# terms

id: affirmativeaction
term: affirmative action
def:
Policies established in the 1960s and 1970s by governments, businesses, universities, and other institutions to overcome the effects of past discrimination against specific groups such as racial and ethnic minorities and women. Measures to ensure equal opportunity include setting goals for admission, hiring, and promotion; considering minority status when allocating resources; and actively encouraging victims of past discrimination to apply for jobs and other resources. (pp. 943, 944)


id: agribusiness
term: agribusiness
def:
Farming on a large scale, using the production, processing, and distribution methods of modern business. Farming became a big business, not just a way to feed a family and make a living, in the late nineteenth century as farms got larger and more mechanized. In the 1940s and 1950s, specialized commercial farms replaced many family-run operations and grew to an enormous scale. (pp. 562, 913)


id: alliancesystem
term: alliance system
def:
The military and diplomatic system formulated in an effort to create a balance of power in pre&ndash;World War I Europe. Nations were bound together by rigid and comprehensive treaties that promised mutual aid in the case of attack by specific nations. The system swung into action after the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, dragging most of Europe into war. (p. 715)


id: anarchist
term: anarchist
def:
A person who rebels against established order and authority. An anarchist is someone who believes that government of any kind is unnecessary and undesirable and should be replaced with voluntary cooperation and free association. Anarchists became increasingly visible in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They advocated revolution and grew in numbers through appeals to discontented laborers. Anarchists frequently employed violence in an attempt to achieve their goals. In 1901, anarchist Leon Czolgosz assassinated President William McKinley. (pp. 619, 685, 769)


id: antebellum
term: antebellum
def:
A term that means &ldquo;before a war&rdquo; and commonly refers to the period prior to the Civil War. (pp. 373, 395, 493, 521)


id: antinomian
term: antinomian
def:
A person who does not obey societal or religious laws. In colonial Massachusetts, Puritan authorities accused Anne Hutchinson of antinomianism because she believed that Christians could achieve salvation by faith alone. They further asserted, incorrectly, that Hutchinson also held the belief that it was not necessary to follow God&rsquo;s laws as set forth in the Bible. (p. 103)


id: archaeology
term: archaeology
def:
A social science devoted to learning about people who lived in the past through the study of physical artifacts created by humans. Most but not all archaeological study focuses on the history of people who lived before the use of the written word. (p. 5)


id: rchaic
term: Archaic
def:
A term applied to various hunting and gathering cultures that descended from Paleo-Indians. The term also refers to the period of time when these cultures dominated ancient America, roughly from 8000 BP to between 2000 and 1000 BP. (p. 11)


id: artifacts
term: artifacts
def:
Material remains studied and used by archaeologists and historians to support their interpretations of human history. Examples of artifacts include bones, pots, baskets, jewelry, furniture, tools, clothing, and buildings. (p. 5)


id: artisan
term: artisan
def:
A term commonly used prior to 1900 to describe a skilled craftsman, such as a cabinetmaker. (pp. 50, 124, 614)


id: illofights
term: Bill of Rights
def:
The commonly used term for the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The Bill of Rights (the last of which was ratified in 1791) guarantees individual liberties and defines limitations to federal power. Many states made the -promise of the prompt addition of a bill of rights a precondition for their ratification of the Constitution. (pp. 261, 262, 263, 264)


id: blacknationalism
term: black nationalism
def:
A term linked to several African American movements emphasizing racial pride, separation from whites and white institutions, and black autonomy. Black nationalism gained in popularity with the rise of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1917&ndash;1927) and later with the Black Panther Party, Malcolm X, and other participants of the black power movements of the 1960s. (pp. 762, 946)


id: bloodyshirt
term: bloody shirt
def:
A refrain used by Republicans in the late nineteenth century to remind the voting public that the Democratic Party, dominated by the South, was largely responsible for the Civil War and that the Republican Party had led the victory to preserve the Union. Republicans urged their constituents to &ldquo;vote the way you shot.&rdquo; (pp. 524, 587)


id: braceroprogram
term: bracero program
def:
A policy begun during World War II to help with wartime agriculture in which Mexican laborers (<i>braceros</i>) were permitted to enter the United States and work for a limited period of time but not to gain citizenship or permanent residence. The program officially ended in 1964. (p. 913)


id: brinksmanship
term: brinksmanship
def:
A cold war practice of appearing willing and able to resort to nuclear war in order to make an enemy back down. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was the foremost proponent of this policy. (p. 903)


id: alvinism
term: Calvinism
def:
The religious doctrine of which the primary tenet is that salvation is predestined by God. Founded by John Calvin of Geneva during the Protestant Reformation, Calvinism required its adherents to live according to a strict religious and moral code. The Puritans who settled in colonial New England were devout Calvinists. (p. 98) <i>See also</i> predestination.


