6.2
Negative effects of railroads?
Significant costs, many proved failures as businesses because they were built in areas with few customers and with little promise of returning a profit in the near term. Seriously damaged the environment and nearly exterminated the buffalo. American Indians who lived in the region paid a high human and cultural price.
What are some ways that Americans tried assimilation?
They set up boarding schools such as the Carlisle School in Pennsylvania to segregate American Indian children from their people and teach them White culture and farming and industrial skills.
Who were examples of self-made men and what does it mean?
Andrew Carnegie and Thomas Edison, it meant a modest young man becomes wealthy through honesty, hard work, and a little luck.
Why were dumbbell tenements deadly and what did it spread?
Because by law, each bedroom had to have a window, the cheapest way was with open ventilation shafts and those were called dumbbell tenements. They were deadly because of the overcrowding and filth caused the spread of deadly diseases, such as cholera, typhoid, and tuberculosis.
What did Walter Rauschenbusch urge and encourage?
He wrote books urging organized religions to take up the cause of social justice. His Social Gospel preaching linked Christianity with the Progressive reform movement and encouraged many middle-class Protestants to attack urban problems.
What are "Vaqueros" and what do they do
They are cowboys and raise cattle.
Where was one of the nation's leading steel producers located, (in Alabama) and what was one of the reasons that steel was significant?
Birmingham, Alabama. Steel assisted in many things in society such as buildings and technology, but most importantly, the national rail network.
Who created "iron law of wages" and what did it argue
David Ricardo created it. He argued that raising wages increased the working population, and the availability of more workers would cause wages to fall, leading to misery and starvation.
What traditional belief did Clarence Darrow's view challenge?
He challenged the traditional belief that people were born as criminals or consciously chose to become lawbreakers. He believed that criminal behavior could be caused by a person’s environment of poverty, neglect, and abuse.
What League closed down 21 states' saloons and bars and why
Anti-Saloon League, it focused on advocating total abstinence from alcohol because excessive drinking of alcohol by male factory workers was one cause of poverty for immigrant and working-class families.
What was the Act that encouraged farming on the Great Plains and what did it offer?
The Homestead Act. It offered 160 acres of public land free to any family that settled on it for a period of 5 years.
What movement was the last effort of American Indians to resist U.S government controls and what did the leader believe it could do?
Ghost Dance movement. Leaders believed it could return prosperity to American Indians.
What invention was improved in electric technology in 1866 and how did it make communication easier?
Transatlantic cable was improved in 1866 and made it possible to send messages across the seas in minutes.
Name the new immigrants from Europe in the 1890's
The “new” immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe. They were Italians, Greeks, Croats, Slovaks, Poles, and Russians.
What was President McKinley the first of and what was the major change that he made about the United States?
The first modern president, and he took the United States from being relatively isolated to becoming a major player in international affairs during the 20th century.
In 1868, an organization was made to educate farmers and their families, what was it and what did it's movement defend?
The National Grange of Patrons of Husbandry. It's movement defended members against middlemen, trusts, and railroads.
Why were grandfather clauses unfair?
What did Adam Smith argue about mercantilism and what did he believe?
Mercantilism was less efficient than allowing businesses to be guided by the “invisible hand”. He believed unregulated businesses would be motivated by their own self-interest to offer improved goods and services at low prices.
What did the Melting Pot and the Salad Bowl idea argue on?
Melting Pot: Immigrants got rid of their old characteristics in order to become successful citizens of their adopted country. (Their culture is washed away)
Salad Bowl: Neither immigrants nor their descendants gave up their religions for the Protestantism of the American majority. (Their culture stays with them)
What did the Pendleton Act of 1881 set up and what system did it create?
It set up the Civil Service Commission and created a system which applicants for classified federal jobs would be selected based on their scores on a competitive examination.
The Union Pacific employed them to build the transcontinental railroad starting from Omaha, Nebraska
War Veterans and Irish immigrants
What did the writer of “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.”, Frederick Jackson Turner, argue?
300 years of frontier experience had shaped American culture, promoting independence, individualism, inventiveness, practical-mindedness, and democracy.
What did Eugene V. Debs direct and what caused his arrest? What did he help find after his sentence?
Led a union's boycott which he directed railroad workers not to handle any trains with Pullman cars. He was arrested because he failed to respond to an injunction issued by the federal court which ordered railroad workers to abandon the boycott and the strike. After his sentence he helped to found the American Socialist Party.
It started as social clubs and later developed into power centers to coordinate the needs of businesses, immigrants, and the underprivileged.
What was the significance of the Omaha Platform political wise?
Provided the foundation of the People’s, or Populist, Party and demanded an increase in the power of common voters.