APUSH - Unit 6

Transcontinental Railroads

A landmark rail line connecting the East and West Coasts, built by the Union Pacific (West) and Central Pacific (East) to facilitate rapid westward expansion, commerce, and migration, revolutionizing American transportation and spurring industrialization but also disrupting Native American life. It was completed in 1869.

Great American Desert

Before 1860, the land between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Coast was known as this by pioneers passing through on the way to the green valleys of Oregon and the goldfields of California. This had few trees and usually received less than 15 inches of rainfall a year along with winter blizzards and hot dry summers that discouraged settlement.

Barbed wire

Homesteaders used this fencing to cut off access to the formerly open range of the grasslands of the cattle frontier and led to the cattle frontier eventually closing down with the arrival of homesteaders.

Homestead Act

A landmark federal law granting 160 acres of public land to settlers (citizens, women, freed slaves, immigrants) who paid a small fee, lived on, improved, and farmed the land for five years, accelerating westward expansion, promoting American individualism, but also displacing Native Americans and facing challenges with harsh conditions.

National Grange Movement

A 19th-century agrarian organization founded in 1867 to help farmers through social and educational programs, and later, political action. It emerged to combat economic hardships faced by farmers, particularly the monopolistic practices and high prices of railroads and grain elevators. The movement focused on collective bargaining, cooperative buying and selling, and lobbying for state and federal regulation of railroads, leading to the creation of organizations like the Interstate Commerce Act.

Granger Laws

State-level regulations, primarily in Midwestern states (like Illinois, Minnesota) during the 1870s, enacted due to pressure from the Grange (National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry) to control monopolistic railroad and grain elevator practices. This set of laws made it illegal for railroads to fix prices by means of pools and to give rebates to privileged customers.

Munn v. Illinois

In this landmark case in 1877, the Supreme Court upheld the right of a state to regulate businesses of a public nature, such as railroads.

Frederick Jackson Turner

A historian famous for his "Frontier Thesis" (1893), arguing the westward frontier was key to forging America's unique identity, fostering democracy, individualism, and innovation, but its closing in the 1890s marked the end of America's first historical period, prompting new national challenges. 

“The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893)

An influential essay that argues the frontier (the line of westward expansion) was crucial in shaping American democracy, individualism, and national character, creating self-reliance and innovation as settlers adapted to a wilderness, a process that ended with the 1890 Census, prompting questions about America's future identity

Little Big Horn

A significant 1876 battle where Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors defeated Lt. Col. George Custer's 7th Cavalry in Montana. It is also known as "Custer's Last Stand" and is a key event in the American West illustrating Native American resistance to US expansion, despite the military defeat ultimately leading to intensified US efforts to suppress Indigenous peoples and force them onto reservations.

Ghost Dance Movement

A late 19th-century Native American religious revival, initiated by prophet Wovoka, that promised the return of ancestors, the buffalo, and the removal of white settlers through ritualistic dances, representing a final cultural resistance to U.S. expansion, ultimately leading to the tragic Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, which crushed the movement and Indian resistance.

Helen Hunt Jackson

A crucial writer and activist who exposed the U.S. government's injustices against Native Americans, notably through her influential book A Century of Dishonor (1881), which detailed broken treaties and urged reform, swaying public opinion towards assimilation but also sympathetic treatment, impacting policies like the Dawes Act.

Dawes Act of 1887

A U.S. law breaking up tribal reservations into individual land allotments (like 160 acres for families) to force Native Americans to assimilate into white, agrarian society, treating them as individuals rather than tribes. Its goal was to end communal land ownership, encourage farming, and open "surplus" reservation lands for white settlement, leading to massive Native American land loss, cultural disruption, and poverty, despite its stated aims of "civilizing" them.

Indian Reorganization Act

A landmark New Deal law reversing assimilationist policies (like the Dawes Act) by promoting tribal self-governance, restoring communal land, and offering economic aid, allowing tribes to form their own constitutions and manage internal affairs, marking a shift towards self-determination and cultural preservation for Native Americans under John Collier's leadership.

Santa Fe Trail

A vital 900-mile commercial highway from Missouri to New Mexico, opened by William Becknell, facilitating trade between Americans and Mexicans, increasing westward expansion, and later used by gold seekers, missionaries, and military, becoming a key artery of Manifest Destiny before the railroad made it obsolete.