id: capitalism
term: capitalism
def:
An economic system in which private individuals and corporations own and operate most means of production. Free-market competition&mdash;in which supply and demand is minimally regulated by the state or not regulated at all&mdash;determines the prices of goods and services. There are three major aspects of capitalism. First, a capitalist system generally includes many workers who do not own what they produce, but instead perform labor for wages. Second, capitalist societies move beyond local trade to the specialized production of goods for large-scale cash markets. Third, people in a capitalist society internalize a social mentality that emphasizes rationality and the pursuit of profit as the primary goal of economic life. In the United States, most regions made the transition to capitalism by the early nineteenth century. Over the -following two hundred years, the United States developed an industrial capitalist system, based on new technologies that allowed for self-sustaining economic growth. (pp. 570, 581, 632)


id: checksandbalances
term: checks and balances
def:
A system in which the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government curb each other&rsquo;s power. Checks and balances were written into the U.S. Constitution during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. (p. 254)


id: civildisobedience
term: civil disobedience
def:
The public and peaceful violation of certain laws or government orders on the part of individuals or groups who act out of a profound conviction that the law or directive is unjust or immoral and who are prepared to accept the consequences of their actions. Civil disobedience was practiced most famously in U.S. history in the black freedom struggle of the 1960s. (pp. 924, 925)


id: civilservice
term: civil service
def:
The administrative service of a government. This term often applies to reforms following the passage of the Pendleton Act in 1883, which set qualifications for U.S. government jobs and sought to remove such jobs from political influence. (pp. 591, 592) <i>See also</i> spoils system.


id: closedshop
term: closed shop
def:
An establishment in which every employee is required to join a union in order to obtain a job. (p. 752)


id: coldwar
term: cold war
def:
The hostile and tense relationship that existed between the Soviet Union on the one hand and the United States and other Western nations on the other from 1947 to 1989. This war was said to be &ldquo;cold&rdquo; because the hostility stopped short of armed (hot) conflict, which was warded off by the strategy of nuclear deterrence. (pp. 741, 868, 869) <i>See also</i> deterrence.


id: collectivebargaining
term: collective bargaining
def:
Negotiation by a group of workers (usually through a union) and their employer concerning rates of pay and working conditions. (pp. 724, 798, 910)


id: collectivesecurity
term: collective security
def:
An association of independent nations that agree to accept and implement decisions made by the group, including going to war in defense of one or more members. The United States resolutely avoided such alliances until after World War II, when it created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in response to the threat posed by the Soviet Union. (pp. 753, 873) <i>See also</i> North Atlantic Treaty Organization.


id: colonization
term: colonization
def:
The process by which a country or society gains control over another, primarily through settlement. (pp. 343, 344, 388, 475, 476)


id: olumbianexchange
term: Columbian exchange
def:
The transatlantic exchange of goods, peoples, and ideas that began when Columbus arrived in the Caribbean in 1492, ending the age-old separation of the hemispheres. (pp. 39, 40, 52, 53, 56)


id: communismommunistarty
term: communism (Communist Party)
def:
A system of government and political organization, based on Marxist-Leninist ideals, in which a single authoritarian party controls the economy through state ownership of production, as a means toward reaching the final stage of Marxist theory in which the state dissolves and economic goods are distributed evenly for the common good. Communists around the globe encouraged the spread of communism in other nations in hopes of fomenting worldwide revolution. At its peak in the 1930s, the Communist Party of the United States worked closely with labor unions and insisted that only the overthrow of the capitalist system by its workers could save the victims of the Great Depression. After World War II, the Communist power and aspirations of the Soviet Union were held to be a direct threat to American democracy, prompting the cold war. (pp. 740, 779, 802, 886, 1003, 1004, 1005, 1021) <i>See also</i> cold war.


id: conscription
term: conscription
def:
Compulsory military service. Americans were first subject to conscription during the Civil War. The Selective Service Act of 1940 marked the first peacetime use of conscription. (p. 480) <i>See also</i> draft.


id: conservatism
term: conservatism
def:
A political and moral outlook dating back to Alexander Hamilton&rsquo;s belief in a strong central government resting on a solid banking foundation. Currently associated with the Republican Party, conservatism today places a high premium on military preparedness, free market economics, low taxes, and strong sexual morality. (pp. 511, 517, 528, 586, 1004, 1005, 1006, 1007, 1019, 1021, 1025)


id: consumercultureconsumerism
term: consumer culture (consumerism)
def:
A society that places high value on, and devotes substantial resources to, the purchase and display of material goods. Elements of American consumerism were evident in the nineteenth century but really took hold in the twentieth century with installment buying and advertising in the 1920s and again with the postwar prosperity of the 1950s. (pp. 755, 758, 799)


id: containment
term: containment
def:
The U.S. foreign policy developed after World War II to hold in check the power and influence of the Soviet Union and other groups or nations espousing communism. The strategy was first fully articulated by diplomat George F. Kennan in 1946&ndash;1947. (pp. 902, 903, 996, 998)


id: covenant
term: covenant
def:
An agreement or pact; in American history, this refers to a religious agreement. The Pilgrims used this term in the Mayflower Compact to refer to the agreement among themselves to establish a law-abiding community in which all members would work together for the common good. Later, New England Puritans used this term to refer to the agreement they made with God and each other to live according to God&rsquo;s will as revealed through Scripture. (pp. 98, 105) <i>See also</i> Halfway Covenant.


id: cultofdomesticity
term: cult of domesticity
def:
The nineteenth-century belief that women&rsquo;s place was in the home, where they should create a haven for harried men working in the outside world. This ideal was made possible by the separation of the workplace and the home and was used to sentimentalize the home and women&rsquo;s role in it. (pp. 624, 625) <i>See also</i> separate spheres.


