Unit 7 Vocab (1890-1945)

Question 1

American exceptionalism

Answer 1

The idea that the US has a unique destiny in the world to foster democracy and civilization - America was a unique and special country. Ideas about American Anglo-Saxon superiority were grounded in this

Question 2

“Remember the Maine”

Answer 2

In February 1898, the US battlecruiser Maine exploded and sank, killing 260. “Remember the Maine” became a national chant after that, as people began to push towards war against Spain, whom they saw as responsible for the sinking of the ship

Question 3

Teller Amendment

Answer 3

An amendment added to the war bill by Henry M. Teller of Colorado, which disclaimed any intention by the US to occupy Cuba - reassured Americans that their country would uphold democracy abroad as well as at home

Question 4

Insular Cases

Answer 4

A series of court decisions in 1901 that upheld the idea that just because the Philippines were a US colony, the government did not have to grant the people who lived their citizenship - the Constitution did not automatically extend citizenship to people in acquired territories, Congress could decide

Question 5

Platt Amendment (1902)

Answer 5

An amendment forced upon the newly independent Cuba to be accepted into their Constitution, it blocked Cuba from making a treaty with any country except the US and gave the US the right to intervene in Cuban affairs if it saw fit

Question 6

Open door policy

Answer 6

The idea that there should always be an “open door” for all nations seeking to do business with a country - equal trade access. Secretary of State John Hay claimed this in 1899 when he tried to get the US access to trade in China

Question 7

Root-Takahira Agreement

Answer 7

An agreement signed between the US and Japan in 1908, which confirmed the principles of free oceanic commerce and recognized Japan’s authority over Manchuria

Question 8

Panama Canal

Answer 8

A canal cut through the narrowest strip of Panama, it gave the US quick access to both oceans - hired 60,000 laborers to build it, and it took 8 years and thousands of lives to complete it

Question 9

Roosevelt Corollary

Answer 9

Announced by Roosevelt in 1904, it turned the Monroe Doctrine upside down. Instead of guaranteeing the US would protect its neighbors from European interests and help preserve their independence, it asserted America’s unrestricted right to regulate Caribbean affairs. Not a treaty but a declaration, it was backed by America’s military and economic might

Question 10

Zimmerman Telegram

Answer 10

An intercepted message from German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman to his minister in Mexico in February 1917, it urged Mexico to join the Central Powers, promising that if they joined the war Germany would help them reclaim “the lost territory of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona” - was the final straw, the US joined the war in April

Question 11

War Industries Board (WIB)

Answer 11

The WIB was established in July 1917 to direct military production - it had a slow start but after Wilson reorganized the board and placed Bernard Baruch, a Wall Street financier and superb administrator at its head, it quickly allocated scarce resources, converted factories to war production, set prices, and standardized procedures

Question 12

National War Labor Board (NWLB)

Answer 12

A federal agency that took dramatic measures, formed in April 1918, the established an 8 hour day for war workers, with time and a half pay for overtime, and endorsed equal pay for women - in addition, in return for a no-strike pledge, they supported workers’ rights to organize (a major step for the labor movement)

Question 13

Committee on Public Information

Answer 13

Founded in April 1917, it was a government propaganda agency headed by journalist George Creel - they tried to mold Americans into “one white-hot mass” of war patriotism - it touched the life of nearly every citizen

Question 14

Four Minute Men

Answer 14

Volunteers of the Committee on Public Information, they were trained to give short prowar speeches at movie theaters - thousands of these people were enlisted

Question 15

Sedition Act of 1918

Answer 15

One of the new laws intended to curb dissent, it prohibited any words or behavior that might “incite, provoke, or encourage resistance to the US, or promote the causes of its enemies” - because this and the Espionage Act (1917) were defined loosely, more than a thousand people were convicted

Question 16

Great Migration

Answer 16

One of the new laws intended to curb dissent, it prohibited any words or behavior that might “incite, provoke, or encourage resistance to the US, or promote the causes of its enemies” - because this and the Espionage Act (1917) were defined loosely, more than a thousand people were convicted

