6.6-6.7

Question 1

Frontier thesis

Answer 1

The argument, made by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in the 1890s, that the closing of the western frontier endangered the existence of democracy because it removed the opportunity for the pioneer spirit that built America to regenerate.

Question 2

Political Machine

Answer 2

Urban political organizations that dominated many late-nineteenth-century cities. Machines provided needed services to the urban poor, but they also fostered corruption, crime, and inefficiency.

Question 3

Political Boss

Answer 3

The head of the local political machine. The boss worked to maintain authority by strengthening the machine and its loyalists.

Question 4

Tammany Hall

Answer 4

New York City’s political machine during the nineteenth century. It swindled the city out of a fortune while supervising the construction of a lavish three-story courthouse in lower Manhattan. The building remained unfinished in 1873, when Tweed was convicted on fraud charges and sent to jail.

Question 5

Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act

Answer 5

1883 act that required federal jobs to be awarded on the basis of merit through competitive exams rather than through political connections.