Woods, Thomas E. 33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask. Random House, 2007.
SAT Vocabulary Words
Denounce: publicly declare to be wrong or evil.
"But to some critics, the bathtub was a dangerous luxury that would undermine the republican simplicity of American society. The medical profession even denounced it as a health hazard." (p. 2)
Banal: so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring.
"What the actual history of the bathtub may be I don't know.... Digging it out would be a dreadful job, and the result, after all that labor, would probably be a string of banalities." (p. 2)
Burlesque: an absurd or comically exaggerated imitation of something, especially in a literary or dramatic work; a parody.
"That the article was a hoax - 'a burlesque history of the bathtub,' Menken later it, should have been clear enough from the beginning, he thought." (p. 2)
Myth: traditional stories or legends collectively.
Platitude: a remark or statement, especially one with a moral content, that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful.
"The longevity of certain historical myths, and the slogans and platitudes used to support them, still manage to surprise me." (p. 3)
Shyster: a person, especially a lawyer, who uses unscrupulous, fraudulent, or deceptive methods in business.
"The less real history we know, the more susceptible we become to manipulation by shysters." (p. 3)
Comity: the mutual recognition by nations of the laws and customs of others.
"The United States consisted essentially of people whose religious and cultural traits were broadly similar and compatible, rather than widely divergent and a potential threat to social comity." (p. 9)
Chic: elegantly and stylishly fashionable.
"No matter how chic they remain in some quarters even today, socialism and interventionism lead to impoverishment and - as studies of the economic freedom of the countries of the world have shown time and again - worsen the lot of the poor." (p. 15)
Afoul: into conflict or difficulty with.
"running afoul of a large stone" (p. 19)
Reproach: censure or rebuke (an offense).
Reanimate: restore to life or consciousness; revive.
"The Cherokees did not reproach themselves for this, since they believed that deer felled in a hunt would be reanimated." (p. 19)
Putative: generally considered or reputed to be.
"Not especially flattered at being pressed into the service of white men's ideologies, Indian tribes have not always welcomed this putative alliance with environmentalists and other activists." (p. 22)
Weir: an enclosure of stakes set in a stream as a trap for fish.
"When the Indians had obtained enough fish they would remove the weirs from the river" (p. 23)
Quasi: seemingly; apparently but not really.
"a quasi-spiritual reverence for the things of nature" (p. 24)
Venal: showing or motivated by susceptibility to bribery.
"Jefferson once wrote, 'When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.' " (p. 26)
Impertinent: not showing proper respect; rude.
"scholars impertinent enough to mention nullification today" (p. 27)
Vis-à-vis: as compared with; as opposed to.
"Human nature being what it is, the federal government will tend to expand its own power vis-à-vis those of the states as it hands down rulings in favor of itself." (p. 28)
Depredation: an act of attacking or plundering.
"in respose to British and French depredations against American neutral rights on the seas" (p. 28)
Beg to differ: politely disagree.
"The Massachusetts legislature begged to differ." (p. 29)
Remonstrance: a forcefully reproachful protest.
Reporachful: expressing disapproval or disappointment.
"no longer a subject for the deliberation or remonstrance of the citizen" (p. 29)
Affidavit: a written statement confirmed by oath or affirmation, for use as evidence in court.
"The owner had to state in an affidavit that the slave in question had escaped" (p. 33)
Remand: place (a defendant) on bail or in custody, especially when a trial is adjourned.
"the accused was in effect remanded to slavery" (p. 33)
Pecuniary: relating to or consisting of money.
"To give the commissioner a pecuniary interest in the outcome of a hearing over which he presides and in which he must make findings of fact... is a violation of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment." (p. 33)
Antebellum: occurring or existing before a particular war, especially the American Civil War.
"antebellum America" (p. 35)
Polyglot: a person who knows and is able to use several languages.
"This amazing polyglot of men seeking rapid wealth, and with virtually no intention of building a lasting society, created a set of customary legal institutions which not only flourished in California but successfully adapted to conditions across the West." (p. 50)
Alcalde: a magistrate or mayor in a Spanish, Portuguese, or Latin American town.
