Mr. Clarke Final Exam 2025

Post World War I America

After WWI the country would experience a brief transition back to peacetime economy than enter a major economic and social boom in the 1920’s

The Roaring Twenties

Decade of tremendous economic growth, prosperity and social changes (rise in the stock market, new products and music)

Prohibition

From 1920 to 1933, the Volstead Act outlawed the sale and consumption of alcohol.

Immigration Issues

Many nativists feared that immigrants would refuse to assimilate, take American jobs, and break down American society.

Gross National (Domestic) Product

Total dollar value of all goods and services produced in a nation per year.

Speakeasies

Illegal/underground nightclubs where people would drink, dance and gamble

Cotton Club

Famous New York Night Club

Jazz Age

During the 1920s, a new sound of music and dance was introduced to the country

The Automobile

The car created new jobs and the growth of supporting industries (i.e. glass, rubber and metal industries) while at the same time allowed people the ability to be more mobile (Assembly Line)

Herbert Hoover

President, elected in 1928, received a tremendous amount of blame for both the Depression as well as not taking enough action to help the American people. He only provided indirect aid, which was largely ineffective.

Stock Market Crash Causes

Sock values were unjustly inflated, many people began to invest with little or no guidance, people were borrowing money to invest, companies over produced durable goods (people stopped buying), as the stock market began to weaken, people panicked and sold their stocks, led to a run on banks

Margin

Buying stocks by putting down a small percentage (usually 10 percent) and borrowing the balance of the investment.

Bonus Army

President Hoover used police and soldiers to disperse the unarmed veterans who gathered in Washington D.C. to put pressure on Congress to pay their war bonuses early.

Tulsa Massacre

The Tulsa race massacre took place from May 31 to June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents, some of whom had been deputized and given weapons by city officials, attacked Black residents and destroyed homes and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Democrat, Only President elected to four terms and led the nation through its most challenging times (the Great Depression and WWII)

Quote from an FDR speech to calm the American people and to keep them from worsening the situation by panicking

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”

Dust Bowl

During the Great Depression, thousands of farmers along the plains experienced a long period of drought followed by winds that stripped the land of its fertile soil. This event force many to abandon their farms to look for work

Recession

A short decline in the economy.

Great Depression

1929 to 1940, the U.S. experienced a massive economic decline where 30% of the country lost their jobs, millions lost their homes and faced despair

New Deal

FDR’s program to help provide direct relief (assistance) to the public during the Great Depression as well as recovery plans to rebuild the economy.

Social Security Act

Provided pension payments for retired workers. It is paid for by current workers' payroll taxes.

FDIC

Helped stabilize the banking system by insuring bank deposits.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Built dams and hydroelectric plants in the South.

Supreme Court Packing Scheme

After a conservative Supreme Court declared several New Deal Programs unconstitutional, FDR proposed adding several new liberal justices to the Supreme Court to make sure all his programs remained in place.

Rise of Dictators

After WWI and during the economic collapse in Europe, Fascist leaders emerged in Italy, Germany and Spain as they exploited the fears and weaknesses of society.

Totalitarianism

A system of government led by a dictator that has absolute power, takes total control of the nation’s resources, and the citizens surrender individual rights and freedoms.

Benito Mussolini

Italian Fascist Dictator who came to power in Italy in 1922.

Adolf Hitler

Fascist totalitarian dictator who came to power in Germany in 1933 under the Nazi Party. Implemented racist and military policies in order to take over Europe

Joseph Stalin

Communist dictator who used ruthless tactics to win WWII as well as in consolidating his own power within the Soviet Union.

Japanese Aggression

Japan sought resources and their first aggressive move during the 1930s was the invasion of Manchuria in China.

Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Allied Powers

Great Britain, France, Soviet Union, United States (1941), several other nations.

Nuremberg Laws

Laws issued in Nazi Germany that removed the rights and citizenship from its Jewish citizens

Holocaust

The genocide of six million Jews and nearly another six million undesirables within Europe by the Germans

Genocide

The systematic killing of a particular group of people.

