AP US History vocabulary list
US History and AP US History Running Vocabulary List: Terms, Concepts, Names and Events
Note: see Talk page for to do list and suggestions
For MCQ section, students are to
- identify document source, date, historical context
- contextuals document and not confuse it for wrong period or context in wrong possible answer
- idenify other errors in wrong possible answers
For Free Response questins (FRQ, DBQ), students are to
- demonstrate historical factual knowledge
- provide examples, describe and explain
- write to an uninformed audience
- as in math, "show your work" -- i.e., explain everything
- contextualize through cause and effect
- compare/contrast to other periods
- conceptualize facts into large ideas
US History: BIG IDEAS for American self-conception and historical choices
Students may address historican themes, events, and periods using the various notions of self-conception of Americans across history. Note that these concepts change over time. A short list of topics/ core ideas includes:
the American Dream
American exceptionalism
Americanism (and What is it to be an American?)
Civil liberties
Civil Rights
"City on a Hill"
Debate
Dissent
Due process
Duty
e pluribus unam
Equality
Expansionism (including westerd expansion, overseas expansion; also economic)
Foreign non-Intervention / Intervention
Freedom/ Freedoms, esp. movement, protest, religion, speech
Freedom of conscience
Idealism
Intellectual property
Innovation
Issues focus
Justice
Limited government
Patriotism
Personal autonomy
Personal / public safety
Politics
Practicality / Self-interest
Regionalism
Self-reliance
Self-rule/ Self-governance
Technology
War
Implications of a Democracy
In 1835, the French aristocrat, Alexis de Tocqueville published the first of two volumes, "Democracy in America". Tocqueville was intrigued by the social, cultural and political implications of a democratic society -- by which he meant, generally,
- absence of social classes or heirarchies among citizens
- members of that dominant social class consider themselves one another's equal
Tocqueville's analysis yields enormous insight into the American character of the 1830s as well as today:
- notion of equality
- individualism
- emphasis on local governance
- civic activity and associations
- spirit of religion
These characteristics of a democracy can be applied to historical analysis on the AP exam and for understanding US History generally.
American Slogans or Famous Utterances
A day that will live in infamy
A republic, if you can keep it!
The American way
Equal justice under law
Getting the government you deserve
Give me liberty or give me death!
Go west, young man!
I am a Berliner / Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
In God we trust
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happines
Live free or die
Nothing to fear but fear itself
Of the people, by the people, for the people
Outdoing the Joneses
Remember the Alamo!
Taxation without representation
United we stand, divided we fall
We shall overcome
We the people
Historical textual analysis: approaches and strategies
When reviewing an historical document, consider:
- date
- author
- publisher
- audience
Review fine print, sources, in cartoons anything written, and apply your PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
- what do you know about the period
- what came before it?
- what followed?
- what events, periods, persons may be compared or contrasted to it?
Analytical tools
HAPPy or HIPP
| Historical context | (Intended) Audience | Purpose | Point of View | y |
OPVL
| Origin | Perspective | Value | Limitations |
SPRITE
| Social | Political | Religious | Intellectual | Technological | Economics |
General terms to know for US History
- abolitionism
- aristocratic
- authority
- blue collar v. white collar
- cession
- chain migration
- class warfare
- ''de facto'' v. ''de jure''
- delegate (as noun and verb)
- direct tax
- disenfranchised
- dissent
- domestic
- duties
- Electoral College
- emancipation
- embargo
- equity
- excise tax
- federal
- franchise
- hegemony/hegomonic
- imperialism
- indemnity
- infringe / infringement
- intolerance
- laissez-faire
- landmark court case
- legitimacy
- mercantilism
- nativism
- nullify / nullification
- Old World v. New World
- political
