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25 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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National Self-determination
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This concept holds that nations have the right to be sovereign states with political and economic autonomy. A central component of Woodrow Wilson's World War I Fourteen Points, it challenged the existing colonial empires. The right of national self-determination continues to be invoked by nationalist, usually ethnic, groups, such as the Basques in Spain, the Kurds in Turkey and Iraq, and the Palestinians in Israel
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Nativism
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Antiforeign sentiment in the United States that fueled a drive against immigration, directed at the Chinese led to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Anxiety about "hyphenated Americans" became particularly strong in the World War I era and led to legislation in 1924 that restricted immigration from Europe by use of a quota system and prohibited all Asian Immigrants
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New Right
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Conservative political movement that achieved considerable success beginning in the 1970s, helping to elect Ronald Regan president in 1980 and enabling the Republican Party to retake both houses of Congress in the 1994 elections; has a diverse constituency, including evangelical Christians, concerned primarily about moral isues, and conservatives hostile to federal activism
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Nullification
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The constitutional argument that a state could void (nullify) a law enacted by Congress. This idea had its origin in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, which were drafted by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and received its fullest exposition in John C. Calhoun's Exposition and Protest in 1828 and South Carolina's attempt at nullifying the tariff in 1832
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Open-door policy
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U.S. foreign policy articulated in the Open Door notes sent by the secretary of state in 1899 to Japan, Russia, Germany, and France-all of whom were establishing spheres of influence in China-asking that China remain open to trade on equal terms by all nations. Because it was not participationg in the assault on China's territorial integrity, an open door was crucial if the United States was to be assured access to China's large markets
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Outwork
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A system of manufacturing, also known as "putting out," used in the English woolen industry. Merchants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries bought wool and provided it to landless peasants, who spun and wove it into cloth, which the merchants in turn sold in English and foreign markets
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Patriarchy
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A family system in which the father is the dominant authority, usually both by legal right and customary practice
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Patronage
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The power of elected officials to grant government jobs. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, politicians systematically used-and abused-to create and maintain strong party loyalties. After 1870, political reformers gradually introduced merit-based civil service systems in the federal and state governments
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Peasant
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A farm laborer who often worked land owned by a landlord. In 1450 Europe, these laborers sometimes owned or leased a small plot in the town and worked collectively with other village laborers on the common lands of the community
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Peonage (debt peonage)
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As cotton prices declined during the 1870s, many sharecroppers fell into permanent debt. Merchants often conspired with landowners to make the debt a pretext for forced labor, or peonage
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Pocket veto
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Presidential way to kill a piece of legislation without issuing a formal veto. When congressional Republicans passed the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864, a harsher alternative to President Lincoln's restoration plan, Lincoln used this method to kill it by simply not signing the bill and letting it expire after Congress adjourned
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Political machine
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Nineteenth-century term for highly organized groups operating within and intending to control political parties. They were regarded as antidemocratic by political reformers and were the target especially of Progressive era leaders such as Rober La Follette. The direct primary was the favored against these because it made the selection of party candidates the product of a popular ballot rather than conventions that were susceptible to control
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Poll tax
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A tax paid for the privilege of voting, used in the South beginning during Reconstruction to disfranchies freedmen. Nationally, the northern states used these to keep immigrants and others deemed unworthy from the polls
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Popular sovereignty
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The republican principle that ultimate power resides in the hands of the electorate. Following the principle of popular sovereignty, voters directly or indirectly ratify the constitutions of the state and national governments and amendments to those fundamental laws. During the 1850s Congress applied this principle to the western lands by enacting legislation giving residents the authority to determine the status of slavery in their territory
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Pragmatism
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Philosophical doctrine developed primarily by William James that denied the existence of absolute truths and argued that ideas should be judged by their practical consequences. Problem solving, not ultimate ends, was the proper concern of philosophy, in James's view; it provided a key intellectual foundation for progressivism
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Praying towns
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Native American settlements in New England that were supervised by Puritan ministers. These seventeenth-century settlements were intended to introduce Indians to Christianity, in part through an Algonquian-language Bible
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Predestination
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The idea that God had chosen certain people for salvation even before they were born. This strict belief was preached by John Calvin in the sixteenth century and became a fundamental tenet of Puritan theology
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Preservationists, preservation
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Early-twentieth-century activists, like John Muir, who fought to protect the natural environment from commercial exploitation, particularly in the American West. They should be distinguished from conservationists, who accepted development but on a regulated basis, so as not to be wastefully destructive of the nation's resources. these were the first to advocate the establishment of national parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite
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Price revolution
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A term that describes the significancd of the high rate of inflation in Europe in the mid-1500s. The inflation resulted from Spain's importation of American gold and silver, which doubled the money supply in Europe, at a time when the population was also increasing. It brought about profound social changes by reducing the political power of the aristocracy and leaving many peasant families on the brink of poverty, setting the stage for a substantial migration to America
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Primogeniture
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An ingeritance practiced by which a family's land was passed on to the eldest son. Although republican-minded Americans of the Revolutionary era felt this practice was unfair, they did not prohibid it. However, mody dysyr legislatures passed laws providing that, if the father died without a will, the estate would be distributed equally among his children
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Probate inventory
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The inventory of a person's property taken by legal officials at death. These inventories are of great value to historians because they provide detailed lists of personal property, houshold items, and financial debts and credits
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Prohibition, Prohibitionists
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Forbids sale of alcohol by law, thus using legal means to enforce temperance. The Anti-Saloon League, founded in 1893, embarked on a national campaign for Prohibition, which eventually led to the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment, ratified in 1919, which prohibited the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors." The Prohibition amendment was repealed in 1933, although some states continued to have Prohibition laws
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Propaganda
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The spreading of ideas that support a particular cause. Although this process does not require a distortion of the facts, it usually involves a misrepresentation of the views or policies of one's opponents. During World War I, the U.S. Committee on Public Information, led by George Creel, published literature and sponsored speeches to increase public hostility towards Germany
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Proprietors
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Groups of settlers who received land grants from the General Courts of Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut, mostly between 1630 and 1720. They distributed the land among themselves, usually on the basis of social status and family need. This system encouraged widespread ownership of land
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Pump priming
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Term first used during the Great Depression of the 1930s to describe the practice of increased government spending in the hope that it would generate additional economic activity throughout the system. it is the beginning of a process that is supposed to lead to significant economic recovery
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