Final Solution

Hitler’s plan to kill all Jews.

Nazi -Soviet Pact

A non-aggression agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union to invade Poland and divide its territory.

U.S. Involvement in WWII

U.S. stayed neutral 1940 to December 1941, followed isolationism publicly, but behind the scenes prepared for war and aided the Allies as the arsenal for democracy.

WWII Impact on Great Depression

The United States transitioned from a peacetime to wartime economy, factories operated 24 hours a day, and it ended the Great Depression.

Lend-Lease Act

Used by FDR to subvert neutrality policies by giving Britain weapons and supplies in return for long term leases for future military bases

Atlantic Charter

Churchill and FDR met on a ship in the Atlantic. FDR advocated for the “Four Freedoms,” freedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom of the seas and self-determination

Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941, Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Executive Order 9066

In response to Japanese bombing at Pearl Harbor and fueled by racism, President Roosevelt signed this executive order placing 120,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps from 1942 to 1945.

Yalta Conference

Meeting of Allied leaders to discuss post WWII options

D-Day

June 6, 1944, turning point in the Western Front. Allies storm the beaches and liberate France.

Dwight Eisenhower

Supreme Allied Commander of the D-Day invasion

Manhattan Project

Codename for the development of the atomic bomb.

Atomic Bombs

First bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan and the final one that ended WWII was dropped on Nagasaki.

Cold War

Competition between the only two superpowers, the United States and Soviet Union. It pitted democracy versus communism for global domination where each side used political, economic and military influences to achieve their goals (1946 – 1991)

G.I. Bill

Helped returning soldiers attend college and get low income loans to buy homes.

Marshall Plan

U.S. plan that appropriated 13 billion dollars to help rebuild Europe after WWII. Also, to prevent the spread of communism and create a market for U.S. trade

George Kennan/Policy of Containment

Soviet foreign policy expert who advocated the U.S. stop the spread of communism.

Truman Doctrine

President Harry S. Truman’s policy to aid nations resisting communism. (First used in Greece & Turkey)

Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” Speech

This speech signified the division between Western Europe (Democratic) and Eastern Europe (Communist)

NATO

(North Atlantic Treaty Organization) A military agreement between the United States and Western Europe to defend one another against a Soviet attack

Berlin Airlift

1948 the U.S. massive airlift supplies to West Berlin after the Soviet Union blocked access to the city.

Espionage

The act of spying and stealing secrets from other countries. Often involved Soviet spies infiltrating the U.S. government.

Red Scare

Extreme fear of the spreading communism within the United States. Caused panic and harsh treatment of any suspected communist.

Alger Hiss

He was charged with being a communist spy, but was found guilty of only perjury.

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg

Husband and wife who were arrested and convicted of giving atomic secrets to the Russians.

Joseph McCarthy

Senator who was a leading member of the HUAC committee who ferociously went after any suspected communist in the U.S. “McCarthyism”

Lavender Scare

During the Cold War, there were fears that homosexuals working in government positions could be blackmailed by agents of the Soviet Union to turnover government secrets under the threat that they would be publicly outed.

Brinkmanship

Eisenhower’s policy of going to the very brink of war in hopes of avoiding it.

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

The idea that neither side during the Cold War would use atomic or nuclear weapons because they knew that if they did, the retaliatory strike would destroy their nation as well.

Korean War

(1950 – 1953) – Communist North Korea invaded Democratic South Korea forcing Truman to go to war to enforce the containment policy. General Douglas MacArthur was fired for insubordination during the war. The conflict ended with the nation divided at the 38th parallel

Civil Rights Movement

1950s to the 1970s, African Americans fought to receive equality through a variety of means

De Facto Segregation

Segregation of African Americans because of traditions or circumstances that developed over the course of time.

De Jure Segregation

Segregation of African Americans based on legislation, laws and court decisions.

