The Progressive Era and Gilded Age Reform

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the core concepts, figures, policies, laws, and events of the American Progressive Era.

Progressive Era

A period when reformers tried to solve problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, political corruption, and unequal power.

Progressive

Someone who wants to improve society through reform.

Reform

A change intended to fix a problem.

Industrialization

The growth of factories and machine-based production.

Urbanization

More people moving into cities and cities growing.

Regulation

Rules that control how something operates.

Corruption

Using power dishonestly for personal benefit.

Suffrage

The right to vote.

Enfranchisement

Being given the right to vote.

Monopoly

A situation where one company controls most or all of a market, leaving little meaningful competition.

Trust

A business arrangement that put multiple companies under common control.

Robber Baron

A negative nickname for a powerful businessman who was viewed as exploiting workers, crushing competitors, or using unfair business practices to gain wealth.

Andrew Carnegie

An industrialist who built a huge steel business and accumulated massive wealth in the steel industry.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

An industrialist who became extremely wealthy through transportation businesses in railroads and shipping.

J. P. Morgan

A powerful financier in banking and finance who helped organize and consolidate major businesses.

Vertical Integration

A business strategy where one company controls different steps and stages of the production chain from beginning to end.

Horizontal Integration

A business strategy where a company combines or buys competitors operating at the same stage in the same industry.

Muckrakers

Journalists and writers who investigated and exposed social problems, corruption, and unfair business practices.

Ida Tarbell

A muckraker who exposed the business practices of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company.

Upton Sinclair

The author of The Jungle, which exposed terrible conditions in the meatpacking industry and helped build support for food-safety reform.

Ida B. Wells

An investigative journalist and anti-lynching activist who exposed racial violence and injustice.

Thomas Nast

A political cartoonist known for exposing political corruption, including the Tammany Hall political machine associated with Boss Tweed.

Jacob Riis

A reformer who used writing and photography to reveal poor living conditions in crowded urban neighborhoods.

Laissez-faire

An economic approach where the government generally interferes less in business and businesses have more freedom to operate without government intervention.

Grover Cleveland

U.S. President (1885–1889 and 1893–1897) who generally favored laissez-faire, opposed many special pension bills, and used federal troops during the 1894 Pullman Strike.

Theodore Roosevelt

U.S. President (1901–1909) who supported active government regulation, challenged powerful trusts, intervened on behalf of labor in the Anthracite Coal Strike, and promoted conservation.

Square Deal

Theodore Roosevelt's approach to making the economy fairer while keeping capitalism, focusing on regulating trusts, labor, railroads, and conservation.

Bully Pulpit

The president's ability to use the attention and influence of the presidency as a powerful platform to persuade the public and push an issue.

Trustbuster

A nickname earned by Theodore Roosevelt for filing more than 40 antitrust suits to challenge powerful trusts under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

A federal law passed in 1890 intended to address trusts, monopolistic practices, and restraints on competition.

Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902–1903

A coal miners' strike that marked the first time the U.S. government intervened in a labor dispute in a way that favored labor.

William Howard Taft

The second Progressive president (1909–1913) who continued federal antitrust enforcement.

Woodrow Wilson

The third Progressive president (1913–1921) who pursued economic reforms regulating banking and business competition and served during the final push for the 19th Amendment.

Economic Justice

Fairness and opportunity in the workplace, including addressing unfair trusts and labor problems.

Regulatory Agency

A government organization that oversees an industry or enforces rules.

Direct Election of U.S. Senators

A reform allowing voters to choose senators directly rather than having state legislatures select them, later established by the 17th Amendment in 1913.

Party Bosses

Powerful party leaders who could influence political decisions and government jobs.

Protectionism

Policies such as tariffs that protect domestic industries from foreign competition.

Social Reform

Changing society to fix problems that hurt people, such as public health, housing, food safety, working conditions, corruption, and voting rights.

Seneca Falls Convention (1848)

A major women's rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York, where attendees produced the Declaration of Sentiments demanding greater rights for women.

Declaration of Sentiments

A document written at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention that called attention to women's unequal treatment and demanded greater rights.

15th Amendment (1870)

A constitutional amendment prohibiting the denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous enslavement.

19th Amendment (1920)

A constitutional amendment prohibiting the denial or abridgment of voting rights on account of sex.

NAWSA

The National American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, which pursued voting rights through careful political strategy, lobbying, and state-by-state campaigns.

National Woman's Party (NWP)

A suffrage organization led by Alice Paul that focused on a federal amendment through confrontational protests, such as picketing the White House.

Anti-suffragists

People who opposed giving women the right to vote, arguing discriminatory beliefs that women were too emotional, uneducated, or should remain at home.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

A prominent reformer remembered for women's rights leadership and organizing the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention.

Lucretia Mott

A reformer remembered for her leadership in both women's rights and the abolition movement, including the Seneca Falls Convention.

Susan B. Anthony

A prominent activist remembered for leading women's suffrage activism.

Carrie Chapman Catt

Leader of NAWSA known for her careful political organizing and state-by-state suffrage strategy.

Alice Paul

Leader of the National Woman's Party known for aggressive protests and picketing for a federal suffrage amendment.

Sojourner Truth

A reformer remembered for her activism in support of Black women's rights and abolition.

Frederick Douglass

An abolitionist leader remembered for his support of voting rights and discussions on race and suffrage.

Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

A federal law that created federal regulation of interstate railroad practices.

McKinley Tariff (1890)

A federal law that raised tariffs to protect American industries from foreign competition.

Pullman Strike (1894)

A major labor conflict during which President Grover Cleveland used federal troops.

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

A federal law that helped prevent adulterated or misbranded food and drugs.

Meat Inspection Act (1906)

A federal law that established federal inspection requirements for meat products.

Conservation

The protection of natural resources such as forests and public lands, made a central focus by Theodore Roosevelt.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

A federal law that restricted Chinese immigration, representing discriminatory policy rather than an equality-advancing reform.