Growth of Big Business

Andrew Carnegie

Monopolized the steel industry, founded US Steel

John D. Rockefeller

Established the Standard Oil monopoly, used ruthless business techniques

Gospel of Wealth

Andrew Carnegie called on those who accumulated wealth to share their riches for the betterment of society

trust

A monopoly that controls goods and services, often in combinations that reduce competition.

monopoly

Complete control of a product or business by one person or group

corporation

A business that is owned by many investors.

Thomas Edison

Inventor whose lab at Menlo Park NJ patented over 1000 products, improved the light bulb, invented the microphone

Terrence Powderly/Knights of Labor

led the Knights of Labor, a skilled and unskilled union, wanted equal pay for equal work, an 8 hr work day and to end child labor.

Samuel Gompers

leader of the American Federation of Labor, a union of skilled laborers

Haymarket Square

Site of a dispute between workers and police; 4 labor leaders executed following a trial that lacked evidence

Pullman Strike

in Chicago, Pullman cut wages but refused to lower rents in the "company town", Eugene Debs had American Railway Union refuse to use Pullman cars

Nativism

favoring the interests of native-born people over foreign-born people

Robber Barons

Refers to the industrialists or big business owners who gained huge profits by forming monopolies and paying their employees extremely low wages. .

Captains of Industry

A name given company owners such as Carnegie and Rockefeller by people who believed they made positive contributions to society

New Immigrants

immigrants who had come to the US after the 1880s from southern and eastern europe

Laissez-faire

Policy that government should interfere as little as possible in the nation's economy.

Labor Union

An organization of workers that tries to improve working conditions, wages, and benefits for its members

Sherman Antitrust Act

an 1890 law that banned the formation of trusts and monopolies in the United States

muckrakers

Journalists who attempted to find corruption or wrongdoing in industries and expose it to the public

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

revealed unsanitary nature of meat-packing industry, inspired Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

Ida B. Wells

African-American journalist who led the fight against lynching

Ida Tarbell

Leading muckraking journalist whose articles documented the Standard Oil Company's abuse of power

Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives

A photographic depiction of the crowded, unsafe, rat-infested tenement buildings where the urban poor lived

Progressive Movement

an early 20th century reform movement seeking to return control of the government to the people, to restore economic opportunities, and to correct injustices in American life

Populist Movement

Political movement begun by farmers in the late 1800's seeking to limit the power of big businesses and get the government to regulate banks, railroads, and improve working conditions.

Social Darwinism

The belief that only the fittest survive in human political and economic struggle.

Transcontinental Railroad

Railroad connecting the west and east coasts of the continental US