Key Moments in American History: Post-Reconstruction
1877 Railroad StrikeQ. What does the strike reveal about the relationship between big business and the government in this period?
1887 Dawes Severalty Act
Q. Why did supporters of the act claim that it would aid the Indians?
1892 HomesteadStrike
Q. What were Frick’s and Carnegie’s goal in the Homestead strike?
1893 Panic
Q. What was Coxey’s Army?
1895 Atlanta Compromise
Q. What was the compromise that Booker T. Washington was willing to make that W.E.B. DuBois rejected?
1896 W.J. Bryan“Cross of Gold Speech”
Q. What did Bryan mean that Americans were being crucified on a cross of gold?
1898 Spanish-American War
Q. What was the role of “yellow journalism” in the war?
1899 Open Door Policy
Q. Why did the US want an “open door” in China?
1904 The Jungle
Q. Upton Sinclair claimed in writing The Jungle that he aimed for Americans hearts but hit their stomachs; what did he mean?
1917-19 WWI
Q. What was the League of Nations?
1920s Economic Boom
Q. What role did credit play in the 1920s boom?
1920 19th Amendment
Q. How did women use WWI to their advantage in arguing for the 19th Amendment?
1925 Scopes Monkey Trial
Q. How did this case reflect the tension over the religious revival of the 1920s?
1929 Stock Market Crash
Q. What was the Reconstruction Finance Corporation?
1933-41 New Deal
Q. How did the Wagner Act change the government’s attitude to unions?
1941-45 WWII
Q. What was the Double V for blacks?
1942 Japanese Interment
Q. What was Executive Order 9066?
1947 Truman Doctrine
Q. What was meant by containment?
1950-53 Korean War
Q. Why did Truman fire MacArthur?
1954 Brown v. Board of Education
Q. What previous decision did Brown overturn?
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
Q. Why did Russia put missiles in Cuba?
1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Q. What did the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution allow LBJ to do?
1965 Voting Rights Act
Q. How did the Act change the federal government’s attitude to the South?
1968 RFK and MLK Assassinations
Q. What was the effect of King’s assassination?
1974 Nixon Resigns
Q. Why did Nixon have the Watergate hotel wiretapped?
1979 Energy Crisis
Q. What happened in 1953 that made the Iranians hate and distrust the US?
1981-89 Reaganomics
Q. What is the claim of the Laffer curve? Did it work?
1986 Iran-Contra
Q. Why did Reagan illegally fund the contras?
1991 Persian Gulf War
Q. What was Desert Storm?
1998 Clinton Impeachment
Q. Why was Clinton impeached?
2000 Election
Q. What was the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore and what was the effect on the election?