Question 17

National Woman’s Party (NWP)

Answer 17

A women’s rights group with a more confrontational approach, in July 1917 they began to picket the White House, standing silently with their banners - they faced arrests and protested by going on a hunger strike, which was responded to with forced feeding - this helped lead Wilson to reverse his stance on suffrage and push for a “war measure” to grant women the right to vote

Question 18

Fourteen Points

Answer 18

The basis for the peace talks at Versailles in 1919, they were created by Wilson and embodied an important strand in progressivism - called for open diplomacy, freedom of navigation, arms reduction, removal of trade barriers, and national self-determination for peoples in Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Germany - also called fro creation of League of Nations to mediate disputes and curb aggressor nations

Question 19

Treaty of Versailles

Answer 19

The treaty that ended WWI, it was extraordinarily harsh on Germany, but not as harsh as it would’ve been without Wilson intervening to soften conditions. It divided up Germany’s colonies, forced them to pay $33 billion in reparations, and surrendered supplies and territory. It set up the conditions for future bloodshed, and was a catastrophe

Question 20

Adkins v. Children’s Hospital

Answer 20

A 1923 case that voided a minimum wage for women workers in the District of Columbia, reversing many of the gains that had been achieved in Muller v. Oregon. Such decisions, in addition to anti union campaigns, caused union membership to fall from 5.1 million in 1920 to 3.6 million in 1929 - 10% of nonagricultural workforce

Question 21

Welfare Capitalism

Answer 21

New system in place of unions during 1920s, it was a system of relations that stressed management’s responsibility for workers well-being. Instead of receiving benefits from a union, the management was supposed to support the workers and give the necessary bonuses and compensation. But such plans only covered about 5% of the industrial workforce

Question 22

Red Scare

Answer 22

After mail bombs were sent to attorney general A. Mitchell Palmer, he used the incident to fan public fears of communists and set off a red scare - Wilson was incapacitated by stroke, so Palmer had free reign. He set up an antiradicalism division (the FBI) and stormed the headquarters of radical agents

Question 23

Palmer Raids

Answer 23

The raids that Palmer’s agents committed on radical or anarchist organizations - peaked on a night in January 1920, when federal agents arrested 6000 and denied them access to legal counsel. But after that, Palmer overreached and the panic began to subside when no more revolutionary actions were taken by the “supposed” communists

Question 24

Sheppard-Towner Federal Maternity and Infancy Act

Answer 24

The greatest accomplishment of the Women’s Joint Congressional Committee, it provided federal funds for medical clinics, prenatal education programs, and visiting nurses - improved health care for the poor and significantly lowered infant mortality rates. Also the first time Congress designated federal funds for the states to encourage them to administer a social welfare program

Question 25

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

Answer 25

A growing international peace movement created after WWI, it was founded in 1919. Leading American members included Jane Addams, and members of the league denounced imperialism, stressed human suffering caused by militarism, and proposed social justice measures. But such women faced serious opposition

Question 26

Associated state

Answer 26

Voluntary business cooperation with government - created by Herbert Hoover, he hoped to achieve what progressives had sought through government regulation - but it meant giving corporate leaders greater policymaking power

Question 27

Teapot Dome

Answer 27

After president Harding died of a heart attack in August 1923, evidence was found that showed that his administration was riddled with corruption. The worst scandal was the leasing of private oil reserves in Teapot Dome to private companies

Question 28

Dollar Diplomacy

Answer 28

A term created by critics for loan guarantees and military interventions in the poorer countries of the Caribbean and Central America that the US lent money to, and then demanded repayment by military force if necessary. It was ultimately a fail, as the profits from the loans were small and military intervention only served to consolidate power in the local elites

Question 29

Prohibition

Answer 29

Refers to the prohibition of liquor and alcoholic beverages - Protestants achieved this goal in 1917 with the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment (ratified by nearly every state over the next 2 years, it took effect in January 1920) - prohibited “manufacture, sale, of transportation of intoxicating liquors”

