APUSH CH17 Vocab

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Union of skilled workers, formed in 1881 and led by Samuel Gompers, that used strikes to gain concessions from management.

American Socialist Party

Political party for economic reform created in 1901 that was closely aligned with organized labor.

Andrew Carnegie

Scottish immigrant who became a steel magnate and then philanthropist during the Gilded Age.

Edward Bellamy

Author of the utopian novel Looking Backward (1888) in which government monopolies created an equitable society.

Eugene V. Debs

Leader of the American Railway Union in the Pullman Strike of 1894; presidential candidate for the Socialist Party.

Gospel of Wealth

Term popularized by Andrew Carnegie to argue that those with immense wealth carry a greater burden to use that wealth for social progress.

Haymarket Bombing

In a clash between striking laborers and police in Chicago on May 4, 1886, an unknown person threw a bomb into a crowd, killing seven police and injuring nearly seventy others.

Henry Ford

Early leader of the automobile industry who stressed the standardization of parts and assembly lines.

Henry George

Author of Progress and Poverty (1879), which argued for tax reform on land as a way to break the power of monopolies.

Homestead Strike

A strike at the steel or mill union in 1892 that led to armed conflict and the involvement of state militia.

Horatio Alger

Author of Gilded Age books whose hardworking heroes go from 'rags to riches'.

Horizontal Integration

A corporate combination where a group of businesses that do the same things are consolidated.

John D. Rockefeller

Founder of Standard Oil, famous for horizontal and vertical integration, and the wealthiest man of the Gilded Age.

J.P. Morgan

Banker and creator of U.S. Steel.

Knights of Labor

Short-lived early national labor union that championed eight-hour work-days and the end of child labor, open to almost all workers.

Louisa May Alcott

Author of the Little Women series about an ambitious girl who taught conventional society to become a writer.

Molly Maguires

A secret society of Irish-born coal miners willing to use violence to deal with management.

Monopoly

A business entity that controls an industry or market sector without competition.

Pullman Strike

A 1894 railroad strike that escalated to twenty-seven states and tensions, ultimately broken by federal troops and resulting in management victory.

Samuel Gompers

Union organizer under whose leadership the American Federation of Labor (AFL) grew by combining similar skilled unions together.

Social Darwinism

The belief that societies are subject to the laws of natural selection and that some societies or peoples are innately superior to others.

Taylorism

Named for Frederick Winslow Taylor, an attempt to use scientific management to improve factory production.

Vertical Integration

The arrangement by which a company takes ownership of businesses in various stages of production and distribution within the same industry.

Wilbur and Orville Wright

Builders of the first self-powered airplane, successfully flown in 1903.