Glossary

American Passages: A History of the United States, Brief, 1st Edition
Ayers, Gould, Oshinsky, Soderlund

ICBMs: Intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Inn of Courts: England's law schools.

Iroquois League: A group of five tribes centered around the Mohawk Valley who were very active in the fur trade. They first worked with the Dutch and then the English. They were especially successful in using adoption as a means of remaining strong.

ideology: that manual labor is degraded when it is equated with slavery or bondage.

impeach: To charge government officeholders with misconduct in office. In the case of the president, the House of Representatives brings the charges; the Senate serves much like a jury, and the members of the Supreme Court preside. The removal (impeachment) of a president requires a two-thirds vote by the Senate.

impeachment: The act of charging a public official with misconduct in office.

impressment: The removing of sailors from American ships by British naval officers. It was the most significant problem between Britain and the United States, leading to the War of 1812.

in loco parentis: In the place of a parent. Universities were considered to have the responsibility of parent over students while they were enrolled.

indentured servants: People who had their passage to America paid by a master or ship captain. They agreed to work for their master for a term of years in exchange for cost of passage, bed and board, and small freedom dues when their terms were up. The number of years served depended on the terms of the contract. Most early settlers in the English colonies outside of New England were indentured servants.

indigo: A blue dye obtained from plants that was used by the textile industry. The British government encouraged the commercial production of it in South Carolina.

industrial union: Offered membership to all workers in an industry, irrespective of skill.

initiative: A process (through general elections) that allowed reformers to put measures before voters even though state legislatures had not yet approved them.

inland relocation camps: Centers where 130,000 first- and second-generation Japanese Americans were confined in flimsy barracks enclosed by barbed wire under armed guard for the duration of the war.

insurgent: One who rebels against party leadership.

intendant: The office that administered the system of justice in New France.

interchangeable parts: An industrial technique using machine tools to cut and shape a large number of similar parts that can be fitted together with other parts to make an entire item, such as a gun.

internal: A nineteenth-century term for transportation facilities such improvements as roads, canals, and railroads.

internal taxes: Taxes that did not deal with overseas trade but were collected for revenue rather than the regulation of trade. Many colonial Americans thought that internal taxes could legally be imposed only by their elected provincial assemblies.

irreconcilables: A group of fourteen midwesterners and westerners who opposed the Treaty of Versailles in the Senate. Most of them were conservative isolationists who wanted to preserve American separation from Europe.

irregular war: A type of war using men who were not part of a permanent or professional regular military force. It also can apply to guerilla-type warfare, usually against the civilian population.

isolationism: A policy of avoiding or abstaining from economic or political relationships or alliances with other countries.

itinerant preachers: Ministers who traveled from place to place.