Saturday, April 25, 2009

Terms & Names: Chapter 30

The Sunbelt: the region running from coast to coast along the southern US which is close to the equator and therefore receives optimal sunlight and warmth to grow things. 

Immigration Act of 1965: abolished previously instated historical nationality quotas. 

"A city divided and proud of it": 


Biotechnology: technology as used in medicine, agriculture, and food science. 

Silicon Valley: center of high tech businesses in southern california. 

United Farm Workers: Founded by Philip Cruz, union of farmworkers.

Silent Spring: a book written by Rachel Carson, 1962, widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement.

Environmental Protection Aency: charged to regulate chemicals and protect human health by safeguarding the natural environment: air, water, and land.

All in the Family: broke ground in its depiction of issues previously considered unsuitable for U.S. network television comedy, such as racism, homosexuality, women's liberation, rape, miscarriage, breast cancer, menopause and impotence.

M*A*S*H: series concerning a group of fictional characters who served at the fictional 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War.

Star Trek: science fiction entertainment series, created a cult phenomenon and has spawned many pop culture references.

Ted Turner: an American media entrepreneur and philanthropist, known as founder of the cable television network CNN.

Political Correctness:a term applied to language, ideas, policies, or behavior seen as seeking to minimize offense to gender, racial, cultural, disabled, aged or other identity groups

"Secular humanism:" a humanist philosophy that upholds reason, ethics, and justice, and specifically rejects the supernatural and the spiritual as the basis of moral reflection and decision-making.

Clarence Thomas: supreme court justice, judicially conservative, much debate over his appointment.

Anita Hill: former colleague of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She is best known for testifying under oath at Thomas' 1991 Senate confirmation hearings that her supervisor Thomas had made provocative and harassing sexual statements.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration: responsible for the nation's public space program.

Refugee Act of 1980: federal law that reformed United States immigration law and admitted refugees on systematic basis for humanitarian reasons.

Imigration Reform and Control Act of 1987: provides for the legalization of illegal aliens who meet certain requirements

Cesar Chavez: a Mexican American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers.

Franchising: methods of practicing and using another person's business philosophy.

Bill Gates: an American business magnate, philanthropist, author, and chairman of Microsoft.

Earth Day: day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment.

Acid Rain: precipitation that is unusually acidic. It has harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure. Acid rain is mostly caused by human emissions of sulfur and nitrogen.

Three Mile Island: site of the worst civilian nuclear accident in United States history, location of a nuclear power generation plant.

Saturday Night Live: weekly late-night sketch comedy and variety show filmed in New York City.

The Bill Cosby Show: n American situation comedy that aired for two seasons on NBC from 1969 until 1971.

MTV: cable television network based in New York City and launched on August 1, 1981, original purpose to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs.

Multiculturalism: a theory of racial, cultural and ethnic diversity that applies to the demographic make-up of a specific place

Afrocentrism: a world view which emphasizes the importance of African people, taken as a single group and often equated with "Black people", in culture, philosophy, and history

Camille Paglia: an American author, teacher, social critic and dissident feminist.

The Closing of the American Mind: Allan Bloom's criticism of University and primary education of American Youth.

OJ Simpson: football star, acquitted of the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman after a lengthy, highly publicized criminal trial.

Tiger Woods: famous black golfer who won a lot of tournaments, breaking racial barriers and such-not.

Affirmitive ActiON: policies that take race, ethnicity, or gender into consideration in an attempt to promote equal opportunity.

Chicanismo: a cultural movement begun in the 1930s in the Southwestern United States by Mexican Americans to recapture their Mexican, Native American culture.

Rodney King: an American who, on March 3, 1991, was the victim in an excessive force case committed by Los Angeles police officers.

Stonewall:

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrom (AIDS): a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), large social implications because of the connection to homosexuality.

New Right: a conservative political movement that coalesced through grassroots organizing in the years preceding the 1964 presidential campaign of

Jerry Fallwell: an American evangelical Christian pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator.

Neoconservatives: political philosophy that emerged in the United States. It supports using U.S. power, including military force, to bring democracy and human rights to other countries, seeing this as virtuous or even morally obligatory.

Brance Dividians: Protestant sect that originated in 1955 from a schism in the Davidian Seventh Day Adventists, 1993 siege on their property near Waco, Texas, by the ATF and the FBI, which resulted in the deaths of 82[1] of the followers of David Koresh.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual.

Tailhook: a device attached to the empennage (rear) of an aircraft. It is used to achieve rapid deceleration after landing, usually aboard an aircraft carrier.

Proposition 209: California ballot proposition which amended the state constitution to prohibit public institutions from considering race, sex, or ethnicity.

Asian Pacific Planning Council: objective is to enhance economic growth and prosperity in the region and to strengthen the Asia-Pacific community.

Indian gaming regualtion Act: law that establishes the jurisdictional framework that governs Indian gaming.

American Indian movment: led protests advocating Indigenous American interests, inspired cultural renewal, monitored police activities and coordinated employment programs in cities and in rural reservation communities across the United States.

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Terms & Names: Chapter 29

Lyndon Baines Johnson: served as president from 63-69, succeeded Kennedy after the assasination, democrat, designed "Great Society" legislation (included Medicare/Medicaid, civil rights laws, war on poverty), escalated US involvement in Viet Nam,

Civil Rights Act of 1964: outlawed racial segregation in schools, public places, and employment.

Equal Employment Opportunity Comission: created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, investigated racial discrimination in cases of employment, helped enforce the CRA of 1964.



Title VII: prohibited all discrimination based on anything for employment.

