Gilded Age - Key Terms

Gilded

covered thinly with gold but covering a core that is rotten and full of decay

Laissez-Faire

a policy that government should interfere as little as possible in the nation’s economy

robber baron

a person who has become rich through ruthless and unscrupulous business practices

tycoon

a wealthy, powerful person in business or industry

Monopoly

total control of one type of industry by one person or company

Push Factor

reasons that individuals might emigrate from their homes, including poverty, lack of social mobility, violence, or persecution

Pull Factor

causes for individuals to want to settle in a particular place, such as job opportunities, lower threats of persecution, and better access to social services like education and health care

Pogrom

violent riot which is incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews

Anti-Semitism

hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people

nativism

the policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants

social-darwinism

the study and implementation of various pseudoscientific theories and social practices that apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics, and politics

Chinese-Exclusion Act

an 1882 piece of federal legislation that effectively closed emigrants from China to enter the US until its repeal in 1943

Johnson-Red Act

a federal law passed in 1924 that prevented immigration from Asia and set quotas on the number of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe

Labor Union

an organization of common laborers and craft workers in a particular industry

anarchism

a political theory advocating the abolition of hierarchical government and the organization of society on a voluntary, cooperative bases without recourse to force or compulsion

lockout

a company tool to fight union demands by refusing to allow employees to enter its facility to work

arbitration

settling a dispute by agreeing to accept the decision of an impartial outsider

political machine

a party organization headed by a single boss or small autocratic group that commands enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of a city, county, or state

boss tweed

an american politician most notable for being the political boss of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party’s political machine that played a major role in the politics of the 19th century New York City and state.