Basic Terms
A railroad connecting the eastern United States with the western territories was completed in 1869, making coast-to-coast travel and shipping faster and more efficient.
What is the Transcontinental Railroad?
A Supreme Court case that upheld the power of state governments to regulate private industries that affect the public interest, such as grain storage facilities.
What was the Munn v. Illinois of 1877
A major battle between the U.S. Army, led by General George Custer, and a coalition of Native American tribes led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse; the Native Americans won a significant victory.
What was the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876)?
The U.S. Attorney General who led the anti-communist crackdown during the Red Scare, including the Palmer Raids, which targeted suspected radicals and immigrants.
Who is A. Mitchell Palmer?
Informal radio broadcasts by President Roosevelt where he explained his policies directly to the American people, helping build trust and calm public fears.
What were Fireside Chats?
A New Deal agency that funded large public construction projects like roads, bridges, and schools to create jobs and stimulate the economy.
What is Public Works Administration (PWA)?
A monetary system where a country's currency is directly tied to a specific amount of gold. It was used to stabilize the economy but limited the money supply.
What is Gold Standard?
A U.S. law that offered 160 acres of free land to settlers who would live on and improve the land for five years, encouraging westward expansion.
What was the Homestead Act of 1862?
A brutal attack by the U.S. Army on a peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho village in Colorado resulting in the deaths of many Native American men, women, and children.
What was the Sand Creek Massacre (1864)?
Two Italian immigrant anarchists who were convicted of murder in 1920 in a controversial trial many believed was biased due to their political beliefs and immigrant status. They were executed in 1927.
Who were Sacco and Vanzetti?
A downturn in the economy during the Great Depression, caused partly when FDR reduced government spending too soon, slowing recovery.
What was Roosevelt Recession (1937-1938)?
A New Deal agency that aimed to boost the economy by setting fair wages, prices, and working hours for businesses. It was later ruled as unconstitutional.
What was the National Recovery Administration (NRA)?
African Americans who migrated from the South to Kansas and other parts of the West after the Civil War to escape racism and seek new opportunities.
Who were the Exodusters?
A law aimed at assimilating Native Americans by breaking up tribal lands into individual plots and encouraging them to adopt American farming practices and lifestyles.
What was the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887?
A spiritual and political movement among Native Americans that hoped to restore their lands and way of life by performing a ceremonial dance; U.S. authorities saw it as a threat.
What was the Ghost Dance Movement?
A black nationalist leader who founded the Universal Negro Movement Association (UNIA) and promoted pride in African heritage, economic independence for Black people, and a "Back to Africa" movement.
Who was Marcus Garvey?
First Lady of the United States known for her activism, support of civil rights, and efforts to promote justice and women's rights.
Who was Eleanor Roosevelt?
A New Deal program that paid farmers to reduce crop production to raise prices and help them to recover from the agricultural collapse.
What was the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)?
A period in the U.S., especially after WWI, when Americans worried about the spread of communism and radical political ideas, leading to suspicion of immigrants and labor activists.
What was the Red Scare?
A law that severely limited immigration from certain countries, especially southern and eastern Europe, and almost completely banned immigration from Asia, to preserve "American" ethnic makeup.
What was the National Origins Act of 1924?
A massacre in South Dakota where U.S. troops killed over 250 Lakota Sioux, including women and children, it marked the end of armed Native American resistance.
What was Wounded Knee (1890)?
A catholic priest and early supporter of FDR who turned against the New Deal, using his radio show to criticize and promote his own populist ideas.
Who was Father Charles Coughlin?
This president became known for his “Square Deal” and trust-busting efforts, and he helped mediate the end of the Russo-Japanese War.
Who was Theodore Roosevelt?
A New Deal program that gave young men jobs working on environmental conservation projects like planting trees, building parks, and fighting soil erosion.
What was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)?
The nationwide ban on the production, sale, and transportation of alcohol in the U.S. from 1920 to 1933, established by the 18th Amendment and later repealed by the 21st Amendment.
What was Prohibition?
Legislation that granted land to states to establish colleges focused on agriculture and the mechanical arts (engineering), leading to the creation of many land-grant universities.