Medicare and Medicaid: Medicare- government funded healthcare for the elderly, medicaid- government funded healthcare for the poor.

Barry Goldwater: Arizona (R) senator, inspired resurgence of conserative movement, "Mr. Conservative," crusades against federal government, labor unions and welfare state.

Freedom Summer: aka Mississippi Summer Project, 1964 effort to register as many blacks as possible for the vote in Mississippi.

Voting Rights Act of 1965: outlawed voter discrimination, outlawed prerequisites for voting.

Great Society: a set of domestic reforms initiated by Lyndon B. Johnson, with two main goals- elimination of racial discrimination and poverty, education, medical care, urban stuff, transportation.

Office of Economic Opportunity: agency responsible for carrying out War on Poverty legislation.

Head Start: part of the US Health and Human Services deal that provides education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement with low-income students, and families.

Community Action Program: local agencies that helped to carry out the empowerment of poor.

Losing Ground:

Domino Effect: idea that if communism spread to one Asian country, they would all become communist.

Tonkin Gulf Resolution: congressional approval of Johnson's right to begin war in Viet Nam, but not a full on declaration of war.

Ho Chi Minh: communist leader in Viet Nam.

General William Westmoreland: commanded American military in Viet Nam.

Rolling thunder: US bombing attacks on Viet Nam.

Search and Destroy: Viet Nam military strategy, deploy military groups for a special mission, go in, accomplish mission and get out again.

Operation Ranchhand: policy of spraying herbicides over Viet Nam, which consequently ended up killing people too.

Hawks and doves: Hawks were those that supported US involvement in Viet Nam, doves opposed it.

Students for a democratic society: students of the New Left, lots of protesting and activism.

teach-ins: professors would lecture on contemporary issues and have open discussion and not limit the parameters of the discussions.

In loco parentis: refered to the acting of professors at college as the guardians of college students.

Hippies: youth movement of the counter culture, anti vietnam war, into drugs, sex and rock and roll.

Bob Dylan: singer, songwriter, iconic of the youth counter-culture movement.

The Beatles: British invasion, revolutionized the music scene.

Martin Luther King Jr.: civil rights leader, believed in nonviolent noncooperation.

Black Power: civil rights movement emphasizing racial pride and black political power and other things.

Stokely Carmichael: civil rights leader, initially an integrationalist, but then part of black power movement.

Selma: Alabama, site of large voting rights movement, then sight of large march for civil rights.

Malcom X: militant, black power civil rights leader.

Watts Riots: 6 day long, large-scale race riot in LA, California.

Black Panther Party: political party created to increase black power and pride.

James Brown: black singer and dancer, very influential to music scene.

Tet Offensive: turning point in the Viet Nam War, Viet Kong and North Viet Namese forces attacked South military and civilians in an effort to inspire the South to become fed up with the Americans and want them out.

Robert Kennedy: worked closely with JFK on Cuban Missle Crisis, Attorney General and then New York Senator.

Richard J. Daley: democratic "boss" of Chicago, last of the big political bosses, thought to have possibly unfairly supported Kennedy in 1960 election.

Abbie Hoffman: politicial and social activist, started Youth International Party (YIPs)

Ralph Nader: perenial presidential candidate, environmental, independant.

Hubert Humphrey: Johnson's VP, from minnesota, pro-civil rights democrat.

Richard Milhouse Nixon: president, watergate scandal, president during Viet Nam war, pretty good guy, economics- price controls, off gold standard, foreign policy extremely successful.

George Wallace: populist, southern governor of Alabama, democrat, pro-segregationist, opposed Nixon.

Curtis Lemay: Wallace's running-mate, head of air force during WWII.

Family Assistance Plan:

Stagflation: inflation and stagnation occur at the same time, hard to get rid of, counterintuitive.

New Federalism: move back to the idea that states should have predominant rights, not federal government.

Earl warren: Supreme court justice, liberal rulings,

Miranda v. Arizona: Supreme court ruled that testimony obtained under interrogation is legit only if the prisoner was informed of their rights to things.

Dandridge v. Williams:

Civil Rights Act of 1968: expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin,

Warren Burger: Supreme court justice, conservative, but was part of many very progressive decisions during term.

Roe v. Wade: supreme court decision which stated it was legal for women to choose abortions.

National Organization for Women: largest feminist organization in the US

Equal Rights Ammendment: never passed, proposed elimination of any type of discrimination based on sex.

Phyllis Schlafly: conservative, opposed feminism.

Henry kissinger: political scientist and diplomat, national security advisor, Nixon's secretary of state,

Detente: process by which previously hostile nations scale down tensions.

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I): first of two disarmament talks between US and Soviets,

Vietnamization: 1969-75, the goal was to buy time and build up S. Vietnamese power, so they could defend their own nation.

Nixon Doctrine: statement by Nixon at Guam that said that the US now expected its allies to be responsible for their own military defense

Kent State: killing of students by US troops while protesting.

Jackson State: killing of students by US troops while protesting.

Khmer Rouge: communist ruling party of Cambodia, Nixon attacked them for a while.

Daniel Ellsberg: american military analyst who released the Pentagon Papers.

Christmas bombing: aka operation linebacker, areal bombardment of N. Vietnamese communist points.

My Lai: massacre of S. Vietnamese by US forces in 1968.

George McGovern: rep, senator, pres nominee, noted opposer of the Viet Nam War, worked against global poverty and hunger.

CREEP: committee to reelect the president, under Nixon, way illegal measures.

Watergate: scandal in which people associated with the Nixon presidency broke into the Democratic headquarters and some other places and were caught.

