Openstax US History Chapter 18

Haymarket Affair 1886

Haymarket affair

The rally and subsequent riot in which several policemen were killed when a bomb was thrown at a peaceful workers rights rally in Chicago in 1866

Holding company

A central corporate entity that controls the operations of multiple companies by holding the majority of stock for each enterprise

Horizontal integration

method of growth wherein a company grows through mergers and acquisitions of similar companies

Molly Maguires

Asecret organization made up of Pennsylvania coal miners named for the famous Irish patriot which worked through a series of scare tactics to bring the plight of the miners to public attention

Monopoly

The ownership or control of all enterprises comprising an entire industry

Robber Baron

A negative term for the big businessmen who made their fortunes in the massive railroad boom of the late nineteenth century

ScientificManagment

Mechanical engineer Fredrick Taylor's management style, also called "stopwatch management" which divided manufacturing tasks into short repetitive segments and encouraged factory owners to seek efficiency and profitability over any benefits of personal interaction

Social Darwinism

Herbert Spencer's theory based upon Charles Darwin's scientific theory which held that society developed much like plant or animal life through a process of evolution in which the most fit and capable enjoyed the greatest material and social success

Trust

A legal arrangement where a small group of trustees have legal ownership of a business that they operate for the benefit of other investors

Verticle Integration

A method of growth where a company acquires other companies that include all aspects of a product's lifecycle from the creation of the raw materials through the production process to the delivery of the final product

Alexander Graham Bell

Inventor of the telephone

Thomas Edison

American inventor best known for inventing the electric light bulb, acoustic recording on wax cylinders, and motion pictures.

Advertising 1890-1920

An era when access to products became

more important than access to the means of production, Americans quickly accepted the notion that they could live a better lifestyle by purchasing the right clothes, the best hair cream, and the shiniest shoes, regardless of their class. For better or worse, American consumerism had begun.

Parable of the Democracy of Goods

Was central to the advertising industry in the 1920s. Advertising strategies made middle-class consumers feel as if they could experience the lifestyle of the wealthy by purchasing products supposedly used only by the upper class. The parable was intended to make all Americans believe that they could enjoy the conveniences of an upper-class lifestyle because of the wonders of mass production and distribution.

Powerful source of consolation, compensatory satisfactions (American Pencil Company, Simmons Beautyrest, Hoover vacuums), however the gap did have to be bridgeable

Cornelius Vanderbilt

United States financier who accumulated great wealth from railroad and shipping businesses. A railroad owner who built a railway connecting Chicago and New York. He popularized the use of steel rails in his railroad, which made railroads safer and more economical.

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. By 1901, his company dominated the American steel industry.

Gospel of Wealth

The belief that, as the guardians of society's wealth, the rich have a duty to serve society; promoted by Andrew Carnegie; Carnegie donated more than $350 million to libraries, school, peace initiatives, and the arts.

This softened the harshness of Social Darwinism and promoted philanthropy

John D. Rockefeller

Was an American industrialist and philanthropist. Revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy.

J. Pierpont Morgan

an American financier, banker, philanthropist, and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thompson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric.

Vertical Integration

a company handlesall aspects of a product's lifecycle, from the creation of raw materials through the production process to the delivery of the final product.

Knights of Labor

Led by Terence V. Powderly; open-membership policy extending to unskilled, semiskilled, women, African-Americans, immigrants; goal was to create a cooperative society between in which labors owned the industries in which they worked

Fredrick Taylor: Scientific Management

also called "stop-watch management," where he used stop-watch studies to divide manufacturing tasks into short, repetitive segments. A mechanical engineer by training, Taylor encouraged factory owners to seek efficiency and profitability over any benefits of personal interaction

Child Labor

Children were viewed as laborers throughout the 19th century.

working class

19th century Industrial societies developed the idea that there were only really two social classes: property-owning middle class and then the _____ _____. Before industrialization, poorer people had more varied ideas about social ranks.

Homstead Strike

union contract was up for renewal in 1892 When no

settlement was reached by June 29, Frick ordered a lockout of the workers and hired three hundred Pinkerton detectives to protect company property. On July 6, as the Pinkertons arrived on barges on the river, union workers along the shore engaged them in a gunfight that resulted in the deaths of three Pinkertons and six workers. Union lost

Pullman Strike (1894)

A staged walkout strike by railroad workers upset by drastic wage cuts. The strike was led by socialist Eugene Debs but not supported by the American Federation of Labor. Eventually President Grover Cleveland intervened because it was interfering with mail delivery and federal troops forced an end to the strike. The strike highlighted both divisions within labor and the government's continuing willingness to use armed force to combat work stoppages.

American Federation of Labor

1886; founded by Samuel Gompers; sought better wages, hrs, working conditions; skilled laborers, arose out of dissatisfaction with the Knights of Labor, rejected socialist and communist ideas, non-violent.