Text of the Unit III Review
What were the key inventions in communications?
telegraph, telephone, typewriter
Identify two of the great inventors of this era.
Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell
**Give two examples of men who took advantage of these new inventions to build powerful business empires.
Carnegie (Steel), Rockefeller (oil), Vanderbilt, Stanford, Huntington (RR’s)
What is laissez faire economics?
a system with no gov’t control or interference
How do corporations raise capital?
sell stock or take loans
What do you call a group of corporations controlled by the same board for common interest?
trust
What is a pool?
companies in competition divide up market
Why were companies able to pay low wages and maintain poor conditions?
huge labor surplus (more workers than jobs)
Give 2 examples of poor working conditions.
heat/cold, unsafe machines, long hours, toxic chemicals, low wages
What kind of organizations did workers form to try and improve pay and conditions? How do these orgs get their power?
unions, collective bargaining
What was the first national labor organization?
Knights of Labor
Who was the first leader of the American Federation of Labor?
Samuel Gompers
What two groups did unions regularly exclude?
blacks and immigrants
What clash between labor and gov’t was wrongfully blamed on "bomb-throwing anarchists"?
Haymarket Square Riot
What was the first strike where one union supported another?
Pullman Strike
Why would the gov’t always side with the owners against the unions?
the owners had put them into the offices they held
**Identify 2 reasons why many immigrants came to the U.S. between 1875-1925.
religious or political freedom, economic opportunity, land ownership, seeking adventure
Where were most immigrants who came to the U.S. in the late 1800’s & early 1900’s processed?
Ellis Island
Name 2 things that would have kept an immigrant from getting into the U.S..
health problem, criminal record
What two regions did most immigrants come from in the late 1800s?
Europe and Asia (China and Japan)
Why were new immigrants subjected to so much xenophobia?
different languages, religions, complexions, illiteracy
**What are 2 characteristics of the "Gilded Age"?
new wealth, conspicuous spending, political corruption, imitating Victorian lifestyle
Why was President James Garfield assassinated?
disgruntled job seeker upset that he was reforming spoils system
What groups essentially stole the voting power away from the poor to use for their own benefit?
political machines
What law brought reform to the civil service system?
the Pendleton Civil Service Act
How many families was the floor of a tenement designed for? How many actually lived there?
2, 6-10
What was Jane Addams’ solution to the housing problems of the late 1800s?
settlement houses
What photographer wrote "How the Other Half Lives" to expose the horrors of life in the inner city?
Jacob Riis
What was the goal of the muckrakers?
draw attention to social problems with sensational journalism
Name a law that progressives passed to help purify food.
Pure Food & Drug Act, Meat Inspection Act
Name a measure taken by progressives to take the corruption out of gov’t.
commission system, direct primaries, referendums & initiatives
How did Progressives view the role of government?
They saw it as an agent of social change
Which president was the most famous "trust buster"?
Teddy Roosevelt
**What organization was formed in the early 1900’s to try and improve conditions for African-Americans? Who was it’s founder
NAACP, WEB DuBois
What did the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision effectively make legal?
racial segregation
**Name two ways blacks were kept from voting in the South during the late 1800’s.
grandfather clauses & poll taxes
What type of vigilante justice was often used to keep blacks "in line"?
lynching
Who encouraged blacks to advance through education and economic means?
Booker T. Washington
Identify 2 types of work women performed outside the home in the late 1800s.
domestic, clerical
What issue did women focus on in the late 1800’s in their fight for equality?
suffrage (the right to vote)