"The miners settled disputes either through a district-wide meeting or by an elected jury of alcade. The alcalde kept his position only so long as the miners accepted his ruling as just." (p. 50)
Particularism: exclusive attachment to one's own group, party, or nation.
"particularism, state rights, limited government" (p. 55)
Watershed: an event or period marking a turning point in a course of action or state of affairs.
"If the Spanish-American war was a turning point, World War I was a great watershed." (p. 55)
Belligerent: a nation or person engaged in war or conflict, as recognized by international law.
"Wison believed that if the United States became a belligerent, the American president would be assured a seat at the peace table when the fighting was over." (p. 56)
Sordid: involving ignoble actions and motives; arousing moral distaste and contempt.
"[The progressive clergy] transported the war out of the sordid but understandable realm of national ambition, rivalry, and interests - where policies and goalscan be debated and defined - into the rarified world of ideals, abstractions, and politicized theology, where disent and limitations are moral failures or even heresies." (p. 56)
Meliorism: the belief that the world can be made better by human effort.
Ideological: based on or relating to a system of ideas and ideals, especially concerning economic or political theory and policy.
"global meliorism, an ideological model of global uplift based on American cultural, economic, and political models" (p. 58)
Wry: using or expressing dry, especially mocking, humor.
"some on the Right have observed wryly that the political Left is willing to use military force, just so long as no discernible American interest is at stake" (p. 59)
Armistice: an agreement made by opposing sides in a war to stop fighting for a certain time; a truce.
"Marshal Foch said of the Treaty of Versailles, 'This is not peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.' " (p. 60)
Hypochondria: abnormal anxiety about one's health, especially with an unwarranted fear that one has a serious disease.
"the emotional hypochondria that so often besets the 'civil rights' establishment" (p. 74)
Moribund: (of a thing) in terminal decline; lacking vitality or vigor.
"The fact that emancipation overwhelmed such entrenched plantation economies as Cuba and Brazil suggests that slavery was politically moribund anyway." (p. 76)
Chattel: an item of property other than real estate.
Peculiar institution: used in the 19th century to refer to the system of slavery in the southern states of the US.
"With chattels fleeing across the border and raising slavery enforcement's costs, the peculiar institution's destruction within an independent cotton South was inevitable." (p. 76)
Hegemony: leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others.
"Instead of experiencing the hegemony of a universal empire... Europe evolved into a mosaic of kingdoms, principalities, city-states, ecclesiastical domauins, and other entitites." (p. 77)
Contingent: a body of troops or police sent to join a larger force in an operation.
Barbarous: primitive; uncivilized.
"landings of small naval contingents on barbarous or semi-barbarous coasts" (p. 92)
Ebullient: cheerful and full of energy.
"earned the praise of the ebullient Theodore Roosevelt" (p. 115)
Effusive: expressing feelings of gratitude, pleasure, or approval in an unrestrained or heartfelt manner.
Perfunctory: (of an action or gesture) carried out with a minimum of effort or reflection.
"Carver himself must share responsibility for the myth since he never really challenged even the most effusive praise of his work, except perhaps in the form of disclaimers that sounded more like perfunctory modesty." (p. 117)
Edifying: providing moral or intellectual instruction.
"Where does the Constitution authorize this? [T]he answer is rarely edifying." (p. 120)
Estate: all the money and property owned by a particular person, especially at death.
"[The king] was expected ti cover his expenses out of the revenues of his own estates, and anything beyond that required the consent of the various orders of society." (p. 122)
Immemorial: originating in the distant past; very old.
"immemorial custom" (p. 123)
Ipso facto: by that very fact or act.
Positivism: the theory that laws are to be understood as social rules, valid because they are enacted by authority or derive logically from existing decisions, and that ideal or moral considerations (e.g., that a rule is unjust) should not limit the scope or operation of the law.
"a measure was ipso facto constitutional because Parliament approved it. This is legal positivism" (p. 123)
Promulgate: put (a law or decree) into effect by official proclamation.
"a duly promulgated legislative act" (p. 123)
Viz: namely; in other words (used especially to introduce a gloss or explanation).
Gloss: an explanation, interpretation, or paraphrase.