Judge John Sirica: presided over Watergate Scandal case,

Twentysixth Ammendment: standardized voting age at 18 years.

Spiro Agnew: Nixon's VP

Gerald Ford: (served 1974-77) prez after Nixon, signed Helsinki Accords, worst economy since the Great Depression.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Questions: Chapter 28

1. Trace the history of the civil rights movement from the Brown v. Board of Education decision to the March on Washington. Note important events and leading personalities as you go. Offer a concluding assessment of the importance of the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Brown v. Board of Education, 1954: desegregated schools
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955–1956- MLK Jr.
Little Rock 9- 1957
Sit-ins, 1960
Freedom Rides, 1961, John Lewi, Charles McDew; Bernard Lafayette; Charles Jones; Lonnie King; Julian Bonds, Stokey Carmichael
Voter Registration Organizing- Amzie Moore, Aaron Henry, Medgar Evers
Integration of Mississippi Universities, 1956-1965- Clyde Kennard
Albany Movement, 1961-1962-
Birmingham campaign, 1963-1964
March on Washington, 1963
Dr, Martin Luther King was invaluable to the movement, inspiring as well as providing the most effective protest method-- nonviolent noncooperation.


2. Argue for or against this statement: Dwight Eisenhower was a great president. Support your position with a complete analyses of his policies and achievements, noting both foreign-polic and domestic issues.
I feel he was a good president, he oversaw the cease-fire of the Korean War, kept up the pressure on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, made nuclear weapons a higher defense priority, launched the Space Race, enlarged the Social Security program, and began the Interstate Highway System. He had the american people in mind with all of his actions.


3. Trace the course of America's policy, both private and public, toward Vietnam from 1954 to 1963. Who do you think deserves greater blame for escalating the war, Kennedy or Eisenhower? Explain your response.
Eisenhower made American participation contingent on British support, and because they didn't support Vietn War, he became convinced that the political risks outweighed the possible benefits, Eisenhower decided against the intervention. The Republic of Vietnam was created largely because of the Eisenhower administration's desire for an anti-communist state in the region, who coined the domino theory. I believe the Gulf of Tonkin initiative was reason enough to stat Eisenhower was more to blame than Kennedy in escalating war efforts.


4. "John F. Kennedy is the most overrated president in American history." Discuss whether you agree or disagree with this statement, with reference to the events and policies of his presidency.
I do not agree with this statement. During his presidency, Kennedy dealt handily with the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African American Civil Rights Movement and early events of the Vietnam War. Furthermore, were he not as renound for his accomplishment he would not have been reelected, nor would he have been assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
...Read more

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

DO NOT FORGET:

The CRITICAL REVIEW papers for the outside reading books are DUE TOMORROW for D Block and THURSDAY for A Block!

Pick a book. Read the spark notes. Write essay using these directions:

The critical review for your book shall be typed (double spaced) with 12 point type. Include the information specified below. Edit your drafts and keep a copy of your final effort. Final drafts should be 2 to 3 pages in length. Your paper should be 7 paragraphs in length after the bibliographic data. Use one paragraph for each of the following points.

1. Give the bibliographic data for your book using MLA format. Place it at the top of the first page.

2. Describe the book in general terms. What subjects does it cover? What years does it span?

3. Identify the major thesis. The major thesis would reflect the author's general point of view or belief.

4. Explain the author's main contentions and discuss them giving evidence (concrete details and analysis).

5. What were your chief objections and summarize any shortcomings. If you find errors, mention important ones.

6. Address the following:
a. How does the book change your conception of the topic?
b. What additional work needs to be done in order to clear up any doubtful points?
c. What gaps still need to be filled?

7. Give information about the author (background, experience, other books written).

8. End your critique by summarizing your opinion of the merits and faults of the book.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Questions: Chapter 27

1. The cold war was a period of disagreement and military build up between Russia and the US. It was caused by disagreemetn because they were communists and we were capitalists.

2. Tey are the same thing. It was a policy that the US adopted to contain Soviet communist expansionism. Focused on the need for National Security.

3. Truman set up a program to determine whether people in his administration were loyal to capitalism. It was implemented as part of Truman's containment plan.

4. Creation of the CIA, Air-force, and department of defense. The Marshall Plan fostered economic recovery in Europe, and fought communism. NATO was the US/Britain and CO. pact. Berlin Blockade failed.

5. Republican nomination: Dewey, Dem nomination: Truman, Progressive: Wallace, Dixicrats: Thurmond. It was unusual because it looked like like the democrats were doomed, but Truman pulled out an unlikely victory.

6. The fact that China, the most populus country and Russia, the largest country had both become communist, scared Americans. NSC-68 was aimed at bolstering public fear and developed a freedom v. slavery philosophy.

7. The Korean war was a war against Kim's communist government in Korea, because the communist country of North Korea was attacking a capitalist country, americans focused on anticommunism.

8. because americans were afraid of communist power, they limited the power of labor unions, limited the way they could boycott and made them swear they were not communist, HUAC went after communists in Hollywood because they were influencial.

9. He was the leader of the FBI during the policy of containemtn, he had broad power to uncover subversion, he could write his own list and detain any subversives in a national security emergency. '

10. Epitimized by the conviction and murder of the ROsenbergs. Used as scapegoats to explain how soviets made a nuclear weapon so quickly. McCarthyism was when McCarthy accuse people of being communist.

11. He expanded social security, civil rights, created a national healthcare system, reapealed the Taft-Hartlye Act, and subsidized farming more heavily, compromised programs like healthcare because congress was republican controlled.

12. The main victory for civil rights during Truman's administration was the desegregation of the army, navy, and marines. The desegregation of baseball also was a civil rights success although Jackie Robinson had to endure many racial insults.