Question 30

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Answer 30

Formed during the Red Scare to protect free speech rights, they challenged the 1925 Tennessee law that banned the teaching of the theory of evolution - intervened in the trial of John T. Scopes, a high school biology teacher - that case attracted national attention as Clarence Darrow (famous criminal lawyer) defended Scopes while William Jennings Bryan (3 time Democratic presidential candidate) spoke for the prosecution

Question 31

Scopes Trial

Answer 31

The Trial of John T. Scopes, a high school biology teacher who taught the theory of evolution to his class and faced a jail sentence for doing so - attracted national attention since Clarence Darrow (famous criminal lawyer) defended Scopes, and William Jennings Bryan (3 time Democrat presidential nominee) spoke for the prosecution. Journalists dubbed it the “monkey trial”, and the jury only took 8 minutes to decide on a verdict - guilty. Tennessee Supreme Court later overturned the decision, but the law remained for more than 30 years

Question 32

National Origins Act (1924)

Answer 32

A permanent immigrant restriction measure in response to pressure from nativists, it used backdated census data to establish a baseline - national immigration could not exceed 2 percent of that nationality’s percentage of the US population as it had stood in 1890 - since only small numbers of Southern and Eastern Europeans had arrived before them, it severely limited immigration from those places

Question 33

Ku Klux Klan

Answer 33

A nationwide resurgence of the Klan occurred during the 1920s - soon after Birth of a Nation (1915), a group of southerners gathered to revive the group. With the motto “Native, white, Protestant supremacy”, they began to target other groups besides blacks for harassment. At the height of their power, they wielded serious political clout and had more than 3 million members

Question 34

Harlem Renaissance

Answer 34

The movement among black artists and thinkers in Harlem, at district in New York City - captured by poet Langston Hughes when he asserted “I am a Negro - and beautiful”. Harlem was the place to be in the African American community if you were an artist/thinker/writer, and many important things came out of the district - movement responding to white supremacy and harassment

Question 35

Jazz

Answer 35

Borrowed from ragtime, blues, and other popular forms, jazz was developed where performers improvised around a basic melodic line, keeping a rapid ragtime beat. The majority of early musicians were black, and it was a uniquely American style of music created by African Americans that remained the most popular style until rock and roll

Question 36

Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)

Answer 36

Led by Marcus Garvey, it arose in the 1920s to mobilize African American workers and champion black separatism. He urged followers to move to Africa - argued people of African descent would never be treated justly in white-run countries. But it declined as quickly as it had risen - Garvey was imprisoned in 1925 for mail fraud and deported, and without his leadership the movement collapsed

Question 37

Pan-Africanism

Answer 37

An emerging movement that argued that people of African descent, all over the world, had a common destiny and should cooperate in political action - several developments contributed to this idea: black men’s service in WWI, the Pan-African Congress that sought representation at the Versailles Treaty, protests against US occupation of Haiti, and modernist experiments in literature and the arts by African Americans (Harlem Renaissance)

Question 38

Lost Generation

Answer 38

When men came back from WWI, the experience was so searing to them that American writer Gertrude Stein called those who survived it the Lost Generation. Other novelists explored the dark side of human psyche and the war’s futility and dehumanizing consequences

Question 39

Consumer Credit

Answer 39

Term for the loans offered to customers, so they could “buy now, pay later” - particularly perilous for those living on economic margins. Such borrowing was a factor in the bust of 1929, as there was too much money loaned out, and people didn’t have enough to repay their debt

Question 40

Hollywood

Answer 40

By 1920, it was the movie capital of the world, producing 90% of all films - large movie palaces attracted middle and working class audiences, and actor idols set national trends in style

Question 41

Flapper

Answer 41

Women wearing knee-length skirts, they shocked the older generation of Americans by smoking and wearing makeup - they represented social and sexual emancipations for women, and while they represented only a tiny majority, they became influential symbols and in cities young women eagerly bought makeup and the latest fashions

