Vocabulary Quiz #8 Flashcards
socialized medicine:
health services for all citizens provided by government assistance
social security:
government programs that provide social welfare measures such as old-age pensions and sickness, accident, and disability insurance
Socratic method:
a form of teaching that uses a question-and-answer format to enable students to reach conclusions by using their own reasoning
Sophists:
wandering scholars and professional teachers in ancient Greece who stressed the importance of rhetoric and tended toward skepticism and relativism
soviets:
councils of workers’ and solders’ deputies formed throughout Russia in 1917 that played an important role in the Bolshevik Revolution
sphere of influence:
a territory or region over which an outside nation exercises political or economic influence
squadristi:
in Italy in the 1920s, bands of armed Fascists used to create disorder by attacking Socialist offices and newspapers
stagflation:
a combination of high inflation and high unemployment that was prevalent in the United States and elsewhere from 1973 to the mid-1980s
Stalinization:
the adoption by Eastern European Communist countries of features of the economic, political, and military policies implemented by Stalin in the Soviet Union
Stoicism:
a philosophy founded by Zeno in the fourth century B.C.E. that taught that happiness could be obtained by accepting one’s lot and living in harmony with the will of God, thereby achieving inner peace
subinfeudation:
the practice whereby a lord’s greatest vassals subdivided their fiefs and had vassals of their own, who in turn subdivided their fiefs, and so on down to simple knights, whose fiefs were too small to subdivide
suffrage:
the right to vote
suffragists:
advocates of extending the right to vote to women
sultan:
“holder of power.” A title taken by Turkish leaders who took command of the Abbasid Empire in 1055
Sunnites:
members of the largest tradition in Islam, from which the Shi’ites split in the seventh century as a result of a dispute over the succession
surplus value:
in Marxism, the difference between a product’s real value and the wages of the worker who produced the product
Surrealism:
an artistic movement that arose between World War I and World War II. Surrealists portrayed recognizable objects in unrecognizable relationships in order to reveal the world of the unconscious
syncretism:
the combining of different forms of belief or practice, as, for example, when two gods are regarded as different forms of the same underlying divine force and are fused together
tariffs:
duties (taxes) imposed on imported goods, usually to raise revenue and to discourage imports and protect domestic industries
tetrarchy:
rule by four; the system of government established by Diocletian (284-305) in which the Roman Empire was divided into two parts, each ruled by an “Augustus” assisted by a “Caesar”
theocracy:
a government ruled by a divine authority
Third Estate:
one of the traditional tripartite divisions (orders) of European society based on heredity and quality rather than wealth or economic standing, first established in the Middle Ages and continuing into the eighteenth century; consisted of all who were not members of the clergy or nobility (the first two estates)
three-field system:
in medieval agriculture, the practice of dividing the arable land into three fields so that one could lie fallow while the others were planted in winter grains and spring crops
tithe:
a portion of one’s harvest or income, paid by medieval peasants` to the village church
Torah:
the body of law in Hebrew Scripture, contained in the Pentateuch (the first five ebooks of the Hebrew Bible)
totalitarian state:
a state characterized by government control over all aspects of economic, social, political, cultural, and intellectual life; the subordination of the individual to the state; and insistence that the masses by actively involved in the regime’s goals
total war:
warfare in which all of a nation’s resources, including civilians at home as well as soldiers in the field, are mobilized for the war effort
trade union:
an association of workers in the same trade, formed to help members secure better wages, benefits, and working conditions
transformism:
the theory that societies evolve gradually
transnational corporation:
another term for “a multinational corporation,” or a company with divisions in more than two countries
transubstantiation:
a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church that during the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and wine is miraculously transformed into the body and blood of Jesus
trench warfare:
warfare in which the opposing forces attack and counterattack from a relatively permanent system of trenches protected by barbed wire; a characteristic of World War I
triangular trade:
a pattern of trade in early modern Europe that connected Europe, Africa, and the Americas in an Atlantic economy
tribunes of the plebs:
beginning in 494 B.C.E., Roman officials who were given the power to protect plebeians against arrest by patrician magistrates
trivium:
grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic or logic; three of the seven liberal arts (the others made up the quadrivium) that were the basis of medieval and early modern education
Truman Doctrine:
the doctrine, enunciated by Harry Truman in 1947, that the United States would provide economic aid to countries that said they were threatened by Communist expansion
tyrant:
in an ancient Greek polis (or an Italian city-state during the Renaissance), a ruler who came to power in an unconstitutional way and ruled without being subject to the law
ultraroyalists:
in nineteenth-century France, a group of aristocrats who sought to return to a monarchical system dominated by a landed aristocracy and the Catholic Church
uncertainty principle:
a principle in quantum mechanics, posited by Heisenberg, that holds that one cannot determine the path of an electron because the very act of observing the electron would affect its location
unconditional surrender:
complete, unqualified surrender of a belligerent nation
utopian socialists:
intellectuals and theorists who favoured equality in social an economic conditions and wished to replace private property and competition with collective ownership and cooperation
vassalage:
the granting of a fief, or landed estate, in exchange for providing military services to the lord and fulfilling certain other obligations such as appearing at the lord’s court when summoned and making a payment on the knighting of the lord’s eldest son
vernacular:
the everyday language of a region, as distinguished from a language used for special purposes. For example, in medieval Paris, French was the vernacular, but Latin was used for academic writing and for classes at the University of Paris
viceroy:
the administrative head of the provinces of new Spain and Peru in the Americas
volkish thought:
the belief that German culture is superior and that the German people have a universal mission to save Western civilization from “inferior” races
war communism:
Lenin’s policy of nationalizing industrial and other facilities and requisitioning the peasant’s produce during the civil war in Russia
War Guilt Clause:
the clause in the Treaty of Versailles that declared the Germany (with Austria) was responsible for starting World War I and ordered Germany to pay reparations for the damage the Allies had suffered as a result of the war
Warsaw Pact:
a military alliance, formed in 1955, in which Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union agreed to provide mutual assistance
welfare state:
a sociopolitical system in which the government assumes primary responsibility for the social welfare of its citizens by providing such things as social security, unemployment benefits, and health care
wergeld:
“money for a man” In early Germanic law, a person’s value in monetary terms, paid by a wrongdoer to the family of the person who had been injured or killed
world-machine:
Newton’s conception of the universe as one huge, regulated, and uniform machine that operated according to natural laws in absolute time, space, and motion
wrought iron:
a high-quality iron first produced during the eighteenth century in Britain; manufactured by puddling, a process developed by Henry Cort that involved using coke to burn away the impurities in pig iron
zemstvos:
local assemblies established in Russia in 1864 by Tsar Alexander II
ziggurat:
a massive stepped tower on which a temple dedicated to the chief god or goddess of a Sumerian city was built
Zionism:
an international movement that called for the establishment of a Jewish state or a refuge for Jews in Palestine
Zollverein:
the customs union of all the German states except Austria, formed by Prussia in 1834
Zoroastrianism:
a religion founded by the Persian Zoroaster in the seventh century B.C.E., characterized by worship of a supreme god, Ahuramazda, who represents the good against the evil spirit, identified as Ahriman
