Chapter 18: Life in Industrial America Flashcards
‘America’s Butcher’
The nickname given to the city of Chicago. It became the capital of the American meat industry as well as a major hub for agriculture, steel production, and machinery. It also served as the gateway to the west and a major transportation hub of good and services.
‘Disassembly Lines’
The nickname given to the factories where animals were slaughtered, cut, and packaged for consumers. 500,000,000 lbs of meat were processed annually in these factories.
Menlo Park
The research laboratory of Thomas Edison. Here he promised to turn out an invention every 10 days. He used his power and a business manager and inventor to create a powerhouse of inventions.
‘Industrial Capitalism
The term given to the type of capitalism that was taking hold of America at the time. It was also an important factor that drew many immigrants to the US between 1880 and 1920. The factories that popped up in major cities needed a large influx of labor to be productive.
Mutual Aid Societies
Groups of people who still held on to their immigrant heritage and help new immigrants when they arrived in America. Eastern European Jews and Polish Catholic Churches were among the largest groups of the these societies.
Tammany Hall
The seat of power in New York City, it was controlled by the Democratic Party. Its most important contribution to the city was its public works projects. They would raise and fund projects that would help the citizens of the city. Many said the hall embodied the worst of the city and of crime, but they helped many immigrants and built much of the cities infrastructure. This included water, sewer, gas lines, hospitals, schools, civic buildings, museums, police and fire departments, roads, parks (Central Park), and bridges (Brooklyn Bridge).
Henry Grady
The editor of the Atlanta Constitution. He and other southern leaders wanted to turn their back on the history of slavery and embrace the industrialization and diversified agriculture of the north and west. He said the old south was dead and the new south was here.
Rebecca Latimer Felton
Women’s activist and the first women to serve in the U.S. Senate. She was also a newspaper columnist in Georgia. She said that Black rapists should be lynched to protect women. She said if they needed to they should lynch a thousand a week.
Ida B. Wells
A Black woman who was born during the last years of slavery. She was an activist who sought to outlaw lynching in the US. She had three friends who were lynched, and she wrote a booked about lynching in the south. She worked with The Tuskegee Institute and the NAACP to compile a list of every reported lynching in the United States.
‘Lost Cause’
A movement that glorified the old south and romanticized the era of southern slavery. It was propped up by white supremacy. It quickly over took the south and organizations such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy built monuments and celebrated confederate veterans on Memorial Day. By the 1900s it was intrenched in the US psyche and continues on to this day.
‘Birth of a Nation’
Originally a novel, then turned into a movie which was almost singlehandedly promoted by the Ku Klux Klan. It was a blockbuster movie that helped popularize the Lost Cause myth.
‘Gospel of Wealth’
Popularized by Andrew Carnegie. He said that the only way to get rid of the unequal distribution of wealth was for the rich to give much of their wealth to charity. He said it was their moral obligation.
Muscular Christianity
A sect of Christianity which sought to bring men back into touch with their primal manliness. Outdoors groups such as the Woodcraft Indians, Sons of Daniel Boone, Boy Brigades (all precursors to the Boy Scouts), and the Young Men’s Christian Association built and gyms, invented Basketball, Volleyball and Bodybuilding. They also championed Western Imperialism and white supremacy.
Charlie Chaplin
One of the most famous actors of the 1900s. He and others like Harry Houdini made their names of the vaudeville circuit. Chaplin would later go on to become a famous silent movie star and avid Hitler hater.
Vaudeville
A new type of entertainment. It started out at traveling circuit shows or circuses, who would feature comedians, musicians, actors, jugglers, and other talents. Unlike earlier shows they were considered family friendly. However, they often included offensive ethnic and racial caricatures of Black Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities. This is where black face comes from.