"There must be in every instance a higher authority, viz. GOD." (p. 123)
Contraband: goods that have been imported or exported illegally.
"gave British officials sweeping rights to search businesses and even private homes for contraband" (p. 124)
Disingenuous: not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does.
"The British had argued, perhaps disingenuously, that the colonists could have no objection to these tariffs, since Americans had accepted British tariffs in the past without protest (even if they were often evaded in practice)." (p. 125)
Excoriate: censure or criticize severely.
"Liberals who excoriate President George W. Bush for his exercise of executive power were often silent or positively enthusiastic when Bill Clinton acted similarly." (p. 134)
Yore: of long ago or former times (used in nostalgic or mock-nostalgic recollection).
Overwrought: (of a piece of writing or a work of art) too elaborate or complicated in design or construction.
"In case comparing the president to the kings of yore seems overwrought, Nisbet invites us to consider the nature of the official iconography, ceremony, and architecture that have come to surround the American presidency." (p. 135)
Tribune: a popular leader; a champion of the people.
Immediate: (of a relation or action) without an intervening medium or agency; direct.
"In a way that Washington and Lincoln had not done, and even Jackson avoided, [Theodore Roosevelt] became a very visible tribune of the people, a popular advocate whose personality seemed immediate, direct, and committed to their personal service." (p. 137)
Anthracite: coal of a hard variety that contains relatively pure carbon and burns with little flame and smoke.
"settling the anthracite coal strike" (p. 141)
Victimology: the possession of an outlook, arising from real or imagined victimization, that seems to glorify and indulge the state of being a victim.
Pantheon: all the gods of a people or religion collectively.
"these calls for 'diversity' referred only to those groups taht had a place on the Left's victimologocial pantheon" (p. 146)
Kangaroo court: an unofficial court held by a group of people in order to try someone regarded, especially without good evidence, as guilty of a crime or misdemeanor.
"Terrified of the kangaroo proceeding that is all too typical in discrimination cases, Denny's settled." (p. 152)
Specie: money in the form of coins rather than notes.
"In the remote frontier, whiskey usually had to substitute for specie as a medium of exchange." (p. 161)
Excise: a tax levied on certain goods and commodities produced or sold within a country and on licenses granted for certain activities.
"Americans had argued against excise taxes on philosophical grounds since the Stamp Act of 1765." (p. 161)
Alleged: (of an incident or a person) said, without proof, to have taken place or to have a specified illegal or undesirable quality.
"harmed the very people it was allegedly intended to help" (p. 172)
Stooge: a person who serves merely to support or assist others, particularly in doing unpleasant work.
"the popular rendition of these events continues to portray Hoover as the laissez-faire stooge who could have helped people during a time of great deprivation but callously allowed them to suffer" (p. 180)
Discommode: cause (someone) trouble or inconvenience.
"businessmen at the time 'were all too prone to regard as "unfair competition" almost any kind of active competition that discommoded them, particularly if it related to price" (p. 182)
Scholasticism: the system of theology and philosophy taught in medieval European universities, based on Aristotelian logic and the writings of the early Church Fathers and having a strong emphasis on tradition and dogma.
Guild: a medieval association of craftsmen or merchants, often having considerable power.
Apropos: very appropriate to a particular situation.
Contrivance: a thing that is created skillfully and inventively to serve a particular purpose.
"The medieval Scholastics criticized the guilds of their day for doing exactly this; now the same mentality had overtaken the American business community. Adam Smith's observation in the eighteenth century is apropos: 'People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." (p. 183)
Historiography: the study of historical writing.
"dean of the president-as-demigod school of historiography" (p. 190)
Collusion: secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy, especially in order to cheat or deceive others.
"the joint policies of increasing labor's bargaining power and linking collusion with paying high wages prevented a normal recovery" (p. 192)
Auspice: a divine or prophetic token.
"a meeting of more than one hundred business executives and financial experts in New York, under the auspices of the American Management Association, submitted a report to Roosevelt" (p. 195)
Fateful: having far-reaching and typically disastrous consequences or implications.
"Chief Justice John Marshall put a fateful stamp on the commerce clause" (p. 200)
Plenary: unqualified; absolute.
