Entering into the 21st Century (1980–present): every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
137 flashcard terms for AP U.S. History Unit 9, written to match the course framework. Read them here, drill them as flashcards, or take the 53-question quiz. Free, no account needed.
By 1980, backlash against 1960s liberalism, economic malaise, and a mobilized religious right converged in a movement that put Reagan in the White House.
New Right Coalition
Free-market economics, anticommunism, and social traditionalism — business conservatives, Cold Warriors, and evangelicals united against liberalism.
Moral Majority (1979)
Jerry Falwell's organization mobilized evangelical voters around abortion, school prayer, and 'family values' — religion as electoral force.
Sun Belt Power
Population and money shifting South and West gave conservatism its demographic base — and shifted electoral votes for decades.
Ronald Reagan
The 'Great Communicator' (1981–89): optimistic, ideological, and transformative — 'government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.'
Reaganomics
Supply-side economics: deep tax cuts (top rate 70%→28%), deregulation, and domestic spending restraint to unleash growth — with soaring deficits as the bill.
Supply-Side Theory
Cutting taxes would spur investment and growth enough to (in theory) pay for itself — critics called it 'trickle-down' and 'voodoo economics.'
PATCO Strike (1981)
Reagan fired 11,000 striking air-traffic controllers — a signal moment in organized labor's long decline.
Volcker Disinflation
The Fed's brutal interest rates broke 1970s inflation at the cost of the deep 1981–82 recession — then recovery fueled 'Morning in America' (1984).
Deficits & National Debt
Tax cuts plus a defense buildup tripled the national debt in the 1980s — deficit politics became a permanent fixture.
Deregulation
Airlines, trucking, finance, and broadcasting loosened — innovation and lower prices for some; the S&L collapse and later financial crises for others.
AIDS Crisis
The epidemic devastated gay communities amid government slowness; ACT UP's activism transformed public health politics.
War on Drugs & Mass Incarceration
Crack-era crackdowns, mandatory minimums, and 'tough on crime' politics quintupled the prison population, falling hardest on Black communities.
Reagan Doctrine
Support anticommunist insurgencies worldwide — Afghan mujahideen, Nicaraguan Contras — rolling back rather than merely containing.
Defense Buildup & SDI
Massive military spending and the 'Star Wars' missile-defense proposal pressured the strained Soviet economy.
'Evil Empire' to Geneva
Reagan's rhetoric hardened the Cold War — then he pivoted to negotiate with Gorbachev once reform began.
Iran-Contra Affair (1986–87)
Officials secretly sold arms to Iran and diverted profits to the Contras, defying Congress — the era's gravest scandal.
Gorbachev, Glasnost & Perestroika
Soviet reform unraveled the system; Reagan and Gorbachev's summits produced the INF Treaty (1987) — 'Tear down this wall!'
Eastern Europe's peaceful revolutions toppled communism; the wall's opening symbolized the Cold War's end.
Soviet Collapse (1991)
The USSR dissolved into fifteen states — leaving the U.S. the sole superpower and the Cold War's framework gone.
Why the Cold War Ended
Debated: Reagan's pressure, Gorbachev's choices, Soviet economic rot, and Eastern European peoples' courage — strong essays weigh all four.
Persian Gulf War (1991)
After Iraq swallowed Kuwait, a U.S.-led coalition won a 100-hour ground war — the post-Cold War 'new world order's' first test.
Bill Clinton & the 'Third Way'
Clinton (1993–2001) moved Democrats to the center: NAFTA, welfare reform, balanced budgets, and 'the era of big government is over.'
NAFTA (1993)
Free trade with Canada and Mexico — emblem of globalization's promise (growth, cheap goods) and pain (manufacturing job losses).
1994 Republican Revolution
Gingrich's 'Contract with America' won Congress for the GOP for the first time in forty years — polarization's acceleration.
Welfare Reform (1996)
Ended AFDC's entitlement, adding work requirements and time limits — Clinton's centrist triangulation in action.
