Chapter 26-28

Question 1

New world order

Answer 1

President George H. W. Bush’s term for the post–Cold War world.

Question 2

Gulf War

Answer 2

Military action in 1991 in which an international coalition led by the United States drove Iraq from Kuwait, which it had occupied the previous year.

Question 3

“Don’t ask, don’t tell”

Answer 3

President Clinton’s compromise measure that allowed gay people to serve in the military incognito, as officers could no longer seek them out for dismissal but they could not openly express their identity. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was ended under the Obama administration, when gay military service was allowed.

Question 4

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Answer 4

Approved in 1993, the agreement with Canada and Mexico that allowed goods to travel across their borders free of tariffs. Critics of the agreement argued that American workers would lose their jobs to cheaper Mexican labor.

Question 5

Contract with America

Answer 5

A list of conservatives’ promises in response to the supposed liberalism of the Clinton administration, which was drafted by Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and other congressional Republicans as the GOP platform for the 1994 midterm elections. It was more a campaign tactic than a practical program; few of its proposed items ever became law.

Question 6

Oslo Accords

Answer 6

1993 roadmap for peace between Israel and the newly created Palestinian Authority, negotiated under the Clinton administration.

Question 7

Rwandan genocide

Answer 7

1994 genocide conducted by the Hutu ethnic group upon the Tutsi minority in Rwanda.

Question 8

Ethnic cleansing

Answer 8

The systematic removal of an ethnic group from a territory through violence or intimidation in order to create a homogeneous society; the term was popularized by the Yugoslav policy brutally targeting Albanian Muslims in Kosovo.

Question 9

Balkan crisis

Answer 9

A series of ethnic and political crises that arose following the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Many atrocities were committed during the conflict, and NATO, the United Nations, and the United States intervened several times.

Question 10

Globalization

Answer 10

Term that became prominent in the 1990s to describe the rapid acceleration of international flows of commerce, financial resources, labor, and cultural products.

Question 11

Americans with Disabilities Act

Answer 11

1990 law that prohibited discrimination against persons with disabilities in both hiring and promotion. It also mandated accessible entrances for public buildings.

Question 12

Multiculturalism

Answer 12

Term that became prominent in the 1990s to describe a growing emphasis on group racial and ethnic identity and demands that jobs, education, and politics reflect the increasingly diverse nature of American society.

Question 13

Culture Wars

Answer 13

Battles over moral values that occurred throughout the 1990s. The Culture Wars touched many areas of American life—from popular culture to academia. Flashpoints included the future of the nuclear family and the teaching of evolution.

Question 14

Defense of Marriage Act

Answer 14

1996 law that barred gay couples from receiving federal benefits. Ruled unconstitutional in 2013.

Question 15

Family values

Answer 15

Set of beliefs usually associated with conservatism that stressed the superiority of nuclear family, heterosexual marriage, and traditional gender roles.

Question 16

Bush v. Gore

Answer 16

U.S. Supreme Court case that determined the winner of the disputed 2000 presidential election.

Question 17

Bush Doctrine

Answer 17

President George W. Bush’s foreign policy principle wherein the United States would launch a war on terrorism.

Question 18

War on terrorism

Answer 18

Global crusade to root out anti-American, anti-Western Islamist terrorist cells; launched by President George W. Bush as a response to the 9/11 attacks

Question 19

War in Afghanistan

Answer 19

War fought against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan following the attacks of September 11, 2001. It remains the longest war in American history.

Question 20

Iraq War

Answer 20

Military campaign in 2003 in which the United States, unable to gain approval by the United Nations, unilaterally occupied Iraq and removed dictator Saddam Hussein from power.

Question 21

USA Patriot Act

Answer 21

A 2001 mammoth bill that conferred unprecedented powers on law-enforcement agencies charged with preventing domestic terrorism, including the power to wiretap, read private messages, and spy on citizens.

Question 22

Guantánamo Bay

Answer 22

A detention center at the American naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where beginning in 2002 suspected terrorists and war prisoners were held indefinitely and tried by extrajudicial military tribunals. During his 2008 presidential campaign, Senator Barack Obama pledged to close the prison, but as of 2015 it remained open.

Question 23

Hurricane Katrina

Answer 23

2005 hurricane that devastated much of the Gulf Coast, especially New Orleans. The Bush administration’s response was widely criticized as inadequate.