Ku Klux Klan

Group carried out violent actions against Jews, Catholics, immigrants, and African Americans

Martin Luther King Jr.

Baptist minister, Civil Rights leader who practiced nonviolent resistance to fight segregation and racism

Rosa Parks

African American woman who refused to give up her seat to a white person and was arrested. Her actions helped spark the crusade in the Montgomery Bus Boycott against segregation.

Plessy v. Ferguson

1898, Supreme Court case that established the policy of “separate but equal” legally allowing segregation

Brown v. The Topeka, Kansas Board of Education

Thurgood Marshall represented Brown and the court ruled that separate but equal schools were unconstitutional in 1954.

Public School Integration

Despite the Brown decision, southerners resisted desegregation of schools for many years, blocking enrollment and entry into schools throughout the south.

Thurgood Marshall

NAACP attorney, represented Brown in the Supreme Court Case, and first African American Supreme Court Justice.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Organization that used King’s policy of nonviolence by staging sit-ins in segregated restaurants

Freedom Riders

Civil rights workers who fought the segregated busing system throughout the south

Malcolm X

Civil rights leader, member of the Nation of Islam, advocated violence to achieve equality

Jackie Robinson

He became the first African American Major League Baseball player in 1947 for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Black Power

Movement that promoted pride and the strengths that the black community can utilize in its struggle for equality

Women’s Rights Movement

African Americans fighting for equal rights inspired the 1960s and 1970s Women’s Rights Movement.

Betty Friedan

She was one of the leaders in the Women’s Rights Movement during the 1960s and 1970s.

Feminine Mystique

Betty Friedan’s book, the Feminine Mystique helped to inspire the Women’s Rights Movement. She wrote that millions of women across the nation were unsatisfied with their lives simply as housewives.

NOW

The National Organization for Women helped to fight for the rights of women during the 1960s and today. A woman’s right to choose was one of the earlier causes.

Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Case

Established the right of women to choose to have an abortion within the first trimester.

1960 Presidential Election

Election between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. It was a unique election because for the first time television had a large impact on the outcome of the election. First televised presidential debates.

John F. Kennedy

A Democrat from Massachusetts, wealthy, WWII hero, Senator, youngest elected President and the only Roman Catholic President.

Richard Nixon

Republican from California, modest background, Congressman, Vice President under Eisenhower, strong anti-communist, served on HUAC and was paranoid

JFK’s Domestic policies

Increased federal aid to public schools, healthcare reform, space exploration and civil rights

New Frontier

Name given to Kennedy’s programs/legislation (both domestic and foreign) to help the U.S. continue to prosper and compete in the new decade

Peace Corps

Established by Kennedy where young people would go to impoverished regions around the world to help build schools, hospitals and infrastructure in order to prevent the spread of communism

JFK’s Foreign policies

Development of new missiles, fighting the Cold War, Flexible Response, and the Peace Corps.

Bay of Pigs

Eisenhower’s plan to train Cuban exiles to invade and provoke a revolution against Castro’s communist government. It was carried out by the Kennedy Administration and was a complete failure costing hundreds of lives and embarrassing JFK.

Cuban Missile Crisis

1963 U.S. blockaded Cuba for 13 Days to force the Soviet Union to remove their nuclear missiles from Cuba. The USSR agreed and in return, JFK promised (off the record) to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey.

Fidel Castro

Communist Cuban dictator who gained power in 1959 and left his position in 2008

JFK Assassination

JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald. Many conspiracy theories.

Warren Commission

Committee to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy (concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman)

Lyndon B. Johnson

Democrat from Texas, Congressman, Senator, V.P. under Kennedy and the President, who passed a variety of legislation to improve society at the same time led the nation deeper into the Vietnam War. Did not run for reelection in 1968 because of the unpopular Vietnam War.

Great Society

name given to LBJ’s program to help improve the nation domestically (focused primarily on healthcare, poverty, civil rights and education)

War on Poverty

LBJ’s attempt to provide job training, housing programs develop literacy programs and funding for schools