Clinton Impeachment (1998–99)
Impeached over lies about the Lewinsky affair; acquitted by the Senate — partisan warfare in full.
Tech Boom & the Internet
The 1990s' digital revolution — PCs, the web, dot-coms — drove the era's prosperity and remade communication, commerce, and culture.
Globalization Debate
Trade, outsourcing, and capital flows integrated the world economy — raising growth and inequality alike; Seattle's 1999 WTO protests marked the backlash.
Immigration Since 1965
Post-1965 flows from Latin America and Asia made America more diverse than ever — and immigration politics a permanent battleground.
Election of 2000
Bush v. Gore: a 537-vote Florida margin and a 5–4 Supreme Court decision ended the recount — Bush won the presidency while losing the popular vote.
September 11, 2001
Al-Qaeda's hijacked-plane attacks killed nearly 3,000 at the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and Flight 93 — transforming American policy and psyche.
War on Terror
The global campaign against terrorism: Afghanistan invaded (2001), the Department of Homeland Security, and a new security state.
USA PATRIOT Act (2001)
Expanded surveillance and detention powers — reviving the liberty-versus-security debate from the Alien and Sedition Acts onward.
Afghanistan War (2001–2021)
Toppling the Taliban gave way to twenty years of nation-building; America's longest war ended in withdrawal and Taliban return.
Iraq War (2003–2011)
Launched on claims of weapons of mass destruction never found; Saddam fell fast, but insurgency and sectarian war consumed the occupation.
The flooding of New Orleans and the botched response exposed poverty, race, and governmental failure — breaking Bush's second term.
Financial Crisis of 2008
A housing bubble built on subprime mortgages and exotic securities collapsed — Lehman fell, credit froze, and the Great Recession began.
TARP & Bailouts
The $700B rescue of banks (and autos) stabilized finance while igniting populist anger left (Occupy) and right (Tea Party).
Barack Obama
The first Black president (2009–17): stimulus, the ACA, Dodd-Frank, marriage equality's triumph — governing amid crisis and obstruction.
Affordable Care Act (2010)
Near-universal coverage via exchanges, subsidies, and Medicaid expansion — the largest social legislation since the Great Society, and as contested.
Tea Party & Polarization
Anti-tax, anti-Obama populism swept the 2010 midterms — the parties pulling apart in geography, media, and identity.
Culture Wars
Abortion, guns, religion, marriage, and schools — recurring value conflicts organizing politics since the 1970s.
Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)
The Court recognized same-sex marriage nationwide — capping a stunningly rapid civil-rights transformation.
Black Lives Matter
Movement against police violence and systemic racism, from Ferguson (2014) to the George Floyd protests (2020) — the largest in U.S. history.
Donald Trump
The 2016 populist upset: 'America First' nationalism, tax cuts, tariffs, three justices — and two impeachments — in a presidency of permanent controversy.
COVID-19 Pandemic (2020)
Over a million American deaths, lockdowns and remote life, vaccine triumph and division — a stress test of state and society.
January 6, 2021
A mob stormed the Capitol to overturn the 2020 election — democracy's institutions held, at a cost still being reckoned.
Digital Age & Social Media
Smartphones and platforms transformed information, community, and politics — connection and polarization from the same source.
Climate Change Politics
From Kyoto to Paris to the IRA (2022), warming became a central — and polarized — policy battleground.
Demographic Transformation
An aging, diversifying America — no racial majority among children by the 2020s — reshaping culture and both parties' coalitions.
Deindustrialization & Inequality
Manufacturing's long decline and the knowledge economy's rise widened regional and class divides — the political economy beneath populism.
America's Role Debated
Post-Cold War primacy, post-9/11 intervention, and rising China frame the era's question: what is America's place in the world?
Sandra Day O'Connor (1981)
Reagan's appointee — the first woman on the Supreme Court, long its pivotal swing vote.