"If the clause really did bestow plenary spending power upon the new government, what was the purpose of including specific grants of power to 'establish Post Offices and Post Roads,' 'constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court,' or 'purchase dock=Yards, and other needful Building'? " (p. 206)
Nugatory: of no value or importance.
"So expansive an interpretation of that clause would render 'the special and careful enumeration of powers which follow the clause nugatory and improper' " (p. 207)
Solicitor general: the law officer directly below the attorney general in the US Department of Justice, responsible for arguing cases before the US Supreme Court.
"In the 1990's Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia asked Bill Clinton's solicitor general if he could name a single activity on which the Congress might choose to legislate that in his view would go beyond its legitimate powers under the Constitution. He could not." (p. 209)
Libel: a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation; a written defamation.
"false, malicious, seditious and scandalous libel" (p. 217)
Endemic: (of a disease or condition) regularly found among particular people or in a certain area.
"Corruption became endemic." (p. 223)
Fief: an estate of land, especially one held on condition of feudal service.
Clan: a group of close-knit and interrelated families (especially associated with families in the Scottish Highlands).
"government has been seen as the personal fiefdom a leader uses to accumulate wealth for himself, his family, his clan" (p. 225)
Huzzah: used to express approval or delight; hurrah.
"Instead of the global huzzahs it expected, the White House heard only crickets." (p. 230)
Injunction: a judicial order that restrains a person from beginning or continuing an action threatening or invading the legal right of another, or that compels a person to carry out a certain act, e.g., to make restitution to an injured party.
"In addition to exempting labor unions from prosecution under the Sherman Antitrust Act, the act alsol prohibited the federal courts from issuing injunctions against labor unions in some cases and seriously crippled their ability to do so in others." (p. 235)
Enjoin: prohibit someone from performing (a particular action) by issuing an injunction.
"Once violence-ridden strikes were enjoined for a few days, they were difficult to revive, reorganize, and rekindle." (p. 235)
Reprisal: an act of retaliation.
"no threat of reprisal" (p. 238)
Brickbat: a piece of brick, typically when used as a weapon.
"beatings, stabbings, thretening of nonstrikers' families, destruction of property, blockng entrances to struck firms with broken glass and nails, and hurling brickbats" (p. 239)
Hoary: old and trite.
Trite: (of a remark, opinion, or idea) overused and consequently of little import; lacking originality or freshness.
"hoary myth" (p. 241)
Monopsonist: a market situation in which there is only one buyer.
Oligopsony: a state of the market in which only a small number of buyers exists for a product.
"If employer A is a monopsonist, the worker has little bargaining power. If the worker has several employment alternatives, he has strong bargaining power. There may have been instances of monopsony or oligopsony in the nineteenth century, but they were short-lived." (p. 241)
Lurid: (of a description) presented in vividly shocking or sensational terms, especially giving explicit details of crimes or sexual matters.
"The lurid claims of war supporters typically proved unfounded." (p. 255)
Bandy: pass on or discuss (an idea or rumor) in a casual or uninformed way.
"the fantastic figures once bandied about" (p. 256)
Diabolical: belonging to or so evil as to recall the Devil.
Retribution: punishment inflicted on someone as vengeance for a wrong or criminal act.
"an act of diabolical retribution" (p. 257)
Peacenik: a member of a pacifist movement.
"You can't expect Western peaceniks to protest against a war they themselves are waging." (p. 258)
Pogrom: an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group, in particular that of Jews in Russia or eastern Europe.
"What is happening in Kosovo must unfortunately be described as a pogrom against Serbs: churches are on fire and people are being attacked for no other reason than their ethnic background." (p. 259)
Fait accompli: a thing that has already happened or been decided before those affected hear about it, leaving them with no option but to accept.
"Some in the Kosovo Albanian leadership believe that by cleansing all remaining Serbs from the area... and destroying Serbian cultural sites, they can present the international community with a fait accompli." (p. 259)
Racket: an illegal or dishonest scheme for obtaining money.