Question 42

Soft Power

Answer 42

The exercise of popular cultural influence - US had huge influence in foreign radio and film industries, exports to other countries celebrated the American Dream

Question 43

Smoot-Hawley Tariff

Answer 43

Enacted in 1930, it created the highest tariffs ever on imported goods. Despite huge opposition from economists, it was approved by Hoover, and while Republicans believed it would help stop the depression, it only served to trigger retaliatory tariffs in other countries and further hinder global tariffs

Question 44

Bonus Army

Answer 44

In the summer of 1932, a group of 15,000 unemployed WWI veterans hitchhiked to Washington to demand the immediate payment of the pensions that they were due to be paid in 1945 - while they unsuccessfully lobbied Congress, Hoover called the regular army in to forcibly evict them. When the newsreels showed the US Army attacking and injuring veterans, Hoover’s popularity plunged

Question 45

Fireside Chats

Answer 45

The popular term for FDR’s evening radio addresses to the country, they made him an intimate presence in many people’s lives. FDR’s close rapport with the American people, because of these chats, helped contribute to his enormous political success. He also wanted to reassure them what he was doing to help their welfare, which helped boost his popularity tremendously

Question 46

Hundred Days

Answer 46

The first month of FDR’s administration, it was a whirlwind of activity, as Congress passed 15 major bills that focused on 4 problems - banking failures, agricultural overproduction, the business slump, and soaring unemployment - represented the emergence of a new American state

Question 47

Glass-Steagall Act

Answer 47

Another banking act, it created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insured deposits up to $2,500 - also prohibited banks from making risky and unsecured investments with the deposits of ordinary people - helped restore public confidence

Question 48

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

Answer 48

The beginning of direct governmental regulation of the farm economy for the first time, it provided cash subsidies to farmers who cut production of wheat, cotton, corn, hogs, rice, tobacco, and dairy products - policymakers hoped that farm prices would rise as production fell - but while it briefly stabilized the farm economy, it’s benefits were not evenly distributed - most of the money went to the owners of large and medium-sized farms, not the sharecroppers who worked the farms

Question 49

National Recovery Administration

Answer 49

The way the New Deal attacked declining production, it set up separated self-governing private associations in six hundred industries - each industry regulated itself by agreeing on prices and production quotas, but because large companies usually ran these the NRA solidified their powers over the smaller companies. The AAA and NRA were designed to rescue the nation’s productive industries and stabilize the economy - but while they had a positive effect in some regions, most historians agree they did little to end the depression

Question 50

Public Works Administration (PWA)

Answer 50

Designed to provide money to the unemployed, but without simply paying them a “dole” - to support traditional values of individualism, the PWA put people to work. In addition to the CWA, 2.6 million men and women were put to work within 30 days, and at its peak in 1934 the CWA provided jobs to 4 million Americans

Question 51

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

Answer 51

After the winter of 1933-1934, the CWA began to lapse after Republican opposition, so the CCC was created to mobilize 250,00 young men to do reforestation and conservation work - over the 1930s, they built thousands of bridges, roads, trails, and other structures in state and national parks, bolstering the national infrastructure

Question 52

Federal Housing Administration (FHA)

Answer 52

As home prices collapsed and banks closed, homeowners were dragged down with them. Congress created the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) to refinance home mortgages, and in just 2 years it helped more than a million Americans regain their homes. The Federal Housing Act of 1934 extended the program under a new agency, the FHA - together, they permanently changed the mortgage system and set the foundation for the broad expansion of home ownership in the post WWII decades

Question 53

Securities and Exchange Commission

Answer 53

Created in 1934, it was created to regulate the stock market - the commission had broad powers to determine how stocks and bonds were sold to the public, to set rules for margin transactions, and to prevent stock sales by those with inside information about corporate plans

