DCUSH Study guide final

Comprehensive vocabulary terms and definitions covering United States history from the Reconstruction era through the Vietnam War.

Reconstruction

The period ($1865-1877$) after the Civil War dedicated to rebuilding the South and integrating millions of newly freed African Americans into the United States.

Freedmen’s Bureau

A government agency created to help former slaves and poor whites in the South by providing food, housing, medical aid, and establishing schools.

Radical Republicans

A faction of politicians who wanted to strictly punish the South after the Civil War and fiercely protect the legal rights of freed slaves.

$13$th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that abolished slavery.

$14$th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that granted citizenship and equal protection under the law.

$15$th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that granted Black men the right to vote.

Carpetbaggers

Northerners who moved to the South after the war to profit or help with Reconstruction.

Scalawags

White Southerners who supported Reconstruction and the Republican party, often viewed as traitors by fellow Southerners.

Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist terrorist group formed after the Civil War to intimidate Black people and prevent them from exercising their new political rights.

Bargain of $1877$

A political deal settling the disputed $1876$ presidential election; Rutherford B. Hayes became president in exchange for removing federal troops from the South.

Captains of Industry

A positive view of $19$th-century business titans (like Rockefeller and Carnegie) that praises them for building the economy.

Robber Barons

A critical view of $19$th-century business titans that condemns them for using ruthless ethics to exploit workers and eliminate competition.

Gilded Age

A term coined by Mark Twain describing the late $1800$s as "glittering on the outside, but corrupt underneath."

Knights of Labor

One of the first major labor unions in the U.S. which welcomed skilled and unskilled workers, women, and African Americans while fighting for an $8$-hour workday.

Social Gospel Movement

A religious movement urging Christians to apply their faith to social justice issues such as helping the urban poor and ending child labor.

Haymarket Affair

A labor protest rally in Chicago ($1886$) that turned into a riot after a bomb was thrown at police, damaging the reputation of labor unions.

Morrill Land Grant Act

An $1862$ law that gave federal land to states to fund universities focused on agriculture and mechanics.

Cowboy

A legendary symbol of the American West whose actual job involved low-paid, hard physical labor herding cattle to railroad hubs.

Mountain Meadows Massacre

An $1857$ event where a local Mormon militia killed over $100$ California-bound migrants in Utah.

Battle of Little Bighorn

An $1876$ major victory for Native Americans (Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho) who wiped out General Custer and his U.S. Army troops in Montana.

Dawes Act

An $1887$ law that broke up communal Native American tribal lands into individual family plots to force assimilation into white culture.

Ghost Dance

A religious movement and ritual dance believed to bring back ancestors, make white settlers disappear, and restore traditional Native American life.

Wounded Knee

An $1890$ massacre in South Dakota where U.S. soldiers killed nearly $300$ Lakota men, women, and children, marking the end of the Indian Wars.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

An $1890$ law designed to prevent monopolies and promote fair economic competition.

Populists

A political party formed in the $1890$s by farmers who fought big banks and railroads, advocating for silver-backed currency.

Pullman Strike

A massive $1894$ railroad strike and boycott broken up by federal troops sent by President Cleveland.

William Jennings Bryan

A Populist leader who demanded "free silver" (minting silver coins) and famously warned against crucifying humanity on a "cross of gold."

Atlanta Compromise

An $1895$ speech by Booker T. Washington arguing that African Americans should focus on economic self-reliance rather than immediate social integration.

Disenfranchisement

The systematic stripping away of Black voting rights in the South after Reconstruction using poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation.

Plessy v. Ferguson

An $1896$ Supreme Court ruling that legalized racial segregation as long as facilities were "separate but equal."

Ida B. Wells

An African American journalist and activist who led a powerful anti-lynching crusade in the United States.

Know Nothings of $1850$

A political party driven by nativism, targeting Irish and German immigrants with anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiment.

Chinese Exclusion Act of $1882$

The first major U.S. law to ban immigration based entirely on race or nationality, blocking Chinese laborers.

Seward’s Icebox

The nickname for the $1867$ purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7.2\,million$, initially mocked as a useless wasteland.

Alfred T. Mahan

A naval officer who argued that a country's greatness depended on a powerful navy and overseas bases.

Queen Liliuokalani

The last reigning monarch of Hawaii who was overthrown by American businessmen in $1893$.

Spanish-American War $1898$

A brief war that resulted in the U.S. acquiring Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, launching America as a global empire.

Anti-Imperialist League

A group of Americans (including Mark Twain) who argued that ruling over other people without their consent violated democratic principles.

Progressive Movement

A broad early-$20$th-century reform movement aimed at fixing political, economic, and social problems caused by industrialization.

Muckraking

Investigative journalism that exposed corruption, poverty, and corporate abuses during the Progressive Era.

Upton Sinclair

Author of "The Jungle," a muckraking novel exposing unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry, leading to the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Ellis Island and Angel Island

The two main U.S. immigration stations; Ellis Island in New York (European) and Angel Island in California (Asian).

Fordism

Henry Ford's economic system combining mass production via assembly lines with high wages ($5$ a day) so workers could buy the products.

Collective Bargaining

Negotiations between a labor union and employers regarding wages, hours, and working conditions for all employees.

Helen Keller

Deaf-blind author and activist who campaigned for women’s suffrage, labor rights, and socialism.

Carlos Montezuma

A Native American doctor and activist who co-founded the Society of American Indians to fight for citizenship and self-determination.

Oregon System

A series of political reforms (initiative, referendum, and recall) that gave voters direct power to propose laws or remove politicians.

