U.S. History Review: 1865 to the Present

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering major historical themes, laws, movements, and figures from 1865 to the present as described in the lecture notes.

Transcontinental railroad system

A transportation network that linked the regions of The United States together, creating a truly national market for goods and favoring industrialists over farmers.

National Grange Movement

An organization of farmers created to defend against trusts and various types of railroad exploitation, such as charging excessively high prices for crop transportation.

Reservation system

A government policy that assigned American Indian populations to specific tracts of land to subdue them, leading to resistance such as the Sioux Wars.

Indian Appropriation Act

A law that ended federal recognition of Indian sovereignty on reservations and nullified all previous treaties.

Dawes Act

A law aimed at assimilation that broke up tribal organizations, divided tribal lands into $160$ acre plots, and granted U.S. citizenship to those who assimilated.

New South

A vision by some Southern leaders after the Civil War to reimagine the region with a greater industrial capacity, though it largely remained agricultural and entrenched in racial hierarchy.

Plessy v. Ferguson

The $1896$ Supreme Court case that established the "separate but equal" doctrine, indicating that public institutions could be racially segregated as long as facilities were equal.

Jim Crow laws

An expansive set of state and local laws in the South that segregated every part of society by race following the Plessy v. Ferguson decision.

Ida B. Wells

A newspaper editor who editorialized against lynching and Jim Crow laws before being forced to move north due to violence.

Bessemer process

A technological innovation that allowed for the mass production of much stronger steel, which served as the foundation for American industry.

Vertical integration

A business practice, associated with Andrew Carnegie, where a company acquires all industries required to manufacture its product, owning every part of the process.

Horizontal integration

A business practice, associated with John D. Rockefeller, where a company buys out all competitors until it dominates its entire industry.

Trust

A word used during the Gilded Age to describe a powerful monopoly created by businesses to eliminate competition.

Laissez-faire

A hands-off government policy toward big business and economic regulation during the Gilded Age.

Social Darwinism

An ideology applying biological evolution to society, arguing that wealthy industrialists thrived because they were the ones who adapted best to the economic environment.

Gospel of Wealth

Andrew Carnegie's argument that while the accumulation of wealth was acceptable, the rich had a moral obligation to use their riches to better society.

White-collar work

A category of jobs performed by a growing middle class of managers who worked with their minds rather than their hands and did not get dirty.

Knights of Labor

A labor union that campaigned for better wages and conditions but ultimately disappeared after the Haymarket Square riot.

American Federation of Labor

A prominent labor organization that crusaded for shortened workdays, safer conditions, and better wages for workers.

Exoduster movement

A mass migration of black Americans from the South to the Midwest to establish farming homesteads and escape Jim Crow laws and violence.

Nativism

A policy of preferring the interests of native-born Americans over foreign-born people, often resulting in backlash against immigrants.

Chinese Exclusion Act of $1883$

The first racially targeted immigration law in U.S. history, which cut off all Chinese immigration for over a decade.

Settlement houses

Private welfare programs, such as Jane Addams' Hull House, that helped immigrants assimilate to American culture by teaching English and helping them find jobs.

Social Gospel

A movement among Christians who believed that the teachings of the Bible should be applied to cure the sins and ills of society, specifically poverty.

Eugene V. Debs

The leader of a major labor union and founder of the Socialist Party of America who ran for president five times.

Populist Party

A political party representing the interest of farmers that advocated for the direct election of senators and the unlimited coinage of silver.

Omaha platform

The official set of goals for the Populist Party, including voting reforms like the initiative, referendum, and the direct election of senators.

Pendleton Act of $1881$

A law that replaced the patronage/spoils system with a competitive civil service examination for government jobs.

Frontier thesis

An argument by Frederick Jackson Turner that the frontier and westward movement were essential components of the American identity.

Imperialists

Americans who favored expanding U.S. territory beyond its borders for raw materials and markets, invoking the superiority of American institutions.

USS Maine

A U.S. battleship that exploded in the Havana Harbor in $1898$, killing $200$ Americans and serving as a cause for the Spanish-American War.

Yellow journalists

Writers who published exaggerated, jingoistic articles to incite public anger, such as those blaming Spain for the Maine explosion.

Muckrakers

Investigative journalists, such as Upton Sinclair and Ida Tarbell, who exposed corruption and social inequalities to trigger reform.

Secret ballot

A voting reform supported by progressives to reduce corruption and intimidation by ensuring that votes were cast in private.