Question 24

Obergefell v. Hodges

Answer 24

2015 Supreme Court decision that allowed same-sex couples to marry throughout the United States.

Question 25

Great Recession

Answer 25

A period of major economic stagnation across the United States and western Europe, characterized by rising unemployment and inflation and a 37 percent decline in the stock market between March and December 1974.

Question 26

Gulf oil spill

Answer 26

Environmental disaster that occurred in 2010 after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Hundreds of millions of gallons of oil were spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in one of the largest environmental calamities in human history.

Question 27

Occupy Wall Street

Answer 27

A grassroots movement in 2011 against growing economic inequality, declining opportunity, and the depredations of Wall Street banks.

Question 28

Black Lives Matter

Answer 28

Civil rights movement sparked by a series of incidents of police brutality and lethal force against people of color.

Question 29

ISIS

Answer 29

An insurgency that emerged from the sectarian civil wars that destabilized Syria and post–Saddam Hussein Iraq. Beginning in 2014, ISIS forces attacked towns and cities in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, systematically murdering members of ethnic and religious minorities.

Question 30

Tea Party

Answer 30

A grassroots Republican movement that emerged in 2009 named for the Boston Tea Party of the 1770s. The Tea Party opposed the Obama administration’s sweeping legislative enactments and advocated for a more stringent immigration policy.

Question 31

Paris Agreement

Answer 31

2016 agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change concerned with mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

Question 32

Women’s March

Answer 32

International protest on January 21, 2017, for women’s rights, LGBT rights, gender equality, and racial equality following the inauguration of President Donald Trump. It was the biggest single-day protest in U.S. history.

Question 33

Me Too movement

Answer 33

Social movement founded in 2006 by Tarana Burke to help survivors of sexual violence and oppose sexual harassment and assault, particularly in the workplace. In October 2017 it went viral on social media with #MeToo.

Question 34

American exceptionalism

Answer 34

The belief that the United States has a special mission to serve as a refuge from tyranny, a symbol of freedom, and a model for the rest of the world.

Question 35

March for Our Lives

Answer 35

Student-led protest on March 24, 2018, against gun violence and for gun control legislation in the United States.

Question 36

Sotomayor, Sonia

Answer 36

First Supreme Court Justice of Hispanic descent. Justice Sotomayor was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009.

Question 37

Snowden, Edward

Answer 37

An NSA contractor turned whistleblower, who released classified information relating to the United States’ intelligence gathering both at home and abroad.

Question 38

affirmative action

Answer 38

Policy efforts to promote greater employment opportunities for minorities.

Question 39

Busing

Answer 39

The means of transporting students via buses to achieve school integration in the 1970s.

Question 40

Reverse discrimination

Answer 40

Belief that affirmative action programs discriminate against white people.

Question 41

Title Ⅸ

Answer 41

Part of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 that banned gender discrimination in higher education.

Question 42

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks

Answer 42

1972 talks between President Nixon and Secretary Brezhnev that resulted in the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (or SALT), which limited the quantity of nuclear warheads each nation could possess, and prohibited the development of missile defense systems.

Question 43

Détente

Answer 43

Period of improving relations between the United States and communist nations, particularly China and the Soviet Union, during the Nixon administration.

Question 44

My Lai massacre

Answer 44

Massacre of 347 Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai by Lieutenant William Calley and troops under his command. U.S. army officers covered up the massacre for a year until an investigation uncovered the events. Eventually twenty-five army officers were charged with complicity in the massacre and its cover-up, but only Calley was convicted. He served little time for his crimes.

Question 45

Pentagon Papers

Answer 45

Informal name for the Defense Department’s secret history of the Vietnam conflict; leaked to the press by former official Daniel Ellsberg and published in the New York Times in 1971.

Question 46

War Powers Act

Answer 46

Law passed in 1973, reflecting growing opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War; required congressional approval before the president sent troops abroad.

Question 47

Vietnam Syndrome

Answer 47

The belief that the United States should be extremely cautious in deploying its military forces overseas that emerged after the end of the Vietnam War.

Question 48

Watergate

Answer 48

Washington office and apartment complex that lent its name to the 1972–1974 scandal of the Nixon administration; when his knowledge of the break-in at the Watergate and subsequent cover-up were revealed, Nixon resigned the presidency under threat of impeachment.

