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U.S. History

Key Terms

U.S. HistoryKey Terms
City Beautiful
a movement begun by Daniel Burnham and Fredrick Law Olmsted, who believed that cities should be built with three core tenets in mind: the inclusion of parks within city limits, the creation of wide boulevards, and the expansion of more suburbs
graft
the financial kickback provided to city bosses in exchange for political favors
Great Migration
the name for the large wave of African Americans who left the South after the Civil War, mostly moving to cities in the Northeast and Upper Midwest
instrumentalism
a theory promoted by John Dewey, who believed that education was key to the search for the truth about ideals and institutions
machine politics
the process by which citizens of a city used their local ward alderman to work the “machine” of local politics to meet local needs within a neighborhood
naturalism
a theory of realism that states that the laws of nature and the natural world were the only relevant laws governing humanity
pragmatism
a doctrine supported by philosopher William James, which held that Americans needed to experiment and find the truth behind underlying institutions, religions, and ideas in American life, rather than accepting them on faith
realism
a collection of theories and ideas that sought to understand the underlying changes in the United States during the late nineteenth century
settlement house movement
an early progressive reform movement, largely spearheaded by women, which sought to offer services such as childcare and free healthcare to help the working poor
social gospel
the belief that the church should be as concerned about the conditions of people in the secular world as it was with their afterlife
Social Register
a de facto directory of the wealthy socialites in each city, first published by Louis Keller in 1886
Tammany Hall
a political machine in New York, run by machine boss William Tweed with assistance from George Washington Plunkitt
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