Download Historical Terms and Definitions: From the Ku Klux Klan to Watergate and more Quizzes United States History in PDF only on Docsity!
ku klux klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as The Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically expressed through Christian terrorism and a fervent anti-communist stance. TERM 2
new deal coalition
DEFINITION 2
The New Deal Coalition was the alignment of interest groups
and voting blocs that supported the New Deal and voted for
Democratic presidential candidates from 1932 until
approximately 1968, which made the Democratic Party the
majority party during that period, losing only to Dwight D.
Eisenhower
TERM 3
hoovervilles
DEFINITION 3 A Hooverville was the popular name for shanty towns built by homeless people during the Great Depression. These settlements were often formed on empty land and generally consisted of tents and small shacks. Authorities did not officially recognize these Hoovervilles and occasionally removed the occupants for trespassing on private lands, but they were frequently tolerated or ignored out of necessity. TERM 4
the first 100 days
DEFINITION 4 Roosevelt was keenly interested in farm issues and believed that true prosperity would not return until farming was prosperous. Many different programs were directed at farmers. The first 100 days produced the Farm Security Act to raise farm incomes by raising the prices farmers received, which was achieved by reducing total farm output. The Agricultural Adjustment Act created the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) in May 1933. The act reflected the demands of leaders of major farm organizations, especially the Farm Bureau, and reflected debates among Roosevelt's farm advisers such as Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace, M.L. Wilson, Rexford Tugwell, and George Peek. TERM 5
emergency banking relief act
DEFINITION 5 The Emergency Banking Act (the official title of which was the Emergency Banking Relief Act) was an act of the United States Congress spearheaded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. It was passed on March 9, 1933. The act allowed a plan that would close down insolvent banks and reorganize and reopen those banks strong enough to survive.
american expeditionary force
The American Expeditionary Forces or AEF were the United States Armed Forces sent to Europe in World War I. During the United States campaigns in World War I the AEF fought in France alongside British and French allied forces in the last year of the war, against Imperial German forces. The AEF helped the French Army on the Western Front during the Aisne Offensive (at Chteau- Thierry and Belleau Wood) in June 1918, and fought its major actions in the Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne Offensives in late
TERM 7
civilian conservation corps
DEFINITION 7
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work
relief program for unemployed men age 18-25, providing
unskilled manual labor related to the conservation and
development of natural resources in rural areas of the United
States from 1933 to 1942. As part of the New Deal legislation
proposed by President Franklin D.
TERM 8
tennessee valley
authority
DEFINITION 8
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned
corporation in the United States created by congressional
charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control,
electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic
development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly
affected by the Great Depression.
TERM 9
american liberty league
DEFINITION 9
The American Liberty League was an American political
organization formed in 1934 by conservative Democrats to
oppose the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt and other liberal
Democrats.
TERM 10
d
day
DEFINITION 10
The best known D-Day is June 6, 1944 the day of the
Normandy landings initiating the Western Allied effort to
liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation during World
War II. However, many other invasions and operations had a
designated D-Day, both before and after that operation
brown vs board of
education
A landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which allowed state-sponsored segregation. Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Warren Court's unanimous (90) decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." As a result, de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This ruling paved the way for integration and the civil rights movement. TERM 17
voting rights act
DEFINITION 17
The National Voting Rights Act of 1965 () was a landmark
piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed
discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for
the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in
the U.S.
TERM 18
ho chi mihn
DEFINITION 18
H Ch Minh (, Ch Nm: ), born Nguyn Sinh Cung and also known
as Nguyn i Quc (19 May 1890 - 3 September 1969) was a
Vietnamese Marxist revolutionary leader who was prime
minister (1946-1955) and president (1945-1969) of the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam).
TERM 19
fascism
DEFINITION 19
Fascism () is a radical and authoritarian nationalist political
ideology.
TERM 20
herbert hoover
DEFINITION 20
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 - October 20, 1964)
was the 31st President of the United States (1929-1933).
ronald reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 - June 5, 2004) was
the 40th President of the United States (1981-1989) and the
33rd Governor of California (1967-1975).
TERM 22
lyndon b johnson
DEFINITION 22 Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, served as the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969 after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States from 1961 to 1963. He is one of four Presidents who served in all four elected Federal offices of the United States: Representative, Senator, Vice President and President. TERM 23
dixiecrat party
DEFINITION 23
The States' Rights Democratic Party (commonly known as the
Dixiecrats) was a shortlived segregationist, socially
conservative political party in the United States.
TERM 24
keynesian
economics
DEFINITION 24
Keynesian economics ( , also called Keynesianism and
Keynesian theory) is a macroeconomic theory based on the
ideas of 20th century British economist John Maynard
Keynes.
TERM 25
bonus
army
DEFINITION 25
The self-named Bonus Expeditionary Force was an
assemblage of some 43,000 marchers-17,000 World War I
veterans, their families, and affiliated groups-who protested
in Washington, D.C., in spring and summer of 1932. Called
the Bonus March by the news media, the Bonus Marchers
were more popularly known as the Bonus Army.
social security act
The Social Security Amendments of 1965 was legislation in
the United States whose most important provisions resulted
in creation of two programs: Medicare and Medicaid.