John Muir

The influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, and "Father of the National Parks" who championed wilderness preservation, founded the Sierra Club, advocated for protecting places like Yosemite, and significantly shaped the early conservation movement against industrial exploitation, inspiring national parks and policies.

Sierra Club

A major, long-standing American environmental organization founded by John Muir in 1892, focused on conserving natural resources, protecting wilderness (like the Sierra Nevada), advocating for parks, and fighting against destructive development (like dams), becoming a key force in the modern conservation movement by blending grassroots action with political lobbying for environmental protection.

“New South”

The post-Civil War vision and reality of transforming the South from a plantation economy to a modern, industrialized, diversified one, championed by figures like Henry W. Grady, focusing on factories, railroads, and new industries (textiles, steel) but often failing to escape sharecropping and white supremacy, leading to limited progress for many.

George Washington Carver

A pivotal African American scientist and educator (late 19th/early 20th century) who revolutionized Southern agriculture by promoting crop rotation (especially peanuts/sweet potatoes) to restore soil nitrogen depleted by cotton, improving farmer livelihoods and diversifying the Southern economy, teaching sustainable practices at Tuskegee Institute and developing hundreds of products from these crops.

Tuskegee Institute

A pivotal historically Black educational institution, founded in 1881 by Booker T. Washington in Alabama, focusing on vocational and industrial training (like farming, carpentry, and trades) to foster self-sufficiency and economic empowerment for African Americans, evolving from the Tuskegee Normal School into today's Tuskegee University, famous for training the Tuskegee Airmen and its significant role in Black education and leadership.

Civil Rights Cases of 1883

A series of Supreme Court decisions that declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional, ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment did not apply to private acts of discrimination. This meant that businesses and individuals could discriminate against African Americans in "public accommodations" like hotels, theaters, and restaurants, paving the way for the Jim Crow era of segregation and dismantling federal protections for Black citizens established during Reconstruction.

Plessy v. Ferguson

A landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine, legalizing Jim Crow laws and institutionalizing discrimination for decades until it was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. The case involved Homer Plessy, a man of mixed race, who challenged Louisiana's law requiring segregated train cars by sitting in a whites-only car, but the Court ruled that separate facilities didn't inherently violate the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, essentially saying segregation was constitutional if facilities were equal.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local statutes enforcing racial segregation and disenfranchisement of African Americans, particularly in the South, from the late 19th century (post-Reconstruction) to the mid-20th century (Civil Rights era), establishing legal segregation in public spaces and suppressing Black voting through barriers like poll taxes and literacy tests.

Literacy Tests

Discriminatory exams used primarily in the South after Reconstruction (Jim Crow Era) to disenfranchise African Americans and poor whites by requiring them to pass difficult reading/writing tests (like interpreting the Constitution) to vote, with white registrars applying subjective, unfair criteria to fail Black voters, effectively blocking suffrage until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Poll taxes

A fee required to vote, used primarily by Southern states after Reconstruction as a discriminatory tool (part of Jim Crow laws) to disenfranchise poor African Americans and poor whites, effectively undermining the 14th & 15th Amendments and limiting Black political power through financial barriers, eventually leading to the 24th Amendment banning them in federal elections in 1964.

Grandfather Clauses

Discriminatory voting laws in Southern states (late 1800s) exempting men from literacy tests and poll taxes if their grandfathers could vote before the Civil War (usually before 1867). They effectively disenfranchised Black Americans, whose ancestors couldn't vote, while allowing poor, illiterate white men to vote, upholding white supremacy and undermining the 15th Amendment.

Ida B. Wells

A pioneering African American journalist, anti-lynching crusader, and suffragist who used fearless investigative reporting to expose racial injustice, particularly the horrors of lynching in the post-Reconstruction South, advocating for economic and political power for Black communities and laying groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement.

Booker T. Washington

A key African American leader who, as a former slave, promoted Black economic self-sufficiency through vocational training and gradual acceptance of segregation, famously outlined in his "Atlanta Compromise" speech, believing economic power would eventually lead to social equality, contrasting with W.E.B. Du Bois's push for immediate political rights. He founded the Tuskegee Institute to provide practical skills for Black Americans in the Jim Crow South.