id: culture
term: culture
def:
A term used here to connote what is commonly called &ldquo;way of life.&rdquo; It refers not only to how a group of people supplied themselves with food and shelter but also to their family relationships, social groupings, religious ideas, and other features of their lives. (pp. 3, 13, 14, 16, 139, 298, 482, 572, 574, 586, 587, 915, 1018, 1059, 1064)


id: deindustrialization
term: de-industrialization
def:
A long period of decline in the industrial sector. The term often refers specifically to the decline of manufacturing and the growth of the service sector of the economy in post&ndash;World War II America. This shift and the loss of manufacturing resulting from it were caused by more efficient and automated production techniques at home, increased competition from foreign-made goods, and the use of cheap labor abroad by U.S. manufacturers. (p. 1023)


id: democracy
term: democracy
def:
A system of government in which the people have the power to rule, either directly or indirectly, through their elected representatives. Believing that direct democracy was dangerous, the framers of the Constitution created a government that gave direct voice to the people only in the House of Representatives and that placed a check on that voice in the Senate by offering unlimited six-year terms to senators, elected by the state legislatures to protect them from the whims of democratic majorities. The framers further curbed the perceived dangers of democracy by giving each of the three branches of government (legislative, executive, and judicial) the ability to check the power of the other two. (pp. 247, 248, 254, 255, 331, 332, 333, 474, 475, 505, 513, 529, 564, 1068) <i>See also</i> checks and balances.


id: deacutetente
term: d&eacute;tente
def:
French for &ldquo;loosening.&rdquo; The term refers to the easing of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Nixon administration. (pp. 990, 1012)


id: deterrence
term: deterrence
def:
The linchpin of U.S. military strategy during the cold war. The strategy of deterrence dictated that the United States would maintain a nuclear arsenal so substantial that the Soviet Union would refrain from attacking the United States and its allies out of fear that the United States would retaliate in devastating proportions. The Soviets pursued a similar strategy. (p. 1066)


id: disfranchisement
term: disfranchisement
def:
The denial of suffrage to a group or individual through legal or other means. Beginning in 1890, southern progressives preached the disfranchisement of black voters as a &ldquo;reform&rdquo; of the electoral system. The most common means of eliminating black voters were poll taxes and literary tests. (pp. 455, 528, 704, 760, 810, 879)


id: dominotheory
term: domino theory
def:
The assumption underlying U.S. foreign policy from the early cold war until the end of the Vietnam War. The theory was that if one country fell to communism, neighboring countries also would fall under Communist control. (pp. 870, 904, 996)


id: draftdraftee
term: draft (draftee)
def:
A system for selecting individuals for compulsory military service. A draftee is an individual selected through this process. (pp. 478, 480, 481, 482, 718, 835) <i>See also</i> conscription.


id: emancipation
term: emancipation
def:
The act of freeing from slavery or bondage. The emancipation of American slaves, a goal shared by slaves and abolitionists alike, occurred with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. (pp. 343, 344, 388, 475, 476, 477, 485)


id: nlightenment
term: Enlightenment
def:
An eighteenth-century philosophical movement that emphasized the use of reason to reevaluate previously accepted doctrines and traditions. (p. 144)


id: evangelicalism
term: evangelicalism
def:
The trend in Protestant Christianity stressing salvation through conversion, repentance of sin, adherence to Scripture, and the importance of preaching over ritual. During the Second Great Awakening in the 1830s, evangelicals worshipped at camp meetings and religious revivals led by exuberant preachers. (pp. 322, 339, 341, 342) <i>See also</i> Second Great Awakening.


id: fascism
term: fascism
def:
An authoritarian system of government characterized by dictatorial rule, disdain for international stability, and a conviction that warfare is the only means by which a nation can attain greatness. Nazi Germany and Mussolini&rsquo;s Italy are the prime examples of fascism. (p. 790)


id: feminism
term: feminism
def:
The belief that men and women have the inherent right to equal social, political, and economic opportunities. The suffrage movement and second-wave feminism of the 1960s and 1970s were the most visible and successful manifestations of feminism, but feminist ideas were expressed in a variety of statements and movements as early as the late eighteenth century and continue to be expressed in the twentyfirst. (pp. 932, 955, 956, 957, 958, 959, 960)


id: financecapitalism
term: finance capitalism
def:
Refers to investment sponsored by banks and bankers and the profits garnered from the sale of financial assets such as stocks and bonds. The decades at the end of the twentieth century are known as a period of finance capitalism because banks and financiers increasingly took on the role of stabilizing markets and reorganizing industries. (p. 581)


id: franchise
term: franchise
def:
The right to vote. The franchise was gradually widened in the United States to include groups such as women and African Americans, who had no vote when the Constitution was ratified. (pp. 310, 516, 652) <i>See also</i> suffrage.


id: freelabor
term: free labor
def:
Work conducted free from constraint and in accordance with the laborer&rsquo;s personal inclinations and will. Prior to the Civil War, free labor became an ideal championed by Republicans (who were primarily Northerners) to articulate individuals&rsquo; right to work how and where they wished and to accumulate property in their own name. The ideal of free labor lay at the heart of the North&rsquo;s argument that slavery should not be extended into the western territories. (pp. 364, 365, 388, 397, 398)


id: freesilver
term: free silver
def:
The late-nineteenth-century call by silver barons and poor American farmers for the widespread coinage of silver and for silver to be used as a base upon which to expand the paper money supply. The coinage of silver created a more inflationary monetary system that benefited debtors. (pp. 596, 643) <i>See also</i> gold standard.