Question 54

Liberty League

Answer 54

In 1934, Republican business leaders and conservative Democrats joined together in the Liberty League to fight the “reckless spending” and “socialist” reforms of the New Deal - declared it was “tyranny, not liberalism”

Question 55

National Association of Manufactures (NAM)

Answer 55

Even more important than the Liberty League, since their influence stretched far past WWII, they produced radio programs, motion pictures, billboards, and direct mail to oppose the New Deal - promoted free enterprise and unfettered capitalism

Question 56

Townsend Plan

Answer 56

Proposed in 1933 by doctor Francis Townsend, it was a pension which would give $200 a month to citizens over the age of 60 - most elderly at that time had no pensions and feared poverty - the elder workers would have to retire to receive payments, to offer their jobs to younger workers. Thousands of clubs sprang up across the country in support of this plan, mobilizing mass support for old age pensions

Question 57

Welfare state

Answer 57

A term for industrial democracies that adopted various government-guaranteed social welfare programs - the Second New Deal emphasized this, and fundamentally changed American society

Question 58

Wagner Act (1935)

Answer 58

After the Supreme Court voided the NIRA in 1935, labor unions called for new legislation to allow workers to organize and bargain collectively - the Wagner Act was named for its sponsor, Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York, and it upheld the rights of industrial workers to join unions - outlawed many practices that employers had used to suppress unions, and established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), to protect workers from employer coercion and guarantee collective bargaining

Question 59

Social Security Act

Answer 59

Created in 1935, it had a huge impact on society - created with 3 main provisions: old-age pensions for workers, joint federal-state system of compensation for unemployed workers ,and a program of payments to widowed mothers, and the blind, deaf, and disabled - it was a milestone in the creation of an American welfare state, and never before had the federal government assumed such responsibility for its citizens

Question 60

Classical Liberalism

Answer 60

The idea that individual liberty was the foundation of a democratic society - the word liberal had traditionally denoted support for free market policies and weak government. But Roosevelt and his advisors disagreed

Question 61

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

Answer 61

Directed by the energetic Harry Hopkins, it employed 8.5 million Americans between 1935 and 1943 - the workers constructed or repaired roads, bridges, public buildings, parks, and airports - but while it was an extravagant operation by the standard of the 1930s, it only reached about ⅓ of the nations unemployed

Question 62

Roosevelt Recession

Answer 62

From 1937-1938, the economy entered a recession as Roosevelt cut the federal budget - he had seen unemployment decline and growth of the domestic product, so he thought the emergency had passed, and slashed the federal budget - but as soon as he did, unemployment skyrocketed and the stock market dropped sharply. Roosevelt was forced to quickly reverse course and spend his way out of the depression by boosting funding for the WPa and resuming public works projects

Question 63

Keynesian economics

Answer 63

The idea by British economist John Maynard Keynes, he said that government intervention could smooth out the highs and lows of the business cycle through deficit spending and the manipulation of interest rates, which dtereminged the money supply - sharply criticized by Republicans and conservative Democrats, bit gradually won wider acceptance was WWII defense spending finally ended the Great Depression

Question 64

Indian Reorganization Act (1934)

Answer 64

Created by John Collier, who understood the realities of what Native Americans faced - it reversed the Dawes Act of 1887, promoted Indian self-government through formal constitutions and democratically elected tribal councils - Indians won a greater degree of religious freedom, and tribal governments regained their status and semisovereign dependent nations - but like so many other Indian policies, it was a mixed blessing, as it imposed a model of self-government that proved incompatible with some tribal traditions and language - while some tribes did benefit, the BIA and Congress continued to interfere in internal Indian affairs and retained financial control over reservation governments

Question 65

Dust Bowl

Answer 65

The area of the Great Plains where there was a severe drought from 1930 to 1941, it affected the semiarid states of Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arkansas, and Kansas - farmers in those areas had stripped the land of its native vegetations, which destroyed the delicate ecology of the plains - they had pushed agriculture beyond the natural limits of the soil. This made the land vulnerable, and in times of drought, when the wind came, huge clouds of thick dust rolled over the lands (from topsoil erosion) - this ecological disaster prompted a mass exodus

