Monopolies Flashcards
Social Darwinism
The application of Charles Darwin’s laws of evolution and natural selection among species to human society in which only the fittest survived in the marketplace.
Herbert Spencer
English philosopher who was the first and most important proponent of social Darwinism
Adam Smith
The “Father of Capitalism” a classical economists whose law of supply and demand coincided with social darwinism
Gospel of Wealth
The idea that people of great wealth and power had a responsibility to advance social progress, developed by Carnegie
Acres of Diamonds
a lecture by Conwell in which he claimed that every industrious individual had the ability to gain riches
Horatio Alger
the most famous promotor of the success story whose writings made his name synonymous with the idea that anyone could advance with hard work
Dynamic Sociology
the idea that civilization was not governed by natural selection but by human intelligence, advocated by Lester frank Ward
Laissez-Faire
idea that the government should not be active in changing society but that natural selection should be allowed, generally supported by capitalists.
Progress and PRoperty
Henry George’s nonfiction book in which he explained that as long as wealth increased and the contrast between wealth and want grew, there could be no real progress.
Andre Carnegie
Scottish immigrant who opened his own steelworks in Pittsburg, soon dominated the industry
JP Morgan
bought Carnegies steel business for 450 million and merged its interest with others to create US steel
Consolidation
the unification of 2 or more corporations by dissolution of existing ones and a creation of a single corporation
horizontal integration
the combining of a number of firms engaged in the same enterprise into a single corporation
vertical integration
the taking over of all the different businesses of which a company relied for its primary function
Rockefeller
owned standard oil, created through horizontal and vertical intergration leading symbol of monopolies
Holding Company
a company created to buy and possess the shares of other companies
Erie War
Vanderbilt battled Jay Gould and Jim Frisk for control of the erie railroad, both sides offered bribes to members of legislature
Terence Piwderly
Leader of the knights of labor
American Federation of Labor
Representatives of existing craft unions formed the federation of organized trade and labor unions of the
United States and Canada. Most important and enduring labor group in the country
Samuel Gompers
Powerful leader of the AFL
Haymarket Square
Where labor and racial leaders called a protest meeting against police
Homestead Strike
A strike against the homestead steel works in Pennsylvania workers were angry because their wages were cut
Pullman strike
wages were cut by 25% in the winter and people went on strike against Pullman and eventually shut railroads down
Eugene Debs
Head of the American Railway Union and director of the pullman strike
Peter Altegeid
Illinois governor who pardoned the bombers of Haymarket square
“Looking Backward”
Utopian novel by Edward Bellamy that described the experiences of a young Bostonian who went to sleep in 1887 and woke up in 2000.
Chinese Exclusion Act
barred all chinese citizenship and banned chinese immigration for 10 years
Labor Contract Law
Permitted industrial employers to pay for the passage of workers in advance and deduct the amount later from their wages
Child Labor Laws
Laws that set minimum age of working at 12 years and a max workday of 10 hours- laws were put into action because of the poor condition of child workers
National Labor Union
Organization found by Sylvis that fought back against labor conditions
Molly Maquires
militant labor organization in the coal region of Pennsylvania that sometimes used terrorist tactics
Knights of Labor
first major effort to genuinely create a national labor organization in 1869 under Stehpens
Spindeltop Oil Field
One of the greatest oil depositions in US, in Texas
Patents
a government authority or license conferring a right or title for a set period
Cyrus Field
created the Atlantic Telegraph Company that laid the cable across the atlantic
Bessemer Process
a steel making process devised by Henry Bessemer that blew air through iron to pull out bad materials
Standard Oil
Rockefeller’s oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company
Taylorism
the principles or practice of scientific management of human labor
Vanderbilt
american philanthropists who gained wealth from railroads
Corporation
a company or group of people authorized to act as a single entity
Stock
the capital raised by business or corporation through the issue and subscription of shares
Limited Liability
A person’s financial liability is limited to the value of a person’s investment in a company or partnership
Carnegie
industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry
