Leadership, Power, Stoicism, and Machiavellian Strategy

Vocabulary flashcards covering presidential leadership, Lincoln's statecraft, LBJ's political maneuvering, Stoic philosophy, Machiavelli, and historical power dynamics.

Team of Rivals

A book by Doris Kearns Goodwin detailing Abraham Lincoln's cabinet of political competitors, illustrating his leadership style of incorporating opposing views into his decision-making process.

54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry

One of the first official Black regiments raised in the North during the Civil War, organized near Boston in 1863 and featured in the movie Glory.

Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln's 10-sentence, 271-word speech delivered on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of Gettysburg National Cemetery to redefine the Civil War as a test of American equality and democracy.

Edward Everett

The featured orator who delivered a two-hour address at Gettysburg preceding Abraham Lincoln's two-minute speech.

Dixie

A song closely associated with the Confederacy that Abraham Lincoln requested the military band play on April 10, 1865, as a gesture toward national reconciliation after Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

John Wilkes Booth

A famous Maryland-born actor and Southern sympathizer who met with Confederate agents at Boston's Parker House and assassinated President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865.

Brown & Root

A Texas construction company that served as a major political backer for Lyndon B. Johnson, receiving massive government defense and infrastructure contracts in return.

Precinct 13

The Texas voting precinct whose disputed ballot box tallies in the 1948 Senate election secured an 87-vote victory for Lyndon B. Johnson over Coke Stevenson.

Bobby Baker

Secretary of the Senate and close right-hand man to LBJ, known as 'Little Lyndon,' who was forced to resign in October 1963 amidst a major bribery and blackmail scandal.

Don Reynolds

An insurance salesman whose testimony regarding a kickback scheme involving LBJ was abruptly halted on November 22, 1963, when news arrived of John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Landmark federal legislation pushed through Congress by President Lyndon B. Johnson using political pressure, personal leverage, and vote-counting to end legal segregation in the South.

Hubert Humphrey

The Minnesota Senator who delivered a controversial 1948 civil rights speech and later served as Vice President under Lyndon B. Johnson starting in 1964.

Stoa Poikile

The painted public colonnade in Athens where Zeno of Citium began teaching Stoic philosophy around 300 BC.

Four Stoic Virtues

The core virtues defined by Stoic philosophy: Wisdom, Temperance, Courage, and Justice.

Epictetus

A Stoic philosopher born enslaved whose teachings focused on maintaining internal mental freedom when external circumstances and physical bodies are controlled by others.

Seneca

A wealthy Stoic philosopher and adviser to the Roman emperor Nero who addressed the challenge of guiding political power without becoming complicit in its abuses.

Marcus Aurelius

Roman Emperor and author of Meditations who used Stoic self-reflection to guard himself against being corrupted by absolute power.

Indifferents

The Stoic term for external advantages like wealth, health, position, and reputation, which do not inherently make a person good or determine moral character.

Niccolò Machiavelli

A Florentine diplomat and author who wrote The Prince in 1513 following his torture, imprisonment, and exile by the Medici family.

The Prince

A 1513 political treatise by Niccolò Machiavelli examining practical statecraft, political survival, and the realistic use of power, fear, and deception.

Medici

The ruling family of Florence that removed Niccolò Machiavelli from his government office in 1512.

Speech to Troops at Tilbury

An address delivered in 1588 by Queen Elizabeth I at Tilbury to rally English soldiers against the impending invasion of the Spanish Armada.

Anthropocene

A term used by Professor Alex Bove to describe the current geological period on Earth where human activity is the primary force driving changes to the planet.