Gilded Age and Progressive Era Flashcards
social class and mobility
the ability to move throughout economic and social classes
meritocracy
government and leaders will be elected and kept in office with that skills
income gap
we watched a video on income inequality today in class (I just posted the link on the calendar for today, 3/3, so you can watch it again if you need to) that describes the myth in America today. Most Americans think that wealth distribution is more fair than it actually is and actually want the wealth to be more fairly distributed. the top 1% controls 40% of all the wealth in America and some other statistics show how much income inequality there is between the rich and the poor. income inequality was also terrible during the Gilded Age and would eventually contribute to the Great depression
Brooklyn bridge
one of the wonderful achievements of the Gilded Age that could not have happened without the invention of steel. the steel cables are what allow the bridge to span the East River. built largely by immigrant labor
Boss Tweed/ Tammany Hall
BOSS TWEED was able to scam the government (no, he was the government! he was voted into office by taxpayers who were often poor and who he was helping through the political machine) through corruption by increasing taxes and pocketing the extra cash from the government funds.
Andrew Carnegie/ Steel
Was born in Scotland and was one of the few examples of someone working their way from poverty to the top class. He claimed he had respect for his workers, but just wanted to make money. Steel: made most of his wealth in steel business.
Homestead Strike(Carnegie)
Manager-Frick wanted to cut wages in half and broke the Amalgamated and Association of Steel Workers (a union) and Carnegie wasn’t able to do anything about it. resulted in a violent strike. Frick tried to stop the strike with the private army. blamed it on the workers who got charged with murder and lesser crimes.
Strikebreakers
STRIKEBREAKERS- workers, typically new immigrants, who are brought in by factory owners to “break” a strike by workers who are protesting for higher wages or better working conditions. These strikebreakers often worked for even lower wages than those who were on strike and were often targeted by the workers who were fired.
Tenements
very poor living conditions. multiple families lived in a very small space.
Philanthropy (Carnegie, Rockefeller, Gates)
The idea of giving wealth to charity; usually in support of the arts, education,
medical research.
George Eastman
philanthropist, very different from father. gave $2 billion away. helped build colleges. built one of the greatest music schools in the world. contributed to the education of African Americans. Significance: gave money away anonymously
Robber barons
derogatory term applied to
wealthy and powerful American
businessmen who abused their employees in order to gain wealth.
John Rockefeller
made his money from oil
Thomas Edison
electricity, inventor, light bulb
Monopoly
when one company controls an entire industry, it is bad for consumers because they can set whatever price they want. and bad for innovation because the company has no competitors and bad for the economy because there are no new businesses being created because the monopoly crushes them. (also referred to as a trust or combination during the Gilded Age)
Conspicuous Consumption
doing something that shows you have a lot of money; competition to keep up with the wealthy
Social Darwinism
ideaology that twisted Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection and survival of the fittest to apply to humans. those who followed this philosophy believed that the weakest members of society , or those who were “unfit” should be left to die off so he human race would be stronger.
14th amendment and corporations
supreme court ruled that a corporation had the same rights as a person.
Laissez faire capitalism
the government leaves the economy alone. This led to corruption from corporations b/c there were no gov’t rules.
Russel Conwell
believed that if a person worked hard, they could go from rags to riches (lectured about this idea all over America). significant because he used God and religion to make people believe that God was punishing poor people
Government Regulation/control
necessary according to JP Morgan to keep the economy stable. necessary according to progressives because the only way to stop companies from exploiting workers and consumers was for the government to pass laws making sure the company protected the health of Americans and didn’t exploit them. government regulation keeps companies from only focusing on profit/the bottom line
Influence of the media
media can twist or bury the truth of any story- focused more on the wealthy and hid the truth of the poor and their living conditions. but can also uncover problems and shine a spotlight on them, for example publishing Thomas Nast’s political cartoons that were critical of Tweed and helped bring him down
muckrakers
investigative journalists who reported on the ugliness so Americans couldn’t ignore it(exposing the truth)(wealth)
Thomas Nast/political cartoons
Nast was the political cartoonist that we saw in the video on NY. He was a progressive muckraker who published cartoons that were critical of Boss Tweed and the muckrakers. Tweed was angry because his constituents (voters) often couldn’t read, but they understood what was happening from the cartoons. they exposed him as a fraud.
Reform
to implement change. usually for the good of society. for example: ending child labor. progressives were fighting for reforms.
Mother Jones
Organized strikes; dedicated to getting
rid of child labor; 1903: March of the
Mill Children
Jacob Riis
Danish-American, photographer, journalist, and social reformer; wrote about gap between rich and poor and tenements in NYC; the photos really struck people and made them understand what the poor were really going through
Upton Sinclair: The Jungle
corporations ignored public health and proper working conditions for its’ employees; Sinclair was a muckraker who pushed for reforms
Meat Inspection Act; Pure Food and Drug Act
T.R. passed these acts in order to place government regulations on corporations after reading “The Jungle” which talked about the disgusting conditions in meat factories.
rSBT (bovine growth hormone)
a hormone given to cows to make them grow larger so there is more meat to be sold (ignoring public health standards).
Teddy Roosevelt
passed Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act. also pushed for regulations on corporations and protected the environment. wanted a Square Deal for all Americans, meaning equal opportunities and a system that wasn’t corrupted by money
William Taft
Progressive president that encouraged 16th amendment, busted monopolies and encouraged regulation(taxes)
Woodrow Wilson
also encouraged regulation and passed laws to make sure companies didn’t exploit Americans. eventually encouraged the suffrage amendment (19th amendment)
Cult of domesticity
idea of womanhood. women need to be religious, pure, cook/clean, and listen to their husbands. idea was all over the media.
Suffrage; 19th amendment
in 1920, women finally gained the right to vote with the passage of a federal amendment (19th)
Civil disobedience
citizens breaking the law and accepting the consequences to point out an injustice; method of dissent
Carrie Chapman Catt
head of NAWSA (old school suffrage organization) who was pushing for each state to pass voting rights for women; opposed the radical NWP party
NAWSA
old school organization for suffrage -state by state
Alice Paul
radical Quaker who went on hunger strike and organized picketing of the White House to get suffrage amendment passed (19th)
NWP
National Women’s Party -radical suffrage organization trying to get amendment passed
Blacklisted
If you were a worker fighting for higher wages or better working conditions, you might be targeted as a troublemaker. If the factory owner targeted you as a “blacklisted”, it would mean that the owner would call other factory owners to make were you weren’t hired.
Progressive Era
time period after the Guilded Age where reformers were pushing for America to clean up the ugliness it had created (REFORM=CHANGE)
Progressive Reformers
Americans who broadcasted the horrible conditions
Union-strike
workers joined unions so that they had protection in numbers. if there was no union and one employee asked for higher wages, they would simply be fired. if they all joined a union and signed a petition and said they would refuse to work (go on strike) if the owners didn’t raise their wages, then they could make the company owners listen
Gilded Age
Although the surface of society appeared to be a glittering gold surface, corruption, poverty & discrimination lurked below the image.