"You almost have to give the architects of this system credit for the cleverness of the racket they have going: the same group of people who hold a monopoly on the power to tax and the power to initiate force also wield and effective monopoly to educate fugure generations of Americans." (p. 262)
"But to some critics, the bathtub was a dangerous luxury that would undermine the republican simplicity of American society. The medical profession even denounced it as a health hazard." (p. 2)
Banal: so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring.
"What the actual history of the bathtub may be I don't know.... Digging it out would be a dreadful job, and the result, after all that labor, would probably be a string of banalities." (p. 2)
Burlesque: an absurd or comically exaggerated imitation of something, especially in a literary or dramatic work; a parody.
"That the article was a hoax - 'a burlesque history of the bathtub,' Menken later it, should have been clear enough from the beginning, he thought." (p. 2)
Myth: traditional stories or legends collectively.
Platitude: a remark or statement, especially one with a moral content, that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful.
"The longevity of certain historical myths, and the slogans and platitudes used to support them, still manage to surprise me." (p. 3)
Shyster: a person, especially a lawyer, who uses unscrupulous, fraudulent, or deceptive methods in business.
"The less real history we know, the more susceptible we become to manipulation by shysters." (p. 3)
Comity: the mutual recognition by nations of the laws and customs of others.
"The United States consisted essentially of people whose religious and cultural traits were broadly similar and compatible, rather than widely divergent and a potential threat to social comity." (p. 9)
Chic: elegantly and stylishly fashionable.
"No matter how chic they remain in some quarters even today, socialism and interventionism lead to impoverishment and - as studies of the economic freedom of the countries of the world have shown time and again - worsen the lot of the poor." (p. 15)
Afoul: into conflict or difficulty with.
"running afoul of a large stone" (p. 19)
Reproach: censure or rebuke (an offense).
Reanimate: restore to life or consciousness; revive.
"The Cherokees did not reproach themselves for this, since they believed that deer felled in a hunt would be reanimated." (p. 19)
Putative: generally considered or reputed to be.
"Not especially flattered at being pressed into the service of white men's ideologies, Indian tribes have not always welcomed this putative alliance with environmentalists and other activists." (p. 22)
Weir: an enclosure of stakes set in a stream as a trap for fish.
"When the Indians had obtained enough fish they would remove the weirs from the river" (p. 23)
Quasi: seemingly; apparently but not really.
"a quasi-spiritual reverence for the things of nature" (p. 24)
Venal: showing or motivated by susceptibility to bribery.
"Jefferson once wrote, 'When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.' " (p. 26)
Impertinent: not showing proper respect; rude.
"scholars impertinent enough to mention nullification today" (p. 27)
Vis-à-vis: as compared with; as opposed to.
"Human nature being what it is, the federal government will tend to expand its own power vis-à-vis those of the states as it hands down rulings in favor of itself." (p. 28)
Depredation: an act of attacking or plundering.
"in respose to British and French depredations against American neutral rights on the seas" (p. 28)
Beg to differ: politely disagree.
"The Massachusetts legislature begged to differ." (p. 29)
Remonstrance: a forcefully reproachful protest.
Reporachful: expressing disapproval or disappointment.
"no longer a subject for the deliberation or remonstrance of the citizen" (p. 29)
Affidavit: a written statement confirmed by oath or affirmation, for use as evidence in court.
"The owner had to state in an affidavit that the slave in question had escaped" (p. 33)
Remand: place (a defendant) on bail or in custody, especially when a trial is adjourned.
"the accused was in effect remanded to slavery" (p. 33)
Pecuniary: relating to or consisting of money.
"To give the commissioner a pecuniary interest in the outcome of a hearing over which he presides and in which he must make findings of fact... is a violation of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment." (p. 33)
Antebellum: occurring or existing before a particular war, especially the American Civil War.
"antebellum America" (p. 35)
Polyglot: a person who knows and is able to use several languages.
"This amazing polyglot of men seeking rapid wealth, and with virtually no intention of building a lasting society, created a set of customary legal institutions which not only flourished in California but successfully adapted to conditions across the West." (p. 50)
Alcalde: a magistrate or mayor in a Spanish, Portuguese, or Latin American town.