- political expediency
- popular sovereignty
- precedent
- prohibition
- "Republican motherhood"
- republican principles
- state
- states rights
- segregation
- socialism
- sovereignty
- suffrage
- tariff
- temperance movement
- two-party system
- unalienable
- unintended consequence
- United States
- western expansion
Wars timeline
- wars are the effect or cause of change
- knowing wars and their dates and geography provides context and points of comparison
Major Wars
- French-Indian War, 1754-1768:
- American Revolution, 1764-1783
- American Revolutionary War, 1775-1781
- War of 1812, 1812-1815
- Mexican-American War, 1846-1848
- Civil War, 1861-1865
- Spanish-American War, 1898
- Philipine Insurgeny, 1899-1902
- World War I (U.S.), 1917-1918
- White Russian War, 1917
- Wolrd War II (U.S.) 1941-1945
- Korean War, 1950-1953
- Vietman War, 1959-1975
- Vietnam, U.S. ground war: 1965-1972
- Gulf War, 1990-1991
- War on Terror, 2001-2021
- Afghanistan War, 2001-2021
- Iraq War, 2003-2011
- Iraqi Insurgency, 2003-2006
Colonial Wars
- Anglow-Powhatan Wars (1610-1646)
- Beaver Wars, 1609-1701 (French/Dutch)
- Jamestown Massacre, 1622
- Pequot War (1634-1638)
- King Philip's War, 1675-1678 | Metaomb's War
- King William's War, 1689-1897
- Queen Anne's War, 1702-1713
- Yamasee War, 1715-1717
- Chickasaw Wars, 1721-1763
- Dummer's War, 1722-25
- Pontiac's War, 1763-1766
- Lord Dunmore's War, 1774
American settlers or frontier wars
- Bacon's Rebellion 1676
- Regulator Insurrection, 1766-1771
- Whiskey Rebellion, 1791-1794
- Fries's Rebellion, 1799-1800
US Indian Wars
- Creek War (Tecumhsah)
- Seminole Wars
- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Wars
Slave Revolts
- New York Slave Revolt of 1712
- Stono Rebellion, 1739
- Nat Turner's Rebellion, 1826
Minor Wars or US Military actions
- Quasi-War, 1798-1800
- First Barbary War, 1801-1805
- Second Barbary War, 1815
- Panama Revolution, 1903
- Russian White Revolution, Vladistok, 1918
- Berlin Airlift, 1946 << date?
- Greece, 1948
- Iran, 1950s
- Grenada, 1980s
- Panama, 1990 < confirm
- Syria, 2010-12
- Libya, 2012
Important non-American Wars
- Thirty Years War, 1618-1648
- Anglo-Spanish War, 1625-1630
- English Civil War, 1642-1644
- Anglo-Dutch War, 1652-1654
- Anglo-Spanish Wars, 1654-1660, 1665-1667
- Pueblo Revolt, 1680
- French Revolution, 1789-1795
- Haitian Revolution, 1791-1804
- Napoleonic Wars, 1803-1815
- Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905
- Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920
- Russian Revolution, 1917
- World War I, 1914-1918
- Japanese Invasion of Manchuria, 1931-32:
- World War II, 1939-1945
- Suez Crisis, 1957 <<confirm
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States
American Revolution flowcharts
Origins
British & Colonial responses
Cyle of Escalation
Repeal of Stamp Act to Boston Massacre
Repeal Townsend Acts to Boston Tea Party
Intolerable Acts to Colonial Organization
War
Vocabulary, Terms, and Periods
Pre-Columbian
- Algonquian
- Hopewell tradition
- indigenous
- Iroquois
- Iroquois Confederacy
- Mississippian period/ culture
- Mound Builders
- reciprocal relations
- Woodland Period
Colonial Periods
Age of Exploration
- caravel
- Henry Hudson
- conquistador
- St. Lawrence River
Spanish colonialism
- asiento
- De Las Casas
- encomienda
- Florida (or Spanish Florida)
- hacienda
- Mit'a (Inca)
- New Laws of 1542
- Pueblo Revolt
- repartimiento
- Saint Augustine
- Sepúlveda
- Spanish social heirarchies (terms)
- Treaty of Tordesillas
Dutch and French colonialism
- Beaver War
- ''couriers de bois''
- fur trade
- New Amsterdam
- New France
African slave trade
- Middle Passage
- Olaudah Equiano
- seasoning camps
- triangle trade
English colonial periods
Note:
- Britain held colonial possessions in the Caribbean region, as well as the thirteen colonies
- following smaller wars and the worldwide French-Indian War (Seven Years War), Britain sequentially took France's Canadian possessions as well as its landholdings between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.
- Levels of British control of the colonies rose and fell according to domestic British politics and its international priorities.
- The American Revolution was largely the result of the excercise of direct control of colonial affairs that followed the French-Indian War.