Jane Addams

A Progressive reformer of the settlement house movement who founded Hull House in Chicago.

Suffrage

The right to vote, famously associated with the women's movement leading to the $19$th Amendment.

John Muir

A naturalist and conservationist who founded the Sierra Club and fought to preserve wilderness areas like Yosemite.

Federal Reserve System

The central banking system of the U.S. created in $1913$ to manage money supply and prevent financial panics.

Big Stick Policy

Teddy Roosevelt's foreign policy of negotiating peacefully but using the threat of military power to enforce interests.

Panama Canal

A U.S.-built waterway opened in $1914$ that drastically shortened naval trade routes between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Roosevelt Corollary

An addition to the Monroe Doctrine stating the U.S. could act as an "international police power" in Latin America.

Lusitania

A British passenger ship sunk by a German U-boat in $1915$, killing over $100$ Americans and shifting public opinion against Germany.

Zimmerman Letter

A secret German telegram proposing an alliance with Mexico if the U.S. entered $WWI$, pushing the U.S. into the war.

$14$ Points

President Woodrow Wilson’s blueprint for world peace after $WWI$, including national self-determination and the League of Nations.

Prohibition

The period ($1920-1933$) when the $18$th Amendment banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol.

Espionage Act of $1917$

A law passed during $WWI$ that criminalized acts of spying or interfering with the military draft.

Sedition Act of $1918$

A law making it illegal to speak or publish anything abusive or disloyal about the U.S. government or military during $WWI$.

NAACP

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in $1909$ to fight racial inequality through the legal system.

Booker T. Washington

advocated for gradual progress through vocational education and economic self-improvement

W.E.B. DuBois

An activist who demanded immediate political equality, civil rights, and academic education for African Americans.

Great Migration

The mass movement of millions of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North and West during and after $WWI$.

Spanish Flu

A deadly $1918$ global pandemic that killed an estimated $50\,million$ people worldwide, including $675,000$ Americans.

Red Scare

A period of intense public fear ($1919-1920$) regarding a potential communist revolution in the U.S.

Return to ‘Normalcy’

Warren G. Harding's $1920$ campaign slogan promising conservative big-business growth after the chaos of $WWI$.

Flappers

Young women of the $1920$s who defied traditional social norms through their dress, hair, and behavior.

Hays Code

A set of strict moral censorship guidelines adopted by Hollywood from the $1930$s to the $1960$s.

ACLU

The American Civil Liberties Union, founded in $1920$ to defend individual constitutional rights and free speech.

Fundamentalists

A conservative religious movement insisting on the literal truth of the Bible and opposing theories like evolution.

Scopes Trial

The $1925$ "Monkey Trial" that highlighted the clash between modern science (evolution) and traditional religion.

Speakeasies

Illegal, hidden bars and nightclubs that operated secretly during the Prohibition era.

Bootleggers

People who illegally made, smuggled, or sold alcohol during the Prohibition era.

Harlem Renaissance

A vibrant boom of African American artistic, literary, and musical creativity in $1920$s New York.

Stock Market Crash of $1929$

The collapse of stock prices on "Black Tuesday" that helped trigger the Great Depression.

Hoovervilles

Shantytowns built by homeless people during the Great Depression, named sarcastically after President Herbert Hoover.

Four Freedoms

Core goals articulated by FDR in $1941$: Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

Freedom House

A U.S.-based organization founded in $1941$ to advocate for democracy and human rights globally.

Pearl Harbor

December $7$, $1941$; the date of Japan’s surprise strike on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii, prompting entry into $WWII$.

D-Day

June $6$, $1944$; the Allied amphibious invasion of Nazi-occupied Normandy, France.

Holocaust

The systematic, state-sponsored genocide of six million European Jews and millions of others by the Nazi regime.

Fly Girls (WASPs)

Women Airforce Service Pilots who flew military aircraft within the U.S. during $WWII$.

GI Bill

An $1944$ law providing $WWII$ veterans with funds for college, low-cost mortgages, and unemployment insurance.

Bracero Program

Agreements starting in $1942$ that brought millions of Mexican guest workers to the U.S. for agricultural labor.

Zoot Suit Riots

$1943$ violent conflicts in Los Angeles between American servicemen and Mexican American youth.

Internment Camps

Camps where over $120,000$ Japanese Americans (mostly citizens) were forcibly confined by the U.S. government during $WWII$.

Double V Campaign

A $WWII$ effort by African Americans demanding victory over fascism abroad and victory over racism at home.

Manhattan Project

The top-secret U.S. government research project that developed the first atomic bombs.

Bretton Woods

A $1944$ conference that created the modern global financial system, including the IMF and World Bank.

Long Telegram

A $1946$ dispatch by George Kennan that formed the basis of the U.S. policy of containment against communism.

Truman Doctrine

U.S. foreign policy pledging military and economic aid to any nation resisting communist takeover.

Marshall Plan

A U.S. financial aid package exceeding $13\,billion$ sent to rebuild Western Europe after $WWII$ to prevent communism.

Korean War

A $1950-1953$ conflict between communist North Korea and democratic South Korea that ended in a stalemate.

Fair Deal

President Truman’s domestic agenda aiming to expand the New Deal with universal healthcare and civil rights.

HUAC

House Un-American Activities Committee; investigated suspected communist subversion in the government and Hollywood.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

An American couple executed in $1953$ for passing atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union.

Levittown

The first mass-produced suburban housing development built after $WWII$.

Baby Boom

The massive spike in birth rates in the United States between $1946$ and $1964$.

Sputnik

The world's first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in $1957$, igniting the Space Race.