(1865-1898)
This economic system tied many formerly enslaved people to landowners after the Civil War.
Sharecropping
This 1898 war marked the emergence of the United States as an overseas imperial power.
The Spanish-American War
This war deeply divided Americans and weakened trust in government during the 1960s–70s.
Vietnam War
This president promoted supply-side economics and major tax cuts in the 1980s.
Ronald Reagan
This 1954 case overturned school segregation in public education.
Brown v. Board of Education
This industrial leader built the dominant steel company of the Gilded Age.
Andrew Carnegie
This president became known as a “trust-buster” during the Progressive Era.
Theodore Roosevelt
This 1962 confrontation brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war after Soviet missiles were discovered near American shores.
Cuban Missile Crisis
These 2001 attacks led to the War on Terror.
September 11 Attacks (9/11)
This 1896 case ruled that “separate but equal” was constitutional.
Plessy v. Ferguson
This theory was often used to justify extreme wealth inequality and competition.
Social Darwinism
Franklin D. Roosevelt launched this set of programs in response to the Great Depression.
The New Deal
This early Cold War period of heightened fear of communist influence led to loyalty investigations, blacklists in Hollywood, and aggressive congressional hearings led by Joseph McCarthy.
McCarthyism / Second Red Scare
This 2008 crisis caused major recession and housing market collapse.
The Great Recession
This 1857 case ruled that enslaved people were not citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in the territories.
Dred Scott v. Sandford
This 1890 law was the first major federal attempt to regulate monopolies.
This 1917 message from Germany to Mexico proposed an alliance against the United States and helped push Americans toward entering World War I.
The Zimmerman Telegram
This 1960s legislation outlawed segregation in public accommodations.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This 2010 law dramatically expanded federal involvement in health insurance.
The Affordable Care Act / Obamacare
This 1803 case established judicial review (judicial branch has the power to decide if something is constitutional)
Marbury v. Madison
This labor union, led by Samuel Gompers, focused on skilled workers and better wages/hours.
The AFL/American Federation of Labor
This wartime meeting between Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin helped shape the postwar division of Europe and revealed tensions that contributed to the coming Cold War.
Yalta Conference
This 1947 policy committed the United States to providing aid to countries resisting communism and marked the beginning of the policy of containment.
Truman Doctrine
This conservative political movement of the 1980s, closely associated with evangelical Christians, sought to influence U.S. politics by promoting “family values” and opposing abortion, feminism, and LGBTQ+ rights.
The Moral Majority
This 1966 case guaranteed the rights of criminal suspects to be informed of their rights before police questioning.
Miranda v. Arizona