Unit 2 – The Gilded Age & Progressive Era Vocabulary

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering critical terms, people, laws, and concepts from the Gilded Age and Progressive Era lecture notes.

Gilded Age

Label for the period 1870s–1900 marked by dazzling wealth that concealed deep political corruption, inequality, and social problems.

Mark Twain & Charles Dudley Warner

Writers who coined the ironic term “Gilded Age” to critique the era’s glittering surface and moral decay.

Industrial Expansion

Late-19th-century boom in U.S. steel, oil, and railroads that created huge national corporations.

Monopoly (Trust)

A single firm or holding company that dominates an industry and limits competition.

Standard Oil

John D. Rockefeller’s powerful oil trust that became the symbol of Gilded-Age monopoly power.

Social Darwinism

Theory using “survival of the fittest” to justify vast economic inequalities and oppose government aid.

Herbert Spencer

English philosopher who popularized Social Darwinism’s application to human society.

William Graham Sumner

Yale sociologist who defended laissez-faire and Social Darwinism in the United States.

Crédit Mobilier Scandal

1870s railroad kickback scheme that exposed high-level bribery in Congress.

Political Machine

Urban party organization that traded favors and jobs for votes and often engaged in corruption.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Nationwide labor uprising against wage cuts; signaled growing worker militancy.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Skilled-worker union founded in 1886 that sought higher wages and better conditions.

Samuel Gompers

First president of the AFL who emphasized collective bargaining for bread-and-butter gains.

Progressive Era

Circa 1900–1917 reform movement seeking efficiency, democracy, social justice, and regulation of big business.

Muckraker

Investigative journalist who exposed corruption and social ills to spur reform.

Lincoln Steffens

Muckraker whose book "The Shame of the Cities" revealed municipal corruption.

Ida Tarbell

Journalist whose exposé of Standard Oil galvanized the antitrust movement.

The Shame of the Cities

Steffens’s 1904 compilation of articles uncovering graft in urban governments.

Square Deal

Theodore Roosevelt’s domestic program promising fairness, consumer protection, and conservation.

Theodore Roosevelt (TR)

Progressive president (1901–1909) known for trust-busting, conservation, and the Square Deal.

Trust-busting

Government prosecution of monopolies to restore economic competition, notably under TR.

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

First federal law banning business practices that restrained trade or created monopolies.

Hepburn Act (1906)

Law that strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission’s power to set railroad rates.

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

Progressive law requiring truthful labeling and preventing sale of adulterated food or medicines.

Meat Inspection Act (1906)

Law mandating federal inspection of meatpacking plants to ensure sanitary conditions.

Upton Sinclair’s "The Jungle"

Novel exposing horrors of Chicago meatpacking that spurred food-safety legislation.

Conservation

Progressive policy of managing natural resources scientifically for long-term public benefit.

Gifford Pinchot

First chief of the U.S. Forest Service who advanced Roosevelt’s conservation agenda.

Direct Primary

Reform allowing party members, not bosses, to choose candidates for public office.

Initiative

Procedure enabling citizens to propose legislation directly on the ballot.

Referendum

Process that lets voters approve or reject laws passed by legislatures.

Recall

Mechanism allowing voters to remove elected officials before the end of their term.

Seventeenth Amendment

1913 amendment providing for direct election of U.S. senators by voters.

Temperance Movement

Social reform drive to curb alcohol consumption, culminating in national Prohibition.

Eighteenth Amendment

1919 amendment that established nationwide Prohibition of alcohol (later repealed).

Nineteenth Amendment

1920 amendment granting women the right to vote nationwide.

Susan B. Anthony

Prominent suffragist who campaigned for women’s voting rights and co-founded NWSA.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Early women’s rights leader and co-author of the Seneca Falls Declaration; key suffrage strategist.

Eugenics

Pseudo-scientific movement advocating selective breeding and sterilization, embraced by some Progressives.