Key Terms from American History

Flashcards highlighting key historical terms and their significance in American history.

Tenements

Small apartments or housing structures in cities designed for multiple families.

Political Machine

An informal political group designed to gain and keep power, often associated with Tammany Hall in NYC.

Graft

The act of gaining power or money illegally, often to maintain political influence.

Jacob Riis

A Danish-born writer known for his book 'How the Other Half Lives', which documented the living conditions of the poor in NYC.

Yellow Journalism

A style of news reporting that uses sensationalism and made-up stories to attract readers.

Social Darwinism

The belief that human society evolves through competition, with the strong surviving and thriving over the weak.

Muckraker

Journalists who investigate and expose social issues and injustices.

Referendum

A process allowing voters to accept or reject measures proposed by the legislature.

Recall

A political process enabling voters to remove unsatisfactory elected officials from office.

Suffrage

The right to vote, particularly referring to the women's suffrage movement that culminated in the 19th Amendment.

Alice Paul

A leader of the National Woman's Party who advocated for women's suffrage and engaged in protests and hunger strikes.

Prohibition

The legal banning of alcohol production, transportation, and sale, marked by the 18th Amendment, later repealed by the 21st Amendment.