The Machine Age (1877-1900)

Question 0

Age of Invention

Answer 0

Last quarter of the nineteenth century

Many technological advances made that generated greater opportunities for mass production

Question 1

Thomas A. Edison

Answer 1

Invented the light bulb
Led to widespread electricity and power plants
Allowed for the extension of the work day

Question 2

Economies of Scale

Answer 2

Concept that the lower the cost, the cheaper the product. The cheaper the product, the more they sold. And buying raw materials in bulk for less money

Question 3

Corporate consolidation

Answer 3

Government made little effort to regulate the rapid economic growth, giving no restraint to companies. Businesses followed the path that led to greater economies of scale, which meant larger and larger business

Question 4

Holding company

Answer 4

Owned enough stock in various companies to have a controlling interest in the production if raw material, the means of transporting that material too a factory, the factory itself, and the distribution network for selling the product.

Question 5

Monopoly

Answer 5

Complete control of an entire industry

Question 6

Horizontal integration

Answer 6

Created monopolies within a particular industry
Several smaller companies within the same industry are combined to form one larger company, either by being bought out legally or by being destroyed through ruthless business practices such as cutthroat competition or pooling agreements
Standard Oil John D. Rockefeller

Question 7

Vertical integration

Answer 7

One company buys out all the factors of production, from raw materials to finished product.

Question 8

Problems with monopolies

Answer 8

Rapid growth required lots of money -> borrowed lots of money -> bank failures if the business failed
One major financial panic per decade
Lower class suffered the most
Monopolies created extremely powerful men whose interests clashed with those of the rest of society
Public resentment increased

Question 9

Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

Answer 9

Public pressure and resentment led to the passage of this law forbidding any “combination…or conspiracy in the restraint of trade”
Wording too ambiguous - allowed the pro-business Supreme Court to rule as it saw fit
Labor unions declared illegal, thought to be “in restraint of free trade”
Loophole closed with Clayton Antitrust Act in 1914

Question 10

Andrew Carnegie

Answer 10

Steel mogul who promoted Social Darwinism
Wrote the gospel of wealth
Lacked consistency - argued against government regulation but supported all types of government assistance in business

Question 11

Gospel of Wealth

Answer 11

Andrew Carnegie’s philosophy that great wealth brought with it social responsibility. He advocated philanthropy, but not charity. Argued that the concentration of wealth among a few was the natural and most efficient result of capitalism

Question 12

Ways manufacturers cut costs and minimized profits

Answer 12

Hired women, children and newly arrived immigrants who were anxious for work. Paid as little as possible -> poverty and crime in cities
Factories were dangerous

Question 13

Mass transportation

Answer 13

Expansion of railroad lines, streetcars, and subways allowed the middle class to live in nicer neighborhoods away from the cities, making cities more impoverished with immigrants

Question 14

Ethnic neighborhoods

Answer 14

Tenement areas where immigrants settled to avoid prejudice

Black and Latino migrants had it worst

Question 15

Political bosses

Answer 15

Politically corrupt men who helped uh poor find homes and jobs and apply for citizenship and voting rights. They built parks, funded auxiliary police and fire departments, and constructed railroads and sewage lines. In return, they expected community members to vote as they were instructed. Occasionally, they required “donations” to help find community projects

Question 16

Political machines

Answer 16

The organizations run by political bosses
Rendered services that communities would not otherwise have received. However, because the bosses resorted to criminal means to accomplish their goals, the cost of their service was high

Question 17

Labor unions of the late 1800s

Answer 17

Considered radical organizations by many, and the government was weary of them
Businesses and the courts were openly hostile toward them
Tried to counter the poor treatment of workers

Question 18

Knights of labor

Answer 18

One of the first national labor unions
Founded in 1869 by Uriah Stephens
Organized skilled and unskilled workers from a variety of crafts into a single union
Goals:
1. 8 hour work day
2. Equal pay for equal work for men and women
3. Child labor laws, including the prohibition of working under 14
4. Safety and sanitary codes
5. Federal income tax
6. Government ownership of railroad and telegraph lines

Question 19

Terrence Powderly

Answer 19

Leader of the knights of labor who led a series of unsuccessful strikes that led to the declining popularity of the Knights
Americans began to associate unions with violene

