American & National Identity
A period marked by rapid industrialization, urbanization, and wealth disparity during the late 1800s and early 1900s
What was the Gilded Age?
A nationally developed technology which greatly improved connection within the country and sped up business, allowing it to flourish
The policy of a 'free market' that allows businesses to operate with very little interference from the government
What is Laissez-faire?
The social process in which cities grow in population and importance as people move from rural areas to cities en masse, often searching for better job opportunities
What is urbanization?
A party organization headed by a single boss or small autocratic group that commands enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of a city, county, or state, usually through underhanded methods
How did the American Dream influence national identity between 1865 and 1898?
Americanization of immigrants
Success & assimilation into the society via hard work
Nativism amongst residents
Ethnic neighborhoods
A product which the invention of the assembly line made more affordable and accessible
Cars, specifically Henry Ford's Ford Model T
The increase in factories and technology for iron and steel, machinery, chemicals, and packaged food among other things in 17th century America
What was the Second Industrial Revolution?
The first major US law to restrict immigration, targeting people of Chinese descent, impacting the West Coast significantly because many Chinese immigrants entered the country and formed communities there
What was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?
How were political machines able to maintain power during the Gilded Age?
Buying the votes of the lower class in exchange for stable jobs and resources
How did the Chinese Exclusion Act reflect changing ideas about who could be considered American?
Sentiment of outsiders/immigrants being unwelcome
Surging nativism
Northwestern European white supremacy
A closed country
Why did industrialization expand so much during the late 1800s?
Quicker and easier transportation
Development of technology such as steam-powered engines and the assembly line
Urbanization en masse (more workers)
Free market
What aspects of Westward Expansion impacted the environment?
Transcontinental Railroad
Buffalo
Western mining
How did railroad expansion in the late 1800s affect migration and settlement patterns in the United States?
Encouraged westward migration by making transportation:
Cheaper
Faster
More accessible
To what extent were political machines and powerful trusts and businesses interlinked?
Powerful trusts often bribed political parties to turn a blind eye to their wrongdoings under the guise of monetary support for the machine and its campaign.
How did industrialization and the rise of big businesses during the Gilded Age shape ideas about American identity?
New idea of success and the American identity: large businesses and trusts, top 1% of wealth, philanthropy (e.g. Carnegie, Rockefeller)
Lower standards of living due to an increasing lower class made common
How did large trusts maintain power and monopoly over their respective industries?
Vertical integration
Horizontal integration
Collaboration with/bribery of local governments
What were the impacts of Laissez-fare policies on the environment?
Unregulated pollution
Overuse of resources
How did immigration during the Gilded Age lead to new ideas about how cities should be managed and improved?
Large numbers of immigrants living in crowded tenements in poor conditions
Large presence of ethnic neighborhoods
Push for better sanitation and housing conditions
Development of settlement houses
What were the proposed effects of the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act, and how do they compare to its actual impact?
Proposed:
Curb concentrations of power that interfere with trade and reduce economic competition by making all attempts to monopolize any part of trade or commerce in the United States illegal, punishable by dissolutions and injunctions
Impact:
Invoked only rarely against industrial monopolies, and then not successfully, chiefly because of narrow judicial interpretations of what constitutes trade or commerce among states
Effective use against trade unions, which were held by the courts to be illegal combinations
How did the problems of the Gilded Age, such as inequality and corruption, lead to new ideas about American identity that influenced early reform movements?
Gilded Age problems challenged by the Reformation:
Creation of widespread inequality and corruption (laissez faire)
Political corruption (political machines)
Mistreatment and underpaying of workers (monopolies, child labor)
What are the socioeconomic continuities and changes associated with the growth of industrial capitalism during this period?
Cost of goods decreasing and therefore wages increasing (improved living standard, consumerism)
Worker’s rights movements (direct contact between union leaders and business leaders)
Increased child labor
What aspects the Gilded Age altered the environment?
Second industrial revolution (factories, new inventions, etc., rapid increase of industrialization)
Laissez-faire policies
Transcontinental Railroad
Damage to buffalo populations
How did technological innovations during the Gilded Age change the way that cities were organized and governed?
Expanded, industrialized cities built for cars in place of pedestrians
Increase in public centers such as markets, malls, movie theaters, etc. due to rapid, increased production and consumerism
How did the 1890 McKinley Tariff Act contribute to the Populist movement?
Increased cost of goods, especially for farmers
Increased agrarian resentment against the Republican party