W. E. B. Du Bois

A key African American intellectual, sociologist, and activist who advocated for immediate civil rights, opposed Booker T. Washington's gradualism, co-founded the NAACP, and championed higher education for the "Talented Tenth," viewing racism through Black experience via concepts like "double-consciousness". He demanded full political, social, and economic equality, challenging segregation directly through movements like the Niagara Movement and publications like The Souls of Black Folk.

Atlanta Compromise

A speech by Booker T. Washington proposing African Americans focus on vocational training and economic self-sufficiency rather than immediate political/social equality, accepting segregation temporarily for gradual progress and mutual benefit with whites, a philosophy criticized by other leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois for accepting oppression but initially gaining support for economic development.

Transatlantic Cable

The undersea telegraph cables laid across the Atlantic Ocean, most successfully by Cyrus Field in 1866, which connected North America and Europe, enabling near-instantaneous communication via Morse code and revolutionizing global markets, diplomacy, and news dissemination by replacing slow ship-based messages. This innovation, a massive engineering feat, significantly shrank the world, fostering greater economic and cultural integration between continents.

Alexander Graham Bell

The Scottish-born inventor who patented the first practical telephone in 1876, revolutionizing communication by transmitting human speech over wires, transforming business and personal interactions, and signaling the U.S.'s rise in industrial technology during the late 19th century. He was also a teacher of the deaf, which fueled his interest in sound, and later became the second president of the National Geographic Society. 

Henry Bessemer

An English inventor who developed the Bessemer Process, the first inexpensive industrial method for mass-producing steel by blowing air through molten iron to remove impurities, making steel affordable for construction, railroads, and machinery, fueling the Second Industrial Revolution. This breakthrough enabled the growth of steel cities like Pittsburgh and transformed American infrastructure and industry.

Thomas Edison

A prolific Gilded Age inventor and businessman who established the first industrial research lab, developed the practical incandescent light bulb, and invented the phonograph and motion picture camera, fundamentally shaping modern electricity, sound, and entertainment industries and embodying the era's technological innovation and industrialization.

George Westinghouse

A key inventor and industrialist known for revolutionizing transportation with his automatic air brake for railroads and for championing alternating current (AC) electrical systems.

Mail-order Companies

Companies like Sears, Roebuck and Company and Montgomery Ward who revolutionized American commerce by using expansive catalogs and the national rail system to sell goods directly to rural consumers, providing access to affordable tools, clothing, and household items, thus fostering a national consumer culture and expanding markets beyond cities.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

A major 19th-century business magnate who built vast wealth in shipping and railroads, consolidating lines, popularizing steel rails, and creating the New York Central Railroad, symbolizing ruthless industrial capitalism, consolidation, and the expansion of transportation networks essential to America's Second Industrial Revolution.

Jay Gould

A notorious Gilded Age "robber baron," a ruthless railroad magnate and speculator infamous for manipulating stocks, bribing officials (like with the Tweed Ring), and causing the 1869 "Black Friday" gold market panic, symbolizing late 19th-century corruption and capitalism's dark side through schemes like controlling the Erie Railroad and Union Pacific.

J. Pierpont Morgan

A dominant financier and banker of the Gilded Age who reorganized and consolidated major industries, financing railroads, banks, and creating giant corporations like U.S. Steel (by buying Carnegie's steel company). He stabilized financial markets during crises, such as the Panic of 1907, but was criticized for excessive power and influence over the financial system, embodying the era's big business consolidation and trusts.

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish immigrant who built a massive steel empire using vertical integration, becoming a leading "Captain of Industry" (or "Robber Baron"), and later a major philanthropist, famous for his Gospel of Wealth philosophy promoting the wealthy's duty to give back to society through institutions like libraries, embodying Gilded Age industrial growth, business practices (like trusts/monopolies), and social responsibility debates.

United States Steel

The first billion-dollar corporation, created by merging Carnegie Steel and other companies, symbolizing the rise of industrial capitalism, vertical integration, and massive business consolidation during the Gilded Age/Progressive Era, controlling vast portions of America's steel industry.

John D. Rockefeller

The founder of the Standard Oil Company, a ruthless industrialist who used horizontal integration to monopolize the oil industry, symbolizing Gilded Age capitalism, "robber baron" tactics (crushing competitors), and later, large-scale philanthropy, ultimately leading to the breakup of his trust in 1911 and shaping modern corporate power debates.