id: freesoil
term: free soil
def:
The idea advanced in the 1840s that Congress should prohibit slavery within the western territories. &ldquo;Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men&rdquo; became the rallying cry of the short-lived Free-Soil Party. (pp. 430, 432)


id: frontier
term: frontier
def:
A borderland area. In U.S. history, this refers to the borderland between the areas primarily inhabited by Europeans or their descendants and the areas solely inhabited by Native Americans. (pp. 132, 147, 156, 164, 165)


id: fundamentalism
term: fundamentalism
def:
Strict adherence to core, often religious beliefs. The term has varying meanings for different religious groups. Protestant fundamentalists adhere to a literal interpretation of the Bible and thus deny the possibility of evolution. Muslim fundamentalists believe that traditional Islamic law should govern nations and that Western influences should be banned. (pp. 770, 771, 1006)


id: gagrule
term: gag rule
def:
A procedural rule invoked to prohibit discussion or debate on a particular subject in a legislative body. From 1836 to 1844, a series of gag rules prevented the House of Representatives from discussing the large number of antislavery petitions from abolitionist groups that flooded that chamber. (p. 347)


id: gendergap
term: gender gap
def:
An electoral phenomenon that became apparent in the 1980s when men and women began to display different preferences in voting. Women tended to favor liberal candidates, and men tended to support conservatives. The key voter groups contributing to the gender gap were single women and women who worked outside the home. (p. 1026)


id: globalization
term: globalization
def:
The spread of political, cultural, and economic influences and connections among countries, businesses, and individuals around the world through trade, immigration, communication, and other means. In the late twentieth century, globalization was intensified by new communications technology that connected individuals, corporations, and nations with greater speed at low prices. This led to an increase in political and economic -interdependence and mutual influence among nations. (pp. 1054, 1056)


id: goldstandard
term: gold standard
def:
A monetary system in which any circulating currency was exchangeable for a specific amount of gold. Advocates for the gold standard believed that gold alone should be used for coinage and that the total value of paper banknotes should never exceed the government&rsquo;s supply of gold. The triumph of gold standard supporter William McKinley in the 1896 presidential election was a big victory for supporters of this policy. (pp. 597, 641) <i>See also</i> free silver.


id: gospelofwealth
term: gospel of wealth
def:
The idea that wealth garnered from earthly success should be used for good works. Andrew Carnegie promoted this view in an 1889 essay in which he maintained that the wealthy should serve as stewards and act in the best interests of society as a whole. (pp. 585, 678)


id: governmentbonds
term: government bonds
def:
Promissory notes issued by a government in order to borrow money from members of the public. Such bonds are redeemable at a set future date. Bondholders earn interest on their investments. (p. 351)


id: reatwakening
term: Great Awakening
def:
The widespread movement of religious revitalization in the 1730s and 1740s that emphasized vital religious faith and personal choice. It was characterized by large, open-air meetings at which emotional sermons were given by itinerant preachers. (p. 145)


id: reatociety
term: Great Society
def:
President Lyndon Johnson&rsquo;s domestic program, which included civil rights legislation, antipoverty programs, government subsidy of medical care, federal aid to education, consumer protection, and aid to the arts and humanities. (pp. 932, 933, 935)


id: grossdomesticproduct
term: gross domestic product (GDP)
def:
A measure of economic production. GDP is the value of all the goods and services produced within a country during a year, regardless of the nationality of the owners of those goods and services. (p. 816)


id: grossnationalproduct
term: gross national product (GNP)
def:
A measure of economic production. GNP is the value of all the goods and services produced by a country&rsquo;s citizens, regardless of where production takes place. (p. 915)


id: guerrillawarfare
term: guerrilla warfare
def:
Fighting carried out by an -irregular military force usually organized into small, highly mobile groups. Guerrilla combat was common in the Vietnam War and during the American Revolution. Guerrilla warfare is often effective against opponents who have greater material resources. (pp. 192, 445, 464, 471, 516, 663, 904, 977)


id: alfwayovenant
term: Halfway Covenant
def:
A Puritan compromise that allowed the unconverted children of the &ldquo;visible saints&rdquo; to become &ldquo;halfway&rdquo; members of the church and to baptize their own children even though they were not full members of the church themselves because they had not experienced full conversion. Massachusetts ministers accepted this compromise in 1662, but the compromise remained controversial throughout the seventeenth century. (p. 105)


id: hawks
term: hawks
def:
Advocates of aggressive military action or all-out war, particularly during the Vietnam War. (p. 985) <i>See also</i> War Hawks.


id: holdingcompany
term: holding company
def:
A system of business organization whereby competing companies are combined under one central administration in order to curb competition and ensure profit. Pioneered in the late 1880s by John D. Rockefeller, holding companies, such as Standard Oil, exercised monopoly control even as the government threatened to outlaw trusts as a violation of free trade. (p. 577) <i>See also</i> monopoly; trust.


id: horizontalintegration
term: horizontal integration
def:
A system in which a single person or corporation creates several subsidiary businesses to sell a product in different markets. John D. Rockefeller pioneered the use of horizontal integration in the 1880s to control the refining process, giving him a virtual monopoly on the oil-refining business. (p. 577) <i>See also</i> vertical integration; monopoly.


