stagflation (p. 801) A term coined in the 1970s to describe the
period’s economic downturn and simultaneous deflation in prices.
Stamp Act Congress (p. 102) A meeting in New York City of
delegates of most of the colonial assemblies in America to protest
the Stamp Act, a revenue measure passed by Parliament in 1765; it
was a precursor to the Continental Congress.
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) (p. 787) A treaty,
signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1972,
restricting the testing and deployment of nuclear ballistic missiles,
the first of several such treaties.
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) (p. 807) The concept of a
space-based missile defense system—popularly known as “Star
Wars,” after the movie by that name—proposed by President
Ronald Reagan in 1983. Controversial and costly, the concept was
never fully realized.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
(p. 769) A civil rights organization, founded in 1960, that drew
heavily on younger activists and college students. After 1965,
under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael and then H. Rap
Brown, the group advocated “Black Power.”
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) (p. 779) An organiza-
tion created by leftist college students in the early 1960s; it orga-
nized protests against racial bigotry, corporate exploitation of
workers, and, especially after 1965, the Vietnam war.
“surge” (p. 868) The sudden increase in troop strength that
appeared to have been used successfully against the Iraq insur-
gency in 2007. President Barack Obama similarly adopted a surge
in 2009 to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.
Taft-Hartley Act (p. 739) A 1947 federal law that outlawed the
closed shop and secondary boycotts and obliged union leaders to
sign affidavits declaring that they were not communists.
Tariff of Abominations (p. 216) An exceptionally high tariff,
passed in 1828, that provoked Vice President John C. Calhoun to
write the “South Carolina Exposition and Protest”—a defense of
the doctrine of nullification.
Teapot Dome scandal (p. 670) A scandal during the administra-
tion of Warren Harding in which the Secretary of the Interior,
Albert Fall, accepted bribes from oil companies that then leased
the Teapot Dome federal oil reserve in Wyoming.
Teller Amendment (p. 592) A rider to the 1898 war resolution
with Spain whereby Congress pledged that it did not intend to
annex Cuba and that it would recognize Cuban independence
from Spain.
temperance movement (p. 280) A reform movement of the nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries in which women and ministers
played a major role and that advocated moderation in the use of
alcoholic beverages, or, preferably, abstinence. The major organi-
zations included the American Temperance Society, the
Washingtonian movement, and the Women’s Christian
Temperance Union (WCTU).
Ten Percent Plan (p. 406) A measure drafted by President
Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to readmit states that had seceded once
10 percent of their prewar voters swore allegiance to the Union
and adopted state constitutions outlawing slavery.Shakers (p. 276) A religious commune founded by Ann Lee in
England that came to America in 1774. Shakers practiced celibacy,
believed that God was both Mother and Father, and held property
in common.
sharecropping (p. 420) A type of agriculture, frequently prac-
ticed in the South during and after Reconstruction, in which
landowners provided land, tools, housing, and seed to a farmer
who provided his labor; the resulting crop was divided between
them (i.e., shared).
Shays’s rebellion (p. 145) An armed rebellion of western
Massachusetts farmers in 1786 to prevent state courts from fore-
closing on debtors. Nationalists saw such unrest as proof of the
inadequacy of the federal government under the Articles of
Confederation.
Sherman Antitrust Act (p. 477) A federal law, passed in 1890,
that outlawed monopolistic organizations that functioned to
restrain trade.
Sherman Silver Purchase Act (p. 545) An 1890 law that obliged
the federal government to buy and coin silver, thereby counteract-
ing the deflationary tendencies of the economy at the time; its
repeal in 1894, following the Depression of 1893, caused a politi-
cal uproar.
social Darwinism (p. 472) A belief that Charles Darwin’s theory
of the evolution of species also applied to social and economic
institutions and practices: The “fittest” enterprises or individuals
prevailed, while those that were defective naturally faded away;
society thus progressed most surely when competition was unre-
stricted by government.
Social Gospel (p. 505) A doctrine preached by many urban
Protestant ministers during the early 1900s that focused on improv-
ing living conditions for the city’s poor rather than on saving souls;
proponents advocated civil service reform, child labor laws, govern-
ment regulation of big business, and a graduated income tax.
Social Security Act (p. 694) A component of Franklin Roosevelt’s
New Deal, it established in 1935 a system of old-age, unemploy-
ment, and survivors’ insurance funded by wage and payroll taxes.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) (p. 758) A
civil rights organization, founded in 1957 by Martin Luther King,
Jr. and his followers, that espoused Christian nonviolence but
organized mass protests to challenge segregation and discrimina-
tion; it played a major role in support of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Specie Circular (p. 260) An edict, issued by President Andrew
Jackson in 1836, obliging purchasers of public land to do so with
gold coins rather than the paper currency issued by state banks; it
caused the speculative boom in real estate to collapse and exacer-
bated a financial panic the following year.
spoils system (p. 251) A term, usually derisive, whereby newly
elected office-holders appoint loyal members of their own party to
public office.
Square Deal (p. 571) The phrase, initially employed by
President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, to describe an arbitrated
settlement between workers and an employer, but more generally
employed as a goal to promote fair business practices and to pun-
ish “bad” corporations that used their economic clout unfairly.
Glossary G9