Colonial political, economic and social
Types of Colonies
- Corporate Charter
- Proprietary Colony
- Royal Colony
Colony Characteristics
- Maryland
- Massachussets Bay Colony
- Pennsylvania
- Virginia
British colonial period terms & events
- Appalachian Mountains
- Bacon’s Rebellion
- the Great Awakening
- headright system
- House of Burgesses
- indentured servitude
- Jamestown
- John Rolfe
- John Smith
- Joint Stock Compnany
- Jonathan Edwards
- King Philip’s War, 1675-1678
- Lord Baltimore
- "Lost Colony"
- Massachusetts Bay Colony
- migration push/ pull factors
- Native American & English relations
- Navigation Acts, 1663, 1673, 1696
- New England town meetings
- Pequot War, 1636-37
- Puritan
- Queen Anne's War, 1702-1713
- salutary neglect
- slave codes
- William Penn
- yoeman
French Indian War
Notes:
- 1754-1763
- the immediate cause of the war was the growing presence of English colonials across the Appalachian Mountains and into the Ohio Valley
- the French and their indian allies opposed these settlements
- a site of considerable contention was Fort Duquesne at present-day Pittsburg, as the location was at the confluuence of two major rivers leading into the Ohio River
- sparked by an unsuccessful British and colonial attacks on French forts in Pennsylvania
- in 1753, George Washington 1753 delivered a message to the French at another Fort in Pennsylvania demanding French evacuation from the region
- on July 3, 1754, as a colonel in the Virginia Militia, Washington led an attack upon the French Ford Necessity; he lost and had to surrender
- British regular Army, along with colonial militias (and including Washington), reorganized and attacked another French fort, Fort Duquesne on Sept. 14, 1758, and also lost
- there were 500 French and Indian soldiers
- and 400 British regulars and 350 colonial militia
- the British eventually took Ft. Dusquesne in 1758 (renaming it Ft. Pitt), and the focus of the war moved toward Canada and the St. Lawrence River waterways, particularly the French city Quebec.
French-Indian War terms
- Albany Conference, 1754
- Albany Plan
Annus Mirabilis of 1759
- Fort Duquesne
- Proclamation of 1763
- Treaty of Paris of 1783
- William Pitt
American Revolution
- ABC Boards
- Admiralty Court
- Boston Massacre
- Boston Tea Party
- Circulatory Letter
- Committees of Correspondence
- Common Sense
- Declaration of Independence
- direct representation
- Enlightenment philosophers
- First Continental Congress
- ''Gaspee'' affair
- John Locke
Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer|by John Dickinson}}
- Lexington/Concord
- Loyalist
- Montesquieu
- natural rights
- Patriot
- Revolutionary flags
- Battle of Saratoga
- social contract theory
- Sons of Liberty
- Stamp Act Congress
- Thomas Paine
- Valley Forge
- virtual representation
- Yorktown
- Continental Congresses
Writs of Assistance|}}
British Laws & Regulations
- Coercive Acts
- Intolerable Acts
- Navigation Acts
- Olive Branch Petition
- Quartering Act
- Stamp Act
- Sugar Act
- Townsend Acts
Early Republic
Articles of Confederation Period
- Articles of Confederation
- Shay’s Rebellion
- confederation
- sovereignty
- supermajority
- unicameral
U.S. Constitution
- 3/5ths Compromise
- amendment process
- anti-Federalists
- bicameral
- Bill of Rights
- checks and balances
- Connecticut Compromise
- Constitution
- elastic clause
- electoral college
- Federalists
- Federalism
- Federalist no. 10
- Federalist no. 51
- Federalist Papers
- Federalists
- George Washington
- Great Compromise
- impeachment
- James Madison
- New Jersey Plan
- Northwest Ordinance
- preamble
- preamble to the Constitution
- ratification
- separation of powers
- strict vs. loose interpretation
