Table of Contents
Foreword xv
1 Laws that Opened Up America 1
First Fight in Congress
1787 Northwest Ordinance
1862 Homestead Act
1862 Pacific Railroad Act
1959 Alaska and Hawaii Statehood Acts
2 Laws that Made Us Prosperous 9
Run on the Banks
1791 Federal Bank bill
1913 Sixteenth Amendment (income tax)
1913 Federal Reserve Act
1933 Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act
3 Laws that Protected Our Freedoms 16
The Shocking Test
1791 First Amendment (free speech)
1791 Fourth Amendment (personal security)
1791 Fifth Amendment (no self-incrimination)
1791 Sixth, Seventh, Eighth Amendments (rights accused)
1870 Amendments (right to vote)
4 The Red-White-and-Blue Laws 25
The McCarthy Reign of Terror
1798 Alien and Sedition Acts
1819 Act regulating immigration
1864 Immigration Act
1883 Chinese Exclusion Act
1894 Act creating Bureau of Immigration
1907 Immigration Act excluding 'Undesirables"
1916 Immigration Act requiring literacy test
1917 Jones Act
1917 Espionage Act
1918 Sedition Act
1921 Emergency Quota Act
1924 Immigration Act
1939 Hatch Act
1940 Smith Act
1950 McCarran Internal Security Act
1950 Subversive Activities Control Act
1952 McCarran-Walter Act
1953 Refugee Relief Act
1965 Immigration Act liberalizing quotas
5 Laws that Shaped Our Foreign Policy 37
Humiliation of the U.S. Chesapeake
1807 Embargo Act
1809 Non-Intercourse Act
1816 Tariff Act
1913 Underwood Tariff
1922 Fordney-McCumber Tariff
1890 Naval Act
1917 Congressional resolution of war
1934 Trade Agreements Act
1935-37 Neutrality Acts
1941 Lend-Lease Act
1945 UN Participation Act
1947 Greek-Turkish Aid Act
1948 Economic Cooperation Act (Marshall Plan)
1949 NATO Act
1949 International Development Fund Act (Point Four)
1954 SEATO and Formosan treaties
1957 Eisenhower Doctrine resolution
6 Laws that Developed Our Resources 48
Flood That Threatened the War Effort
1891 Forest Reserves Act
1902 Newlands Reclamation Act
1918 Muscle Shoals bill
1928 Boulder Dam Project Act
1928 Flood Control Act
1933 Tennessee Valley Authority Act (TVA)
1933 Civilian Conservation Reforestation Relief Act
1935 Emergency Relief Appropriation Act (WPA)
1936 Soil Conservation Act
1937 St. Lawrence Seaway Act
1938 Highway Act
7 Laws for the Worker 56
Massacre in South Chicago
1914 Clayton Anti-Trust Act
1915 La Follette Seaman's Act
1916 Adamson Act
1932 Norris-La Guardia Act
1933 National Industrial Recovery Act (NTRA)
1935 Wagner National Labor Relations Act
1936 Walsh-Healy Government Contracts Act
1937 Black-Connery Fair Labor Standards Act
1943 Smith-Connally War Labor Dispute Act
1947 Taft-Hartley Act
8 Laws Regulating Business 65
The Little Man Fights the Railroads
1887 Interstate Commerce Act
1906 Hepburn Act
1910 Mann-Elkins Act
1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act
1914 Federal Trade Commission Act
1914 Clayton Anti-Trust Act
9 Health, Education and Welfare Laws 72
The Deformed Baby Epidemic
1798 Marine Hospital Services Act (Public Health Service)
1906 Pure Food and Drug Act
1906 Meat Inspection Act
1912 Act creating Children's Bureau
1916 Keating-Owen Child Labor Act
1921 Sheppard-Towner Act
1938 Fair Labor Standards Act
1933 Federal Emergency Relief Act
1935 Social Security Act
1937 Wagner-Steagall Act
1950 Housing Act
1964 National Defense Education Act
1964 Housing Act
1964 Economic Opportunity Act
1965 Appalachia Act
1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act
1965 Cigarette labeling bill
1965 Social Security Law (Medicare)
10 Laws for the Farmer 82
Tragedy Strikes the Dust Bowl
1862 Homestead Act
1862 Morrill Act
1862 Act creating Department of Agriculture
1914 Smith-Lever Act
1916 Federal Farm Loan Act
1929 Agricultural Marketing Act
1930 Drought Relief Act
1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act
1934 Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act
1935 Rural Electrification Administration bill
1937 Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act
1938 Second Agricultural Adjustment Act
1949 Agricultural Act
1956 Agricultural Act (Soil Bank)
1962 Agricultural Act
11 Laws Regulating Morality 90
Lady with a Hatchet
1919 Wartime Prohibition Act
1920 Eighteenth Amendment (Volstead Act)
1933 Twenty-First Amendment (Repeal)
12 Our Depression Laws 99
To Kill a President
1932 Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act
1932 Emergency Relief and Construction Act
1933 Emergency Banking Act
1933 Civilian Conservation Reforestation Relief Act
1933 Federal Emergency Relief Act
1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act
1933 Tennessee Valley Authority Act
1933 Federal Securities Act
1933 Securities and Exchange Commission Act
1933 Home Owners Financing Act
1933 National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
1933 Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act
1935 Emergency Relief Appropriation Act (WPA)
13 Laws for Soldiers and Scholars 110
Draft Riots In New York
1863 Conscription Act
1867 Act creating Department of Education
1917 Smith-Hughes Act
1917 Selective Service Act
1921 Veterans' Bureau Act
1924 Soldiers' Bonus Bill
1940 Burke-Wadsworth Selective Training and Service Act
1941 Draft Act
1944 Servicemen's Readjustment Act (GI Bill)
1946 Veterans' Emergency Housing Act
1946 Fulbright Act
1948 Selective Service Act
1950 Act creating National Science Foundation
1951 Selective Service Act
1953 Act extending GI Bill benefits to Korean veterans
1958 National Defense Education Act
1961 Act creating Peace Corps
1963 College construction program bill
1964 Economic Opportunity Act (Anti-Poverty Act)
1965 Act providing federal scholarships
14 Laws on Slavery and Civil Rights 122
Explosion in Watts
1820 Missouri Compromise
1836 House of Representatives "gag resolution"
1850 Compromise of 1850
1850 Fugitive Slave Act
1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act
1865 Thirteenth Amendment (slavery abolished)
1865 Freedmen's Bureau Act
1866 Civil Rights Act
1867 14th Amendment (equal protection of laws)
1875 Civil Rights Act
1957-60 Civil Rights Acts
1964 Twenty-Fourth Amendment (anti-poll tax)
1965 Voting Rights Act
15 Your Laws-Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 137
Bibliography 140