AP US History Period 6- Chapters 16 and 17

Homestead lockout

1892 lockout of workers at a steel mill after Andrew Carnegie refused to renew the union contract and the workers prepared to strike. Union supporters attacked the Pinkerton National Detective Agency guards hired to protect the mill, but the National Guard broke the strike.

management revolution

An internal management structure adopted by many large, complex corporations that distinguished top executives from those responsible for day-to-day operations and departmentalized operations by function.

trust

a combination of firms or corporations formed by a legal agreement, especially to reduce competition. My definition(trusts): A new legal form that organized a small group of associates(the board of trustees) to hold stock from a group of combined firms, managing them as a single entity. Google definition: often used during the Gilded Age by powerful industrialists like John D. Rockefeller to dominate specific industries like oil production; essentially, it's a way for companies to work together to control prices and eliminate competition.

deskilling

The elimination of skilled labor under a new system of mechanized manufacturing, in which workers completed discrete, small-scale tasks rather than crafting an entire product. With deskilling, employers found they could pay workers less and replace them more easily.

mass production

Process of making large quantities of a product quickly and cheaply

Scientific Management

a management theory using efficiency experts to examine each work operations and find ways to minimize the time needed to complete it

Chinese Exclusion Act

1882 law that barred Chinese laborers from entering the United States

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

July, 1877 - A large number of railroad workers went on strike because of wage cuts. After a month of strikes, President Hayes sent troops to stop the rioting. The worst railroad violence was in Pittsburgh, with over 40 people killed by militia men.

Greenback Labor Party

Political party devoted to improving the lives of laborers and raising inflation, reaching its high point in 1878 when it polled over a million votes and elected fourteen members of Congress.

Producerism

The argument that real economic wealth is created by workers who make their living by physical labor, such as farmers and craftsmen, and that merchants, lawyers, bankers, and other middlemen so-called parasitic to the economy and society at large unfairly gain their wealth from "producers”(those who created tangible things using their hands)

Granger Laws

Grangers state legislatures in 1874 passed law fixing maximum rates for freight shipments. The railroads responded by appealing to the Supreme Court to declare these laws unconstitutional

Knights of Labor

1st effort to create National union. Open to everyone but lawyers and bankers. Vague program, no clear goals, weak leadership and organization. Failed

Anarchism

Many groups including the socialists and Marxists of the 19th century often opposed the idea of a state. They believed society would function better without a government and that governments do nothing but promote exploitation.

Haymarket Sqaure

1886 labor-related protest in Chicago which ended in deadly violence; caused memberships in the Knights of Labor to decline because people associated unions with violence and anarchy

Interstate Commerce Act

Established the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) - monitors the business operation of carriers transporting goods and people between states - created to regulate railroad prices

closed shop

A company with a labor agreement under which union membership can be a condition of employment.

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.

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.

John D. Rockefeller

Established the Standard Oil Company, the largest monopoly in US history. Rockefeller was the America's first billionaire.

Samuel Gompers

He was the creator of the American Federation of Labor. He provided a stable and unified union for skilled workers.

Standard Oil Trust

Rockefeller's company, in 1881, owned 90 percent of the oil refinery business, with a board of trustees at the head

J.P. Morgan

Banker who buys out Carnegie Steel and renames it to U.S. Steel. Was a philanthropist in a way; he gave all the money needed for WWI and was payed back. Was one of the "Robber barons"

Vertical vs. Horizontal Integration

The controlling of all aspects of the production of a product vs. a forcing of people to merge companies into one large conglomerate to drive small competitors out of business.

"big business"

Term used to describe the corporations and monopolies since the industrial revolution of the late 1800s.

predatory pricing

the practice of charging a very low price for a product with the intent of driving competitors out of business or out of a market

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

New South

Idea that the south should industrialize after the Civil War. Despite calls for industrialization, sharecropping and tenant farming persisted in the South

Social Darnwinism

Many business leaders justified their business methods through their belief in this, a view of society based on scientist Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection.

Eugenics

study of factors that influence the hereditary qualities of the human race and ways to improve those qualities. Definition from Google: pseudoscientific theory and movement that aimed to improve the human population by selectively breeding people with desirable traits, often based on racist and classist ideas, by encouraging "superior" individuals to reproduce while discouraging those considered "unfit" from having children, leading to practices like forced sterilization in the early 20th century America; essentially, it was a belief in "improving" the human race through selective breeding

American Protective Association

Nativist organization that attacked "New Immigrants" and Roman Catholicism in the 1880s and 1890s.

Social Gospel

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

Fundamentalism

Literal interpretation and strict adherence to basic principles of a religion (or a religious branch, denomination, or sect).

Modernism

A cultural movement embracing human empowerment and rejecting traditionalism as outdated. Rationality, industry, and technology were cornerstones of progress and human achievement.

Plessy v. Ferguson

a 1896 Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal. "Separate but Equal"

YMCA

Spiritual organization meant to provide healthy activities for young workers in the cities

Negro Leagues

Formed by African Americans as a result of being excluded from participating professionally in the American and National baseball leagues, the most popular American sport.

Sierra Club

America's oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization founded in 1892 in San Fransisco, Cali first President was John Muir group was pushed by the wealthy bc they wanted to conserve the nature (despite all the land the already own and "corrupted") for their later generations

National Parks Service

Created in 1916 as a new federal bureau in the Department of Interior. Given the responsibility to administer the national parks and monuments. Currently administers 385 sites.

Audubon Society

Society created in 1886 by George Bird Grinnell designed to protect wild birds from over-hunting (he was not against hunting). This was the first society of conservationism led by Roosevelt

Comstock Act

An 1873 law that prohibited circulation of "obscene literature," defined as including most information on sex, reproduction, and birth control.

liberal arts

A form of education pioneered by President Charles W. Eliot at Harvard University, whereby students chose from a range of electives, shaping their own curricula as they developed skills in research, critical thinking, and leadership.

Atlanta Compromise

An 1895 address by Booker T. Washington that urged whites and African Americans to work together for the progress of all. Delivered at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, the speech was widely interpreted as approving racial segregation.

Maternalism

The belief that women should contribute to civic and political life through their special talents as mothers, Christians, and moral guides. Maternalists put this ideology into action by creating dozens of social reform organizations.

Feminism

the belief that women should possess the same political and economic rights as men

natural selection

A natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms best adapted to the environment.

Jim Crow

Laws implemented after the U.S. Civil War to legally enforce segregation, particularly in the South, after the end of slavery.

Antiquities Act

A 1906 act that allowed the U.S. president to use executive powers to set aside, as federal monuments, sites of great environmental or cultural significance. Theodore Roosevelt, the first president to invoke the act's powers, used them to preserve the Grand Canyon.

Thomas Edison

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

Billy Sunday

American fundamentalist minister; he used colorful language and powerful sermons to drive home the message of salvation through Jesus and to oppose radical and progressive groups.

John Muir

(1838-1914) Naturalist who believed the wilderness should be preserved in its natural state. He was largely responsible for the creation of Yosemite National Park in California.

Booker T. Washington

African American progressive who supported segregation and demanded that African American better themselves individually to achieve equality.

Ida B. Wells

African American journalist. published statistics about lynching, urged African Americans to protest by refusing to ride streetcards or shop in white owned stores

Mark Twain

The writer and humorist best known for his novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1835-1910); used "realistic fiction". He coined the term "Gilded Age" in his 1873 novel, "The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today," which satirized the era's superficial wealth and underlying corruption.

rise of sports

1896, the first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece. This led to worldwide interest in Track and Field. Baseball and football were also very popular sports in the late 1800's

leisure time

Time that you can spend however you choose.