chapter 25/26

Skyscrapers

Answer: Tall steel‑frame buildings that emerged in major U.S. cities in the late 19th century.

Importance: Symbolized urban growth, technological innovation, and the shift toward dense, industrialized cities.

Sears and Montgomery ward

Answer: Major mail‑order catalog companies that sold goods nationwide.

Importance: Connected rural Americans to consumer culture and expanded the national market economy.

New immigrants

Answer: Immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe arriving between 1880–1920.

Importance: Transformed U.S. demographics and fueled nativist backlash, labor tensions, and urban growth.

America fever

Answer: The widespread excitement in Europe about opportunities in the United States.

Importance: Helped drive mass immigration that reshaped American society and labor.

Jane Addams

Answer: Progressive reformer and founder of Hull House.

Importance: Led the settlement house movement and pushed for social reforms benefiting immigrants and the poor.

Hull house

Answer: A Chicago settlement house founded by Jane Addams in 1889.

Importance: Provided education, childcare, and social services to immigrants; became a model for national reform.

Settlement houses

Answer: Community centers in poor urban neighborhoods offering services to immigrants.

Importance: Reflected Progressive Era efforts to address poverty, assimilation, and urban problems.

Darwin’s theory of evolution

Answer: The idea that species evolve through natural selection.

Importance: Sparked cultural conflict between science and religion and influenced Social Darwinism.

NAACP

Answer: Civil rights organization founded in 1909.

Importance: Fought segregation and discrimination through legal challenges, shaping early civil rights activism

Yellow journalism

Answer: Sensationalized, exaggerated news reporting used to attract readers.

Importance: Fueled public support for the Spanish‑American War and shaped modern mass media.

Victoria Woodhull

Answer: Radical feminist, reformer, and the first woman to run for president (1872).

Importance: Challenged Victorian gender norms and pushed debates on women’s rights and sexuality.

Booker T. Washington

Answer: African American leader who promoted vocational education and economic self‑help.

Importance: Advocated accommodation to segregation, influencing early civil rights strategy.

W.E.B du bois

Answer: Civil rights activist and co‑founder of the NAACP.

Importance: Opposed Washington’s gradualism, demanding immediate equality and higher education for the “Talented Tenth.”

Sensationalism

Answer: Journalism that emphasized drama, scandal, and emotion over facts.

Importance: Reflected the rise of mass media and shaped public opinion during the Gilded Age.

Temperance movement

Answer: Reform movement aimed at reducing or banning alcohol consumption.

Importance: Led to Prohibition (18th Amendment) and reflected Progressive moral reform.

Amusement Shows

Answer: Entertainment venues like vaudeville, circuses, and Coney Island attractions.

Importance: Represented new mass leisure culture in urban America and the rise of consumer entertainment.

Reservation System

Answer: Federal policy confining Native tribes to designated lands. Importance: Undermined Native autonomy and accelerated forced assimilation.

Battle of Little Big Horn

Answer: 1876 Native victory over Custer’s 7th Cavalry. Importance: Last major Native triumph; triggered harsh U.S. retaliation.

Sitting bull

Answer: Sioux leader and spiritual figure.
Importance: Symbol of Native resistance; killed during Ghost Dance crackdown.

Helen hunt jackson

Answer: Author of A Century of Dishonor.
Importance: Exposed U.S. abuses toward Natives; inspired flawed reform efforts.

Battle of Wounded Knee

Answer: 1890 massacre of Lakota Sioux by U.S. troops. Importance: Marked the end of armed Native resistance.

Dawes Severalty Act

Answer: Divided tribal lands into individual plots.
Importance: Destroyed communal landholding; caused massive Native land loss.

Comstock Lode

Answer: Huge silver discovery in Nevada (1859). Importance: Sparked mining boom and intensified silver‑currency debates.

Homestead Act

Answer: Granted 160 acres to settlers who improved the land.
Importance: Encouraged western migration but often aided speculators.

Sodbusters

Answer: Great Plains farmers who broke tough prairie sod.
Importance: Represented environmental challenges of western agriculture.

Sooners

Answer: Settlers who entered Oklahoma early before the 1889 land rush.
Importance: Symbolized chaotic western settlement and land hunger.

Frederick Jackson Turner

Answer: Historian who wrote the Frontier Thesis.
Importance: Argued the frontier shaped American democracy and identity.

Safety Valve Theory

Answer: Idea that the West relieved social pressure by offering land. Importance: Justified expansion; Turner later said the “valve” had closed.

The Grange

Answer: Farmers’ organization founded in 1867.
Importance: Fought railroad abuses; helped spark Populist politics.

Free‑Coinage of Silver

Answer: Demand to mint unlimited silver money.
Importance: Farmers backed it to fight deflation and debt.

Deflation

Answer: Falling prices due to limited money supply.
Importance: Hurt farmers and fueled Populist monetary reform.

Pullman Strike

Answer: 1894 railroad strike after wage cuts. Importance: Federal intervention showed government siding with business.

Election of 1896

Answer: McKinley (gold) vs. Bryan (silver). Importance: Defeat of Populism; rise of modern, business‑aligned politics.