apush vocab

Jacob Riis

A Danish immigrant, he became a reporter who pointed out the terrible conditions of the tenement houses of the big cities where immigrants lived during the late 1800s. He wrote How The Other Half Lives in 1890.

Sitting Bull

American Indian chief, he lead the victory of Little Bighorn

Chief Joseph

Leader of Nez Perce. Fled with his tribe to Canada instead of reservations. However, US troops came and fought and brought them back down to reservations

William G. Sumner

a political science professor at Yale University; promoted the theory that success and failure in business were governed by natural law and that no one had the right to intervene

John D. Rockefeller

Established the Standard Oil Company, the greatest, wisest, and meanest monopoly known in history

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.

Nicola Tesla

invented the first alternating current generator

Thomas Edison

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

Bonanza Farm

an enormous farm on which a single crop is grown

Social Darwinism

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

Civil Service Act (1883)

Classified 15,000 jobs as civil service positions-must take and pass a test to qualify. Attempt to eliminate patronage.

Dawes Act (1887)

tried to civilize Indians and make them more little settlers by giving them land to farm, instead it harmed their native culture

Social Gospel

A movement in the late 1800s / early 1900s which emphasized charity and social responsibility as a means of salvation.

Horizontal Integration

Absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in the same level of production and sharing resources at that level

Vertical Integration

Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution

Trusts

Firms or corporations that combine for the purpose of reducing competition and controlling prices (establishing a monopoly). There are anti-trust laws to prevent these monopolies.