Chapter 24: Vocabulary

Question 1

Fascism

Answer 1

An authoritarian system of government characterized by dictatorial rule, extreme nationalism, disdain for civil society, and a conviction that imperialism and warfare are the principal means by which nations attain greatness. The United States went to war against fascism when it faced Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler and Italy under Benito Mussolini during World War II.

Question 2

National Socialist (Nazi) Party

Answer 2

German political party led by Adolf Hitler, who became chancellor of Germany in 1933. The party’s ascent was fueled by huge World War I reparation payments, economic depression, fear of communism, labor unrest, and rising unemployment.

Question 3

Neutrality Act of 1935

Answer 3

Legislation that sought to avoid entanglement in foreign wars while protecting trade. It imposed an embargo on selling arms to warring countries and declared that Americans traveling on the ships of belligerent nations did so at their own risk.

Question 4

Popular Front

Answer 4

A small but vocal group of Americans who pushed for greater U.S. involvement in Europe. American Communist Party members, African American civil rights activists, and trade unionist, among other members of the Popular Front coalition, encouraged Roosevelt to take a stronger stand against European fascism.

Question 5

America First Committee

Answer 5

A committee organized by isolationists in 1940 to oppose the entrance of the United States into World War II. The membership of the committee included senators, journalists, and publishers and such well-respected figures as the aviator Charles Lindbergh.

Question 6

Lend-Lease Act

Answer 6

Legislation in 1941 that enabled Britain to obtain arms from the United States without cash but with the promise to reimburse the United States when the war ended. The act reflected Roosevelt’s desire to assist the British in any way possible, short of war.

Question 7

Atlantic Charter

Answer 7

A press release by President Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill in August 1941 calling for economic cooperation, national self-determination, and guarantees of political stability after the war.

Question 8

Pearl Harbor

Answer 8

A naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, that was attacked by Japanese bombers on December 7, 1941; more than 2,400 Americans were killed. The following day, President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan.

Question 9

War Powers Act

Answer 9

The law that gave President Roosevelt unprecedented control over all aspects of the war effort during World War II.

Question 10

“Code Talkers”

Answer 10

Native American soldiers trained to use native languages to send messages in battle during World War II. Neither the Japanese nor the Germans could decipher the codes used by these Navajo, Comanche, Choctaw, and Cherokee speakers, and the messages they sent gave the Allies great advantage in the battle of Iwo Jima, among many others.

Question 11

Exec. Order 8802

Answer 11

An order signed by President Roosevelt in 1941 that prohibited “discrimination in the employment or workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin” and established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC).

Question 12

Servicemen’s Readjustment Act

Answer 12

Popularly known as the GI Bill, legislation authorizing the government to provide World War II veterans with funds for education, Housing, and health care, as well as loans to start businesses and buy homes.

Question 13

Zoot Suits

Answer 13

Oversized suits of clothing in fashion in the 1940s, particularly among young male African Americans and Mexican Americans. In June 1943, a group of white sailors and soldiers in Los Angeles, seeking revenge for an earlier skirmish with Mexican American youths, attacked anyone they found wearing a zoot suit in what became known as the zoot suit riots.

Question 14

Exec. Order 9066

Answer 14

An order signed by President Roosevelt in 1941 that authorized the War Department to force Japanese Americans from their West Coast homes and hold them in relocation camps for the rest of the war.

Question 15

D-Day

Answer 15

June 6, 1944, the date of the Allied invasion of northern France. D-Day was the largest amphibious assault in world history. The invasion opened a second front against the Germans and moved the Allies closer to victory in Europe.

Question 16

Holocaust

Answer 16

Germany’s campaign during World War II to exterminate all Jews living in German-controlled lands, along with other groups the Nazis deemed “undesirable.” In all, some 11 million people were killed in the Holocaust, most of them Jews.

Question 17

Manhattan Project

Answer 17

Top-secret project authorized by Franklin Roosevelt in 1942 to develop an atomic bomb ahead of the Germans. The Americans who worked on the project at Los Alamos, New Mexico (among other highly secretive sites around the country), succeeded in producing a successful atomic bomb by July 1945.