UN coalition expelled Iraq from Kuwait; showcased post-Cold War US primacy and Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force.
NAFTA (1994)
US-Canada-Mexico free-trade zone; praised for growth, blamed for manufacturing job losses in the Rust Belt.
Contract with America (1994)
Gingrich's platform that produced the first Republican House majority in 40 years.
Welfare Reform (1996)
Clinton signed PRWORA, replacing AFDC with time-limited TANF — 'ending welfare as we know it.'
Bush v. Gore (2000)
The Court halted the Florida recount, effectively deciding the presidency.
USA PATRIOT Act (2001)
Expanded surveillance and detention powers after 9/11; sparked civil-liberties debates.
Bush Doctrine
Preemptive war and democracy promotion, used to justify the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Great Recession (2007-09)
Housing bubble collapse and financial crisis; TARP, stimulus, and Dodd-Frank followed.
Affordable Care Act (2010)
Individual mandate, insurance exchanges, and Medicaid expansion; upheld in NFIB v. Sebelius under the taxing power.
Citizens United (2010)
Struck down limits on independent political spending by corporations and unions as protected speech.
Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)
Recognized a constitutional right to same-sex marriage nationwide.
Savings and Loan Crisis
Deregulated thrifts made risky loans and failed by the hundreds, requiring a taxpayer bailout of roughly $124 billion by the early 1990s.
Moral Majority
Jerry Falwell's organization mobilized evangelical voters around abortion, school prayer, and family issues, converting religious networks into electoral infrastructure.
Supply-Side Economics
The claim that cutting marginal tax rates would spur enough growth to raise revenue; deficits tripled the national debt during the 1980s, though inflation fell sharply.
Tea Party Movement
A grassroots conservative reaction after 2009 to bailouts, deficits, and health care reform that reshaped Republican primaries and congressional strategy.
Telecommunications Act of 1996
Loosened ownership limits and opened markets, accelerating media consolidation and the buildout of mobile and internet infrastructure.
AIDS Crisis and ACT UP
Slow federal response to the epidemic spurred activist groups to demand research funding and faster drug approval, reshaping both public health policy and gay political organizing.
Rust Belt Deindustrialization
Automation, foreign competition, and offshoring hollowed out midwestern manufacturing, weakening unions and reorienting regional politics.
Gorbachev's openness and restructuring loosened controls that ultimately allowed Eastern European revolutions in 1989 and the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991.
Nine-Eleven Commission
A bipartisan inquiry into the 2001 attacks whose findings drove intelligence reorganization and creation of a director of national intelligence.
Rodney King Verdict and 1992 Los Angeles Unrest
Acquittal of officers filmed beating a Black motorist sparked days of unrest, exposing unresolved tensions over policing, poverty, and race in American cities.
Information Technology Revolution
Personal computers, the commercial internet, and later mobile devices raised productivity, created new industries, and disrupted retail, media, and privacy expectations.
Clinton Impeachment (1998-99)
The House impeached Clinton for perjury and obstruction and the Senate acquitted, illustrating the intensity of partisan conflict in a period of prosperity.
Department of Homeland Security
The largest federal reorganization since 1947 consolidated 22 agencies after September 11, embedding counterterrorism in domestic governance.
Guantanamo and Detainee Litigation
Cases such as Hamdi and Boumediene limited executive claims to detain without review, testing the balance of security and due process.
Housing Bubble and Subprime Lending
Loose credit, securitization of risky mortgages, and inadequate regulation produced a collapse whose fallout reached the entire global financial system.
Dodd-Frank Act (2010)
Financial regulation creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and stress tests for large banks, later partially rolled back in 2018.
Immigration Debate Since 1986
The 1986 amnesty combined with employer sanctions did not resolve the issue; border enforcement, DACA, and legalization proposals remained contested for decades.
Political Polarization
Sorted parties, gerrymandering, fragmented media, and nationalized elections produced fewer swing districts and sharper partisan division from the 1990s onward.