Question 66

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Answer 66

he most extensive environmental undertaking of the New Deal, Roosevelt saw it as the first step in modernizing the South - funded by Congress in 1933, it integrated flood control, reforestation, electricity generation, and agricultural and industrial development - the dams and their hydroelectric plants provided cheap electric power for homes and factories as well as ample recreational opportunities for the valley’s residents - won praise around the world

Question 67

Rural Electrification Administration (REA)

Answer 67

Established in 1935, it was also central to Roosevelt’s goal to keep farmers on the land, by enhancing the quality of rural life - it addressed the problem of electricity by promoting nonprofit farm cooperatives that offered loans to farmers to install power lines - electricity brought relief from the drudgery and isolation of farm life, and brightened the lives of the entire family - along with the automobile and the movies, electricity broke down the divide between urban and rural life

Question 68

Fascism

Answer 68

An antidemocratic movement which had originated in Italy during the 1920s and developed in countries such as Germany, Spain, and Japan - fascist states have a all-powerful dictator that controls every aspect of life and government

Question 69

National Socialist (Nazi) Party

Answer 69

An antidemocratic movement which had originated in Italy during the 1920s and developed in countries such as Germany, Spain, and Japan - fascist states have a all-powerful dictator that controls every aspect of life and government

Question 70

Neutrality Act of 1935

Answer 70

Congress’s response to the widespread isolationist sentiment in the US and Nye’s investigation into the arms manufacturers of WWI, it imposed an embargo on selling arms to warring countries and declared that Americans traveling on ships of belligerent nations did so at their own risk. In 1936, they banned loans to belligerent, and in 1937 they imposed a “cash-and-carry” requirement on the purchase of goods by belligerent nations, keeping the US out of potentially dangerous naval warfare

Question 71

Popular Front

Answer 71

The group of Soviet communists and US liberals who opposed fascism - supported various international causes (backed Loyalists in Spanish Civil War) - drew from a wide range of social groups in the US: American Communists Party, African American civil rights activists, trade unionists, left-wing writers and intellectuals, and even a few New Deal administrators. But many grew uneasy with it because of communist rigidity and the political repression in the Soviet Union under Stalin - but they were a small but vocal group of Americans who encouraged a stronger stand against European fascism

Question 72

Munich Conference

Answer 72

A conference between Germany, France, and Britain, after Hitler grew more aggressive in 1938 and made clear his intention to seize Czechoslovakia - in September 1938 at the conference, Britain and France allowed Hitler to annex the Sudetenland (German speaking part of Czechoslovakia) in return for the pledge to seek no more territory (wouldn’t last)

Question 73

Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies

Answer 73

The group of people who supported intervention in the war, they were led by journalist William Allen White and became increasingly vocal in 1940 as the war escalated in Europe

Question 74

America First Committee

Answer 74

In response to the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, isolationists formed the America First Committee (AFC) which contained many well respected figures - held rallies across the US, and its posters, brochures, and broadsides warned against American involvement

Question 75

Four Freedoms

Answer 75

After Roosevelt was reelected in 1940, he delivered one of the most important speeches of his career, casting WWII as a noble defense of democratic societies and linking the fate of democracy in Western Europe with the new welfare state at home - he defined “four essential human freedoms”: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear

Question 76

Lend-Lease Act

Answer 76

In March 1941, after Britain was no longer able to pay cash for arms, Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass this act. It authorized the president to “lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of” arms and equipment to Britain or any other country whose defense was considered vital to the security of the US

Question 77

Atlantic Charter

Answer 77

After Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill, their joint press release (known as the Atlantic Charter) became the ideological foundation of the Western cause. It drew from Wilson’s Fourteen Points and Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms, and called for economic cooperation, national self-determination, and guarantees of political stability after the war to ensure “that all men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want”