TERM 32
battle of midway island
DEFINITION 32
The Battle of Midway () is widely regarded as the most
important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War
II.
TERM 33
hiroshima
DEFINITION 33
() is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city
in the Chgoku region of western Honsh, the largest island of
Japan.
TERM 34
yalta conference
DEFINITION 34
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea
Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, was
the February 4-11, 1945 wartime meeting of the heads of
government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and
the Soviet Union-President Franklin D.
TERM 35
mutually assured destruction
DEFINITION 35
Mutually assured destruction (M.A.D.) is a doctrine of military
strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use
of nuclear weapons by two opposing sides would effectively
result in the destruction of both the attacker and the
defender, becoming thus a war that has no victory nor any
armistice but only total destruction.
nato
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO ( ; ), also called the (North) Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The NATO headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium, and the organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party. TERM 37
sputnik
DEFINITION 37
The Sputnik crisis was a key event during the Cold War that
began on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched
Sputnik 1, the first Earth satellite.
TERM 38
martin luther king jr
DEFINITION 38 was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. King is often presented as a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism.[1] TERM 39
civil rights act 1964
DEFINITION 39
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () was a landmark piece of
legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of
discrimination against blacks and women, including racial
segregation.
TERM 40
dien bien
phu
DEFINITION 40
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (; ) was the climactic
confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French
Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh
communist revolutionaries.
gulf of tonkin resolution
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution (officially, Asia Resolution, Public Law 88-408) was a joint resolution which the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964 in response to a sea battle between the North Vietnamese Navy's Torpedo Squadron 135 and the destroyer on August 2 and an alleged second naval engagement between North Vietnamese boats and the US destroyers USS Maddox and on August 4 in the Tonkin Gulf; both naval actions are known collectively as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. TERM 47
tet offensive
DEFINITION 47
The Tet Offensive was a military campaign during the
Vietnam War that began on January 31, 1968. Forces of the
National Liberation Front for South Vietnam (NLF, or Viet
Cong), and the People's Army of Vietnam (the North
Vietnamese army), fought against the forces of the Republic
of Vietnam (South Vietnam), the United States, and their
allies.
TERM 48
the pentagon papers
DEFINITION 48 The Pentagon Papers, officially titled United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, was a top-secret United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. The papers were first brought to the attention of the public on the front page of the New York Times in
TERM 49
joseph
mccarthy
DEFINITION 49 an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread Communist subversion.[1] He was noted for making claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the United States federal government and elsewhere. Ultimately, McCarthy's tactics and his inability to substantiate his claims led him to be censured by the United States Senate. TERM 50
lend lease
DEFINITION 50 Lend-Lease (Public Law 77-11) was the name of the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war material between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on 11 March 1941, over 18 months after the outbreak of the European war in September 1939, but before the U.S.
manhattan project
The Manhattan Project was the codename for a project
conducted during World War II to develop the first atomic
bomb, before the Germans or the Japanese.
TERM 52
the fair
deal
DEFINITION 52
In September 1945, United States President Harry Truman
addressed Congress and presented a 21 point program of
domestic legislation outlining a series of proposed actions in
the fields of economic development and social welfare.
TERM 53
court packing
DEFINITION 53 was a legislative initiative proposed by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. Roosevelt's purpose was to obtain favorable rulings regarding New Deal legislation that had been previously ruled unconstitutional. The central and most controversial provision of the bill would have granted the President power to appoint an additional Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, up to a maximum of six, for every sitting member over the age of 70. TERM 54
battle of stalingrad
DEFINITION 54 The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in southwestern Russia between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943. The battle involved more participants than any other on the Eastern Front, and was marked by its brutality and disregard for military and civilian casualties. TERM 55
iron curtain
DEFINITION 55
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological
fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two
separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the
end of the Cold War in 1989. On either side of the Iron
Curtain, states developed their own international economic
and military alliances:
gi
bill
was an omnibus bill that provided college or vocational education for returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s) as well as one year of unemployment compensation. It also provided many different types of loans for returning veterans to buy homes and start businesses. Since the original act, the term has come to include other veteran benefit programs created to assist veterans of subsequent wars as well as peacetime service. TERM 62
japanese internmet
DEFINITION 62 the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.[1][2] The internment of Japanese Americans was applied unequally throughout the United States. Japanese Americans who lived on the West Coast of the United States were all interned, while in Hawaii, where more than 150,000 Japanese Americans composed over one-third of the territory's population, 1,200[3] to 1,800 Japanese Americans were interned.[4] Of those interned, 62% were American citizens. TERM 63
cuban missile crisis
DEFINITION 63
The Cuban Missile Crisis (known as The October Crisis in
Cuba or Caribbean Crisis in Russia) was a confrontation
between the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in
October 1962, during the Cold War.
TERM 64
watergate
DEFINITION 64
The Watergate scandal was a 1970s United States political
scandal resulting from the break-in to the Democratic
National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office
complex in Washington, D.C.
TERM 65
wagner act
DEFINITION 65 is a 1935 United States federal law that limits the means with which employers may react to workers in the private sector who create labor unions, engage in collective bargaining, and take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in support of their demands. The Act does not apply to workers who are covered by the Railway Labor Act, agricultural employees, domestic employees, supervisors, federal, state or local government workers, independent contractors and some close relatives of individual employers.