"The miners settled disputes either through a district-wide meeting or by an elected jury of alcade. The alcalde kept his position only so long as the miners accepted his ruling as just." (p. 50)
Particularism: exclusive attachment to one's own group, party, or nation.
"particularism, state rights, limited government" (p. 55)
Watershed: an event or period marking a turning point in a course of action or state of affairs.
"If the Spanish-American war was a turning point, World War I was a great watershed." (p. 55)
Belligerent: a nation or person engaged in war or conflict, as recognized by international law.
"Wison believed that if the United States became a belligerent, the American president would be assured a seat at the peace table when the fighting was over." (p. 56)
Sordid: involving ignoble actions and motives; arousing moral distaste and contempt.
"[The progressive clergy] transported the war out of the sordid but understandable realm of national ambition, rivalry, and interests - where policies and goalscan be debated and defined - into the rarified world of ideals, abstractions, and politicized theology, where disent and limitations are moral failures or even heresies." (p. 56)
Meliorism: the belief that the world can be made better by human effort.
Ideological: based on or relating to a system of ideas and ideals, especially concerning economic or political theory and policy.
"global meliorism, an ideological model of global uplift based on American cultural, economic, and political models" (p. 58)
Wry: using or expressing dry, especially mocking, humor.
"some on the Right have observed wryly that the political Left is willing to use military force, just so long as no discernible American interest is at stake" (p. 59)
Armistice: an agreement made by opposing sides in a war to stop fighting for a certain time; a truce.
"Marshal Foch said of the Treaty of Versailles, 'This is not peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.' " (p. 60)
Hypochondria: abnormal anxiety about one's health, especially with an unwarranted fear that one has a serious disease.
"the emotional hypochondria that so often besets the 'civil rights' establishment" (p. 74)
Moribund: (of a thing) in terminal decline; lacking vitality or vigor.
"The fact that emancipation overwhelmed such entrenched plantation economies as Cuba and Brazil suggests that slavery was politically moribund anyway." (p. 76)
Chattel: an item of property other than real estate.
Peculiar institution: used in the 19th century to refer to the system of slavery in the southern states of the US.
"With chattels fleeing across the border and raising slavery enforcement's costs, the peculiar institution's destruction within an independent cotton South was inevitable." (p. 76)
Hegemony: leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others.
"Instead of experiencing the hegemony of a universal empire... Europe evolved into a mosaic of kingdoms, principalities, city-states, ecclesiastical domauins, and other entitites." (p. 77)
Contingent: a body of troops or police sent to join a larger force in an operation.
Barbarous: primitive; uncivilized.
"landings of small naval contingents on barbarous or semi-barbarous coasts" (p. 92)
Ebullient: cheerful and full of energy.
"earned the praise of the ebullient Theodore Roosevelt" (p. 115)
Effusive: expressing feelings of gratitude, pleasure, or approval in an unrestrained or heartfelt manner.
Perfunctory: (of an action or gesture) carried out with a minimum of effort or reflection.
"Carver himself must share responsibility for the myth since he never really challenged even the most effusive praise of his work, except perhaps in the form of disclaimers that sounded more like perfunctory modesty." (p. 117)
Edifying: providing moral or intellectual instruction.
"Where does the Constitution authorize this? [T]he answer is rarely edifying." (p. 120)
Estate: all the money and property owned by a particular person, especially at death.
"[The king] was expected ti cover his expenses out of the revenues of his own estates, and anything beyond that required the consent of the various orders of society." (p. 122)
Immemorial: originating in the distant past; very old.
"immemorial custom" (p. 123)
Ipso facto: by that very fact or act.
Positivism: the theory that laws are to be understood as social rules, valid because they are enacted by authority or derive logically from existing decisions, and that ideal or moral considerations (e.g., that a rule is unjust) should not limit the scope or operation of the law.
"a measure was ipso facto constitutional because Parliament approved it. This is legal positivism" (p. 123)
Promulgate: put (a law or decree) into effect by official proclamation.
"a duly promulgated legislative act" (p. 123)
Viz: namely; in other words (used especially to introduce a gloss or explanation).
Gloss: an explanation, interpretation, or paraphrase.
"There must be in every instance a higher authority, viz. GOD." (p. 123)
Contraband: goods that have been imported or exported illegally.
