U.S History Unit 4 Vocabulary

Mass Production

The production of large quantities of goods using machinery and often an assembly line

Assembly Line

A production system with machines and workers arranged so that each person performs an assigned task again and again as the item passes before him/her

Model T

The automobile built by The Motor Ford company from 1908-1927

Disposable Income

Referring to the money remaining to an individual after the deduction of taxes

Credit

An amount or sum of money placed at a persons disposal by a bank on condition that it will be repaid with interest

Nativism

Hostility towards immigrants

Jazz Music

American style of music that developed from Ragtime and Blues and that uses syncopated rhythms and melodies

Ku Klux Klan

A group of white supremacists, far-right terrorist organizations, and hate groups who advocate extremist reactionary positions such as white nationalism, and ant-immigration

Flappers

A subculture of young women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior

Hooverilles

A shanty town built during the Great Depression by the homeless in the United States, named after Herbert Hoover, who was President of the United States during the onset of the Depression

Dust Bowl

A period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s caused by severe drought and improper farming practices

Prohibition

Laws banning the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages

Black Tuesday

On October 29, 1929, the United States stock market crashed begging a chain of events that led to the Great Depression, a 10-year economic slump that affected all industrialized countries in the world

Scopes Trial

Was an American legal case in 1925, in which a high school teacher was accused of violating state law which had made it illegal for teachers to teach human evolution in any state-funded school

Mass Media

A medium of communication (as in television and radio) intended to reach a wide audience

Anarchists

A person who believes there should be no government

Bank Runs

Persistent and heavy demands by a bank’s depositors, creditors, or customers to withdraw money

Duke Ellington

An American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life

Louis Armstrong

An American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several eras in the history of jazz

Henry Ford

An American industrialist and entrepreneur. He was founder of Ford Motor Company and pioneer of the assembly line technique of mass production. Ford created the first automobile for middle-class Americans

Sacco-Vanzetti

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian and immigrant anarchists who were controversially convicted of murdering two men during an armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company

Fundamentalism

A form of a religion, that upholds belief in the strict, literal interpretation of scripture