Question 20

Haymarket Square Riot

Answer 20

1886 labor demonstration where a bomb went off, killing police. Many blamed the incident on the influence of radicals in the labor union movement, although no one knew who set of the bomb

Question 21

Samuel Gompers

Answer 21

Led the American Federation of Labor

Realized that his union could gain more power if it excluded unskilled workers

Question 22

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Answer 22

Avoided larger political questions and consent rated on “bread and butter issues” such as higher wages and shorter work days
Formed as a confederation of trade unions - didn’t allow unskilled workers
Refused to accept immigrants, blacks and women

Question 23

Settlement houses

Answer 23

Charitable middle class organizations, usually run by women, were getting frustrated by the governments slow pace
Founded and moved to settlement houses in poor neighborhoods
Became community centers, providing schooling, child care, and cultural activities

Question 24

Jane Addams

Answer 24

Founded the Hull House in Chicago
Provided English lessons for immigrants, day care for children of working mothers, child care classes for parents, and playgrounds for children
Campaigned for increased government services in the slums
Awarded the Nobel peace prize 1931

Question 25

Wealthy and middle class luxuries

Answer 25

Sports, high theater, variety acts, and movies became popular diversions.
Large segments of the public began to read popular novels and newspaper

Question 26

Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst

Answer 26

Responsible for the growth of the newspaper industry

Understood the commercial value of bold, screaming headlines and lurid tales of scandal

Question 27

Yellow journalism

Answer 27

New style of sensational reporting under Pulitzer and Hearst

Question 28

Share cropping

Answer 28

Landless farmers, both white and black, after the civil war, rented land and borrowed what they needed for farming and promised a portion of their crop as collateral

Question 29

Crop lien system

Answer 29

Method by which landless black and white sharecroppers rented land. It was designed to keep the poor in constant debt.

Question 30

Jim Crow laws

Answer 30

Towns and cities passed discriminatory laws as the federal government exerted less influence over the states
Supreme Court ruled that the 14th amendment didn’t protect blacks from discrimination by privately owned businesses and that blacks have to seek protection from the states

Question 31

Civil rights cases 1883

Answer 31

Reversed the civil right act of 1875, thus opening the door to legal (de jure) segregation

Question 32

Plessy v. Ferguson

Answer 32

1896 Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” facilities for the different races were legal
Set back civil rights gains

Question 33

Booker T. Washington

Answer 33

Accommodationist
African Americans need to prove themselves before being accepted into society - refused to press for immediate equal rights
Promoted economic independence as the means by which blacks could improve their lot
Atlanta Compromise speech 1895

Question 34

Transcontinental railroad

Answer 34

1863-1869 former farmers, immigrants, freed slaves and civil war veterans built it
Privately owned, but built largely at the publics expense through direct funding and substantial grants of land to the railroads
Massive hunts for buffalo (as a nuisance) destroying Native American source
Transformed depot towns into vital cities by connecting them
Easier, faster travel -> more contact with ideas from the east
Accelerated the industrial revolution
“Railroad time” - first standardized method of time telling with time zones

Question 35

Little Big Horn

Answer 35

Tribes angry about buffalo extermination
Battle won by native Americans
George Custer met his death

Question 36

Frederick Jackson Turner

Answer 36

Thesis that the frontier was significant in shaping the American character, defining the American spirit, fostering democracy, and providing a safety valve for economic distress in urban, industrial centers by providing a place to which people could flee

Question 37

Homestead Act

Answer 37

Passed 1862
Offered 160 acres of land to anyone who would “homestead” it for five years
Giving away land that belonged to native Americans
Private speculators and railroad companies often exploited the law for their own personal gain

Question 38

Morrill Land Grant Act

Answer 38

Set aside land and provided money for agricultural colleges

Eventually agricultural science became a huge industry in the United States

Question 39

Dawes Severalty Act

Answer 39

1887
Broke up reservations and distributed some of the land to the head of each Native American family. The allotment was 160 acres of land. This time, however, it was required that the family live on that land for 25 years, after which time the land was legally theirs, and they would get American citizenship
Goal was to accelerate the assimilation of Native Americans into western society by integrating them more closely with whites

Question 40

Gilded Age

Answer 40

Term coined by Mark Twain - shiny on the outside but actually a cheap base
America seemed to be prospering, with a handful of families having amassed unprecedented wealth, but the affluence of a few was built on the poverty of many