Chapter 17 - Industrial America: Corporations and Conflicts, 1877-1911

Question 1

Andrew Carnegie

Answer 1

Scottish immigrant who exemplified American success by making steel a major U.S. industry

Question 2

Gustavus Swift

Answer 2

inventor of the assembly line in the meat-packing industry

Question 3

John D. Rockefeller

Answer 3

skilled businessman and co-founder of the Standard Oil Company

Question 4

Henry George

Answer 4

author of Progress and Poverty, which suggested that industrialization would result in permanent poverty

Question 5

Terence Powderly

Answer 5

leader of the Knights of Labor

Question 6

Leonora Barry

Answer 6

full-time organizer of the Knights of Labor who investigated and exposed cases of workplace sexual harassment

Question 7

Samuel Gompers

Answer 7

leader of the American Federation of Labor

Question 8

Homestead lockout

Answer 8

1892 lockout of workers at the Homestead steel mill (Pennsylvania) after Andrew Carnegie refused to renew the union contract

Question 9

management revolution

Answer 9

an internal management structure adopted by many large corporations that distinguished top executives from those responsible for day-to-day operations

Question 10

vertical integration

Answer 10

model in which a company controlled all aspects of production, from raw materials to finished goods

Question 11

horizontal integration

Answer 11

business concept in which companies pressure competitors and force them to merge their companies into a conglomerate

Question 12

trust

Answer 12

a small group of associates that hold stock from a group of combined firms, managing them as a single entity

Question 13

deskilling

Answer 13

the elimination of skilled labor under the new system of mechanized manufacturing

Question 14

mass production

Answer 14

a system in which goods are produced by assembly of standardized parts

Question 15

scientific management

Answer 15

a system of organizing work that was designed to coax maximum output from the individual worker, increase efficiency, and reduce production costs

Question 16

Ellis Island

Answer 16

gateway for millions of immigrants beginning in the late 1800s

Question 17

Chinese Exclusion Act

Answer 17

1882 law barring Chinese laborers from entering the United States

Question 18

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Answer 18

strike in which thousands of rail workers walked off their jobs due to wage cuts and the depression

Question 19

National Guard

Answer 19

organization created to enforce order in the U.S. following the events of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Question 20

Greenback-Labor Party

Answer 20

national political movement calling on the government to increase the money supply in order to assist borrowers and foster economic growth

Question 21

producerism

Answer 21

argument that real economic wealth is created by workers who make their living by physical labor (not merchants, lawyers, bankers, or other middlemen)

Question 22

Granger laws

Answer 22

economic regulatory laws passed in some midwestern states in the late 1870s

Question 23

Knights of Labor

Answer 23

first mass labor organization created among America’s working class

Question 24

anarchism

Answer 24

revolutionary advocacy of a stateless society

Question 25

Haymarket Square

Answer 25

location of a conflict in Chicago in which both policemen and workers were killed or wounded during a labor demonstration called by local anarchists

Question 26

Farmers’ Alliance

Answer 26

rural movement founded in Texas that advocated cooperative stores and exchanges that would circumvent middlemen, greater government aid to farmers, and stricter regulation of railroads

Question 27

Interstate Commerce Act

Answer 27

1887 act that created the Interstate Commerce Commission, an organization for overseeing the railroad industry

Question 28

closed shop

Answer 28

a workplace in which a job seeker had to be a union member to gain employment

Question 29

American Federation of Labor

Answer 29

organization that coordinated the activities of craft unions and called for direct negotiation with employers