Question 49

Oil embargo

Answer 49

Prohibition on trade in oil declared by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, dominated by Middle Eastern producers, in October 1973 in response to U.S. and western European support for Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The rise in gas prices and fuel shortages resulted in a global economic recession and profoundly affected the American economy.

Question 50

Stagflation

Answer 50

A combination of stagnant economic growth and high inflation present during the 1970s.

Question 51

Deindustrialization

Answer 51

Term describing decline of manufacturing in old industrial areas in the late twentieth century as companies shifted production to low-wage centers in the South and West or in other countries.

Question 52

Sunbelt

Answer 52

The label for an arc that stretched from the Carolinas to California. During the postwar era, much of the urban population growth occurred in this area.

Question 53

Helsinki Accords

Answer 53

1975 agreement between the USSR and the United States that recognized the post–World War Ⅱ boundaries of Europe and guaranteed the basic liberties of each nation’s citizens.

Question 54

Deregulation

Answer 54

Legislation during the Reagan-Clinton era that removed regulations on many industries, including finance and air travel.

Question 55

Three Mile Island

Answer 55

Nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, site of 1979 accident that released radioactive steam into the air; public reaction ended the nuclear power industry’s expansion.

Question 56

Camp David Accords

Answer 56

Peace agreement between the leaders of Israel and Egypt, brokered by President Jimmy Carter in 1978.

Question 57

Neoconservatives

Answer 57

The leaders of the conservative insurgency of the early 1980s. Their brand of conservatism was personified in Ronald Reagan, who believed in less government, supply-side economics, and “family values.”

Question 58

Reagan Revolution

Answer 58

The rightward turn of American politics following the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan. The Reagan Revolution made individual “freedom” a rallying cry for the right.

Question 59

Reaganomics

Answer 59

Popular name for President Ronald Reagan’s philosophy of “supply side” economics, which combined tax cuts with an unregulated marketplace.

Question 60

Iran-Contra Affair

Answer 60

Scandal of the second Reagan administration involving sales of arms to Iran in partial exchange for release of hostages in Lebanon and use of the arms money to aid the Contras in Nicaragua, which had been expressly forbidden by Congress.

Question 61

George H.W. Bush

Answer 61

he 41st President of the United States, who served from 1989 to 1993. During his presidency, he oversaw the end of the Cold War, the Gulf War, and the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Question 62

Bill Clinton

Answer 62

The 42nd President of the United States, who served from 1993 to 2001. He was known for his efforts to balance the federal budget, promote international trade, and reform healthcare.

Question 63

Hillary Clinton

Answer 63

The former First Lady of the United States, who later became a U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, and Democratic presidential nominee in 2016. She was a strong advocate for women’s rights and healthcare reform.

Question 64

George W. Bush

Answer 64

The 43rd President of the United States, who served from 2001 to 2009. He oversaw the U.S. response to the 9/11 attacks, the Iraq War, and the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Question 65

Osama bin Laden

Answer 65

The founder of the militant Islamic group al-Qaeda, who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

Question 66

Nelson Mandela

Answer 66

The South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and political leader who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He is widely regarded as a symbol of democracy and social justice, and his life and legacy continue to inspire people around the world.

Question 67

Margaret Thatcher

Answer 67

The first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who served from 1979 to 1990. She was a staunch conservative and implemented policies that aimed to reduce the role of the state in the economy and increase individual responsibility.

Question 68

Boris Yeltsin

Answer 68

The first President of the Russian Federation, who served from 1991 to 1999. He oversaw the transition of Russia from a socialist state to a market economy.

Question 69

Ronald Reagan

Answer 69

The 40th President of the United States, who served from 1981 to 1989. He was a conservative Republican who advocated for a smaller federal government, lower taxes, and a strong military.

Question 70

Mikhail Gorbachev

Answer 70

The last leader of the Soviet Union, who served from 1985 to 1991. He implemented policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) that aimed to reform the Soviet economy and political system.

Question 71

William F. Buckley Jr

Answer 71

An American conservative author, commentator, and founder of the National Review magazine. He was a leading voice in the conservative movement and advocated for traditional values and limited government.

Question 72

Jerry Falwell

Answer 72

An American Baptist pastor and televangelist who founded the Moral Majority, a conservative Christian political organization that aimed to promote traditional values and influence American politics.

Question 73

Phyllis Schlafly

Answer 73

An American conservative activist and writer who is best known for her opposition to feminism and her successful campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment.