- unwritten Constitution
- Virginia Plan
Early Republic
- 12th Amendment
- American System
- Alien & Sedition Acts
- British-French conflict & Napoleonic Wars
- Cabinet
- CItizen Genet affair
- Compromise of 1820
- Democratic-Republicans
- Era of Good Feelings
- Federalists
- George Washington
- Alexander Hamilton
- impressment
- internal improvements
- Jay's Treaty
- Jeffersonians/ Jeffersonianism
- judicial review
- Louisiana Purchase
- Marbury v. Madison (1804)
- John Marshall
- McColluch v. Maryland (1819)
- Monroe Doctrine
- Mossouri Compromise
- National Bank
- Northwest Territory
- nullification
- political parties
- Republican motherhood
- republicanism
Revolution of 1800:
- Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
- War of 1812
- Whigs
- Whiskey Rebellion
Antebellum period
- cotton gin
- land speculation
Jacksonian period
- John Quincy Adams
- Bank War
- Corrupt Bargain
- Force Bill
- Henry Clay
- Jacksonian democracy
- Indian Removal Act
- Nat Turner Rebellion (1831)
- Nullification Crisis
- Petticoat affair
- Postal Service
- Panic of 1837
- Second Party System
- spoils system
- Tariff of 1833
- Trail of Tears
- Daniel Webster
- Worcester v. Georgia
Antebellum
Social reform
- American Anti-Slavery Society
- cult of domesticity
- Declaration of Sentiments
- Frederic Douglas
- emancipation
- Philadelphia Women's Anti-Slavery Convention
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Second Great Awakening
- Seneca Falls Convention
- Sojouner Truth
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- suffrage
- Temperance movement
- Henry David Thoreaux
- transcendentalism
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- Underground Railroad
- Walden Pond
Antebellum
- American Party
- Bloody Kansas
- John Calhoun
- Compromise of 1850
- Jefferson Davis
- Dred Scott decision
- Gadsden Purchase
- Gold Rush of 1849
- Henry Clay
- John Brown
- Kansas-Nebraska Act
- Know Nothings
- Lincoln-Douglas Debates
- manifest destiny
- Mexican American War
- popular sovereignty
- Republic of Texas
- sectionalism
- Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
- Daniel Webster
Latter 19th Century
Civil War
- 1860 Election
- Anaconda Plan
- Antietam
- Appomattox
- Confederacy
- Emancipation Proclamation
- Ft. Sumter
- Gettysburg
- Gettysburg Address
- Robert E. Lee
- Lincoln’s pre-war stance on slavery
- Sherman’s March
- Vicksburg
- U.S. Grant
- Union
Reconstruction
- 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
- black codes
- Compromise of 1877
- 40 acres and a mule
- Freedman’s Bureau
- grandfather clause
- homestead
- Jim Crow laws Klu Klux Klan
- land grant
- literacy tests
- Morill Land-Grant Act (1862)
- Plessy v. Ferguson
- poll taxes
- Radical Republicans
- Reconstruction Act of 1867
- Reconstruction programs:
- Lincoln's plan
- Johnson's program
- Congressional program
Post-Reconstruction
- Susan B. Anthony
- Battle of Wounded Knee
- Chinese Exclusion Act
- Dawes Act /assimilation
- Gentlemen’s Agreement
- Great Migration
- Homestead Act of 1862
- melting pot
- nativism
- National Suffrage Movement
- Sand Creek Massacre
- Women's Christian Temperance Union
Economic & Political
- Andrew Carnegie
- bimetallism
- economies of scale
- Grange, the
- hard money
- laissez-faire capitalism
- monopoly
- Nelson Rockefeller
- political bosses
- political machine
- Populist Party
- robber barons
- Sherman Anti-trust Act
- silver
- social Darwinism
- soft money
- specie
- Standard Oil
- transcontinental railroad
- U.S. Steel
Imperialism
- Battle of Manila
- “Big Stick Policy”
- Cuba
- de Lôme Letter,
- imperialism
- William McKinley
- Open Door Policy
- Panama Canal
- Roosevelt Corollary
- Spanish-American War
- yellow journalism
