Progressive Era to World War II – Vocabulary Review

71 vocabulary flashcards covering influential people, events, laws, and concepts from the U.S. Progressive Era through World War II.

Susan B. Anthony

Women’s rights activist; co-founded NAWSA and helped pave the way for the 19th Amendment (suffrage).

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Early women’s rights leader; organized Seneca Falls Convention and co-authored the “Declaration of Sentiments.”

Jacob Riis

Muckraking journalist whose book "How the Other Half Lives" exposed harsh tenement life in New York City.

Upton Sinclair

Author of "The Jungle," revealing meat-packing abuses and inspiring the 1906 Pure Food & Drug Act.

Teddy Roosevelt

Progressive U.S. president who advanced the Square Deal, trust-busting, and conservation policy.

Walter Rauschenbusch

Clergyman who led the Social Gospel movement urging Christian action to solve social ills.

Jane Addams

Social reformer who founded Hull House to aid immigrants and the urban poor in Chicago.

Margaret Sanger

Birth-control advocate; opened America’s first clinic and later founded Planned Parenthood.

William U’Ren

Oregon reformer who promoted initiative, referendum, and recall to democratize state politics.

Booker T. Washington

Educator who founded Tuskegee Institute and urged vocational training and accommodation for Black Americans.

W.E.B. Du Bois

Co-founder of the NAACP who demanded immediate civil rights and higher education for Blacks.

Ida B. Wells

Journalist and activist who led national anti-lynching campaigns in the late 19th century.

Sacco & Vanzetti

Italian immigrant anarchists executed in 1927 after a controversial Red Scare-era trial, symbolizing nativism.

Marcus Garvey

Leader of Black pride and “Back to Africa” movement; founded the UNIA in Harlem.

Herbert Hoover

U.S. president at the onset of the Great Depression; criticized for inadequate relief efforts.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

32nd U.S. president; launched the New Deal and led the nation through most of World War II.

Frances Perkins

First woman in a U.S. cabinet; labor secretary who helped craft Social Security and other reforms.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

1911 New York City fire that killed 146 workers and spurred workplace-safety legislation.

National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

Leading women’s suffrage group that secured adoption of the 19th Amendment.

Pure Food & Drug Act

1906 law establishing federal regulation of food and medicines after publication of "The Jungle."

Square Deal

Teddy Roosevelt’s domestic program of consumer protection, regulating trusts, and conservation.

Social Gospel

Late-19th/early-20th-century movement urging Christians to address poverty and inequality through social reform.

Hull House

Settlement house founded by Jane Addams in 1889 to assist Chicago’s immigrants and poor.

16th Amendment

1913 constitutional amendment granting Congress power to levy a federal income tax.

17th Amendment

1913 amendment instituting direct election of U.S. senators by voters rather than state legislatures.

18th Amendment

1919 amendment that launched Prohibition by banning manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.

NAACP

Civil-rights organization founded in 1909 to fight racism primarily through court litigation.

Tuskegee Institute

Vocational school for African Americans founded by Booker T. Washington in Alabama in 1881.

Lusitania

British liner sunk by Germany in 1915, killing 128 Americans and edging the U.S. toward WWI.

Zimmerman Telegram

1917 German proposal urging Mexico to attack the U.S.; helped prompt American entry into WWI.

War Industries Board

WWI U.S. agency coordinating industrial production and war materials.

Committee on Public Information

U.S. propaganda agency during WWI that built public support for the war effort.

Great Migration

1916–1970 movement of millions of African Americans from South to North seeking jobs and rights.

Espionage Act

1917 law criminalizing interference with the U.S. war effort and restricting civil liberties.

Sedition Act

1918 extension of the Espionage Act that punished anti-government speech during WWI.

Schenck v. United States

1919 Supreme Court case upholding wartime speech limits; established “clear and present danger” test.

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson’s 1918 peace blueprint advocating self-determination and a League of Nations.

Treaty of Versailles

1919 treaty ending WWI; blamed Germany and created the League of Nations, which the U.S. rejected.

Second Ku Klux Klan

Nationwide 1920s revival of the KKK targeting Blacks, immigrants, Jews, and Catholics.

Red Summer

1919 wave of deadly race riots across U.S. cities fueled by post-war tensions.

Red Scare (1919–1920)

Nationwide fear of communism leading to Palmer Raids and anti-immigrant measures.

Scopes “Monkey” Trial

1925 Tennessee trial on teaching evolution versus creationism, highlighting science-religion conflict.

Flappers

Young women of the 1920s who defied traditional norms with new fashions and behaviors.

“New Negro” Movement

1920s embrace of Black cultural pride and activism, precursor to the Civil Rights Movement.

Harlem Renaissance

1920s blossoming of African American art, music, and literature centered in Harlem, New York.

Stock Market Crash

October 29, 1929 “Black Tuesday” collapse that triggered the Great Depression.

Hawley-Smoot Tariff

1930 law raising U.S. tariffs, deepening the Depression by stifling global trade.

Dust Bowl

1930s Great Plains drought and dust storms forcing many farmers to migrate west.

New Deal

FDR’s array of programs (1933–1939) to relieve, recover, and reform the U.S. economy.

Emergency Banking Act

1933 measure to stabilize and reopen financially sound banks after the banking crisis.

Glass-Steagall Act

1933 law separating commercial and investment banking and creating the FDIC.

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

New Deal program paying farmers to cut production in order to raise crop prices.

National Recovery Act (NRA)

1933 effort to set industrial codes for wages and hours; later ruled unconstitutional.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

New Deal jobs program employing young men in conservation and public works projects.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

New Deal agency building dams for electricity and flood control in the South.

Wagner Act

1935 law protecting workers’ rights to unionize and bargain collectively.

Social Security Act

1935 law establishing pensions for the elderly and unemployment insurance.

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

1935–1943 New Deal agency providing millions of jobs in construction, arts, and infrastructure.

Indian Reorganization Act

1934 law ending forced assimilation, restoring tribal self-government and communal lands.

Neutrality Acts

1935–1937 laws designed to keep the U.S. out of foreign wars by restricting arms sales.

“Cash and Carry”

1939 policy letting belligerents buy U.S. goods if they paid upfront and shipped them themselves.

Lend-Lease Act

1941 law allowing the U.S. to supply Allies with war matériel, ending formal neutrality.

Executive Order 8802

1941 decree banning racial discrimination in defense industries after A. Philip Randolph’s pressure.

Bracero Program

1942 U.S.–Mexico agreement bringing temporary agricultural workers to address wartime labor shortages.

Double V Campaign

WWII effort by Black Americans seeking victory over fascism abroad and racism at home.

Zoot Suit Riots

1943 clashes in Los Angeles between U.S. servicemen and Mexican American youth in flamboyant suits.

Executive Order 9066

1942 directive authorizing forced internment of Japanese Americans for alleged security reasons.

Korematsu v. United States

1944 Supreme Court ruling upholding Japanese American internment as constitutional during wartime.

D-Day

June 6, 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy, a decisive turning point in the European theater of WWII.

Battle of Midway

June 1942 U.S. naval victory over Japan, marking a turning point in the Pacific War.