Unit 1: The Gilded Age Study Guide

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and definitions from the lecture notes.

Vertical integration

A business strategy where a company controls two or more stages of its supply chain.

Horizontal integration

The acquisition of a business operating in the same industry to reduce competition and expand market share.

Captain of Industry / Robber Barons

Powerful industrial leaders who shaped the Gilded Age; examples include Rockefeller (oil) and Morgan (finance).

John D. Rockefeller

Oil magnate who built the Standard Oil monopoly.

J. P. Morgan

Leading financier who played a key role in corporate consolidations.

Second Industrial Revolution

The shift after the Civil War where the US moved to a mature industrial society with mechanization and mass production.

Mass production

Large-scale manufacturing made possible by mechanization.

Division of labor

Breaking work into specialized tasks to increase efficiency.

Wage system (wage slavery)

Paying workers a wage; often described as exploitative in the era.

Unregulated industries & markets

Industries and markets with few government rules governing behavior.

Accumulation of private capital

Private investment and growth of wealth by individuals or firms.

Panic of 1873

Economic depression triggered by railroad stock collapses and banking failures.

Trust

Legal arrangements where one party holds property to consolidate companies and reduce competition.

Standard Oil

The first major U.S. trust (1882) that monopolized the oil industry. John D. Rockefeller

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Railroad magnate who expanded rail networks.

Andrew Carnegie

Steel magnate who led the expansion of the American steel industry. The gospel of wealth

Railroad expansion

Growth of rail networks fueling economic growth; track mileage tripled 1860–1880.

White-collar careers

Professional, office-based occupations (clerks, lawyers, accountants).

Middle-class values

Lifestyle beliefs emphasizing education, mobility, and respectability in Gilded Age society.

Rags-to-riches / American Dream

Narratives of rising through hard work and perseverance to success.

Income inequality

Widening gap between rich and poor; by 1890, the richest 1% held similar income to the bottom 50%.

How the Other Half Lives

Jacob Riis’s 1890 photojournalistic exposé of poverty in NYC tenements.

Homestead Strike

1892 strike at Carnegie Steel that involved violence and Pinkerton agents.

Social Darwinism

Misapplication of Darwinian evolution to justify poverty and class distinctions (linked to eugenics).

Liberty of contract

Legal doctrine used to strike down state labor regulations and undermine unions.

Lochner v. New York

1905 Supreme Court decision striking down a limit on bakers’ working hours as unconstitutional.

Ironclads

Oaths that workers would never join a labor union.

Taylorism

Scientific management separating thinkers from doers to maximize efficiency.

Craft union

Labor union representing skilled workers.

Industrial union

Labor union representing all workers, regardless of skill.

Pinkertons

Private security/strikebreakers used to suppress unions.

Scabs

Nonunion workers who replace striking workers.

Knights of Labor

Founded in 1869; aimed to create one big union for all workers.

Gospel of Wealth

Carnegie’s idea that the wealthy have a duty to promote society’s advancement.

Single tax

Tax on the increase in value of real estate land proposed by Henry George.

Americanized socialism

A form of socialism adapted to American capitalism, advocating public/regulated ownership while maintaining abundance.

Social Gospel

Application of Christian principles to social problems, including poverty and labor reform.

Temperance Movement

Campaign for moderation or abstinence from alcohol; linked to women’s activism.

Comstock Act

Federal law banning distribution of porn and birth control information by mail.

Free Love Movement

Movement advocating individual choice in love; challenged state regulation.

Eight-Hour Day Movement

Campaign to establish an eight-hour workday.

Terrence Powderly

Leader of the Knights of Labor who promoted broad unionism.

Patronage system

System where political supporters receive jobs and favors in exchange for loyalty.

Tammany Hall

corrupt NYC political machine led by Boss Tweed, exemplifying machine politics.

McKinley Tariff

High tariff aimed at protecting industry and raising government revenue.

Free Silver Movement

Movement advocating coinage of silver to inflate currency and aid debtors.

Pendleton Act

1883 law creating merit-based Civil Service Commission to curb patronage.

Civil Service Commission

Agency established to enforce merit-based hiring in government.

Haymarket Affair

1886 bombing in Chicago; labor radicals blamed, fueling anti-labor sentiment.

Haymarket martyrs

Four men executed for their alleged role in the Haymarket bombing.

Graft

Corruption through the exploitation of official power for personal gain.

Stalwarts

Faction supporting the patronage/spoils system (led by Roscoe Conkling).

Half-Breeds

Reformist faction opposing patronage (led by James G. Blaine).

Garfield assassination

1881 assassination that accelerated civil service reforms.

Morrill Act

1862 act granting lands to states to fund public colleges.

Pacific Railway Act

1862 act providing land and loans for a transcontinental railroad.

Homestead Act

1862 act granting western public lands to private owners.

Bonanza farms

Large, corporate-style farms that dominated late 19th-century agriculture.

Open range

Unfenced grazing land where cattle roamed freely before barbed wire.

Barbed wire

Invention enabling fenced, enclosed ranches and the end of the open range.

Exodusters

African Americans who migrated to the Great Plains seeking to escape Southern Jim Crow laws.

Dawes Act

1887 act allotting tribal lands to individuals and breaking up communal lands.

Curtis Act

1898 act furthering allotment and weakening tribal sovereignty.

Carlisle Indian Industrial School

Boarding school system designed to assimilate Native Americans into Euro-American culture.

Frontier Thesis

Frederick Jackson Turner’s idea that westward expansion shaped American character.

Settler colonialism

Policy of removal/erasure of Indigenous peoples to make land available for settlers.

Plains Wars

Series of conflicts including the Dakota War and Great Sioux War of 1876 and related campaigns.

Reservation system

Policy confining Native Americans to designated lands.

Union Pacific

Railroad company building east-to-west across the United States.

Central Pacific

Railroad company building west-to-east across the United States.

Ida Tarbell

The ‘Social Problem’

Liberty of contract

Progress and poverty

The social gospel

Victoria Woodhull

Lobbyists

Patronage system

Mudslinging

Civil service reform

James Garfield and Charles Guiteau

Homestead act

Morrill act

Exodusters

Boomtowns

Genocide

The plain wars

Fort Laramie treaty

Five civilized tribes

Dakota

Lakota

Sioux

Navajos

Modoc