Standard Oil

John D. Rockefeller's oil refining and marketing company, a symbol of Gilded Age monopolies that controlled nearly 90% of the U.S. oil industry through trusts, predatory tactics, and horizontal integration, leading to its 1911 Supreme Court breakup under the Sherman Antitrust Act as a landmark case against monopolistic power.

Horizontal Integration

A business strategy where a company grows by buying out or merging with its competitors in the same industry, controlling one stage of production to reduce competition, increase market share, and form a monopoly, famously used by John D. Rockefeller with Standard Oil.

Vertical Integration

A business strategy where one company controls multiple stages of its production and supply chain, from raw materials to manufacturing and distribution, to increase efficiency, control quality, and boost profits, famously used by Andrew Carnegie in the steel industry.

Holding Company

A corporation that buys and owns controlling stock in other companies (subsidiaries) to manage their policies, allowing for industry consolidation and the creation of trusts/monopolies, famously used by figures like Rockefeller with Standard Oil to dominate markets during the Gilded Age, leading to antitrust legislation like the Sherman Act.

Laissez-faire

An economic philosophy of minimal government interference in the economy, letting the free market, supply, and demand dictate prices, wages, and production, promoting individual freedom and business growth, especially during the Gilded Age, but also leading to worker exploitation and calls for reform.

Social Darwinism

The misapplication of Darwin's "survival of the fittest" to human society, arguing that the wealthy and powerful are naturally superior, justifying laissez-faire economics, inequality, racism, and imperialism, and opposing government aid to the poor as interference with natural selection. It claimed the rich succeeded due to innate fitness, while the poor failed naturally, a concept often promoted by figures like Herbert Spencer to defend the Gilded Age's social structure.

Survival of the Fittest

The misapplication of Darwin's biological theory of natural selection to society, suggesting the wealthy and powerful were inherently superior, justifying laissez-faire economics and inequality during the Gilded Age (late 19th century). This is different from Darwin's actual concept, where "fittest" means best adapted to an environment, not necessarily strongest, and applies to passing on genes, not human social status.

Protestant Work Ethic

The Calvinist-rooted belief that hard work, discipline, and frugality are signs of God's favor, viewing labor as a divine "calling," which fueled early American Puritan industriousness, community values, and the foundation of capitalism through reinvestment rather than lavish spending. It emphasized diligence, productivity, and worldly success as evidence of being among the "elect" (chosen for salvation).

Collective Bargaining

The process where labor unions and management negotiate employment terms (wages, hours, conditions) as a group, giving workers a collective voice, a key tactic used by organizations like the AFL to achieve better pay, safety, and benefits, often leading to legally binding contracts.

Railroad Strike of 1877

America's first major nationwide labor uprising, sparked by wage cuts by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad during an economic depression, spreading to halt rail traffic across the country and leading to violent clashes, federal troops suppressing the strikers, and highlighting growing Gilded Age labor tensions and corporate power.

National Labor Union

The first major national federation uniting skilled/unskilled workers and farmers, advocating for reforms like the eight-hour workday, ending convict labor, and land reform through political action, though it struggled with internal divisions and economic downturns, paving the way for later unions like the Knights of Labor.

Knights of Labor

The first major U.S. labor organization in the Gilded Age, uniting skilled and unskilled workers, including women and African Americans, to advocate for broad social and economic reforms like an 8-hour day, equal pay, and ending child labor, but their image suffered after the "Haymarket Affair" (1886), contributing to their decline despite pioneering inclusive unionism.

Haymarket Bombing

A violent clash at a labor rally for an eight-hour day where a bomb killed police, leading to a controversial trial and executions of anarchists, damaging the labor movement's image by associating it with radicalism and violence, but also leading to the separate Labor Day holiday.

American Federation of Labor

A union of skilled craft workers, founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886, that focused on "bread-and-butter" issues like higher wages, shorter hours, and better conditions through direct negotiation, rather than broad political reform, becoming a powerful force for labor during the Gilded Age.

Samuel Gompers

The first president and a key founder of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), championing "bread and butter" unionism for skilled workers by focusing on practical goals like higher wages, shorter hours, and better conditions through collective bargaining.

Homestead Strike

A violent labor conflict at Carnegie Steel's Homestead, Pennsylvania, plant, where workers struck against major wage cuts proposed by manager Henry Clay Frick to break the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. The strike involved a lockout, Pinkerton guards clashing with strikers, and the eventual deployment of the state militia, resulting in defeat for the union.

