A-58 ★ GLOSSARY
gold rush The massive migration of
Americans into California territory in the
late 1840s and 1850s in pursuit of gold,
which was discovered there in 1848.
gold standard Policy at various points
in American history by which the value
of a dollar is set at a fixed price in terms
of gold (in the post– World War II era, for
example, $35 per ounce of gold).
Good Neighbor Policy Policy proclaimed
by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his
first inaugural address in 1933 that sought
improved diplomatic relations between
the United States and its Latin American
neighbors.
gradual emancipation A series of acts
passed in state legislatures throughout
the North in the years following the
Revolution that freed slaves after they
reached a certain age, following lengthy
“apprenticeships.”
grandfather clause Loophole created by
southern disenfranchising legislatures of
the 1890s for illiterate white males whose
grandfathers had been eligible to vote
before the Civil War.
Great Awakening Fervent religious
revival movement in the 1720s through
the 1740s that was spread throughout the
colonies by ministers like New England
Congregationalist Jonathan Edwards and
English revivalist George Whitefield.
Great Depression Worst economic
depression in American history; it was
spurred by the stock market crash of 1929
and lasted until World War II.
Great League of Peace An alliance of the
Iroquois tribes, originally formed some-
time between 1450 and 1600, that used
their combined strength to pressure Euro-
peans to work with them in the fur trade
and to wage war across what is today east-
ern North America.
Great Migration Large- scale migration
of southern blacks during and after World
War I to the North, where jobs had becomeand established the Seventeenth Parallel
demarcation line that divided North and
South Vietnam.
“gentlemen of property and stand-
ing” Well- to- do merchants who often had
commercial ties to the South and resisted
abolitionism, occasionally inciting vio-
lence against its adherents.
Gettysburg, Battle of Battle fought in
southern Pennsylvania, July 1–3, 1863; the
Confederate defeat and the simultaneous
loss at Vicksburg marked the military
turning point of the Civil War.
Ghost Dance A spiritual and political
movement among Native Americans
whose followers performed a ceremonial
“ghost dance” intended to connect the liv-
ing with the dead and make the Indians
bulletproof in battles intended to restore
their homelands.
GI Bill of Rights The 1944 legislation
that provided money for education and
other benefits to military personnel
returning from World War II.
Gibbons v. Ogden 1824 U.S. Supreme
Court decision reinforcing the “com-
merce clause” (the federal government’s
right to regulate interstate commerce) of
the Constitution; Chief Justice John Mar-
shall ruled against the State of New York’s
granting of steamboat monopolies.
the Gilded Age The popular but
derogatory name for the period from the
end of the Civil War to the turn of the
century, after the title of the 1873 novel
by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley
Warner.
globalization Term that became prom-
inent in the 1990s to describe the rapid
acceleration of international flows of
commerce, financial resources, labor, and
cultural products.
Glorious Revolution A coup in 1688
engineered by a small group of aristocrats
that led to William of Orange taking the
British throne in place of James II.