13. The development of suburbs brough a feeling of affluence to American Society. The weere seen as "a people of plenty" Families were encouraged to do things together. Mothers were blamed for the increase in youth crime rate.

Terms & Names: Chapter 28

Nikita Kruschev: Stalin's successor, denounced Stalin's militarism and talked of peaceful relations with capitalist countries. 

Massive Retaliaiton: Eisenhower administration's doctrine. Gambled that he threat of US nuclear weapons would check Soviet expansion. 

Fulgencio Batista: Cuba's corrupt dictator tat was applauded by the US, CIA secretly trained his security forces. 

Fidel Castro: leftist politician that overthrew Batista in Cuba, tried to curtail Cuba's dependance on the US. 

U-2 Incident: Soviets shot down a U-2 spy plane over their territory, causing a 1960 Paris summit meeting to fall apart. 

John Foster Dulles: Eisenhower's Secretary of State, talked about anti-communism aimed at "liberation" rather than containment. 

Richard Nixon: Eisenhower's vice president, toasted Cuba's Fulgencio Batista and called him "Cuba's Abraham Lincoln."

Gamal Abdel Nasser: overthrew Egypt's corrupt monarchy, wanted to spread "positive neutralism" to other nations, nationalized the Suez Canal after US pulled their support. 

Suez Crisis: Britain attacked Egypt to retain control of the Suez Canal, Americans pulled out financing for the Aswan Dam. 

Eisenhower Doctrine: the president's pledge to defend Middle Eastern countries from aggression by communist nations. 

Ho Chi Minh: communist leader that took over Indochina, won rebellion and established Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. 

Geneva Peace Accords: removed French fores from Indochina, divided it into Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia. US refused to sign it. 

Ngo Dinh Diem: leader of the pro-US government in South Korea. Unpopular, became more and more dependent on US intervention. 

Domino Theory: theory that once one asian country became communist, all the others would soon follow suit. 

Open Skies Proposal: Eisenhower's proposal that allowed US and Soviets to fly over each other's territories to make sure military reduction was really happening. 

Highway Act of 1956: costly construction of a network of super highways justified with national security considerations. 

C. Wright Mills: sociologist that disagreed with popular view that other groups had power against giant corporations.  

John Kenneth Galbraith: celebrated Harvard economist that wrote The Affluent Society and believed groups had power against corporations. 

The Organization Man: by sociology William Whyte claimed corporate business created conformity, criticized many aspects of big business. 

Pluralism: the dominant view that no single group could hope to dominate the political process in the US. 

Norman Vincent Peale: protestant minister who linked religious faith with peace of mind, became popular figure and sold lots of books. 

Chuck Berry: black singer who merged Southern Hillbilly music with St. Louis blues. 

Dwight MacDonald: US writer, social critic, pilosopher, political radical, had popular magazine, preached pacifim and individual anarchism. 

Elvis Presley: former truck driver, turned into a pop singer, thrilled young admirers, trou bled older generation. 

The Blackboard Jungle: hit movie about gang of interracial students that terrorized teachers and mocked adult authority. 

Tootle the Engine: children's book in which train was made to conform in order to be normal adn prosperous, advocated following others. 

Earl Warren: former Republican governor from California, appointed as a chief justice. 

Brown v. Board of Education: declared state mandated segregation of public shools unconstitutional, encouraged equal rights.  

Southern Manifesto: signed by 100 House and Senate members, declared desegregation, was against states' rights of the South. 

Rosa Parks: arrested in Montgomery, AL, for defying local bus segregation , sparked boycott of public transit.  

Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: ATL, formed SCLC, leader of Civil Rights movement. 

Civil Rights Act of 1957: established new procedures for expending lawsuits on right to vote cases, created commission on civil rights. 

Southern Christian Leadership Conference: formed by MLK and other black ministers, demanded desegregation of public facilities and registered black voters. 

Orval Faubus: Arkansas segregationist governor, sent in Arkansas National guard to block mandated desegregation of schools. 

Termination/Relocation: termination got rid of native american tribes and made indians US citizens. Relocation encouraged native americans to move and seek urban jobs. 

Bracero Program: brought Mexicans in on short-term contracts to work on agricultural jobs, many stayed in US after contracts expired. 

Operation Wetback: starting in 1950, policy targeting undocumented Mexican workers by rounding them up and deporting them. 

"Redlining:" banks and loan institutions refused to give funds for home buying and business starting in "decaying" areas- ie racial discrimination. 

"The Projects:" publicly built housing in cities. Had few amenities, last resort for those with low incomes and no future for advancement. 

Barry Goldwater: ruggedly handsome, won AZ senate in 1952, spokesperson that opposed Ike's insufficiently conservative policies. 

William F. Buckley, Jr.: publisher, Roman Catholic, wrote God and Man, at Yale. Attacked antireligious tilt in US higher education. 

National Review: founded partly by Buckly, weekly magazine that attracted talented writers, avoided extremist opinion, wanted to build up right wing. 

National Defense Education Act of 1958: gave federal money to support college level programs in science, engineering, foreign language, and social science. 

John F. Kenedy: Harvard graduate, military honors, socialite, won presidency in 1960, "New Frontier," program. Catholic democrat. 

Jacqueline Bouvier: Kennedy's wife. Huge media figure, dressed stylishly and mingled with movie stars, fluent in many languages. HOT. 

Flexible Response: FDR's plan to spend more on defense to battle communism, mutual deterrence at strategic, tactical, conventional. 

Peace Corps: created by JFK to send young americans around the world on development projects to undercut communism. 