- USS Maine
First half 20th Century
Labor
- craft union
- American Federation of Labor (AFL)
- Eugene Debs (155-1926)
- industrial union
- industrial union
- Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
- Samuel Gompers (1850-1924)
- term
Progressive Era
- "Square Deal”
- 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th Amendments
- Bull Moose Party
- Elkins Act (1903)
- Eugene V. Debs
- Direct democracy
- Federal Reserve Act (1913)
- Gifford Pinchot
- Hepburn Act
- initiative
- Jacob Riis
- Jane Addams
- Meat Inspection Act
- muckrakers
- New Freedom
- New Nationalism
- Newlands Act of 1902
- Progressive Party
- Progressives / progressivism
- Pure Food and Drug Act
- recall
- referendum
- Rule of Reason
- Settlement houses
- socialism
- Square Deal
- Upton Sinclair
- Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt
- "Three Cs": Conservation, Corporate law, Consumer protections
- William Howard Taft
World War I era
WWI
Notes:
- Bolsheviks
- Espionage (1917) and Sedition (1918) Acts
- "He kept us out of the war" (1916)
- Jones Act (1916)
- Liberty Loans
- Lusitania sinking (1915)
- Pancho Villa (1914)
- Russian Revolution
- Sussex Pledge (1916)
- U-Boats
- Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 (TWEA)
- War bonds
- War Industries Board
- Zimmerman Note
WWI aftermath
- Collective Security
- Depression of 1920-1921
- Fourteen Points
- League of Nations
- Senate Foreign Relations Committee
- Treaty of Versailles
post-WWI & 1920s
- "America First"
- Black Tuesday
- Court-packing scheme
- deficit spending
- Dust Bowl
- Harlem Renaissance
- Hoover
- Immigration Act of 1924
- League of Nations
- Lusitania/Zimmerman Note
- National Origins Act
- New Deal
- Palmer Raids
- Proclamation of Neutrality
- prohibition
- pump-priming
- Red Scare
- Return to ‘normalcy’
- Roarding Twenties
- Sacco and Vanzetti
- Scopes Trial
- Teapot Dome Scandal
- Wilsonianism
1920s
- automobiles
- consumerism
- credit
- Bathtub gin
- Harlem Renaissance
- Jazz Age
- Klu Klux Klan
- Margin buying
- radio
- refrigerators
- Scopes "Monkey" Trial
Great Depression & FDR
Stock Market Crash & Hoover Administration
Notes:
- the value of the New York Stock Exchange was measured in value by the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA, also known as "the DOW"; it is still used, but among other measures);
- the market rose from about 150 in January of 1927 to a peak of 381 in August of 1929.
- it started dropping through September into October, before its precipitous drop to 237 on Oct 29
- it stabilizied in early 1930, then in May continued a long drop to its low of 41 on July 8, 1932; the DOW did not reach 381 until 1954
- Black Thursday
- Black Monday
- Black Tuesday
- "buying on margin"
- Hawley-Smoot Tariff
- Hoovervilles
- margin call
-
- speculative bubble
- 100 Days
- 20th Amendment
- 21st Amendment
- bank run
- Brain Trust
- Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO, started 1938)
- fireside chats
- Harry Hopkins
- NRA
- "New Deal"
- Francis Perkins
- Social Security
- Supreme Court
- "We have nothing to fear but fear itself"
- Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933
FDR Administration & Great Depression
= New Deal legislation & Agencies
World War II
pre-WWII
- A Philip Randolph
- America First Committee
- appeasement
- Battle of Britain
- “cash and carry”
- election of 1940
- isolationism
- Lend-Lease Act
- Lindburgh
- Maginot Line
- Munich Agreement
- "Peace for our time"
- Poland invasion
- Sudetenland
- U.S. Neutrality Acts
- "war footing"
- war preparations
WWII
- "arsenal of democracy"
- D-Day
- Eastern Front
- Hiroshima, Nagasaki
- Homefront
- Island Hopping
- Japanese Internment Camps
- Korematsu v. U.S.