id: impeachment
term: impeachment
def:
The process by which formal charges of wrongdoing are brought against a president, a governor, or a federal judge. (pp. 514, 1011, 1053)


id: imperialism
term: imperialism
def:
The system by which great powers gain control of overseas territories. The United States became an imperialist power by gaining control of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and Cuba as a result of the Spanish-American War. (pp. 525, 537, 543, 544, 545, 667, 668, 669)


id: indenturedservitude
term: indentured servitude
def:
A system that committed poor immigrants to four to seven years of labor in exchange for passage to the colonies and food and shelter after they arrived. An indenture is a type of contract. (pp. 71, 73)


id: ironcurtain
term: iron curtain
def:
A metaphor coined by Winston Churchill during his commencement address at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in 1946, to refer to the political, ideological, and military barriers that separated Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe from the rest of Europe and the West following World War II. (pp. 866, 867, 868, 869)


id: isolationism
term: isolationism
def:
A foreign policy perspective characterized by a desire to have the United States withdraw from the conflicts of the world and enjoy the protection of two vast oceans. (pp. 658, 753, 825, 826, 873)


id: imrow
term: Jim Crow
def:
The system of racial segregation that developed in the post&ndash;Civil War South and extended well into the twentieth century; it replaced slavery as the chief instrument of white supremacy. Jim Crow laws segregated African Americans in public facilities such as trains and streetcars and denied them basic civil rights, including the right to vote. It was also at this time that the doctrine of &ldquo;separate but equal&rdquo; became institutionalized. (pp. 519, 588, 704, 705)


id: eynesianeconomics
term: Keynesian economics
def:
A theory developed by economist John Maynard Keynes that guided U.S. economic policy from the New Deal to the 1970s. According to Keynesians, the federal government has a duty to stimulate and manage the economy by spending money on public works projects and by making general tax cuts in order to put more money into the hands of ordinary people, thus creating demand. (p. 814)


id: laissezfaire
term: laissez-faire
def:
The doctrine, based on economic theory, that government should not interfere in business or the economy. Laissez-faire ideas guided American government policy in the late nineteenth century and conservative politics in the twentieth century. Business interests that supported laissez-faire in the late nineteenth century accepted government interference when it took the form of tariffs or subsidies that worked to their benefit. A broader use of the term refers to the simple philosophy of abstaining from interference. (pp. 585, 586, 640, 654, 674, 788, 789)


id: landgrant
term: land grant
def:
A gift of land from a government, usually intended to encourage settlement or development. The British government issued several land grants to encourage development in the American colonies. In the mid-nineteenth century, the U.S. government issued land grants to encourage railroad development and, through the passage of the Land-Grant College Act (also known as the Morrill Act) in 1862, set aside public land to support universities. (pp. 209, 363, 552, 556, 560, 571, 573)


id: liberalism
term: liberalism
def:
The political doctrine that government rests on the consent of the governed and is duty-bound to protect the freedom and property of the individual. In the twentieth century, liberalism became associated with the idea that government should regulate the economy and ensure the material well-being and individual rights of all people. (pp. 690, 676, 674, 932, 933, 936, 938, 940, 1013)


id: liberty
term: liberty
def:
The condition of being free or enjoying freedom from control. This term also refers to the possession of certain social, political, or economic rights, such as the right to own and control property. Eighteenth-century American colonists invoked the principle to argue for strict limitations on government&rsquo;s ability to tax its subjects. (pp. 158, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 264, 378, 434, 452)


id: manifestdestiny
term: manifest destiny
def:
A term coined by journalist John O&rsquo;Sullivan in 1845 to express the popular nineteenth-century belief that the United States was destined to expand westward to the Pacific Ocean and had an irrefutable right and God-given responsibility to do so. This idea provided an ideological shield for westward expansion and masked the economic and political motivations of many of those who championed it. (pp. 370, 382, 537)


id: carthyism
term: McCarthyism
def:
The practice of searching out suspected Communists and others outside mainstream American society, discrediting them, and hounding them from government and other employment. The term derives from Senator Joseph McCarthy, who gained notoriety for leading such repressive activities from 1950 to 1954. (p. 885)


id: mercantilism
term: mercantilism
def:
A set of policies that regulated colonial commerce and manufacturing for the enrichment of the mother country. Mercantilist policies ensured that the American colonies in the mid-seventeenth century produced agricultural goods and raw materials to be shipped to Britain, where they would increase wealth in the mother country through re-exportation or manufacture into finished goods that would then be sold to the colonies and elsewhere. (p. 77)


id: iddleassage
term: Middle Passage
def:
The crossing of the Atlantic (as a slave destined for auction) in the hold of a slave ship in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Conditions were unimaginably bad, and many slaves died during these voyages. (p. 124)


id: militaryindustrialcomplex
term: military-industrial complex
def:
A term first used by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to refer to the aggregate power and influence of the armed forces in conjunction with the aerospace, munitions, and other industries that produced supplies for the military in the post&ndash;World War II era. (p. 908)


id: miscegenation
term: miscegenation
def:
The sexual mixing of races. In slave states, despite the social stigma and legal restrictions on interracial sex, masters&rsquo; almost unlimited power over their female slaves meant that liaisons inevitably occurred. Many states maintained laws against miscegenation into the 1950s. (pp. 397, 400, 588)


id: monopoly
term: monopoly
def:
Exclusive control and domination by a single business entity over an entire industry through ownership, command of supply, or other means. Gilded Age businesses monopolized their industries quite profitably, often organizing holding companies and trusts to do so. (pp. 568, 571, 577, 581, 583, 596) <i>See also</i> holding company; trust.