What was the Morrill Act of 1862?
This late 19th-century movement aimed to improve working conditions, regulate big business, and support farmers through political action, including the Omaha Platform.
What was the Populist Movement?
This muckraking journalist and photographer exposed the harsh living conditions of New York City’s poor in his 1890 book How the Other Half Lives, helping spark housing and labor reforms.
Who was Jacob Riis?
This president was in office during the Great Depression’s onset and was widely criticized for his response to the Bonus Army.
Who was Herbert Hoover?
A government agency created to regulate the stock market and prevent dishonest practices like insider trading and fraud.
What was the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)?
A cultural movement in the 1920s where African American writers, artists, and musicians celebrated black culture and made major contributions to American art and literature.
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
A law that created the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) and separated commercial banking from investment banking to prevent risky practices that helped cause the Depression.
What was the Glass-Steagall Act (1933)?
This early 20th-century reform movement sought to address problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, and political corruption through government regulation and social reform.
What is the Progressive Movement?
The leader of the Nez Perce tribe who tried to lead his people to safety in Canada to avoid being forced onto a reservation he is remembered for his resistance and his famous quote, "I will fight no more forever."
Who was Chief Joseph?
Elected in 1896 and known for supporting the gold standard, this president led the U.S. through the Spanish-American War.
Who was William McKinley?
A New Deal program that built dams and power plants in the Tennessee Valley to provide electricity, control flooding, and create jobs in poor regions.
What was the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)?
A group of WWI veterans who marched to Washington, D.C., demanding early payment of a promised bonus. They were forcibly removed by the military, which caused public outrage.
Who were the Bonus Army (1932)?
A law that protected workers' rights to form unions and engage in collective bargaining. It helped strengthen the labor movement in the U.S.
What was the Wagner Act of 1935?
Led by figures like Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt, this movement achieved a major victory with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
What was the Women's Suffrage Movement?
A senator from Louisiana who challenged FDR's New Deal with his "Share Our Wealth" plan, which called for high taxes on the rich to give every American a guaranteed income.
Who was Huey Long?
He was president during most of World War I and proposed the Fourteen Points and the League of Nations.
Who was Woodrow Wilson?
An organization formed in 1920 to protect individual rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, especially in cases where the government may be overstepping its authority.
What was the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)?
An economic theory that supports using government spending to boost demand and help the economy during downturns, developed by British economist John Maynard Keynes.
What was Keynesian Economics?
A law that created a system to provide financial support for the elderly, unemployed, and disabled through government-collected payroll taxes.
What was the Social Security Act of 1935?
This early 20th-century political and social movement opposed U.S. expansion overseas and fought against the annexation of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War.
What was the Anti-Imperialist Movement?
Government raids in 1919-1920, led by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, targeted suspected communists, anarchists, and radicals. Thousands were arrested without proper legal procedures.
What were the Palmer Raids?
Serving from 1933 to 1945, this president launched the New Deal and led the U.S. through the majority of World War II.
Who was Franklin D. Roosevelt?
A famous court case in Tennessee where a teacher was put on trial for teaching evolution, which was against state law. It symbolized the conflict between science and religion in public schools.
What was Scopes Trial (1925)?
The first three months of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency in 1933, when Congress passed a record number of laws to address the Great Depression and kick of the New Deal.
What was the Hundred Days?
A law that raised U.S. tariffs on imported goods to protect American businesses, but it backfired by worsening the Great Depression and causing other countries to raise their tariffs too.
What was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff (1930)?
This early 20th-century movement, inspired by Christian ethics, argued that it was society’s moral duty to help the poor and improve living conditions, influencing many Progressive Era reforms.
What was the Social Gospel Movement?
This labor leader founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and focused on "bread and butter" unionism—higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions.
Who was Samuel Gompers?
This conservative president followed Harding and believed strongly in limited government and laissez-faire economics during the Roaring Twenties.
Who was Calvin Coolidge?
Historians often see the federal funding of the transcontinental railroad as a 19th-century continuation of this early 1800s economic plan that promoted infrastructure, a national bank, and protective tariffs.
What was Henry Clay’s American System?