Alliance for Progress: last minute  Latin American policy gave $20 million to countries that instituted land reform, hoped to get away from dictators, FAIL. 

Berlin Wall: after JFK refused to give West Berlin back to the soviets, they built a wall and shot down people trying to escape. 

Bahia de Cochinas (Bay of Pigs): EPIC FAIL, cuban exiles attempted Cuban overthrow with US help, fostered anti-Yankee sentiment because CIA was involved. 

Robert McNamara: JFK's Secretary of Defense. 

Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviets sent nuclear weapons to Cuba, US freaked out beut came to peace agreement by taking nukes out of Turkey. 

Area Redevelopment Bill: gave federal grants and loans to areas that had been passed by economic growth of post-war years. 

New Frontier: JFK's policy on civil rights, higher minimum wage, national defense, and tariff reductions. 

Freedom Riders: civil rights activists, rode busses around the country, risking riots to get the bus systems integrated. 

Sit-in Movement: many young black activists sat at public places and demanded to be served the same as whites. 
 
March on Washington: 200,000 integrated marched to the Lincoln Memorial, demanded broader rights agenda, put pressure on government. 

Birmingham: Dogs and high powered hoses used on desegregationists, church bombed, people began to riot and police killed kids. 

The Feminine Mystique: published by Betty Friedan, helped spark new feminist movement, fought domestic life and lack of public votes available. 

Betty Friedan: wrote The Feminine Mystique, feminist. 

Lee Harvey Oswald: had bizarre political ties, lived in Soviet Union, arrested for assassination of JFK, pleaded innocent, killed before trial. 

Jack Ruby: killed oswald when he was being transfered between courthouses, owned Dallas nightclub that catered to powerful crime figures. 
...Read more

Terms & Names: Chapter 27

Harry Truman: president at the end of WWI, launched atomic bomb, endorsed "containment" policy after the war

"Fair Deal:" Truman's continuation of Roosevelt's New Deal policies, but they were focused on help of specific groups

"revisionists:" historians that argue that the Soviet's obsession with securing its borders was an appropriate reaction to German aggression.

Henry Wallace: Truman's most visible Democratic critic, chided Truman for exaggerating the Soviet threat.

Containment: the principle of not letting communism spread any farther than it already had. Linked to economic policies by Marshall plan.

Truman Doctrine: believed in the policy of containment, began with effort to combat insurgency in Greece, tied US security to fate of "free peoples" everywhere, congress approved $400 million in assistance to Greece and Turkey, mostly military.

Executive Order 9835: brought containment of communism to home front, instituted system of loyalty boards to investigate backgrounds and activities of federal employees, looked for "security risks" within government workforce, authorized attorney general's office to identify organizations considered subversive, stemmed from administration fear of Soviet espionage.
("loyalty boards")

George Kennan: the state department's leading expert on soviet affairs. Developed "containment," but upset with military implementation.

Marshall Plan: (1947) linked economic policies in Western Europe to containment, US funds used to help Western European governments with reconstruction, $13 billion, Soviets invited, but declined b/c didn't want to reveal economy to US, rebuilt Western europe, further isolated USSR.

National Security Act of 1947: created Defense Department, National Security Council, Air Force separate from Army and Navy, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC): held hearings in 1947 to expose alleged communist infiltration in Hollywood. Sent to prison those industry workers who refused to answer questions.

Alger Hiss: affair, catapulted Richard Nixon into national prominence, involved low-level member of FDR's administration who was alleged to have communist connections, statue of limitations ran out on espionage charge, but convicted of perjury.

"Verona Files:" revealed depth of Soviet penetration, close ties between Moscow and Communist Party of the United States, Soviet informants in wartime governmental agencies, soviets began gathering atomic information in 1944.

"To Secure These Rights:" committee report that called for federal legislation against lynching, discrimination and segregation.

Kinsey Report: Dr. Aldred Dinsey's report that homosexuality was simply another form of sexuality and should be tolerated.

Strom Thurmond: 1948 States' Rights Party presidential candidate

Thomas Dewey:1948 Republican Party presidential candidate

Taft-Hartley Act: (1947) aka Labor-Managements Relations Act, limited unions' power to conduct boycotts, reduced use of "closed shop" as a way of influencing how workers were hired, prevented unions from calling strikes the president judged against national interest, increased union power to control members, required union leaders to swear against communist affiliations.

Federal Housing Authority (FHA): funded housing projects such as Levittown so as to addres the nation's housing crisis and rising demand.

Employment Act of 1946: adaption of Full Employment Bill, ensured maximum employment, created council of economic affairs.

GI Bill of Rights (Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944): comprehensive set of benefits for veterans of WWII. Included financial aid for college, preferential treatment for government jobs, med-core at veteran hospitals, extended to Korean War vets.

Jackie Robinson: first African american to play for a national league baseball team, endured racial abuse during rookie season.

Dr. Benjamin Spock: wrote Baby and Childcare in 1946. Sold millions of copies. Allocated all child-rearing responsibilities to women. 

Levittown: Suburbia, 5-room bungalows sold to white, middle-class males, subsidies by government through Housing Acts. 

Playboy: seen as a rejection of classical fatherly ideals, advocated as promiscuous lifestyle for men. 

Rebel Without a Cause: 1955 movie about rebellious teen, sought to portray decay of youth, critique parenting and expose rift between generations. 

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): military alliance between US, Canada, and other European nations. Attack on one member would be an attack on all. Cooperated on economic matters. 

Berlin Blockade: soviets blockaded road and water traffic to west Berlin, ineffective because US flew in supplies. 