"gave British officials sweeping rights to search businesses and even private homes for contraband" (p. 124)
Disingenuous: not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does.
"The British had argued, perhaps disingenuously, that the colonists could have no objection to these tariffs, since Americans had accepted British tariffs in the past without protest (even if they were often evaded in practice)." (p. 125)
Excoriate: censure or criticize severely.
"Liberals who excoriate President George W. Bush for his exercise of executive power were often silent or positively enthusiastic when Bill Clinton acted similarly." (p. 134)
Yore: of long ago or former times (used in nostalgic or mock-nostalgic recollection).
Overwrought: (of a piece of writing or a work of art) too elaborate or complicated in design or construction.
"In case comparing the president to the kings of yore seems overwrought, Nisbet invites us to consider the nature of the official iconography, ceremony, and architecture that have come to surround the American presidency." (p. 135)
Tribune: a popular leader; a champion of the people.
Immediate: (of a relation or action) without an intervening medium or agency; direct.
"In a way that Washington and Lincoln had not done, and even Jackson avoided, [Theodore Roosevelt] became a very visible tribune of the people, a popular advocate whose personality seemed immediate, direct, and committed to their personal service." (p. 137)
Anthracite: coal of a hard variety that contains relatively pure carbon and burns with little flame and smoke.
"settling the anthracite coal strike" (p. 141)
Victimology: the possession of an outlook, arising from real or imagined victimization, that seems to glorify and indulge the state of being a victim.
Pantheon: all the gods of a people or religion collectively.
"these calls for 'diversity' referred only to those groups taht had a place on the Left's victimologocial pantheon" (p. 146)
Kangaroo court: an unofficial court held by a group of people in order to try someone regarded, especially without good evidence, as guilty of a crime or misdemeanor.
"Terrified of the kangaroo proceeding that is all too typical in discrimination cases, Denny's settled." (p. 152)
Specie: money in the form of coins rather than notes.
"In the remote frontier, whiskey usually had to substitute for specie as a medium of exchange." (p. 161)
Excise: a tax levied on certain goods and commodities produced or sold within a country and on licenses granted for certain activities.
"Americans had argued against excise taxes on philosophical grounds since the Stamp Act of 1765." (p. 161)
Alleged: (of an incident or a person) said, without proof, to have taken place or to have a specified illegal or undesirable quality.
"harmed the very people it was allegedly intended to help" (p. 172)
Stooge: a person who serves merely to support or assist others, particularly in doing unpleasant work.
"the popular rendition of these events continues to portray Hoover as the laissez-faire stooge who could have helped people during a time of great deprivation but callously allowed them to suffer" (p. 180)
Discommode: cause (someone) trouble or inconvenience.
"businessmen at the time 'were all too prone to regard as "unfair competition" almost any kind of active competition that discommoded them, particularly if it related to price" (p. 182)
Scholasticism: the system of theology and philosophy taught in medieval European universities, based on Aristotelian logic and the writings of the early Church Fathers and having a strong emphasis on tradition and dogma.
Guild: a medieval association of craftsmen or merchants, often having considerable power.
Apropos: very appropriate to a particular situation.
Contrivance: a thing that is created skillfully and inventively to serve a particular purpose.
"The medieval Scholastics criticized the guilds of their day for doing exactly this; now the same mentality had overtaken the American business community. Adam Smith's observation in the eighteenth century is apropos: 'People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." (p. 183)
Historiography: the study of historical writing.
"dean of the president-as-demigod school of historiography" (p. 190)
Collusion: secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy, especially in order to cheat or deceive others.
"the joint policies of increasing labor's bargaining power and linking collusion with paying high wages prevented a normal recovery" (p. 192)
Auspice: a divine or prophetic token.
"a meeting of more than one hundred business executives and financial experts in New York, under the auspices of the American Management Association, submitted a report to Roosevelt" (p. 195)
Fateful: having far-reaching and typically disastrous consequences or implications.
"Chief Justice John Marshall put a fateful stamp on the commerce clause" (p. 200)
Plenary: unqualified; absolute.