id: onroeoctrine
term: Monroe Doctrine
def:
President James Monroe&rsquo;s 1823 declaration that the Western Hemisphere was closed to any further colonization or interference by European powers. In exchange, Monroe pledged that the United States would not become involved in European struggles. Although Monroe could not back his policy with action, it was an important formulation of national goals. (pp. 313, 314, 316)


id: nationalism
term: nationalism
def:
A strong feeling of devotion and loyalty toward one nation over others. Nationalism encourages the promotion of the nation&rsquo;s common culture, language, and customs. (pp. 947, 972, 973)


id: nativism
term: nativism
def:
Bias against immigrants and in favor of native-born inhabitants. American nativists especially favor persons who come from white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant lines over those from other racial, ethnic, and religious heritages. Nativists may include former immigrants who view new immigrants as incapable of assimilation. Many nativists, such as members of the Know-Nothing Party in the nineteenth century and the Ku Klux Klan through the contemporary period, voice anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, and anti-Semitic sentiments. (pp. 439, 680)


id: avigationcts
term: Navigation Acts
def:
British acts of 1650, 1651, and 1660 that, together with a 1663 law (the Staple Act), set forth three fundamental regulations governing colonial trade. First, all colonial goods imported into England had to be transported on English ships using primarily English crews. Second, specific colonial products could be shipped only to England or to other English colonies. Third, all goods imported into the colonies had to pass through England. The 1660 Navigation Act assessed an explicit import tax of two pence on every pound of colonial tobacco; these tobacco taxes yielded about a quarter of all English customs revenues in the 1660s. The Navigation Acts fueled tension between the colonies and the monarchy in the century leading up to the Revolutionary War (1775&ndash;1783). (pp. 77, 112, 168)


id: eweal
term: New Deal
def:
The group of social and economic programs that President Franklin Roosevelt developed to provide relief for the needy, speed economic recovery, and reform economic and government institutions. The New Deal was a massive effort to bring the United States out of the Great Depression and ensure its future prosperity. (pp. 786, 790, 791, 792, 795, 801, 809, 810)


id: ewight
term: New Right
def:
Politically active religious conservatives who became particularly vocal in the 1980s. The New Right criticized feminism, opposed abortion and homosexuality, and promoted &ldquo;family values&rdquo; and military preparedness. (p. 1012)


id: ewouth
term: New South
def:
A vision of the South, promoted after the Civil War by Henry Grady, editor of the <i>Atlanta Constitution</i>, that urged the South to abandon its dependence on agriculture and use its cheap labor and natural resources to compete with northern industry. Many Southerners migrated from farms to cities in the late nineteenth century, and Northerners and foreigners invested a significant amount of capital in railroads, cotton and textiles, mining, lumber, iron, steel, and tobacco in the region. (pp. 587&ndash;588)


id: orthtlanticreatyrganization
term: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
def:
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) A post&ndash;World War II alliance that joined the United States, Canada, and Western European nations into a military coalition designed to counter the Soviet Union&rsquo;s efforts to expand. Each NATO member pledged to go to war if any member was attacked. Since the end of the cold war, NATO has been expanding to include the formerly Communist countries of Eastern Europe. (pp. 864, 867, 1046)


id: nullification
term: nullification
def:
The idea that states can disregard federal laws when those laws represent an overstepping of congressional powers. The controversial idea was first proposed by opponents of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 and later by South Carolina politicians in 1828 as a response to the Tariff of Abominations. (pp. 337, 432)


id: oligopoly
term: oligopoly
def:
A competitive system in which several large corporations dominate an industry by dividing the market so each business has a share of it. More prevalent than outright monopolies during the late 1800s, the oligopolies of the Gilded Age successfully muted competition and benefited the corporations that participated in this type of arrangement. (pp. 550, 583)


id: planters
term: planters
def:
Owners of large farms (or, more specifically, plantations) that were worked by twenty or more slaves. By 1860, planters had accrued a great deal of local, statewide, and national political power in the South despite the fact that they represented a minority of the white electorate. Planters&rsquo; dominance of southern politics demonstrated both the power of tradition and stability among southern voters and the planters&rsquo; success at convincing white voters that the slave system benefited all whites, even those without slaves. (pp. 400, 404, 407, 408, 409, 416, 421&ndash;422, 482)


id: plutocracy
term: plutocracy
def:
A society ruled by the richest members. The excesses of the Gilded Age and the fact that just 1 percent of the population owned more than half the real and personal property in the country led many to question whether the United States was indeed a plutocracy. (p. 614)


id: pogrom
term: pogrom
def:
An organized and often officially encouraged massacre of an ethnic minority; usually used in reference to attacks on Jews. (p. 608)


id: popularsovereignty
term: popular sovereignty
def:
The idea that government is subject to the will of the people. Before the Civil War, this was the idea that the residents of a territory should determine, through their legislatures, whether to allow slavery. (pp. 438, 444, 430&ndash;431)


id: opulism
term: Populism
def:
A political movement that led to the creation of the People&rsquo;s Party, primarily comprising southern and western farmers who railed against big business and advocated business and economic reforms, including government ownership of the railroads. The movement peaked in the late nineteenth century. The Populist ticket won more than 1 million votes in the presidential election of 1892 and 1.5 million in the congressional elections of 1894. The term <i>populism</i> has come to mean any political movement that advocates on behalf of the common person, particularly for government intervention against big business. (pp. 656, 657, 659)


id: predestination
term: predestination
def:
The idea that individual salvation or damnation is determined by God at, or just prior to, a person&rsquo;s birth. The concept of predestination invalidated the idea that salvation could be obtained through either faith or good works. (p. 98) <i>See also</i> Calvinism.


