Unit 6 Flashcards
(34 cards)
Gilded Age (definition)
Era of rapid economic growth, building businesses, and the rise of monopolies enabling individuals to amass great wealth
Robber Baron
A business tycoon who gained huge profits by driving competitors out of business
Bessemer Process
Efficient way of converting iron into steel, which was much more durable + versatile
Increased the quality, scale, speed, and cost of production
Allowed the production of railroads, skyscrapers, beams, cables
Andrew Carnegie
Led the expansion of the American steel industry
Used vertical integration to control every stage of the industrial process (mining raw materials → transporting finished product)
Gospel of Wealth
Andrew Carnegie’s belief that the wealthy should take part in philanthropy to benefit society
It was the moral responsibility of the rich (especially self-made) to reduce wealth inequality by giving their surplus wealth to less fortunate
Donate to public institutions such as libraries, universities, museums
John D. Rockefeller
Bought up most of the nation’s oil refineries and thus controlled the supply + prices, establishing a monopoly on the industry (Standard Oil)
Horizontal integration — brought competitors under one corporate umbrella or drove his rival companies out of business → elimination of competition
Knights of Labor
Knights of Labor: national labor union open/inclusive to workers of all kinds, including minorities (unskilled laborers, AAs, women)
Goals — 8-hour day, end child labor, increased regulation of corporations, health/safety laws for workers, equal pay for equal work of both sexes
Loosely organized → could not control local units that decided to strike → grew rapidly → lost public support after Haymarket riot
Haymarket Riot
Intended to protest treatment of strikers and call for better hours/conditions
Violence broke out when the police tried to control the riot → bomb thrown → cop deaths
Effect — Many Americans viewed the union movement as radical + violent → Knights of Labor, the most visible union at the time was blamed for the incident → lost popularity and membership
Pullman Strike
Nationwide railway strike to protest cut in wages and firing of workers
American Railway Union tried to help strikers by refusing to handle Pullman cars (boycott led by Eugene Debs) → tied up rail transportation across the country
Eventually, President Cleveland intervened w/ federal troops to force an end to the strike; highlighted the government’s new willingness to use armed force to combat work stoppages
Debs held in contempt and sentenced to jail
National Origins Act (1924)
Law that severely restricted immigration through national quota system
Discriminated against immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe and excluded Asians
City Beautiful movement
Environmental reforms aimed to beautify the nation’s new urban spaces by implementing grand boulevards, streets lined w trees, public parks, monumental public buildings
National Park Service
Federal agency that supervised national parks/monuments
Created by Roosevelt to protect public land from exploitation/development (preservation)
Set aside acres of land for the creation of new parks and to add to existing ones
First national park = Yellowstone
Jewish + Catholic immigrants vs Protestants (Progressive Era)
SIMILARITY
Both created auxiliary organizations to help people of their faith. For example, Jewish + Catholic immigrants created self help associations and established parochial schools. Protestants established the Salvation Army welfare organization to help the urban poor with food (soup kitchens), shelter, and employment.
DIFFERENCE
Jewish + Catholic immigrants arriving in the US wanted to preserve their heritage and defend their religious traditions in order to express their ethnic identities. Thus, they congregated in separate parishes/communities and established their own parochial schools. On the other hand, Protestants (nativists) aimed to spread and expand their faith to others through evangelization and mission systems.
Social Gospel
Reform movement led by Protestant ministers to renew religious faith through dedication to social welfare
Improve society through elimination of child labor, better schools, reduction of poverty, better living conditions for the urban poor
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
Organization that advocated total abstinence from alcohol and prohibition of liquor sales (temperance movement)
Launched women into public reform and taught them how to lobby, raise money, run for office
Allowed women to become more politically involved; became active in the Populist Party of the 1890s
Booker T Washington
Former slave who encouraged self improvement for blacks to gradually work themselves up in society (long term change)
African Americans should gain skills through education and employment in industrial jobs because economic success would earn the respect of whites
Separate social spheres, but come together to cooperate and improve society
Started the Tuskegee Institute to help young blacks start making their own living; provided trade and agriculture schooling
WEB DuBois
Advocated for integrated schools and immediate granting of civil rights to African Americans
Should have full social/economic equality because of 14th amendment (AAs = citizens)
Idea — leadership of a talented tenth (the 10% of the black population that could be college educated in order to bring respect and equality to all blacks)
Political machines
Definition - dominated major city politics; organizations run by political parties that provided jobs and services to constituents in return for their support
Tammany Hall: main political machine of the Democratic Party (dominated NYC politics); leader = William (Boss) Tweed
- created jobs for immigrants on city-related projects
- gave them to poor Irish immigrants (unskilled laborers) to ensure their loyalty
- provided shelter and food during hard times
- in return, it would ask for their votes to keep them in power
- political corruption — when politicians made contracts for city services, some of the money from taxpayers ended up in their own pockets
- used dishonest graft (stealing + bribing) to make lots of money
Progressive Era (definition + main goals)
Reform movements to improve urban conditions for the working class and combat the negative social effects of industrialization
- strengthen protections for workers and consumers (better pay + shorter hours)
- expose and reduce corruption in big city political machines
- eliminate abuses of businesses (trusts/monopolies) and their unfair practices
- abolish child labor in factories & mines
- achieve rate fixing practices of railroads
- supported women’s suffrage and conservation programs
Muckrakers (definition)
Popular journalists who used publicity to expose corruption in business & government
Jacob Riis
Used photography to expose the awful conditions for the poor due to urbanization (publicized the housing, education, poverty crises)
Created How the Other Half Lives, a photojournalism account on New York slums, which opened up the eyes of middle to upper class Americans to the problems of urban society
Ida Tarbell
Exposed corrupt business practices of Standard Oil
Criticized the ruthless tactics they used to drive competition out of business
Led to SCOTUS decision to break its monopoly
Yellow journalism (Progressive Era)
Distorts/exaggerates news to attract readers and increase paper circulation
Dramatic headlines and sensationalized stories about crime, corruption, scandal
Bred from the fierce competition between mass marketed newspaper chains
Two new journalistic tycoons emerged - Joseph Pulitzer (World) and William Randolph Hearst (New York)
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Exposed appalling conditions of Chicago meat-packing industry
Enlightened the American public to unsanitary food products in big canning factories
Led Roosevelt to pass Meat Inspection Act & Pure Food and Drug Act