Pullman Strike

A nationwide railroad strike by the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Company in Chicago, protesting wage cuts during an economic depression while rents in company towns stayed high, leading to federal troops intervening to break the strike, disrupting mail, and highlighting major labor-management conflict and government support for business interests.

Eugene V. Debs

A pivotal American labor leader, socialist, and presidential candidate known for organizing the Pullman Strike (1894), co-founding the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) (Wobblies), and running for President multiple times as a Socialist, notably once from prison during World War I after opposing the war due to its perceived capitalist interests. He championed workers' rights, socialist ideals, and social justice against corporate power.

“Old” Immigrants

The wave of immigrants who arrived in the United States primarily from Northern and Western Europe between the early 19th century and the 1880s. This group included individuals from countries such as Ireland, Germany, and Britain, who sought better economic opportunities, religious freedom, and escape from political turmoil. Their experiences laid the groundwork for future immigration patterns and shaped American society.

“New” Immigrants

The large wave of immigrants arriving in the U.S. from Southern and Eastern Europe (Italians, Poles, Jews, Greeks, Slavs) and Asia between the 1880s and 1920s, contrasting with "Old Immigrants" from Northern/Western Europe; they faced prejudice, lived in urban ethnic enclaves, worked low-wage jobs fueling industrialization, and sparked nativism and restrictive laws like the Immigration Act of 1924.

Chinese Exclusion Act

The first major U.S. law banning a specific nationality, prohibiting Chinese laborers from immigrating for 10 years, denying citizenship to Chinese already in the U.S., and reflecting intense anti-Chinese sentiment, nativism, and economic fears during industrialization, setting a precedent for future racist immigration policies until its repeal in 1943.

Tenement Apartments

Overcrowded, poorly built, multi-family urban housing, especially for immigrants and the working class during rapid industrialization, characterized by cramped rooms, lack of sanitation/ventilation, and high disease risk.

Ellis Island

The primary U.S. immigration processing center in New York Harbor from 1892-1954, handling over 12 million European immigrants who faced medical and legal inspections before entering America, symbolizing hope but also highlighting the era's massive influx, nativism, and restrictive immigration policies like the Quota Acts.

Political Machines

A powerful urban party organization led by a "boss" that controlled local politics by trading favors (jobs, housing, aid) for votes, especially from immigrants, using patronage and corruption (bribery, graft, election fraud) to maintain power. They offered essential services where government failed but perpetuated graft, stifled true reform, and enriched bosses, eventually leading to civil service reforms.

Tammany Hall

A powerful, corrupt Democratic political machine that dominated New York City politics in the 19th and early 20th centuries, known for using patronage (jobs, aid) to secure votes from immigrants (especially Irish), offering social services in exchange for loyalty, and enriching its leaders through bribery and graft, most famously under Boss Tweed.

Jane Addams

A pioneering social reformer, a leader in the Settlement House Movement, and co-founder of Chicago's Hull House (1889), offering social services to immigrants and the urban poor, advocating for labor laws, women's suffrage, and world peace, and becoming the first American woman Nobel Peace Prize winner (1931) for her Progressive Era activism.

Settlement Houses

Community centers in poor urban areas, often run by educated middle-class women (like Jane Addams at Hull House), providing immigrants and the poor with services like English classes, childcare, healthcare, and job training, while also serving as hubs for social reform advocacy (labor laws, women's suffrage) during the Progressive Era to bridge class divides and foster assimilation.

Melting Pot

A metaphor for the US where diverse immigrant cultures blend into a single, unified American identity, emphasizing assimilation and the shedding of old-world traits for a new, shared culture, popular during the late 19th/early 20th-century immigration waves but later challenged by ideas like the "cultural mosaic" (salad bowl) that value distinct cultural preservation.

“Gospel of Wealth”

An 1889 essay by Andrew Carnegie, defined the duty of the wealthy to use their fortunes for society's benefit, arguing that rich industrialists should act as trustees, distributing their wealth during their lifetime to public institutions like libraries and universities, rather than leaving it to heirs, thereby promoting self-improvement and justifying capitalism's inequalities. It suggested that the poor often remained poor due to character flaws, while the rich had the intelligence to manage wealth responsibly.

Clarence Darrow

A famous, controversial defense attorney known for championing civil liberties, labor rights, and modernism, famously defending John Scopes in the 1925 "Monkey Trial" against religious fundamentalism (William Jennings Bryan) and representing unpopular clients like unionists and anarchists, symbolizing the era's cultural clashes between tradition and progress.

