GILDED
This Edison invention led to increased work hours and production
What is the light bulb?
This act (law) encourage western migration in the USA
What is the Homestead Act?
When train workers blocked the mail in 1894, President Cleveland deployed the U.S. Army to crush their boycott, creating a massive precedent for increased federal involvement with labor unions.
What is the Pullman Strike?
Politicians realized begging for donations was hard, so they passed this constitutional amendment to legally skim your earnings, hitting higher earners hardest with various rates based on income.
What are the 16th Amendment and the progressive income tax?
Alexis de Tocqueville coined this term to describe how Americans tend to isolate themselves into tiny private bubbles with family and friends, completely abandoning the rest of society to fend for itself.
What is Individualism?
W.E.B. Du Bois wasn't just dropping academic reality checks on white supremacy; he co-founded this legendary organization in 1909 to use the courts, the press, and pure litigation power to clock systemic racism once and for all.
What is the NAACP?
This Age that saw the rise of monopolies that controlled interstate commerce, corruption and political machines.
What is the Gilded Age?
Natives sent to boarding schools - Tribal lands were split into individual lots - Suppresion of religion - Dress like "Americans"
These were methods to force American Indians to...
What is assimilation?
During the late 19th century, these widespread prejudices—fueled by intense nativism and anti-immigration hostility—targeted incoming foreign workers and pressured Congress into passing strict exclusion laws.
What are Nativist or anti-immigrant sentiments?
When Gilded Age politicians refused to cooperate, Progressive reformers responded with this ultimate trio: writing their own laws, forcing legislature bills onto the ballot for a vote, and firing corrupt officials mid-term.
What are initiative, referendum, and recall?
Officially securing the right to vote required years of agonizing protests, force-feedings, and finally a constitutional amendments—proving that getting to the ballot really did involve a whole lot of suffering.
What is suffrage?
After a disappointed job seeker assassinated President Garfield, Congress ended the toxic spoils system with this 1883 law—forcing federal hires to pass merit exams instead of just riding on nepotism.
What is the Pendleton Act?
This Act (law) was necessary because railroads unfair pricing and predatory business methods.
What is the Interstate Commerce Act?
Got some land for 5 years to work?
What is the Homestead Act?
Jane Addams argued that city housekeeping was failing because women were excluded from these two key avenues of political power.
What are suffrage and participation in government?
Upton Sinclair’s gory book The Jungle, about sawdust, severed fingers, and poisoned rats getting swept into the meat grinder revolted readers so badly that Congress was forced to finally step up and safeguard these two vital public priorities.
What are consumer health and safety?
The USA dressed up an ACT of theft as a total favor by flipping 90 million acres of Native Americans land to white settlers. Native Americans reacted with "...AWES 💩".
What is the Dawes Act?
Refusing to let big-business polluters run up the continent's tabs, TR set aside 230 million acres of to create these...forests and monuments for everybody
What are National parks?
He poured millions into public libraries and music halls to distract people from the fact that his ruthless steel empire built wealth by crushing unions and working men to the bone.
Who is Andrew Carnegie?
If you loved fire hazards, zero windows, and rooming with 12 strangers in a dark, suffocating hallway, Jacob Riis took shocking photos of these NYC apartment buildings to make sure you never moved into one.
What are tenements?
That frantic era when society looked at child labor, rat-infested sausages, and political bosses bribing everyone, and said, "Okay, let's stop being disgusting and fix everything at once."
What was The Progressive Era?
Sick of corporate bribe money, corrupt state politicians, and deadlocked legislatures leaving empty seats, the country passed this 1913 constitutional amendment to let voters pick U.S. Senators directly by popular vote.
What is the 17th Amendment?
After these investigative journalists exposed gross corporate greed and literal meat-packing horrors, Washington was forced to pack up big business with sweeping reform laws—proving that if you cook greedy monopolies in the press, congress will actually pass legislation to stop the abuse.
Who were Muckrakers?
Gilded era issues forced this era.
What is The Progressive Era?
Because cows refused to walk 1,000 miles just to be some dudes dinner in Boston, millions of longhorns were dragged to Kansas depots just to catch a ride on this chugging mode of transportation.
What is the Railroad?
If you wanted a government job after 1883, "knowing a guy" was no longer enough—this law made sure applicants actually had to pass a competency test instead of just bribing their way into office.
What is the Pendleton Act
Moral reformers blamed 100% of society's problems—from crime to bad parenting—on booze, leading directly to the passage of this infamous constitutional amendment.
What is the 18th Amendment?
Male politicians held out as long as humanly possible, but suffragists finally cornered them into ratifying this constitutional amendment so states could no longer ban people from voting based on gender
What is the 19th Amendment?
Long before Instagram, this legendary journalist repped racial equality by dragging southern lynch mobs with raw receipts, forcing America to face its systemic hatred. She was all about equality
Who is Ida B. Wells?
Marcus stared at his phone, debating whether to leave town for good, before finally texting Maya, I Just Might.
Across town, Maya's best friend groaned at the incoming call, shouting, "Janice STFU—don't answer that!" Ignoring her, Maya stepped outside into the Dead Fresh night air and unread the note Marcus had left earlier, carefully Folded in her palm. Inside was a simple plea: "Tell me What You Need." She smiled and texted back: "Come over."
What are the Top 5 R&B / Rap songs in America?