id: progressivismprogressivemovement
term: progressivism (progressive movement)
def:
A wide-ranging twentieth-century reform movement that advocated government activism to mitigate the problems created by urban industrialism. Progressivism reached its peak in 1912 with the creation of the Progressive Party, which ran Theodore Roosevelt for president. The term <i>progressivism</i> has come to mean any general effort advocating for social welfare programs. (pp. 614, 640, 643, 1072)


id: rotestantism
term: Protestantism
def:
A powerful Christian reform movement that began in the sixteenth century with Martin Luther&rsquo;s critiques of the Roman Catholic Church. Over the centuries, Protestantism has taken many different forms, branching into numerous denominations with differing systems of worship. (pp. 54&ndash;56, 86, 93, 94, 339, 347, 439, 587)


id: uritanism
term: Puritanism
def:
The ideas and religious principles held by dissenters from the Church of England, including the belief that the church needed to be purified by eliminating the elements of Catholicism from its practices. (pp. 91&ndash;92, 93&ndash;97, 101)


id: eformation
term: Reformation
def:
The reform movement that began in 1517 with Martin Luther&rsquo;s critiques of the Roman Catholic Church, which led to the formation of Protestant Christian groups. The English Reformation began with Henry VIII&rsquo;s break with the Roman Catholic Church, which established the Protestant Church of England. Henry VIII&rsquo;s decision was politically motivated; he had no particular quarrel with Catholic theology and remained an orthodox Catholic in most matters of religious practice. (pp. 430&ndash;431, 437)


id: reformarwinism
term: reform Darwinism
def:
A social theory, based on Charles Darwin&rsquo;s theory of evolution, that emphasized activism, arguing that humans could speed up evolution by altering the environment. A challenge to social Darwinism, reform Darwinism condemned laissez-faire and demanded that the government take a more active approach to solving social problems. It became the ideological basis for progressive reform in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (p. 683) <i>See also</i> laissez-faire; social Darwinism.


id: republicanism
term: republicanism
def:
The belief that the unworkable model of European-style monarchy should be replaced with a form of government in which supreme power resides in the hands of citizens with the right to vote and is exercised by a representative government answerable to this electorate. In Revolutionary-era America, republicanism became a social philosophy that embodied a sense of community and called individuals to act for the public good. (pp. 232, 247&ndash;248, 899&ndash;900)


id: scientificmanagement
term: scientific management
def:
A system of organizing work, developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the late nineteenth century, to increase efficiency and productivity by breaking tasks into their component parts and training workers to perform specific parts. Labor resisted this effort because it de-skilled workers and led to the speedup of production lines. Taylor&rsquo;s ideas were most popular at the height of the Progressive Era. (p. 683)


id: econdreatwakening
term: Second Great Awakening
def:
A popular religious revival that preached that salvation was available to anybody who chose to take it. The revival peaked in the 1830s, and its focus on social perfection inspired many of the reform movements of the Jacksonian era. (p. 339) <i>See also</i> evangelicalism.


id: separatespheres
term: separate spheres
def:
A concept of gender relations that developed in the Jacksonian era and continued well into the twentieth century, holding that women&rsquo;s proper place was in the world of hearth and home (the private sphere) and men&rsquo;s was in the world of commerce and politics (the public sphere). The doctrine of separate spheres eroded slowly over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as women became more and more involved in public activities. (pp. 339&ndash;340, 588, 761) <i>See also</i> cult of domesticity.


id: socialarwinism
term: social Darwinism
def:
A social theory, based on Charles Darwin&rsquo;s theory of evolution, that argued that all progress in human society came as the result of competition and natural selection. Gilded Age proponents such as William Graham Sumner and Herbert Spencer claimed that reform was useless because the rich and poor were precisely where nature intended them to be and intervention would retard the progress of humanity. (pp. 583&ndash;586, 686) <i>See also</i> reform Darwinism.


id: socialgospelmovement
term: social gospel movement
def:
A religious movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries founded on the idea that Christians have a responsibility to reform society as well as individuals. Social gospel adherents encouraged people to put Christ&rsquo;s teachings to work in their daily lives by actively promoting social justice. (pp. 677, 678&ndash;679)


id: socialism
term: socialism
def:
A governing system in which the state owns and operates the largest and most important parts of the economy. (pp. 351, 611, 622, 643, 779, 802)


id: socialpuritymovement
term: social purity movement
def:
A movement to end prostitution and eradicate venereal disease, often accompanied by the censorship of materials deemed &ldquo;obscene.&rdquo; (p. 677)


id: spoilssystem
term: spoils system
def:
An arrangement in which party leaders reward party loyalists with government jobs. This slang term for <i>patronage</i> comes from the saying &ldquo;To the victor go the spoils.&rdquo; Widespread government corruption during the Gilded Age spurred reformers to curb the spoils system through the passage of the Pendleton Act in 1883, which created the Civil Service Commission to award government jobs on the basis of merit. (pp. 333, 525, 586) <i>See also</i> civil service.


id: statesovereignty
term: state sovereignty
def:
A state&rsquo;s autonomy or freedom from external control. The federal system adopted at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 struck a balance between state sovereignty and national control by creating a strong central government while leaving the states intact as political entities. The states remained in possession of many important powers on which the federal government cannot intrude. (p. 467)


id: statesrsquorights
term: states&rsquo; rights
def:
A strict interpretation of the Constitution that holds that federal power over the states is limited and that the states hold ultimate sovereignty. First expressed in 1798 through the passage of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, which were based on the assumption that the states have the right to judge the constitutionality of federal laws, the states&rsquo; rights philosophy became a cornerstone of the South&rsquo;s resistance to federal control of slavery. (pp. 337, 480&ndash;481, 507, 508, 699)


id: strictconstructionism
term: strict constructionism
def:
An approach to constitutional law that attempts to adhere to the original intent of the writers of the Constitution. Strict construction often produces Supreme Court decisions that defer to the legislative branch and to the states and restrict the power of the federal government. Opponents of strict construction argue that the Constitution is an organic document that must be interpreted to meet conditions unimagined when it was written. (p. 1008)


id: suffrage
term: suffrage
def:
The right to vote. The term <i>suffrage</i> is most often associated with the efforts of American women to secure voting rights. (pp. 233, 311&ndash;312, 443, 500, 554, 683, 703&ndash;704, 760) <i>See also</i> franchise.