Jiang Jieshi: capitalist leader of China that US supported government driven out to Taiwan by communist Mao Ze Dong. 

Paul Nitze: reviewed US foreign policy, produced NSC-68.

NSC-68: developed US stance on communism as freedom US slavery and was used as basis of propaganda. 

Mao Zedong: communist leader that took power in China and threw out Jiang Jieshi. 

Syngman Rhee: headed unsteady, autocratic South Korean government. His protection of upper-class landowners angered some and prompted war. 

Kim Il-Sung: communist leader of North Korea, moved troops into South Korea and provoked war with the US. 

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg: convicted of providing Soviets with information about US nuclear weapons, controversial. 

J. Edgar Hoover: head of the FBI, extremely powerful and racist, conducted illegal practices and held great influence. 

Dwight D. Eisenhower: president after Truman, military hero, focused on foreign policy combatting communist expansion. 

Communist Control Act of 1954: barred communist party from having candidates in elections in the United States. 

Ebony: a publication that celebrated black mothers and mothers that combined success at work and at parenting. 

Adlai Stevenson: democratic presidential candidate in 1952, strong anti-communist stance, got crushed by Eisenhower. 

Baruch Plan: proposal by US to extend full disclosure between ll UN members of nuclear research and materials.  
...Read more

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Terms & Names: Chapter 26

Nye Committee: a senate investigating committee headed by Republican Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota, which held well publicized hearings on US participation in WWI. Endorsed claims that the nation had been maneuvered into the war to preserve the profits of American bankers and munitions makers, who had developed a huge financial stake in Anglo-French victory. Led to public opinion opposing involvement in foreign conflicts and fearing manipulation by "merchants of death."

Ethiopia: because of economic situations in Italy, they turned to ultranationalist fascism, and a coping mechanism of the government was to promise territorial expansion, so they attacked, and overpowered Ethiopia. 


Spanish Civil War: Britain, pursuing isolation, remained uninvolved, also heightened growing interventionist sentiment in US, because conservatives hailed Franco as strong anticommunist, while the political left renounced growing support for fascism in Europe.



Nazi-Soviet Pact: 1939 Hitler secured Germany's eastern flank by signing a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union. They agreed to cooperate in carving up territory, but they secretly decided to divide up Poland, and the Baltic states. 

Panay Incident: end of 1937, Japanese planes sank the American gunboat Panay as it evacuated American officials from Nanjing, but Japan's quick apology that they had "accidently bombed the ship, not knowing it was american," defused a potential crisis. Still, it heightened tensions between US and Japan.  

Destroyers for bases deal: September 1940, provided direct aid to Britain by escorting supply ships with destroyers which were shallow and poor targets for submarines, aroused significant domestic opposition, signaled FDR’s growing determination to do what was necessary to save Britain.

Blitzkrieg: "lighting warfare," April 1940 German tactic, in which massed tank formations, motorized infantry and artillery, and air support, swiftly overran Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Shocked Allies, led to Dunkirk retreat, Germans occupied France. 

Wendell Willkie: republican nominee for the 1940 presidential election, lawyer and business executive with ties to the party's East Cost, internationalist wing. Wilson crushed him. 

Selective Training and Service Act of 1940: Military Training Camps Association lobbied on behalf of act, first peacetime conscription.

America First Committee: organized by General Robert E. Wood, head of Sears, Roebuck, and Co., included Charles Lindbergh, tried to keep US out of war.

Lend-Lease (House Resolution 1776): despite the Neutrality Act, the US would now loan, rather than sell, munitions to the Allies, remaining "isolationist."

Senator Burton K. Wheeler: during the Lend-Lease Act debate, evoked Roosevelt's unpopular destruction of farm surpluses during the early years of the New Deal by charging that the act would "plow under every fourth american boy.

Atlantic Charter: August 1941, eight-point declaration of common principles, disavowed territorial expansion, endorsed free trade, and self determination, and pledged the postwar creation of a new world organization that would ensure "general security."

Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941 Japanese bombing of US fleet in Hawaii, did loads of damage, psychological effects unified US. Directly lead to US involvement in WWII.

Henry Stimson: Roosevelt's secretary of War, warned of Soviet domination of central Europe following war if Allies did not directly attack Germany. 

Joseph Stalin: leader of communist Russia at the end of WWII, agreed on apparitions of land after war, pledged to enter war against Japan after Germany surrendered at Tehran conference.

Winson Churchill: prime minister of Britain during WWII, appeased Hitler, then when war began, feared a direct confrontation with Germany, and so led to the attack of North African and Italy. Though, in his defense, he was able to maintain British solidarity, and keep Germany from invading. 

Casablanca Conference: January 1943, Roosevelt sided with Churchill over Stalin, in the debate over opening a second European front (ie, invasion of France) versus a front in North Africa. 

Unconditional Surrender: to assuage Stalin's fears that Great Britain and the US might sign peace treaties wit Hitler, the two pledged to say in until the point of Germany's unconditional surrender. 


Operation TORCH: North African operation, beginning with Anglo-American landings in Morocco and Algeria in Nov 1942, because Churchill wanted some moral boosting victories. 

Stalingrad: Soviets turned tied of battle, cut off and destroyed one German army, sent the others retreating. Largely due to German forces being split between Eastern front and TORCH. 

Charles DeGaulle: leader of the Free French movement, to get Ally forces to liberate France from occupation, outraged by US deal wiht French Admiral Jean Darlan, to break with the Vichy regime. 

Operation Overlord: aka D-Day, the Ally invasion of France at the Normandy beaches, began on June 6, 1944. Tricked Germans, who were caught off-guard. 

Dwight Eisenhower: directed D-Day attacks, made decision to allow Soviets to take Berlin. 

