CPUSH14

Gl Bill of Rights

a name given to the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, a 1944 law that provided financial and educational benefits for World War II veterans.

Harry S. Truman

Thirty-third president of the United States; he became president upon the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He led the United States through the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War.

Dixiecrat

one of the southern delegates who, to protest President Truman’s civil rights policy, walked out of the 1948 Democratic National Convention and formed the States’ Rights Democratic Party.

Fair Deal

President Harry S. Truman’s economic program—an extension of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal—which included measures to increase the minimum wage, to extend social security coverage, and to provide housing for low-income families.

conglomerate

Major corporation that owns smaller companies in unrelated industries

franchise

Company that offers similar products or services in many locations

baby boom

Soaring birthrate from 1946 to 1964

Dr. Jonas Salk

Developer of a vaccine to prevent polio

consumerism

Excessive concern with buying material goods

planned obsolescence

Purposely making products to become outdated or wear out quickly

urban renewal

the tearing down and replacing of buildings in rundown inner-city neighborhoods.

termination policy

the U.S. government’s plan, announced in 1953, to give up responsibility for Native American tribes by eliminating federal economic support, discontinuing the reservation system, and redistributing tribal lands.

New Frontier

The name given to Kennedy’s domestic program

mandate

An overwhelming show of support by voters

Peace Corps

A program that enlisted volunteers to help in poor countries

Alliance for Progress

A program that supplied aid to Latin America

Warren Commission

The body that investigated the assassination of President Kennedy

Lyndon Baines Johnson

Thirty-sixth president of the United States; he took office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Economic Opportunity Act

This law was the main offensive of Johnson’s “war on poverty” and a cornerstone of the Great Society.

Great Society

President Lyndon B. Johnson’s program to reduce poverty and racial injustice and to promote a better quality of life in the United States

Medicare

a federal program, established in 1965, that provides hospital insurance and low-cost medical insurance to Americans aged 65 and over.

Medicaid

a program, established in 1965, that provides health insurance for people on welfare.

Immigration Act of 1965

a law that increased the number of immigrants allowed to settle in the United States.

Warren Court

banned prayer in public schools and declared state-required loyalty oaths unconstitutional.

Reapportionment

the redrawing of election districts to reflect changes in population.

Counterculture

the culture of the young people who rejected mainstream American society in the 1960s, seeking to create an alternative society based on peace, love, and individual freedom.

Haight-Ashbury

a San Francisco district that became the “capital” of the hippie counterculture during the 1960s.

The Beatles

a British band that had an enormous influence on popular music in the 1960s.

Woodstock

a free music festival that attracted more than 400,000 young people to a farm in upstate New York in August 1969.