- Manhattan Project
- mechanized warfare
- propaganda
- rationing
- recycling
- Rosie the Riviter
- Truman’s decision
- "Victory Gardens"
- war bonds
Post-War plans/ conferences
- Potsdam Conference
- Tehran Conference
- Yalta Conference
End of WWII
- 22nd amendment
- Nuremburg Trials
- United Nations
Latter-half 20th Century
Notes:
- WWII was the last conflict entered by official Declaration of War by Congress
- all other post-WWII "wars" have been without actual declaration of war
- the U.S. has entered most of these wars through a combination of Executive Action and Congressional approval, either for a military action or funding thereof
- a key component of post-WWII US History for students to grapple with is the dramatic change to worldwide involvement and/or adventurism and the various justifications for them
- students should understand American "hegemony" and reaons for American worlwdide dominance and the extent to which it may be considered economic, political cultural imperialism
Early Cold War Foreign Affairs
- Berlin crisis / Berlin airlift
- Bretton Woods Conference
- capitalism
- Chiang Kai-shek
- China, loss of
- communism
- containment policy
- George F. Kennan
- Greek Civil War
- ideology/ ideological
- Iron Curtain / Iron Curtain speech
- Israel/ Palestine
- Long Telegram / Article “X”
- Mao Zedong
- Marshall Plan
- NATO
- NATO/Warsaw Pact
- NSC-68
- proxy war
- SEATO
- sphere/s of influence
- Suez Canal Crisis
- Truman Doctrine
- Turkey
- United Nations
- UK sterling crisis
- Warsaw Pact
Atomic age
- atmospheric testing
- atomic testing
- bombers
- A-bomb
- Chinese bomb (Taiwan incident)
- German scientists
- H-bomb
- brinkmanship
- ICBM
- Nike missile system
- MAD/ mutually-assured destruction
- anti-ballistic missile
- nuclear shield
Korean War
- Truman v. Gen. MacArthur
- Chinese Revolution
Cold War diplomacy
- East, the
- hegemony / hegemonic power
- nation-building
- Palestine partition
- Security Council
- Third World
- unaligned nations
- United Nations
- West, The
Eisenhower period
- CIA
- containment
- containment in Asia
- containment in Europe
- containment in Latin America
- containment in the Middle East
- Cuba
- Domino Theory
- Dwight Eisenhower
- Eisenhower Doctrine
- HUAC Committee
- Joseph McCarthy
- Marshall Plan
- McCarthyism
- "military industrial complex" (1958/9?)
- Suez crisis
Domestic US Cold War
- Executive Order 9835
- Second Red Scare
- McCarthyism
- HUAC
- Hollywood 10
- McCarren Act
- Rosenbergs
- Alger Hiss
- Space Race
Kennedy
- Bay of Pigs Invasion
- Berlin Wall
- CIA activity under Kennedy
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- Domino Theory
- Bay of Pigs
- Hot-Line
- Robert F. Kennedy
- Limited Test Ban Treaty
- quarantine v. blockade
- Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
- Peace Corps
Vietnam War
- French involvement, 1954-1955
- US involvement, 1959-1973
Eisenhower period of Vietnam War
- Dien Bien Phu
Kennedy period of Vietnam War
- JFK
- Robert McNamara
- "Whiz Kids"
- “flexible response”
- advisors
- Camelot
- assassination
Johnson period of Vietnam War
- bombing campaigns
- escalation
- Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964)
- Tet Offensive (1968)
- Walter Cronkite
- U.S. public opinion
- Vietnamization
- War Powers Acts
- Gulf of Tonkin
- Attrition
- Hearts and Minds
- Rolling Thunder
- My Lai Massacre
- Escalation
Nixon period of Vietnam War
- China
- Operation Linebacker II
- Christmas bombings
- "silent majority”
- Paris Peace Accords
- Bombing of Laos and Cambodia
- Paris Peace Accords
- opening of China
- Kissinger
- Pentagon Papers
- White House protests
Vietnam War protest movements
- draft, the
- hippies
- protests
- Kent State
- Jackson State
post-Nixon
- Fall of Saigon
- Cambodian genocide
- Pol Pot
post-WWII Domestic U.S
1950s culture
- baby boom
- "Fair Deal" (1945-49)
- suburbia
- rock'n'roll
- conformity
- Interstate Highway Act
Civil Rights
- “Little Rock Nine”
- Brown v. Board of Education
- civil disobedience
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Executive Order 9981
- Jackie Robinson
- Malcolm X
- March on Washington
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Montgomery bus boycott
- nonviolence
- Voting Rights Act of 1965