"If the clause really did bestow plenary spending power upon the new government, what was the purpose of including specific grants of power to 'establish Post Offices and Post Roads,' 'constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court,' or 'purchase dock=Yards, and other needful Building'? " (p. 206)
Nugatory: of no value or importance.
"So expansive an interpretation of that clause would render 'the special and careful enumeration of powers which follow the clause nugatory and improper' " (p. 207)
Solicitor general: the law officer directly below the attorney general in the US Department of Justice, responsible for arguing cases before the US Supreme Court.
"In the 1990's Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia asked Bill Clinton's solicitor general if he could name a single activity on which the Congress might choose to legislate that in his view would go beyond its legitimate powers under the Constitution. He could not." (p. 209)
Libel: a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation; a written defamation.
"false, malicious, seditious and scandalous libel" (p. 217)
Endemic: (of a disease or condition) regularly found among particular people or in a certain area.
"Corruption became endemic." (p. 223)
Fief: an estate of land, especially one held on condition of feudal service.
Clan: a group of close-knit and interrelated families (especially associated with families in the Scottish Highlands).
"government has been seen as the personal fiefdom a leader uses to accumulate wealth for himself, his family, his clan" (p. 225)
Huzzah: used to express approval or delight; hurrah.
"Instead of the global huzzahs it expected, the White House heard only crickets." (p. 230)
Injunction: a judicial order that restrains a person from beginning or continuing an action threatening or invading the legal right of another, or that compels a person to carry out a certain act, e.g., to make restitution to an injured party.
"In addition to exempting labor unions from prosecution under the Sherman Antitrust Act, the act alsol prohibited the federal courts from issuing injunctions against labor unions in some cases and seriously crippled their ability to do so in others." (p. 235)
Enjoin: prohibit someone from performing (a particular action) by issuing an injunction.
"Once violence-ridden strikes were enjoined for a few days, they were difficult to revive, reorganize, and rekindle." (p. 235)
Reprisal: an act of retaliation.
"no threat of reprisal" (p. 238)
Brickbat: a piece of brick, typically when used as a weapon.
"beatings, stabbings, thretening of nonstrikers' families, destruction of property, blockng entrances to struck firms with broken glass and nails, and hurling brickbats" (p. 239)
Hoary: old and trite.
Trite: (of a remark, opinion, or idea) overused and consequently of little import; lacking originality or freshness.
"hoary myth" (p. 241)
Monopsonist: a market situation in which there is only one buyer.
Oligopsony: a state of the market in which only a small number of buyers exists for a product.
"If employer A is a monopsonist, the worker has little bargaining power. If the worker has several employment alternatives, he has strong bargaining power. There may have been instances of monopsony or oligopsony in the nineteenth century, but they were short-lived." (p. 241)
Lurid: (of a description) presented in vividly shocking or sensational terms, especially giving explicit details of crimes or sexual matters.
"The lurid claims of war supporters typically proved unfounded." (p. 255)
Bandy: pass on or discuss (an idea or rumor) in a casual or uninformed way.
"the fantastic figures once bandied about" (p. 256)
Diabolical: belonging to or so evil as to recall the Devil.
Retribution: punishment inflicted on someone as vengeance for a wrong or criminal act.
"an act of diabolical retribution" (p. 257)
Peacenik: a member of a pacifist movement.
"You can't expect Western peaceniks to protest against a war they themselves are waging." (p. 258)
Pogrom: an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group, in particular that of Jews in Russia or eastern Europe.
"What is happening in Kosovo must unfortunately be described as a pogrom against Serbs: churches are on fire and people are being attacked for no other reason than their ethnic background." (p. 259)
Fait accompli: a thing that has already happened or been decided before those affected hear about it, leaving them with no option but to accept.
"Some in the Kosovo Albanian leadership believe that by cleansing all remaining Serbs from the area... and destroying Serbian cultural sites, they can present the international community with a fait accompli." (p. 259)
Racket: an illegal or dishonest scheme for obtaining money.
"You almost have to give the architects of this system credit for the cleverness of the racket they have going: the same group of people who hold a monopoly on the power to tax and the power to initiate force also wield and effective monopoly to educate fugure generations of Americans." (p. 262)
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