Chapter 20

Question 1

Second Industrial Revolution

Answer 1

The postwar economy was characterized by large-scale industrial development and a burgeoning agriculture sector. The Second Industrial REvolution was fueled by the creation of national transportation and communications systems, the use of electric power, and the application of scientific research to industrial processes. The federal government encouraged growth by imposing high tariffs and granting the railroad companies public land.

Question 2

Rising Big Business

Answer 2

The leading entrepreneurs were extraordinarily skilled at organizing and controlling industry. John D. Rockefeller eventually controlled nearly every facet of the oil industry, consolidating that control through trusts and holding companies. Andrew Carnegie, who believed that competition benefited both society and business, came to dominate the steel industry by buying struggling companies. J. Pierpont Morgan, an investment banker, not only controlled most of the nation’s railroads but also bought Carnegie’s steel interests in 1901, thereby creating the nation’s first billion-dollar company.

Question 3

Labor Conditions and Organizations

Answer 3

The labor force was largely composed of unskilled workers, including recent immigrants and growing numbers of women and children. Some children as young as eight years of age worked twelve hours a day in coal mines and southern mills. In hard times, business owners cut wages without discounting the rents they charged for company housing or the prices they charged in company stores.

Question 4

Rising Labor Unions

Answer 4

It was difficult for unskilled workers to organize effectively. Strikebreakers were plentiful because new immigrants were desperate for work. Business owners often had recourse to state and local militias, which would be mobilized against strikers in the face of perceived anarchy. Craft unions became more successful at organizing as the American Federation of Labor focused on concrete economic gains and better working conditions and avoided involvement in politics.

Question 5

1855

Answer 5

Bessemer converter process allows steel to be made quickly and inexpensively

Question 6

1859

Answer 6

First oil well is struck is Titusville, Pennsylvania

Question 7

1869

Answer 7

First transcontinental railroad is completed at Promontory, Utah

Question 8

1876

Answer 8

1. Alexander Graham Bell patents his telephone

2. Thomas A. Edison makes the first successful incandescent lightbulb

Question 9

1877

Answer 9

Great Railroad Strike

Question 10

1882

Answer 10

John D. Rockefeller organizes the Standard Oil Trust

Question 11

1886

Answer 11

1. In the Haymarket incident, a bomb set off at a Chicago labor rally kills and wounds police officers
2. American Federation of Labor is organized

Question 12

1892

Answer 12

Homestead Strike

Question 13

1894

Answer 13

Pullman Strike

Question 14

1901

Answer 14

J. Pierpont Morgan creates the U.S. Steel Corporation