- George Wallace
Other Civil Rights and Political Movements
- American Indian Movement (AIM)
- Cesar Chavez
- Chicano Movement
- environmentalism
- Grapes Boycott
- Michael Harrington
- "Incorporation" Cases
- Roe v. Wade
- Silent Spring
- women’s liberation movement (NOW)
- Wounded Knee Incident
Johnson
- Great Society
- War on Poverty
1970s: Nixon, Ford & Carter
- Watergate
- pardoning of Nixon
- stagflation
- Afghanistan
- Olympic boycott
- Iranian hostage crisis
- OPEC
- oil embargo
- Camp David Accords
Reagan era
- Iran-Contra Affair
- John Stockton
- Reykjavík Summit
- Berlin speech
- Landslide
- Star Wars
- "Reagan Revolution”
- Reaganomics
- Supply-side economics
End of the Cold War
- George HW Bush
- Military spending cuts
- Gulf War
- Bill Clinton
- Peace Dividend
- NAFTA
- "end of history"
- service sector economy
- New Immigration
- Haiti
- Yugoslavia and Bosnia
- Rwanda
21st Century
War on Terror
- September 11th
- Al Queda
- Afghanistan War
- Iraq
- Patriot Act
Obama Administration
- Great Recession
- ISIS
- Affordable Care Act
- Obama Care
- DREAM Act
Third Party movements
- notes
- third parties represent political movements that the major parties do not accommodate
- or a split within them
- elections through to the 1830s had multiple candidates from the same party, so were not technically "third parties)
- or they were divided geographically and/or over a particular issue or political position
- third parties represent political movements that the major parties do not accommodate
| Party | Election | % of Popular Vote | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-Masonic Party | 1832 | 7.8% |
|
| Liberty Party | 1844 | 2.3% |
|
| Free Soil | 1848 | 10.1% |
|
| 1852 | 4.9% | ||
| Know Nothing (American Party) | 1856 | 21.6% |
|
| Four-way split | 1860 |
| |
| Liberal Republican | 1872 | 43.8% |
|
| Greenback Party | 1876 | 0.99% |
|
| 1880 | 3.35% | ||
| Prohibition Party | 1884 | 1.5% |
|
| 1888 | 2.2% | ||
| 1896 | .094% | ||
| 1900 | 1.51% | ||
| 1904 | 1.92% | ||
| 1912 | 1.38% | ||
| 1916 | 1.19% | ||
| Populist Party | 1892 | 8.5% |
|
| Socialist Party | 1904 | 2.98% |
|
| 1908 | 2.83% | ||
| 1912 | 6% | ||
| 1916 | 3.19% | ||
| 1920 | 3.41% | ||
| 1932 | 2.23% | ||
| Progressive Party | 1912 | 27% |
|
| Progressive | 1924 | 16.6% |
|
| Dixiecrat
Progressive |
1948 | 2.4%
2.4% |
|
| American Independent | 1968 | 13.5% |
|
| John Anderson (Independent candidate) | 1980 | 6.6% |
|
| Ross Pero (Independent candidate/ Reform Party) | 1992 | 18.9% |
|
| 1996 | 8.4% | ||
| Green Party | 2000 | 2.74% |
|
| Libertarian | 2016 | 3.28% |
|
| Robert F. Kennedy (independent candidate) | 2024 | ? |
|
Economic crises
| Mississippi Company | 1720 | French company had Royal grant for trading rights to French colonies in Americas
|
|
| Panic of 1792 | 1792 | Short-lived panic caused by sudden credit expansion following the formation of the Bank of the United States, which led to land speculation
|
|
| Land bubble 1796 | 1996 | Land speculation bubble that collapsed following specie payments suspension by the Bank of England, caused by a rush of bank withdrawals in England out of fear of a war with France
|
|
| Panic of 1819 | 1819-1821 | Finanical crisis sparked by land speculation bubble, excess paper money, and issuance of bank notes unbacked by gold by the Second Bank of the United States
|
|
| Panic of 1837 | 1837-1843 | Major depression in which prices, profits, wages, and financial activity was severely curtailed
|
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| Panic of 1857 | 1857-1859 | National financial crisis sparked by British change in requirements for gold and silver reserves for paper money
|
|
| Crédit Mobilier scandal | 1864-1867 | A railoard company created by the Union Pacific Railroad to build the eastern portion of the transcontinental railroad inflated its costs by $44 million dollars and paid bribes to politicians for laws and regulatory ruilings in its favor
|
|
| Panic of 1873 | 1873-1877 |
|
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| Panic of 1893 | 1893-1897 | Econoic depression that was sparked by the failure of an Argentine bank, Baring Brothers, which collapsed over crops price collapse,
|