Question 74

Antonin Scalia

Answer 74

An American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was known for his conservative interpretation of the U.S. Constitution and his advocacy for originalism.

Question 75

Newt Gingrich

Answer 75

An American politician who served as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. He was a leader of the Republican Party’s conservative wing and played a key role in the “Republican Revolution” of the 1990s.

Question 76

Rush Limbaugh

Answer 76

An American radio personality and political commentator who was a leading voice in the conservative movement. He hosted The Rush Limbaugh Show from 1988 until his death in 2021.

Question 77

Pat Buchanan:

Answer 77

An American conservative political commentator and politician who ran for president several times. He was known for his opposition to free trade, immigration, and multiculturalism, and his advocacy for a more isolationist foreign policy.

Question 78

Barack Obama

Answer 78

The 44th President of the United States, who served from 2009 to 2017. He was the first African American to be elected to the presidency and implemented several major reforms, including the Affordable Care Act.

Question 79

George Zimmerman

Answer 79

The Florida man who fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African American teenager, in 2012. The case sparked nationwide protests and renewed debate about race relations in the United States.

Question 80

Colin Kaepernick

Answer 80

A former NFL quarterback who sparked controversy when he began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality in the United States.

Question 81

Hillary Clinton

Answer 81

The former First Lady of the United States, who later became a U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, and Democratic presidential nominee in 2016. She was a strong advocate for women’s rights and healthcare reform.

Question 82

Donald Trump

Answer 82

The 45th President of the United States, who served from 2017 to 2021. He was known for his controversial policies and statements, including his strict stance on immigration and his dismissal of climate change.

Question 83

Brett Kavanaugh

Answer 83

A Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States who was confirmed in 2018 after a contentious confirmation process that was marred by allegations of sexual assault.

Question 84

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Answer 84

: A Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States who served from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was a champion of gender equality and a strong advocate for civil rights and social justice.

Question 85

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

Answer 85

A Democratic Congresswoman from New York who was elected to the House of Representatives in 2018. She is a prominent progressive voice and has advocated for policies such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All.

Question 86

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

Answer 86

GATT was a multilateral agreement signed in 1947 aimed at promoting international trade by reducing barriers such as tariffs and quotas. It was replaced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, but many of its principles still guide global trade policies today.

Question 87

Moral Majority

Answer 87

Moral Majority was a political organization founded in 1979 by evangelical Christian leader Jerry Falwell. It aimed to promote conservative Christian values in politics and played a significant role in the rise of the Christian right in the United States.

Question 88

Iran Hostage Crisis

Answer 88

The Iran Hostage Crisis was a diplomatic standoff between the United States and Iran that lasted from 1979 to 1981. It began when Iranian militants seized the US embassy in Tehran and took 52 American hostages. The crisis ended after 444 days with the signing of the Algiers Accords, which secured the release of the hostages.

Question 89

Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)

Answer 89

The CRA is a US federal law passed in 1977 that requires banks and other financial institutions to meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. The CRA was intended to combat the practice of redlining, in which banks would refuse to lend in certain areas based on the race or ethnicity of residents.

Question 90

Heritage Foundation

Answer 90

The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank founded in 1973. It promotes conservative policies in areas such as economics, foreign policy, and social issues. The Heritage Foundation has had a significant impact on conservative policymaking and has been influential in Republican administrations.

Question 91

Reaganomics

Answer 91

refers to the economic policies implemented by President Ronald Reagan during his two terms in office from 1981 to 1989. The main components of Reaganomics were tax cuts, deregulation, and a reduction in government spending, which were intended to promote economic growth and reduce inflation. Reaganomics was significant because it represented a departure from the Keynesian economic policies that had dominated US economic thinking since the Great Depression, and emphasized the importance of free market principles and individual initiative. The policies of Reaganomics remain controversial and have been debated by economists and policymakers ever since.

Question 92

Hurricane Katrina

Answer 92

Hurricane Katrina was a powerful and deadly hurricane that struck the southern United States in August 2005. It caused catastrophic damage and flooding, particularly in the city of New Orleans.

The storm and its aftermath were significant in terms of historical importance because of the widespread devastation and loss of life, as well as the controversies surrounding the government’s response to the disaster. The response to Hurricane Katrina highlighted issues with disaster preparedness and response, particularly for marginalized communities, and sparked debates about government accountability and the role of race and class in disaster response.