Jiang Jeishi (Chiang Kai-shek): led incompetent, corrupt, and unpopular Nationalist government, aided by FDR, because he was not communist, though he sucked, continued by Domestic China Lobby. 

Gneral Joseph W. Stillwell: had worked with the Chinese armies resisting the Japanese invasion in the late 1930s, undertook the job of turning China into an effective military force.  "Vinegar Joe." 

Douglas MacArthur: commander of the US army in the South Pacific, favored an offensive lunched from his headquarters in Australia, through New Guinea and the Philippines and on to Japan. 

War Produciton Board: most powerful of the new economic agencies created with the enhancement of the federal government, oversaw conversion and expansion of factories, allocated resources, and enforced production priorities and schedules,

General Curtis LeMay: headed replacement operation to Arnold's firebombing of Japan, from Saipan, official position was that the incendiary raids on Japanese cities constituted "precision" rather than area bombing, destroyed industrial capacity by bombing workers, and burning cities, lots of civilian casualties. 

Admiral Chester Nimitz: commander of the US forces at Midway Island, who received partially broken codes warning him of the Japanese attack, he was able to preempt their attack. 

Tokyo Fire Raid: March 9-10, 1945, beginning of LeMay's stragegy, 276,000 buildings razed, 185,000 casualties. 

Manhattan Project: a secret program to build a bomb based on atomic research, enlisted to p scientists, largest and most secretive military project EVER. 

Office of Price Administration: regulated rices to control inflation and rationed such scarce commodities as gasoline, rubber, steel, shoes, coffee, sugar, and meat. 

Okinawa: Japanese island which provided a "stopping point" along the way to japan for planes to refuel, invaluable, brought US bombers within range of Japan mainland. Illustrated the nearly unbelievable ferocity of the island campaigns. 

“pin ups:” service publications often contained "pin-up" sections, with sexual images of women. Signified the changing attitude toward women with the development of the association of manliness with brutality and casual sex. 

Kaiser Coorporation: spectacular growth in the 1930s had been spurred by federal dam contracts, turned its attention to building ships, aircraft, and military vehicles such as the "jeep" during WWII. 

Frank Capra: movie director, master of nostalgia, became one of the most celebrated and successful of the wartime image makers, shaped inspiring and sentimental representations of the American life-- aka propaganda. Champion of the common man, "Mr. Deeds Comes to Town," and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." 

Fair Employment Practices Commission: president created by  executive order, tried to ban discrimination in hiring 

Office of War Information: created by Roosevelt in 1942, in response to the failed Office of Facts and Figures, to coordinate policies related to propaganda and censorship. 

Elanor Roosevelt: first lady, repeatedly antagonized southern Democrats and members of her husband's administration by her support for civil rights and her participation in integrated social functions. 

A Phillip Randolph: labor leader, promised to lead tens of thousands of frustrated black workers in a march on Washington to demand more defense jobs and integration of the military forces. invited Roosevelt to address the planned gathering with the help of major black organizations and other prestigious African American leaders. Canceled march in return for FEPC. 

“zoot suit” riots: 1943 pitted Anglos against Mexican Americans, incidents between young Mexican American men wearing flamboyant outfits that featured over-large suits and pants, and local police. Exemplified racial tensions experienced during the war. 

United Nations: fulfilled Woodrow Wilson's vision of an international body to deter aggressor nations. Composed of General Assembly, in which each member would be represented and have one vote, and a Security Council, which would include five permanent members and six rotating members who would have primary responsibility for maintaing peace. 

Committeee/Congress on Racial Equality: an organization founded in 1942 by whites and blacks who advocated nonviolent resistance to segregation, devised new strategies during the war. Staged sit-ins to protest inequality.

Yalta Conference: early 1945 three allied powers agreed to divide Germany into four zones of occupation, France being the fourth occupying force, later permanently solidified into a Soviet holding field in the east. 
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Terms & Names: Chapter 25

Black Tuesday: (October 29, 1929) massive stock market crash; stock values plummeted $14 billion. Beginning of Great Depression.

Good neighbor policy: Roosevelt? policy toward South American countries

Hawley-Smoot Tariff: aka Tariff Act of 1930, accelerated economic decline abroad and in US, put higher tariffs on agricultural and manufactured products. Angry foreign governments retaliated by raising their own tariff rates to keep out American goods.

Hoovervilles: towns of hundreds of thousands of Americans who built makeshift shelters out of cardboard, scrap metal.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation: created in 1932, made $2 billion available in loans to ailing banks and corporations willing to build low-cost housing, bridges, and other public works. Biggest federal peacetime intervention in the economy up to that point. Created largest peacetime deficit, leading to Hoover trying to balance the budget.

Herbert Hoover: best qualified man for president ever, but he failed epically.

Douglas MacArthur: Army Chief of Staff under Hoover, attacked the veteran's bonus army encampment, set the tents ablaze, dispersed protestors. Hella bad PR.

Bonus Army: spring 1932, a group of army veterans mounted emotional challenge to Hoover's policies, demanding the $1,000 bonus promised to them by congress after WWI, in 1924 to be received in 1945.

“on margin:” putting up only part of a stock price, and borrowing the rest from brokers or banks.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: president of the United States, understood need to carve out a middle ground, "liberalist," interventionist in economic matters, libertarian on questions of personal behavior.

Fireside chats: Roosevelt used the radio to reach out to ordinary Americans, in a series of addresses, speaking in a plain, friendly, and direct voice to the forlorn and discouraged. Explained banking crisis in simple terms and without condescension. An estimated 20 million people listened.

