
| yellow journalism | sensationalist newspapers who sought to manufacture news stories in order to sell more papers |
| Yippies | the Youth International Party, a political party formed in 1967, which called for the establishment of a New Nation consisting of cooperative institutions that would replace those currently in existence |
| Yorktown | the Virginia port where British General Cornwallis surrendered to American forces |
| Zimmermann telegram | The telegram sent from German foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German ambassador in Mexico, which invited Mexico to fight alongside Germany should the United States enter World War I on the side of the Allies |
| zoot suit | A flamboyant outfit favored by young African American and Mexican American men |
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