Unit 6

Key Terms

Andrew Carnegie

Scottish-American industrialist. Led the expansion of the American steel industry.

Vertical Integration

One company controlled all aspects of production from raw materials to finished goods.

Gustavus Swift

Chicago cattle dealer. Pioneered vertical integration. Invested in refrigerator cars and constructed a packing plant. Built branch houses and fleets of delivery wagons. Constructed factories to make fertilizer and chemicals.

Predatory Pricing

Slashed prices to below production costs so other suppliers can’t compete and are forced to leave the market.

John Rockefeller

Went into the kerosene business. Succeeded through vertical integration. Owned the ‘Standard Oil of Ohio’ firm. Allied with railroad executives.

Horizontal Integration

When competitors are driven to failure, they’re invited to merge their companies.

Standard Oil

Rockefeller’s company that controlled 95% of the US oil refining capacity.

Thomas Edison

Inventor of light bulb, phonograph, and moving pictures. Operated an independent laboratory.

Department Stores

Sold different products in separate departments. Displayed small retail shops.

Sears

Retailer. Mail-order company who sold tools, clothes, furniture, and toys.

Ladies Home Journal

First magazine with a million subscribers. Articles on home decoration and family life, encouraged Americans to try new inventions/products.

White-Collar Workers

Held professional positions within a corporation.

Blue-Collar Workers

Worked on the shop floor.

Middle Managers

Directed the flow of goods, labor, and information. They were key innovators who worked to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Traveling Salesmen

Rode rail networks from town to town, introducing new products, offered incentives, and suggested sale displays to merchants.

Sales Clerks

Women who dusted and condensed stock then tried to sell it to customers to earn the small commissions that was their weekly pay.

Mass Production

System of mechanized manufacturing. Machines soon could operate without human oversight.

Frederick Taylor

Expert on metal-cutting methods. Scientific Management strategist.

Scientific Management

Hire experts to develop “rules, laws, and formulae.” Get rid of workers’ authority. Each worker was supposed to perform in a given time and environment.

Ellis Island

A receiving station in New York where European immigrants were routed through.

European Immigrants

Saw the US as the land to get rich. Many wanted to work and save then go back home. Jews escaped religious repression. They often did low-paid labor.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Barred Chinese laborers from entering the US. Barred almost all Chinese women.

Asian Immigrants

Faced harsher treatment than Europeans. First Chinese immigrants arrived after the California Gold Rush. Filled low-wage jobs. Created exclusion acts against them.

Trade Unions

Negotiated better wages, reasonable hours, and safer conditions directly with employers.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Protesting steep wage cuts, workers walked off the job, bringing rail travel and commerce to a halt.

National Guard

Enforced order and withstood assault by future strikers and rioters.

The Grange

Set up its own banks, insurance companies, grain elevators, and manufacturing plant for farm implements. Also advocated political action.

Greenback-Labor Party

Protested the fading of Reconstruction, opposed convict labor, and urged that every man’s vote be protected. Advocated laws to regulate corporations and enforce an 8-hour limit shift. Print more greenback dollars!

Producerism

Real economic growth is created by workers who make their living by physical labor.

Knights of Labor

A secret society of garment workers. Believed that ordinary people needed control over the enterprises they worked at. Open membership but excluded the Chinese.

Haymarket Square

Most infamous strike/protest that was blamed on the Knights, this led to their fall and damaged the American Labor Movements.

Farmer’s Alliance

Movement to form local organizations to advance farmers' collective interests. Became the largest farmer-based movement.

Interstate Commerce Commission

Investigated interstate shipping; forced railroads to make their rates public; forced companies to reduce “unjust or unreasonable” rates.

Wabash vs. Illinois (1886)

Prohibited states from regulating railroads.

Closed Shop

All jobs reserved for Union members, kept out lower-wage workers.

American Federation of Labor

Made up of skilled and well-paid workers. Became the nation’s leading voice for workers. Less welcoming to women and black people. Limited to skilled craftsmen.

Samuel Gompers

Led the ideological assault on the Knights. He hammered out the pure and simple unionism. Led the AFL until 1924.

Comstock Laws

Prohibited circulation of almost any information about sex and birth control.

Coeducational High Schools

Boys and girls went to school together. Friendly rivalry. Concerned some people.

Booker T. Washington

Leading public voice of African Americans. Founded the Tuskegee Institute in 1881.

Tuskegee Institute

Founded by T. Washington. Focused on industrial education for African Americans.

Vassar College

Single-sex institution that implemented strict exercise for female students so they can keep healthy ovaries.

YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association)

Combined vigorous activities for young men with an evangelizing appeal.

The “Strenuous Life”

Roosevelt said that men should take on manly sports.

Baseball

Stick and ball game. Popularity spread in military camps during the civil war. Team owners were businessmen who shaped the sport to please fans. It provided fresh air and exercise.

Negro Leagues

Black players and fans turned to segregated professional teams. They showcased the manhood and talent of black men.

Football

Controversial sport, violent games. Soon attracted business sponsorship.

“Gibson Girl”

An elite beauty who played tennis or swan at the beach.

The “New Woman”

Hailed for her athleticism and public spirit.

National Park Service

An act that extended the reach of national forests, public lands for preservation and recreation. National parks became increasingly popular places to hike, camp, and contemplate natural beauty.

