Untitled Flashcards Set

World War I & Interwar Period Terms:

• Conscientious Objectors – People who refused to fight in war due to religious or moral beliefs.

• Zimmermann Telegram – A secret message from Germany to Mexico during WWI, promising U.S. land if Mexico joined the war against the U.S.; it helped push the U.S. into the war.

• Espionage Act (1917) – A law that made it illegal to interfere with military operations or support U.S. enemies during wartime.

• Sedition Act (1918) – An extension of the Espionage Act that made it illegal to speak against the government, the war, or the military.

• Fourteen Points – President Woodrow Wilson’s plan for peace after WWI, including self-determination and the League of Nations.

• Nye Committee Report – A 1930s investigation that suggested U.S. entry into WWI was influenced by arms manufacturers and bankers seeking profit.

• Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) – An agreement signed by many nations to outlaw war as a means of resolving disputes; it had little real effect.

• Good Neighbor Policy – President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policy of improving relations with Latin America by reducing U.S. military intervention.

• Sacco-Vanzetti Trial – A controversial trial in the 1920s where two Italian anarchists were convicted of murder and executed, reflecting anti-immigrant and anti-radical sentiments.

World War II Terms:

• Office of Price Administration (OPA) – A government agency during WWII that controlled prices and rationing to prevent inflation.

• War Production Board (WPB) – A U.S. government agency that oversaw the conversion of factories from peacetime to wartime production.

• Bracero Program – A U.S.-Mexico agreement allowing Mexican laborers to work temporarily in the U.S. during WWII to fill farm and railroad jobs.

New Deal & Labor Terms:

• Fireside Chats – Radio speeches given by FDR to reassure and inform Americans during the Great Depression and WWII.

• National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) – A 1935 law that protected workers’ rights to form unions and bargain collectively.

• Social Security Act (1935) – A law that created a system of unemployment insurance, pensions for retirees, and aid for disabled and needy families.

• New Deal Coalition – A political alliance of diverse groups (labor unions, minorities, farmers, and Southern Democrats) that supported FDR’s New Deal and the Democratic Party.

Immigration & Cultural Terms:

• Chain Migration – The process where immigrants move to a place where relatives or people from their community have already settled.

• Chain Employment – A pattern where immigrants help others from their home country get jobs after they have settled in a new place.

• American Protective Association (A.P.A.) – An anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant organization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

• Superpatriotism – Extreme nationalism, often leading to intolerance toward dissent or different viewpoints.

• Fundamentalists – People who believe in a strict, literal interpretation of religious texts, often associated with opposition to modern science (such as in the Scopes Trial).

• Speakeasies – Illegal bars during Prohibition (1920-1933) where people secretly drank alcohol.