id: unelt
term: Sun Belt
def:
The southern and southwestern regions of the United States, which grew tremendously in industry, population, and influence after World War II. (pp. 909, 912&ndash;915)


id: supplysideeconomics
term: supply-side economics
def:
An economic theory based on the premise that tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations encourage investment and production (supply), which in turn stimulate consumption. Embraced by the Reagan administration and other conservative Republicans, this theory reversed Keynesian economic policy, which assumes that the way to stimulate the economy is to create demand through federal spending on public works and general tax cuts that put more money into the hands of ordinary people. (p. 1021) <i>See also</i> Keynesian economics.


id: temperancemovement
term: temperance movement
def:
The reform movement to end drunkenness by urging people to abstain from the consumption of alcohol. Begun in the 1820s, this movement achieved its greatest political victory with the passage of a constitutional amendment in 1919 that prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol. That amendment was repealed in 1933. (pp. 589&ndash;590, 652&ndash;653)


id: thirdworld
term: third world
def:
Originally a cold war term linked to decolonization, <i>third world</i> was first used in the late 1950s to describe newly independent countries in Africa and Asia that were not aligned with either Communist nations (the second world) or non-Communist nations (the first world). Later, the term was applied to all poor, nonindustrialized countries, in Latin America as well as in Africa and Asia. Many international experts see <i>third world</i> as a problematic category when applied to such a large and disparate group of nations, and they criticize the discriminatory hierarchy suggested by the term. (pp. 605, 606, 874)


id: trickledowneconomics
term: trickle-down economics
def:
The theory that financial benefits and incentives given to big businesses in the top tier of the economy will flow down to smaller businesses and individuals and thus benefit the entire nation. President Herbert Hoover unsuccessfully used the trickle-down strategy in his attempt to pull the nation out of the Great Depression, stimulating the economy through government investment in large economic enterprises and public works such as construction of the Hoover Dam. In the late twentieth century, conservatives used this economic theory to justify large tax cuts and other financial benefits for corporations and the wealthy. (pp. 775, 1024)


id: rumanoctrine
term: Truman Doctrine
def:
President Harry S. Truman&rsquo;s assertion that American security depended on stopping any Communist government from taking over any non-Communist government&mdash;even nondemocratic and repressive dictatorships&mdash;anywhere in the world. Beginning in 1947 with American aid to help Greece and Turkey stave off Communist pressures, this approach became a cornerstone of American foreign policy during the cold war. (p. 870)


id: trust
term: trust
def:
A corporate system in which corporations give shares of their stock to trustees, who coordinate the industry to ensure profits to the participating corporations and curb competition. Pioneered by Standard Oil, such business practices were deemed unfair, were moderated by the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890), and were finally abolished by the combined efforts of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft and the sponsors of the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act. The term <i>trust</i> is also loosely applied to all large business combinations. (pp. 568, 577, 595) <i>See also</i> holding company.


id: verticalintegration
term: vertical integration
def:
A system in which a single person or corporation controls all processes of an industry from start to finished product. Andrew Carnegie first used vertical integration in the 1870s, controlling every aspect of steel production from the mining of iron ore to the manufacturing of the final product, thereby maximizing profits by eliminating the use of outside suppliers or services. (p. 576)


id: virtualrepresentation
term: virtual representation
def:
The notion, propounded by the British Parliament in the eighteenth century, that the House of Commons represented all British subjects&mdash;wherever they lived and regardless of whether they had directly voted for their representatives. Prime Minister George Grenville used this idea to argue that the Stamp Act and other parliamentary taxes on British colonists did not constitute taxation without representation. The American colonists rejected this argument, insisting that political representatives derived authority only from explicit citizens&rsquo; consent (indicated by elections), and that members of a distant government body were incapable of adequately representing their interests. (p. 169)


id: arawks
term: War Hawks
def:
Young Republicans elected to the U.S. Congress in the fall of 1810 who were eager for war with Britain in order to legitimize attacks on Indians, end impressment, and avenge foreign insults. (p. 303) <i>See also</i> hawks.


id: welfarecapitalism
term: welfare capitalism
def:
The idea that a capitalistic, industrial society can operate benevolently to improve the lives of workers. The notion of welfare capitalism became popular in the 1920s as industries extended the benefits of scientific management to improve safety and sanitation in the workplace as well as institute paid vacations and pension plans. (p. 754) <i>See also</i> scientific management.


id: welfarestate
term: welfare state
def:
A nation or state in which the government assumes responsibility for some or all of the individual and social welfare of its citizens. Welfare states commonly provide education, health care, food programs for the poor, unemployment compensation, and other social benefits. The United States dramatically expanded its role as a welfare state with the provisions of the New Deal in the 1930s. (pp. 804&ndash;812)


id: ankeeimperialism
term: Yankee imperialism
def:
A cry raised in Latin American countries against the United States when it intervened militarily in the region without invitation or consent from those countries. (p. 1041)


id: yeoman
term: yeoman
def:
A farmer who owned a small plot of land that was sufficient to support a family and was tilled by family members and perhaps a few servants. (pp. 77, 140, 415&ndash;416, 421&ndash;422, 481&ndash;482, 518, 527&ndash;528)