Lacey Act

Allowed the US president, without congressional approval, to set aside “objects of historic and scientific interest” as national monuments.

John Muir

Imaginative inventor, a keen observer of nature. Founded the Sierra Club.

Sierra Club

Dedicated itself to preserving and enjoying mountain regions.

P.T. Barnum

Showman who used the rail networks to develop his traveling circus. Made his show a family entertainment for audiences of all classes and races.

Pullman Company

Manufactured railcars with taste and elegance. With rich decorations and structure.

Women’s Club

Studied problems like pollution, unsafe working conditions, and urban property.

Maternalism

The quality of having or showing the tenderness and warmth and affection of or befitting a Christian mother.

Frances Willard

Leader of the WCTU. One of the first mainstream American reformers to call for women’s suffrage.

The Women’s Christian Temperance Union

Became the leading US organization advocating prohibition of liquor. It launched women into public reform. Became the first national organization to identify and combat domestic violence.

Prohibition Party

A new political party that also opposed the sale or consumption of alcohol.

Daughter’s of the American Revolution

Members devoted themselves to celebrate the memory of Revolutionary war heroes.

National Association of Colored Women

A network of local women’s clubs that focused their attention on community support. Arranged for the care of orphans, founded elderly homes, worked for temperance, and undertook public health campaigns.

National Baptist Church

Largest African-American women’s organization that dedicated themselves to funding programs that would benefit their communities.

Feminism

Intellectuals, journalists, and labor organizers who supported voting rights, articulated broad goals for women’s personal development.

Greenwich Village

A site of sexual rebellion, where radical intellectuals, including gays and lesbians, created a vibrant community.

Heterodoxy Club

Open to any woman who pledged not to be “orthodox in her opinions.”

Domesticity

Promotes civilized home life.

Missionaries

Won converts by offering medical care and promoting scientific progress and women’s education.

Charles Darwin

British naturalist. Proposed the theory of natural selection and evolution (didn’t like that word though).

Social Darwinism

Herbert Spencer’s idea that human society had advanced through competition and “survival of the fittest.”

Eugenics

Argued that mentally deficient people should be prevented from reproducing. Proposed sterilizing those deemed “unfit.”

Realism

“To picture the daily life in the most exact terms possible.”

Naturalism

Humans are blind victims of forces beyond their control, including subconscious impulses and desires.

Modernism

Rejected traditional canons of literary taste. Focused on the subconscious and “primitive” mind. Religious skeptics or atheists.

Stephen Crane

Author who “tried to capture ‘a world full of fists” in his fiction. Helped create literary naturalism.

Mark Twain

America’s most famous fiction writer. He became one of the bitterest voices criticizing America’s idea of progress.

Armory Show (1913)

Introduced modern art. Controversial. Became a marker of the shift from Romanticism to Realism, and then to Modernism.

Catholic Schools

For religious education so religion wouldn’t be swept away.

Reform Judaism

Modified or abandoned many traditional Jewish beliefs, laws, and practices to adapt to the changed social, political, and cultural conditions of the modern world.

Social Gospel

Movement to renew religious faith through dedication to public welfare and social justice.

The Salvation Army

Spread a message of repentance among the urban poor, offering assistance programs. Started with soup kitchens and then turned to shelters for former prostitutes.

Fundamentalism

Reaffirmed the literal truth of the Bible and the certainty of damnation for those not born again in Christ.

Billy Sunday

One of the most popular Protestant preachers. He used to be a baseball players. Championed antiradicalism and prohibition.

Trolleys, “Els,” and Subways

Primary mode of transportation in most cities. Electric and highspeed.

Suburbs

Outlying residential districts for the well-to-do. Affluent wives and children enjoyed refuge from the pollution and dangers from the city.

Telephone

Allowed suburban wives and urban businessmen to stay in touch during the workday. Developed by Alexander Graham Bill.

Skyscrapers

Expensive construction, but it enabled downtown landowners to leverage the cost of a small plot of land. Was favored by large corporations as it symbolized business prowess and centralized corporate.

Louis Sullivan

Architect who designed the Chicago School dedicated to the design of buildings, their structure, and function.

Thomas Edison

Invented the incandescent bulb (1879).

Ethnic Neighborhood

Chinatown, Italian North Beach, and Jewish Hayes Valley, driven by discrimination and by immigrants’ desire to stick together.

Amadeo Giannini

His Banca d’Italia was the first financial institution to reopen in the Bay Area. It eventually became the Bank of America.

Race Riots

Urban danger faced by black people. An attack by white mobs triggered by street altercations or rumors of crime.

Tenements

Term given to the overcrowded housing for workers and the poor.

Vaudeville

Theater where customers can watch musical acts, skits, juggling, magic shows, etc.

Coney Island

Great amusement parks. Offered a chance to come over by ferry, escape the hot city, and enjoy rides.

Ragtime

Syncopated beat brought on by African Americans.

Scott Joplin

Composer. Introduced ragtime at the Chicago World’s Fair.

Metropolitan Opera

Orchestras. Composers and conductors embraced new musical forms.

Joseph Pulitzer

Owner of St. Louis Post Dispatch and New York Journal. Wrote about investigations, human interest stories, sports, fashion, and high society.

William Randolph Hearst

Challenger for Pulitzer. Owned San Francisco Examiner and New York World.