Elanor Rosevelt: FDR's wife, advocate of racial equality, outspoken.

Glass-Stegall Act:

Bank holiday: Roosevelt immediately ordered, after taking office, all of the nation's banks closed, though I'm not sure why

Civilian Conservation Corps: put more than 2 million single young men to work planting trees, halting erosion, and otherwise improving the environment.

Federal Deposit Insurance Coorporation: asured depositors that the government would protect up to $5,000 of their savings.

Agricultural Adjustment Act: legislation which set up the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, an organization which began paying farmers to keep a portion of their land out of cultivation and to reduce the size of their herds.

“share the wealth:” mantra of Huey Long and other populists, that the New Deal concentrated money in hands of a few elite, and should be redistributed, created Share the Wealth clubs, with middle-class or skilled worker members, worried big business orientation of New Deal would undermine their social and economic status.

Dust Bowl: the areas in six states-- Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, and a bit of Nebraska-- in which agricultural production was affected by drought, foreign grasses, excessive plowing.

National Industry Recovery Act: authorized creation of the National Recovery Administration, which worked to rectify problems in the industrial sector.

Public Works Administration: launched by the National iNdustrial Recovery Act, had a $3.3 billion budget to sponsor internal improvements that would strengthen the nation's infrastructure of roads, bridges, sewage systems, hospitals, airports and schools.

Soil Conservation service: government's 1935 response to Dust Bowl, recognizing that soil problems of Great Plains could not be solved simply by taking gland out of production, urged farmers to plant soil-conserving grasses and legumes, in place of wheat. Taught farmers how to plow along contour lines, and how to build terraces.

Huey Long: populist opposition to FDR, attacked New Deal, that it wasn't going to the populus, offered alternative: to redistribute the wealth, gauranteeing each american a $5,000 estate.

Tenessee Valley Authority: created by the Tenessee Valley Auhority Act (1933) to control flooding on the Tenessee River, harness its water power to generate electricity, improve river naivigability, and ease the poverty and isolation of the area's inhabitants.

Francis E. Townsend: popular California doctor who claimed that the way  to end the depression was to give every senior citizen $200 per month with the stipulation that seniors would spend the money, this putting more money in circulation and reviving economic demand. Eventually adapted to form the Social Security System. 

Father Charles Coughlin: "radio priest," delivered stinging critique of New Deal to a weekly radio audience between 30 and 40 million. Appealed to anxious middle-class americans, and to privileged groups of workers. Charged New Deal was run by bankers and big business, that it did not spread wealth to the everyman.   

Wisconsin Progressive Party: Philip La Follette governor of Wisconsin in 1934 and 1936 election wins was a member. Part of the radical third parties offering alternative to New Deal, and were influential in politics. 

John L. Lewis: president of the United Mine workers, seceded (with other labour union leaders) from the AFL, and made a new organization, Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO-- later renamed the Congress of INdustrial Organizations). 

Social Security Act: passed in May 1935, set up welfare funds from which money would be disbursed to the elderly poor, the unemployed, unmarried mothers with dependent children, and the disabled. 

Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party: discontented agrarians and urban workers formed the MFL Party and elected their candidate to the governorship in 1930, 32, 34, and 36. 

Underconsumptionism: adopted into the second New Deal plan by Roosevelt in an effort to become more populistic, advocates held that a chronic weakness in consumer demand had caused the Great Depression. The path therefore lay in the restriction of production. 

Second New Deal: a program to limit the power and privelege of the wealthy few and to increase the security and welfare of ordinary citizens. 1935-37, had underconsumptionist philosophical underpinnings, based on restricting agricultural and industrial output, so there would be less competition, legislation passed. 

National Labor Relations (wagner) Act: (NRLA) proimsed the right of every worker to join a union of his or her own choosing and the obligation of employers to bargain with that union in good faith, set up National Labor Relations Board to supervise union elections and to investigate claims of unfair labor practices. 

Works Progress Administration: under the direction of Harry Hopkins, known as the "minister of relief," WPA built or improved thousands of schools, playgrounds, airports and hospitals, crews raked leaves, cleaned streets, and landscaped cities. Provided jobs to 30% of nation's jobless. 

Hoover Dam: 

Frances Perkins: Secretary of Labor, more visible than women in previous administrations, though not representative of the majority of female new dealers. 

Woman of the Year: movie in which Spencer Tracy persuades the ambitious Katherine Hepburn to exchange her successful newspaper career for the bliss of motherhood and home making. Exemplified gender relations of the 30s. 

Superman: new comic-strip hero of 1938, reflected spirit of the times: depicted as a working-class hero who, on several occasions,  saved workers from coal mine explosions and other disasters caused by the greed and negligence of employers. Vulnerable to kryptonite, and the working woman. 

Labor’s Non-Partisan League: 1936 Lewis and Hamilton created the LNPL to develop a labor strategy for the 1936 elections. Intent was to channel labor's money, energy, and talent into Roosevelt's reelection caompaign. 

Committee of Industrial Organizations: Committee for Industrial Organization (renamed) more into unskilled laborers working together and stuff.

The Grapes of Wrath: John Steinbeck, best-selling novel of 1939, told epic story of an Oklahoma family's fortitude in surviving eviction from their land, migrating westward, and suffering exploitation in the "promised land," of California. 

John Collier: writer best known for his short stories, many of which appeared in The New Yorker from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Marian Anderson: African American opera singer denied by the Daughters of the American Revolution to sing at an event, so Elanor Roosevelt had her sing on the steps of the Washington Monument. BAD A. 

Indian Reorganization Act: 

Cultural pluralism:

Court-packing fiasco:
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