Glossary

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

War Hawks: Members of the Twelfth Congress who promoted the war with Britain. They were usually young, nationalist, and from southern and western areas.

Whigs: The name of an obscure sect of Scottish religious extremists who favored the assassination of Charles and James of England. The term was used to denote one of the two leading political parties of late seventeenth-century England.

ward boss: The leader of the political "machine" in a particular ward of the city.

welfare capitalism: Designed to encourage employee loyalty to the firm and to the capitalist system. Provided increasing benefits and social and recreational activities for workers. Some companies offered stock options as rewards for loyal service. The original motive was fear of unions and the memory of the strikes of 1919. As the decade continued, programs reflected the confidence that capitalism had become humane.

wetbacks: Derogatory term for illegal Mexican immigrants because they supposedly swam across the Rio Grande to reach the United States.

whiskey ring: Network of distillers and revenue agents that cheated the government out of millions of tax dollars.

white flight: Movement of large numbers of white, middle-class families from older sections of cities to new, mostly white suburbs.

wolfpacks: German submarine groups that attacked enemy merchant ships or convoys.