Joseph Pulitzer

A powerful newspaper publisher (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, New York World) known for yellow journalism, using sensational stories, bold headlines, and investigative reporting to boost circulation and shape public opinion, especially during the Spanish-American War; he also pioneered modern newspaper features, fought corruption, and established the Pulitzer Prizes, becoming a significant figure in the Democratic Party.

William Randolph Hearst

A powerful newspaper publisher known for pioneering yellow journalism, using sensational headlines, exaggerated stories, and appeals to emotion (like the Spanish-American War coverage) to boost circulation and influence public opinion, shaping American media and politics for decades, including building a vast media empire with numerous newspapers and magazines.

Salvation Army

A late 19th-century evangelical movement, founded in England and brought to the U.S. in 1880, that provided practical aid (food, shelter, addiction help) to the urban poor and "down-and-outers" while preaching Christian salvation, embodying the era's social reform efforts and the developing Social Gospel, which emphasized helping society as a path to faith.

Social Gospel

A late 19th/early 20th-century religious movement applying Christian ethics to solve social problems (poverty, inequality, labor exploitation) caused by industrialization, emphasizing salvation through improving society, not just individual piety, directly influencing the Progressive Era reforms like settlement houses and child labor laws, and championed by figures like Walter Rauschenbusch.

Jane Addams

A pioneering social reformer, a leader in the Settlement House Movement, and co-founder of Chicago's Hull House (1889), offering social services to immigrants and the urban poor, advocating for labor laws, women's suffrage, and world peace, and becoming the first American woman Nobel Peace Prize winner (1931) for her Progressive Era activism.

Susan B. Anthony

A pivotal figure in the women's suffrage movement, a Quaker abolitionist, and a tireless organizer who, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869 to fight for a federal constitutional amendment for women's right to vote (suffrage). Her lifelong dedication, lobbying, and speeches, despite dying before the 19th Amendment's passage, were crucial to securing women's voting rights.

NAWSA

The leading organization that unified the women's suffrage movement from 1890 to 1920, merging rival groups and effectively lobbying for the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, using state-by-state campaigns and focusing on a federal amendment under leaders like Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt.

WCTU

A major late 19th-century reform organization that fought alcohol's societal ills (domestic violence, poverty) but expanded under Frances Willard to embrace broader issues like women's suffrage, education (kindergartens), and labor rights, becoming the largest women's group by 1911 and a driving force behind the eventual 18th Amendment (Prohibition).

Anti-Saloon League

A highly effective, powerful lobbying group founded in 1893, drawing support from Protestant churches, that spearheaded the national movement for alcohol prohibition (Temperance), using grassroots campaigns and political pressure to help achieve the 18th Amendment, making it a key player in Progressive Era social reform and the "Dry" movement.

Mark Twain

A realist author capturing post-Civil War America, famous for Huckleberry Finn, using dialect, and coining the term "Gilded Age" for the era's glittering surface hiding deep social problems like corruption and inequality, reflecting the era's shift from romanticism to gritty realism.

Frank Lloyd Wright

A revolutionary American architect known for organic architecture, designing buildings to harmonize with nature, and pioneering the uniquely American Prairie Style with its horizontal lines and open floor plans, challenging European classical traditions and embodying early 20th-century Modernism and American self-expression.

Credit Mobilier

A fraudulent construction company formed by Union Pacific Railroad insiders who overpaid themselves to build the transcontinental railroad, bribing congressmen with stock to cover up massive profits, symbolizing Gilded Age corruption and the close ties between big business and government. This scandal involved executives hiring themselves at inflated prices, using government funds, and giving payoffs to keep quiet, damaging political careers and exposing widespread graft during the era.

Interstate Commerce Act of 1887

Landmark U.S. legislation that created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to regulate railroads, marking the first federal effort to control big business, aiming to end discriminatory practices like secret rebates, pools, and long-haul/short-haul discrimination, and requiring published, "just and reasonable" rates, though it initially had weak enforcement powers.

Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

the first federal law to outlaw monopolies, aiming to promote fair competition by prohibiting "every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce". Passed during the Gilded Age to curb the power of massive trusts and big business, it allowed the government to break up anti-competitive agreements.

United States v. E.C. Knight Co.

