Chapter 12 Flashcards
Leland Stanford
Stanford was the eight governor of California and president of the Central Pacific Railroad. He hammered in the famous golden spike on May 10, 1869. A large portion of his fortune went into the founding of Leland Stanford Junior University, and after his teenage son who had died of typhoid while in Italy
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt made his fortune in shipping and then later in railroads. A ruthless businessman, he did little in the way of philanthropy. It was his second wife’s nephew that convinced him to help fund Vanderbilt University.
Coliss P. Huntington
One of the big four with Leland Stanford, Huntington was involved in both railroads and shipping. He founded Newport News shipping, the largest privately owned shipyard in the United States.
Andrew Carnegie
Carnegie made his fortune in the steel industry. In his later years, he donated most of his money to establish schools, libraries, and universities around the world.
Robber baron
Muckraker term used for leaders of large corporations and trusts to reflect their power and unscrupulous natures
John D. Rockefeller
Rockefeller was the founder of the standard oil company. Known for his practice of buying out his competitors, Rockefeller was a favorite target of muckrakers. He was also a generous philanthropist. His name is become synonymous with massive wealth.
J.P. Morgan
Morgan was a banker and financer, and his firm, J.P. Morgan and Company, was one of the most powerful banking houses in the world. It’s financed the formation of the united states steel Corporation, the world’s first billion dollar corporation. Morgan was a benefactor of the Metropolitan Museum of art, the American Museum of Natural History, and Harvard university, among others.
The octopus
Frank Noris his novel that recounted the depredations of California by roads.
The jungle
Upton Sinclair’s muckraker book that expose the practices of Chicago meatpacking plants
Eugene V. Deb’s
Deb’s ran for the US president five times as a socialist. The last attempt in 1920 it was made while he was serving time in prison for obstructing the draft of World War I
William Marci tweed
“Boss Tweed” was a leader of the Tamany Hall political machine, which rigged elections and stole massive amounts of money from New York City.
Populism
1880s political movement favoring nationalizing banks and railroads to protect farms and rural towns from the private power and corporations of big correction
William Jennings Bryan
A lawyer, statesman, and popular speaker, Brian ran for president on the Democratic ticket three different times. He was a prominent leader in the progressive movement and serve as secretary of state to Woodrow Wilson. He may be most well known as one of the lawyers in the famous scopes trial about teaching evolution in schools.
Herbert Spencer
Considered the father of social Darwinism, Spencer coined the phrase survival of the fittest in his 1864 book “principles of biology.”
Progressivism
Post populist, urban based political movement against private power and corporate corruption that looked hopefully towards the future, emphasizing the benefits of science and technology.
Social Darwinism
Believe that society, like everything else, is in a state of constant change and development, evolving into ever hire and more complex forms.
Theodore Roosevelt
The 26th president of the United States, Roosevelt was known for his boisterous personality. He was known for trust busting, championing survival causes, and promoting his “big stick” foreign policy that called for American policing of the Western Hemisphere to protect its economic interests.
Federal Reserve system
A quasigovernmental organization formed to regulate the money supply and keep the economic stability
Initiative
Progressive reform in which citizens could put proposition is directly on the ballot through petition and have them become laws by garnering a majority vote.
Referendum
Progressive reform in which laws passed by legislatures can be directly submitted to the people for a vote, a majority vote against the law removes it from the books.
Recall
Progressive reform in which citizens can call a special election by petition to recall an elected official, majority vote removes the person from office.
The great depression
Extended recessions in the 1930s that led to widespread unemployment, bank failure, and general downturn in the economy until world war two
Bank run
When most depositors try to with draw their funds simultaneously from a bank
Franklin D Roosevelt
The 32nd president of the United States, Roosevelt served four terms, the only US president to serve more than two terms, his exuberant public personality help bolster the nations confidence as it struggled through the depression and then entered into World War II.
