joint-stock companies (p. 30) Businesses in which investors pooled
capital for specific purposes, such as conducting trade and founding
colonies. Examples include the English joint-stock companies that
founded the Virginia, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay colonies.
judicial review (p. 148) A crucial concept that empowered the
Supreme Court to invalidate acts of Congress. Although not
explicitly propounded in the U.S. Constitution, Chief Justice John
Marshall affirmed in Marbury v. Madison(1803) that the right of
judicial review was implicit in the Constitution’s status as “the
supreme Law of the Land.”
Kansas-Nebraska Act (p. 353) A compromise law in 1854 that
superseded the Missouri Compromiseand left it to voters in
Kansas and Nebraska to determine whether they would be slave or
free states. The law exacerbated sectional tensions when voters
came to blows over the question of slavery in Kansas.
Kentucky and Virginia Resolves (p. 166) Political declarations
in favor of states’ rights, written by Thomas Jefferson and James
Madison, in opposition to the federal Alien and Sedition Acts.
These resolutions, passed by the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures
in 1798, maintained that states could nullify federal legislation
they regarded as unconstitutional.
Knights of Labor (p. 478) A national labor organization, formed
in 1869 and headed by Uriah Stephens and Terence Powderly,
that promoted union solidarity, political reform, and sociability
among members. Its advocacy of the eight-hour day led to violent
strikes in 1886 and the organization’s subsequent decline.
Know-Nothing party (p. 353) A nativist, anti-immigrant and
anti-Catholic party that emerged in response to the flood of
Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Germany in the 1840s. The
party achieved mostly local successes in the Northeast port cities;
but in 1856 former President Millard Fillmore, whose Whig party
had dissolved, accepted the nomination of southern Know-
Nothings but carried only Maryland, a failure that contributed to
the movement’s decline.
Ku Klux Klan (p. 423) Founded as a social club in 1866 by a
handful of former Confederate soldiers in Tennessee, it became a
vigilante group that used violence and intimidation to drive
African Americans out of politics. The movement declined in the
late 1870s but resurfaced in the 1920s as a political organization
that opposed all groups—immigrant, religious, and racial—that
challenged Protestant white hegemony.
laissez-faire (p. 471) A French term—literally, “to let alone”—
used in economic contexts to signify the absence of governmental
interference in or regulation of economic matters.
League of Nations (p. 631) A worldwide assembly of nations,
proposed by President Woodrow Wilson, that was included in the
Treaty of Versailles ending World War I. The refusal of the United
States to join the League limited its effectiveness.
Lecompton constitution (p. 359) A proslavery constitution,
drafted in 1857 by delegates for Kansas territory, elected under
questionable circumstances, seeking admission to the United
States. It was rejected by two territorial governors, supported by
President Buchanan, and decisively defeated by Congress.
Leisler’s Rebellion (p. 74) An uprising in 1689, led by Jacob
Leisler, that wrested control of New York’s government following
the abdication of King James II. The rebellion ended when Leisler
was arrested and executed in 1690.system, sometimes fatally. HIV, which causesacquired
immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), first appeared in the
United States in the 1980s.
impressment (p. 187) The policy whereby Britain forced people
to serve in its navy. The impressment of sailors—even American
citizens—on neutral vessels during the Napoleonic Wars outraged
Americans and was a major cause of the War of 1812.
improvised explosive device (IED) (p. 867) Also known as
“roadside bombs,” IEDs are homemade bombs that usually con-
sist of captured artillery shells that are wired to a detonator. Either
they are exploded remotely or by suicide bombers. IEDs
accounted for over a third of the casualties sustained by American
and United Nations forces in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
indentured servants (p. 58) Individuals working under a form of
contract labor that provided them with free passage to America in
return for a promise to work for a fixed period, usually seven years.
Indentured servitude was the primary labor system in the
Chesapeake colonies for most of the seventeenth century.
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) (p. 559) A militant
labor organization, founded in 1905 and inspired by European
anarchists, that advocated “abolition of the wage system” and
called for a single union of all workers, regardless of trade or skill
level; it was repressed during and after World War I.
internment camps (p. 720) Detainment centers, mostly located
in western states, that held approximately 110,000 Japanese aliens
and American citizens of Japanese origin during World War II.
Interstate Commerce Act (p. 476) Federal law establishing the
Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887, the nation’s first regu-
latory agency.
Iran-Contra affair (p. 813) Scandal involving high officials in the
Reagan administration accused of funding the Contra rebels in
Nicaragua in violation of 1984 Congressional laws explicitly pro-
hibiting such aid. The Contra funding came from the secret sale of
arms to Iran.
Iranian hostage crisis (p. 803) Protracted crisis that began in
1979 when Islamic militants seized the American embassy in
Tehran, Iran, and held scores of its employees hostage. The mili-
tants had been enraged by American support for the deposed Shah
of Iran. The crisis, which lasted over a year, contributed to
President Jimmy Carter’s defeat in his reelection campaign in 1980.
isolationism (p. 586) A national policy that eschews foreign
alliances, such as was propounded by George Washington in his
“Farewell Address.” Isolationism was also embraced by part of
theMonroe Doctrineof 1823 and after the First World War,
when the United States refused to join the League of Nations
and sought to distance itself during the 1930s from the rumblings
of another world war. Isolationism ended as national policy when
Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Jacksonian democracy (p. 248) A political doctrine, chiefly asso-
ciated with Andrew Jackson, that proclaimed the equality of all
adult white males—the common man—and disapproved of any-
thing that smacked of special privilege, such as chartered banks.
Jay’s Treaty (p. 162) Named after John Jay, the American nego-
tiator, and ratified in 1795, this treaty eased tensions with Great
Britain. By its provisions Britain agreed to evacuate forts on the
United States’ side of the Great Lakes and submit questions of
neutral rights to arbitrators.
Glossary G5