17th Amendment

A constitutional amendment that established the direct election of U.S. Senators by the people rather than by state legislatures.

18th Amendment

A constitutional amendment that established prohibition by outlawing the manufacture and consumption of alcohol.

19th Amendment

A constitutional amendment that acknowledged women's right to vote.

Lusitania

A passenger ship sunk by German unrestricted submarine warfare, resulting in the deaths of $128$ Americans and increasing pressure for U.S. entry into World War I.

Zimmerman telegram

A German message to Mexico urging an alliance against The United States, which ultimately pushed President Wilson to ask for a declaration of war.

Sedition Act of $1918$

A wartime law that made it illegal to publicly criticize the government, representing a restriction of civil liberties.

Red Scare

A period of general fear after World War I regarding the infiltration of communist spies into American society, leading to the Palmer raids.

Great Migration

The movement of millions of black Americans out of the South to the North and West, fleeing persecution and seeking better opportunities.

Scientific management

A set of principles developed by Frederick Taylor to increase factory efficiency and productivity through standardized movements.

Harlem Renaissance

A flowering of art, literature, and music from black Americans, such as Langston Hughes and Louis Armstrong, centered in New York City.

Scopes monkey trial

A legal battle that highlighted the conflict between modernists and fundamentalists over the teaching of evolution in schools.

New Deal

Franklin D. Roosevelt's expansive program of government intervention designed to address the Great Depression through relief, recovery, and reform.

Keynesian economics

The economic theory that government spending could pull a nation out of a depression, serving as the basis for FDR's New Deal.

Glass-Steagall Act

A New Deal law that increased bank regulation and limited the way banks could invest people's money.

Korematsu v. The United States

The Supreme Court case that upheld the internment of Japanese Americans as a wartime necessity during World War II.

Containment

The primary U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War, aimed at stopping the spread of communism throughout the world.

Truman Doctrine

A policy stating that The United States would provide military and economic support to any nation threatened by the spread of communism.

Marshall Plan

An extensive economic aid package from The United States to help rebuild Western European nations and encourage democracy over communism.

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military defense pact created for the collective defense of Western Europe with The United States.

McCarthyism

The irrational fear and mass hysteria regarding communist infiltration, named after Senator Joseph McCarthy who claimed to have a list of communists in the State Department.

Baby boom

An explosion in the population after World War II, with $50,000,000$ babies born between $1945$ and $1980$, leading to the growth of suburbs like Levittown.

Brown v. Board of Education

The $1954$ Supreme Court case that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, ruling that segregation in public schools was inherently unequal.

Civil Rights Act of $1964$

A landmark law that made discrimination based on race, religion, or sex illegal in public and private institutions.

Voting Rights Act of $1965$

A law that prohibited racial discrimination in voting and sought to eliminate barriers to the ballot for black Americans.

Military-industrial complex

A term used by President Eisenhower in his farewell address to warn against the growing influence of munitions manufacturers on U.S. public policy.

Gulf of Tonkin resolution

A congressional act that gave the president a "blank check" to use military force to protect American interests in Vietnam without a formal declaration of war.

Great Society

Lyndon Johnson's domestic program consisting of "New Deal 2.0" social reforms, including the War on Poverty, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Feminine Mystique

A book by Betty Friedan that explored the dissatisfaction of housewives and helped spark the modern women's rights movement.

Stagflation

A combination of inflation and economic stagnation that plagued the U.S. economy during the $1970s$.

Watergate scandal

A political scandal involving a break-in at the Democratic headquarters and a subsequent cover-up by Richard Nixon, leading to his resignation.

Roe v. Wade

The $1973$ Supreme Court case that legalized abortion in all $50$ states based on the constitutional right to privacy.

Reaganomics

The supply-side economic strategy of Ronald Reagan that emphasized decreasing taxes and removing business regulations to stimulate growth.

Strategic Defense Initiative

Also known as "Star Wars," this was Reagan's plan to put satellites in space with lasers to destroy incoming missiles.

Sunbelt migration

The internal migration of Americans from the North and Midwest to the South and Southwest seeking defense jobs and warmer weather.

Patriot Act

A post-$9/11$ law that increased the government's permission to surveil its citizens, leading to debates over the Fourth Amendment.

Inconvenient Truth

The name of Al Gore's video content and environmental campaign arguing that fossil fuel usage was causing climate change.