P Flashcards
Henry Ford
By 1910 he dominated the car market. He used the moving assembly line to reduce costs and raise wages.
No additional information.
Frederick Winslow Taylor
Created “Taylorism,” which was a way to speed up production through the subdivision of tasks. It was controversial because it replaced skilled labor with unskilled labor and made employees interchangeable and therefore easier to replace.
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Andrew Carnegie
Immigrant who dominated the steel industry. Born in Scotland, emigrated with poor parents, true rags to riches story.
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John D. Rockefeller
Started Standard Oil, most celebrated corporate empire of the 19th century. Believed riches were a reward from God for his worthiness.
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J. P. Morgan
Influential banker who perfected the trust, a type of monopoly. Bought Carnegie’s steel corporation and combined it with others to create United States Steel Corporation.
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Knights of Labor
First national labor organization, although local labor groups existed well before it. It was open to all who toiled, including women.
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American Federation of Labor
It soon became the most important and enduring labor organization in the US. Rejected Knights idea of trying to organize everyone and focused mostly on skilled workers.
Example sentence: The American Federation of Labor was founded in 1886.
Samuel Gompers
Powerful leader of AFL. Accepted the basic premises of capitalism; he simply wanted workers to gain a bigger share of capitalism’s rewards.
No additional information.
Eugene Debs
Influential socialist who led the militant American Railway Union. Was part of the Pullman strike. Debs was imprisoned as a result.
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Haymarket Square
Violent labor protest in Haymarket Square Chicago in 1886 where a protester threw a bomb at police. To most middle-class Americans, the Haymarket bombing was an alarming symbol of chaos.
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Homestead Strike
Strike at Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead plant in 1892. Led to violent clashes between strikers and thugs hired by the company. Several people died in the violence. Governor of Pennsylvania eventually sent in the National Guard to restore order. The strike turned much of the public against unions.
Example sentence: The Homestead Strike was a pivotal event in labor history.
Pullman Strike
1894 Pullman Palace Car Company slashed wages by 25%. That led to a huge strike of railway workers. Governor of Illinois refused to call out the National Guard; he was a general sympathizer with the union movement. So President Grover Cleveland sent in federal troops to crush the strike.
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Urban Machine
Grew out of the vacuum created by the rapid growth of cities and failure of city governments to respond. Led by a city boss who used the power of immigrant votes to control the city.
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Yellow Journalism
A deliberately sensational style of reporting presented in bold graphics designed to reach a mass audience.
No additional information.
Colored Alliances
Political groups created by black southern farmers and poor white southern farmers as a part of the populist movement in the late 19th century. The planter elite and others in the South who opposed populism began to attack the movement as a weakening of white supremacy.
Example: The colored alliances aimed to unite black and white farmers in the South against the planter elite.
