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US History
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Liberty | the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. |
egalitarianism | relating to or believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities |
individualism | the habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant. |
Populism | political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups. |
Laissez-faire | policy or attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering. |
Assimilate | the process of taking in and fully understanding information or ideas. |
Americanization | the action of making a person or thing American in character or nationality. |
robber barons | person who has become rich through ruthless and unscrupulous business practices |
Captains of industry | a business leader whose means of amassing a personal fortune contributed positively to the country in some way. |
Philanthropy | goodwill to fellow members of the human race |
Monopoly | a company or group having exclusive control over a commodity or service. |
Economics | the branch of knowledge concerned with the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth. |
Entrepreneurship | activity of setting up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit |
Trusts | a centuries-old legal arrangement whereby one party conveys legal possession and title of certain property to a second party, called a trustee. |
Social Darwinism | the theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals |
Nativist | relating to or supporting the policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants. |
Social Gospel | Christian faith practiced as a call not just to personal conversion but to social reform |
Ethnically homogeneous | made up of the same kind of people or things |
Political boss/Political machine | person who wields the power over a particular political region or constituency |
Infrastructure | the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities |
Urban | in, relating to, or characteristic of a town or city. |
Rural | in, relating to, or characteristic of the countryside rather than the town. |
Political corruption | the use of powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain |
Segregation | the action or state of setting someone or something apart from other people or things or being set apart. |
Industrialization | the development of industries in a country or region on a wide scale. |
Labor union | organized association of workers, often in a trade or profession, formed to protect and further their rights and interests |
Entrepreneur | person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so. |
Free Enterprise | economic system in which private business operates in competition and largely free of state control. |
Inflation | a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money |
Isolationism | remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially the political affairs of other countries. |
Interventionalism | favoring intervention, especially by a government in its domestic economy or by one country in the affairs of another. |
Temperance | abstinence from alcoholic drink. |
Civil service | permanent professional branches of a government's administration, excluding military and judicial branches and elected politicians |
Reform | make changes in (something, typically a social, political, or economic institution or practice) in order to improve it. |
Suffrage | the right to vote in political elections. |
Settlement House | institution in an inner-city area providing educational, recreational, and other social services to the community. |
Conservation | prevention of wasteful use of a resource. |
The Jungle | 1904 novel written by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair |
Initiative | process that enables citizens to bypass their state legislature by placing proposed statutes |
Referendum | a measure that's referred (that is, sent on) to the people. |
Recall | procedure by which, in certain polities, voters can remove an elected official from office through a direct vote |
Muckraker | a character who digs about in the mud but fails to notice the bright skies overhead |
Imperialism | type of government that seeks to increase its size, either by forcing (through war) or influencing (through politics) other countries to submit to their rule. |
Anti-Imperialism | usually by nationalist movements who want to secede from a larger polity (usually in the form of an empire, |
Anglo-Saxonism | a loose assembly of cultural assumptions that influenced Anglo-American political and intellectual life in varying ways |
Yellow Journalism | a style of newspaper reporting that emphasized sensationalism over facts |
Expansionism | a policy of expansion, as of territory or currency |
Manifest Destiny | the destiny of the U.S. to expand its territory over the whole of North America |
Foreign policy | General objectives that guide the activities and relationships of one state in its interactions with other states |
Big Stick Policy | asserted U.S. domination when such dominance was considered the moral imperative |
Dollar Diplomacy | policy intended to increase American influence abroad by guaranteeing loans made by American banks to foreign countries. |
Panama Canal | a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans |
Fourteen Points | statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I |
Treaty of Versailles | a document signed between Germany and the Allied Powers following World War I that officially ended that war. |
Eugenics | study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, |
War bonds | debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war |
Victory gardens | gardens planted both at private residences and on public land during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply |
Tin Pan Alley | name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States |
Zimmerman Telegram | a message from the German foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, to the German ambassador |
Island hopping | military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against Japan and the Axis powers during World War II. |
Embargo | an order of a government prohibiting the departure of commercial ships from its ports |
Manhattan Project | code name for the effort to develop atomic bombs (see also atomic bomb) for the United States during World War II. |
Internment camps | putting a person in prison or other kind of detention, generally in wartime. |
Propaganda | the spreading of information in support of a cause |
Rationing | a fixed allowance of provisions or food, especially for soldiers or sailors |
Speakeasy | blind pig or blind tiger, is an illicit establishment that sells alcoholic beverages |
Immigration quotas | limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota |
Buying on margin | the purchase of an asset by using leverage and borrowing the balance from a bank or broker. |
Hoovervilles | a shanty town built during the Great Depression by the homeless in the United States of America. |
Court packing | a legislative initiative proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. |