Unit 6: Period 7 Vocab Flashcards
Progressivism
A political attitude favoring or advocating changes or reform. Progressivism is often viewed in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
Amendment passed by U.S. Congress in 1914 (under Wilson) that provides further clarification and substance to the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 on topics such as price discrimination, price fixing and unfair business practices. The Acts are enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Florence Kelley
Social Reformer, settlement house director, suffragist; best known for Hull House and Henry Street settlements social work, and investigations of factory exploitation, opposition to child labor, and women’s labor reform; general secretary of the National Consumers League
Federal Reserve
The act of Congress that created the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States of America, which was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson.
New Deal
President Franklin Roosevelt’s precursor of the modern welfare state (1933-1939); a series of programs, including, most notably, Social Security, that were enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1938, and a few that came later. They included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term (1933–37) of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were in response to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians refer to as the “3 Rs”, Relief, Recovery, and Reform: relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy to normal levels, and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.
National Recovery Admin
A prime New Deal agency established by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in 1933. The goal was to eliminate “cut-throat competition” by bringing industry, labor, and government together to create codes of “fair practices” and set prices.
TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)
A federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter on May 18, 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development to the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected by the Great Depression. The enterprise was a result of the efforts of Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska. TVA was envisioned not only as a provider, but also as a regional economic development agency that would use federal experts and electricity to rapidly modernize the region’s economy and society.
Federal Writers Project
Federal government project to fund written work and support writers during the Great Depression. It was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal program. It was one of a group of New Deal arts programs known collectively as Federal Project Number One.
Huey Long
Populist democratic politician, he was Roosevelt’s biggest threat. Increased the share of state taxes paid by corporations (wealth redistribution), and also embarked on public works projects including new schools, highways, bridges, and hospitals; seized almost dictatorial control of the state government; believed that the New Deal was not radical enough; “The Kingfish”
SSA (social security act)
A governmental legislation created to give money to those in need. It created a federal insurance program based on the automatic collection of taxes from employees and employers throughout people’s working careers.
FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)
This entity provided insurance to personal banking accounts up to $5,000. These assured people that their money was safe and secure. This agency still functions today.
Scientific Modernism
a philosophical movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the factors that shaped modernism were the development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed then by reactions of horror to World War I.
Harlem Renaissance
black artistic movement in New York City in the 1920s, when writers, poets, painters, and musicians came together to express feelings and experiences, especially about the injustices of Jim Crow; leading figures of the movement included Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Duke Ellington, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes.
Yiddish Theater
plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revues; melodrama; naturalist drama; expressionist and modernist plays. Satiric Plays most popular
Edward Hopper
An American realist painter who focused on the solitude and loneliness of American life. His best known piece is entitled “Nighthawks”, featuring isolated customers in an all-night diner
Red Scare
Shortly after the end of World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the Red Scare took hold in the United States. A nationwide fear of communists, socialists, anarchists, and other dissidents suddenly grabbed the American psyche in 1919 following a series of anarchist bombings. The nation was gripped in fear. Innocent people were jailed for expressing their views, civil liberties were ignored, and many Americans feared that a Bolshevik-style revolution was at hand. Then, in the early 1920s, the fear seemed to dissipate just as quickly as it had begun, and the Red Scare was over.
Quota System
a system that was passed in 1921 that determined how many immigrants from a specific country could enter the US
Great Migration
movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920
Bracero Program
(1942) Program established by agreement with the Mexican government to recruit temporary Mexican agricultural workers to the United States to make up for wartime labor shortages in the Far West. The program persisted until 1964, by when it had sponsored 4.5 million border crossings.
Luis Moreno
Argentinian. First Prosecutor of the ICC. Charged Omar al-Bashir with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Was criticized for his decision. Lost the trial.
Turner Thesis
The historian Frederick Jackson Turner argued that the frontier was the key factor in the
development of American democracy and institutions; he maintained that the frontier
served as a “safety valve” during periods of economic crisis.
Dollar Diplomacy
President William Howard Taft’s foreign policy was called ‘Dollar Diplomacy’. Taft sought to address international problems by extending American investment overseas, believing that such activity would both benefit the US economy and promote stability abroad.
Andrew Mellon
the Secretary of the Treasury during the Harding Administration. He felt it was best to invest in tax-exempt securities rather than in factories that provided prosperous payrolls. He believed in trickle down economics (Hamiltonian economics) and that the economy would heal itself. He reduced spending gave tax cuts to the wealthy
League of Nations
Wilson’s 14 point peace plan, result of the Paris Peace Conference (end of World War I) , = a special council of great powers, US voted not to join because then Congress would be pulled into unwanted wars (through allies)
