Crime, Punishment, Labor, and Free Speech in U.S. History

Vocabulary flashcards covering U.S. history lecture topics including World War I dissent, labor movements, Marxist theory, the First Red Scare, and the birth of modern civil liberties.

Espionage Act (1917)

A key legislative tool passed in 1917 used by the U.S. government to suppress anti-war speech during World War I, leading to arrests and imprisonment for expressing views deemed disloyal or obstructive to the war effort.

Sedition Act (1918)

A 1918 amendment to the Espionage Act that broadened the scope of punishable speech to include criticism of the U.S. government, military, or flag.

Committee on Public Information

A U.S. government propaganda agency established during World War I to shape public opinion against Germany and suppress war dissenters.

Postmaster General Burleson

The official granted legal authority during World War I to deny mailing privileges to publications deemed treasonous, resulting in state censorship of dissent.

Amnesty Movement

A post-WWI political movement advocating for the release of political prisoners jailed under wartime speech restriction laws.

Eugene V. Debs

A charismatic labor leader and founder of the Socialist Party of America who embraced Marxism after the 1894 railroad strike and ran for U.S. president five times, receiving nearly one million votes in 1920 while imprisoned for anti-war speech.

Socialist Party of America

A political party founded in 1901 by Eugene V. Debs that opposed World War I as a capitalist conflict and advocated for working-class control of production.

St. Louis Proclamation

A declaration adopted by American socialists calling for continuous, active, and public opposition to World War I, the draft, and war bonds.

Commodity Fetishism

Karl Marx's concept explaining how economic products (such as railroads or AI content) appear to have intrinsic value, obscuring the human labor and social relations required to create them.

Robber Barons

A popular 19th-century term for powerful corporate financiers and industrialists, highlighting public perception of their exploitative economic practices.

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Also known as 'The Great Upheaval,' a widespread six-week labor revolt sparked by wage cuts following the Panic of 1873, resulting in nearly 100 deaths and $40 million in property damage.

Panic of 1873

A severe economic depression triggered by the collapse of a post-Civil War railroad financial bubble, setting off national labor unrest.

Bourgeoisie

In Marxist theory, the capitalist class who owns the means of production, employs wage labor, and extracts wealth through direct economic exploitation.

Proletariat

In Marxist theory, the working class who sell their labor power for wages and produce societal wealth, whose collective action Marx believed would overthrow capitalism.

Surplus Value

The economic profit extracted by capitalists from the value generated by workers beyond what is paid back to them in wages.

Labor Theory of Value

An economic concept stating that the value of any commodity is fundamentally determined by the total human labor required to produce it.

Great Merger Movement (1895-1904)

A period of rapid corporate consolidation in the U.S. where trusts and monopolies formed to reduce market competition through price-fixing and mergers.

Seattle General Strike (February 1919)

A major 1919 general strike where 35,000 shipyard workers were joined by 40,000 sympathy strikers, bringing the city to a halt before being suppressed by Marines and federal troops.

Palmer Raids (1919-1920)

A series of controversial First Red Scare raids directed by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and J. Edgar Hoover targeting over 6,000 suspected radical immigrants, leading to mass detentions and deportations.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

A permanent organization formed in 1920 out of the National Civil Liberties Bureau (NCLB) dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights, free speech, and civil liberties.