A Supreme Court case that severely limited federal power under the Sherman Antitrust Act, ruling that manufacturing was not interstate commerce, only local, and thus beyond Congress's reach, even if the resulting monopoly controlled nearly all sugar refining.

Pendleton Act of 1881

Landmark US legislation that ended the spoils system by establishing a merit-based system for federal jobs, requiring competitive exams for qualification rather than political patronage, and creating the U.S. Civil Service Commission to administer it, marking a significant shift towards professionalized, efficient, and less corrupt government service.

Civil Service Commission

The body created by the Pendleton Act to implement a merit-based system for federal jobs, ending the corrupt spoils system by using competitive exams for hiring and promotion, ensuring jobs went to qualified individuals, not political favorites, and marking a key reform during the Gilded Age.

Panic of 1873

A severe economic depression in the U.S., triggered by over-speculation in railroads and the collapse of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873, leading to widespread bank failures, business closures, massive unemployment, and social unrest, marking the start of the "Long Depression" and fueling debates over government's economic role and the rise of third parties like the Greenback Party.

Bland-Allison Act

A U.S. law requiring the Treasury to buy and coin silver, increasing the money supply to help farmers and debtors during deflation, overriding President Hayes' veto, and reflecting the debate between gold (sound money) and silver (inflationary) standards during the Gilded Age, later amended by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.

African Americans

Following the end of Reconstruction, faced the rise of "Jim Crow" laws and sharecropping, while in national politics, they were often aligned with the pro-business Republican Party, which was seen as the party of Lincoln and the Union.

“Solid South”

The former Confederate states consistently voting Democratic from Reconstruction (post-1877) until the mid-20th century, driven by white Southerners' loyalty and Black disenfranchisement, but this bloc fractured due to the Civil Rights Movement, leading many Southern whites to shift to the Republican Party, especially in the 1960s and beyond.

Farmers’ Alliance

A late 19th-century agrarian movement in the U.S. that organized farmers to combat economic hardships (low prices, debt, high freight rates) through cooperatives (buying/selling) and political action, advocating for reforms like railroad regulation, currency expansion (silver coinage), and federal warehouses, ultimately leading to the rise of the Populist Party (People's Party) in the 1890s, a key APUSH topic representing late 19th-century reform efforts.

Omaha Platform

The 1892 political manifesto of the Populist Party (People's Party), outlining radical economic and political reforms to help farmers and laborers, including direct election of senators, a graduated income tax, government control of railroads/telegraphs, the free coinage of silver, and an eight-hour workday, challenging Gilded Age corporate power and corruption, with many ideas later influencing the Progressive Era.

Grover Cleveland

The only president with two non-consecutive terms (22nd & 24th), a Democrat known for fiscal conservatism, opposing high tariffs, fighting corruption (vetoing many bills), upholding laissez-faire economics, and facing the Panic of 1893 and Pullman Strike during his second term.

Panic of 1893

A severe economic depression in the U.S., triggered by railroad overexpansion, shaky finances, and a run on gold, leading to stock market crashes, bank failures (over 600), massive business bankruptcies (over 15,000), and soaring unemployment (around 20-25%), becoming a major Gilded Age crisis that fueled Populism and debates over monetary policy (gold vs. silver) in the 1896 election.

William Jennings Bryan

A severe economic depression in the U.S., triggered by railroad overexpansion, shaky finances, and a run on gold, leading to stock market crashes, bank failures (over 600), massive business bankruptcies (over 15,000), and soaring unemployment (around 20-25%), becoming a major Gilded Age crisis that fueled Populism and debates over monetary policy (gold vs. silver) in the 1896 election.

“Cross of Gold” Speech

A speech, given by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic Convention defining the Populist movement's push for "free silver" (bimetallism) against the gold standard, arguing it would help indebted farmers and laborers by increasing money supply, famously concluding that humanity shouldn't be "crucified on a cross of gold". It rallied Democrats, secured Bryan the presidential nomination, and highlighted the era's economic struggle between agrarian interests and big business.

William McKinley

The 25th President, 1897-1901, who is key for his role in ushering in American Imperialism, leading the U.S. to victory in the Spanish-American War, annexing territories (Hawaii, Philippines), advocating for high protective tariffs (Dingley Tariff), maintaining the gold standard, and promoting the Open Door Policy in China, all while representing the rise of Republican dominance in the "Gilded Age" to early "Progressive Era" transition.