chapter 36 // BOLDED Flashcards
(33 cards)
The Feminine Mystique (1963)
Best-selling book by feminist thinker Betty Friedan. This work challenged women to move beyond the drudgery of suburban housewifery and helped launch what would become second-wave feminism
rock ‘n’ roll
“Crossover” musical style that rose to dominance in the 1950s, merging black rhythm and blues with white bluegrass and country. Featuring a heavy beat and driving rhythm, rock ‘n’ roll music became a defining feature of the 1950s youth culture.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS (1954)
Landmark Supreme Court decision that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and abolished racial segregation in public schools. The Court reasoned that “separate” was inherently “unequal,” rejecting the foundation of the Jim Crow system of racial segregation in the South. This decision was the first major step toward the legal end of racial discrimination and a major accomplishment for the civil rights movement.
Montgomery bus boycott (1955)
Protest by black Alabamians against segregated seating on city buses, sparked by Rosa Parks’s defiant refusal to move top the back of the bus. The bus boycott lasted from Dec 1, 1955, until Dec 26, 1956, and became one of the foundational movements of the civil rights movement. It led to the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr., and ultimately led to a Supreme Court decision opposing segregated busing.
abstract expressionism
An experimental style of mid-twentieth century modern art exemplified by Jackson Pollock’s spontaneous “action paintings” created by flinging paint on canvases stretched across the studio floor.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Youth organization founded by southern black students in 1960 to promote civil rights. Drawing on its members’ youthful energies, SNCC in its early years coordinated demonstrations, sit-ins, and voter registration drives.
Operation Wetback (1954)
A government program to round up and deport as many as 1 million illegal Mexican migrant workers in the United States. The program was promoted in part by the Mexican government and reflected burgeoning concerns about non-European immigration to America.
Sputnik (1957)
Soviet satellite first launched into earth orbit on October 4, 1957. This scientific achievement marked the first time human beings had put a man-made object into orbit and pushed the USSR noticeably ahead of the United States in the space race. A month later, the Soviet Union sent a larger satellite, Sputnik II, into space, prompting the United States to redouble its space exploration efforts and raising American fears of Soviet superiority.
policy of boldness (1954)
Foreign-policy objective of Dwight Eisenhower’s secretary of state John Foster Dulles, who believed in changing the containment strategy to one that more directly engaged the Soviet Union and attempted to roll back communist influence around the world. This policy led to a buildup of America’s nuclear arsenal to threaten “massive retaliation” against communist enemies, launching the Cold War’s arms race.
Beat Generation
A small coterie of mid-twentieth-century bohemian writers and personalities, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, who bemoaned bourgeois conformity and advocated free-form experimentation in life and literature.
Apollo (1961-1975)
Program of manned space flights run by America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The project’s highest achievement was the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Suez crisis (1956)
International crisis launched when Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, which had been owned mostly by French and British stockholders. The crisis led to a British and French attack on Egypt, which failed without aid from the United States. The Suez crisis marked an important turning point in the post-colonial Middle East and highlighted the rising importance of oil in world affairs.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC))
Cartel comprising Middle Eastern states and Venezuela first organized in 1960. OPEC aimed to control access to and prices of oil, wresting power from Western oil companies and investors. In the process, it gradually strengthened the hand of non-Western powers on the world stage.
Hungarian uprising (1956)
Series of demonstrations in Hungary against the Soviet Union. Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev violently suppressed this pro-Western uprising, highlighting the limitations of America’s power in Eastern Europe.
Sputnik (1957)
Soviet satellite first launched into earth orbit on October 4, 1957. This scientific achievement marked the first time human beings had put a man-made object into orbit and pushed the USSR noticeably ahead of the United States in the space race. A month later, the Soviet Union sent a larger satellite, Sputnik II, into space, prompting the United States to redouble its space exploration efforts and raising American fears of Soviet superiority.
kitchen debate (1959)
Televised exchange in 1959 between Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and American vice president Richard Nixon. Meeting at the American National Exhibition in Moscow, the two leaders sparred over the relative merits of a capitalist consumer culture versus Soviet state planning. Nixon won applause for his staunch defense of American capitalism, helping lead him to the Republican nomination for president in 1960.
Beat Generation
A small coterie of mid-twentieth-century bohemian writers and personalities, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, who bemoaned bourgeois conformity and advocated free-form experimentation in life and literature.
Apollo (1961-1975)
Program of manned space flights run by America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The project’s highest achievement was the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Berlin Wall
Fortified and guarded barrier between East and West Berlin erected on orders from Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1961 to stop the flow of people to the West. Until its destruction in 1989, the wall was a vivid symbol of the divide between the communist and capitalist worlds.
European Economic Community (EEC)
Free-trade zone in Western Europe created by Treaty of Rome in 1957. Often referred to as the “Common Market,” this collection of countries originally included France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The body eventually expanded to become the European Union, which by 2005 included twenty-seven member states.
Bay of Pigs invasion (1961)
CIA plot in 1961 to overthrow Fidel Castro by training Cuban exiles to invade and supporting them with American airpower. The mission failed and became a public relations disaster early in John F. Kennedy’s president.
Cuban missile crisis (1962)
Standoff between John F. Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in October 1962 over Soviet plans to install nuclear weapons in Cuba. Although the crisis was ultimately settled in America’s favor and represented a foreign-policy triumph for Kennedy, it brought the world’s superpowers perilously close to the brink of nuclear confrontation.
Freedom Riders
Organized mixed-race groups who rode interstate buses deep into the South to draw attention to and protest racial segregation, beginning in 1961. This effort to challenge racism, which involved the participation of many northern young people as well as southern activists, proved a political and public relations success for the civil rights movement.
Checkers Speech (1952)
Nationally televised address by vice-presidential candidate Richard Nixon during which he defended himself against allegations of corruption. Using the new mass medium of television shortly before the 1952 election, the vice-presidential candidate saved his place on the ticket by saying the only campaign gift he had received was a cocker spaniel named Checkers.