Question 78

Pearl Harbor

Answer 78

After General Tojo became prime minister of Japan in October 1941, he accelerated secret preparations for war against the US. By November, American intelligence knew that Japan was planning an attack but did not know where it would occur - but early on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing more than 2,100 Americans. They destroyed or heavily damaged 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers, and almost 200 planes - although it was devastating, it united the American people in wanting to join WWII

Question 79

War Powers Act

Answer 79

Passed in December 1941 by Congress, it gave Roosevelt unprecedented control over all aspects of the war effort - marked the beginning of what some historians call the imperial presidency: the far-reaching use (and sometimes abuse) of executive authority during the latter part of the twentieth century

Question 80

Revenue Act (1942)

Answer 80

Expanded the number of people who had to pay income taxes from 3.9 million to 42.6 million - taxes on personal incomes and business profits would pay for half the cost of the war

Question 81

Code Talkers

Answer 81

The term for the Native American soldiers, who used codes based on their own languages to communicate orders to fleet commanders - other intelligence could not decipher these codes because they were based on native languages which few understood (used Navajo language in the Pacific) - instrumental in many battles in the Pacific theater

Question 82

Executive Order 8802

Answer 82

After A. Philip Randoplh announced plans for a march on Washington for civil rights, Roosevelt tried to make a deal with him to stop the march - he wasn’t a strong supporter of African American equality, but wanted to avoid public protest and a disruption of the nation’s war preparations. So Roosevelt passed Executive Order 8802 to get Randolph to cancel the march, which prohibited “discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin”, and established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC)

Question 83

Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (1944)

Answer 83

Popularly known as the “GI Bill of Rights”, it provided education, job training, medical care, pensions, and mortgage loans for men and women who had served in the armed forces - Roosevelt called for a second Bill of Rights that would guarantee all Americans access to basic necessities, education, and jobs, but Congress only created benefits for military veterans. But it was still a hugely popular program and a huge step forward in social legislation

Question 84

Zoot suits

Answer 84

In Los Angeles, male Hispanic teenagers formed pachuco (youth) gangs , and many of them dressed in the “zoot suits” - to many adults, it symbolized juvenile delinquency. In June 1943, rumors circulated that a pachuco had beaten up an Anglo sailor. This set off a 14-day riot in which hundreds of Anglo servicemen roamed through Mexican American neighborhoods and attacked the zoot-suiters - Los Angeles police officers only arrested the Mexican American youth, and City Council passed an ordinance outlawing the wearing of the zoot suit

Question 85

Executive Order 9066

Answer 85

Responding to the fears of attack by the Japanese Americans from white Americans living near the Pacific, Roosevelt 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 - shocked Japanese American, more than two thirds of them were native to the US, yet they were still forced to move and give up their whole lives

Question 86

D-Day

Answer 86

The day that the long-promised invasion of France began - June 6, 1944. That morning, the largest armada ever assembled moved across the English Channel under the command of General Eisenhower and beached at Normandy - they suffered terrible casualties, but secured a beachhead

Question 87

Holocaust

Answer 87

The term for the mass persecution of Jewish people by Hitler and the other Nazis - 6 million of them were put to death in extermination camps, and those who survived suffered the horrible conditions of camp life. Once the Allies reached Germany and Poland, they discovered these camps and what life was like in them - the photographs shocked the world

Question 88

Manhattan Project

Answer 88

The US project which was on the verge of testing a new weapon when Harry Truman became president - it cost $2 billion, employed 120,000 people, and involved the construction of thirty-seven installations in 19 states - with all activity hidden from Congress, the American people, and Vice President Truman. The bomb was successfully tested on July 16, 1945 - 3 weeks later, Truman authorized the dropping of the bomb on 2 Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, finally ending WWII

Question 89

Rome-Berlin Axis

Answer 89

The political and military alliance between the fascist states of Italy and Germany - with this alliance and Hitler’s later one with Japan, he had seized the military advantage in Europe by 1937