The Industrialization Mechanics
Corporate Giants & Economic Power
Labor, Unrest, & Urbanization
Muckrakers & The Progressive Impulse
Reforming the System
100

This 1850s technological breakthrough allowed for the mass production of high-quality steel , directly enabling the construction of the transcontinental railroad and the first skyscrapers

The Bessemer Process

100

 This business strategy involves a company taking over its suppliers and distributors (like Andrew Carnegie’s steel company ) to gain total control over the production process

Vertical integration

100

This 1886 Chicago protest turned violent after a bomb exploded, leading to public associations between unions and radicalism or anarchism.

Haymarket Riot?

100

This muckraker wrote a scathing exposé titled The History of Standard Oil , which helped lead to the breakup of Rockefeller’s monopoly.

Ida Tarbel

100

 These three political reforms allowed citizens to bypass legislatures to propose laws, vote on laws, or remove corrupt officials.

Initiative, referendum, and recall

200

This inventor established the first industrial research laboratory at Menlo Park , where he developed a system of organized innovation that produced the lightbulb and the phonograph

 Thomas Edison

200

This term describes a legal arrangement where a small group of people (trustees) manages the stock of several companies as if they were one, often resulting in a monopoly

A trust?

200

Unlike the "Old Immigrants" from Northern Europe , "New Immigrants" often settled in crowded, low-cost housing units known as these.

Tenements?

200

Jane Addams was a pioneer of this movement, which established community centers in immigrant neighborhoods to provide social services.

The settlement house movement?

200

 Ratified in 1913, the 17th Amendment  shifted power to the people by mandating this change for the U.S. Senate.

The direct election of senators?

300

This economic philosophy, famously championed by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations , argued that a market economy functions best with minimal government interference.

Laissez-faire

300

While some called them "Robber Barons" , Andrew Carnegie argued in his "Gospel of Wealth" that the rich had a moral duty to practice this giving back to society through libraries and universities.

philanthropy 

300

 This leader of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) focused on "pure and simple" unionism, seeking better wages and hours through collective bargaining.

 Samuel Gompers?

300

This investigative novel by Upton Sinclair was intended to highlight worker exploitation but resulted in the Meat Inspection Act of 1906.

The Jungle

300

 This 1913 act created a central banking system to manage the national money supply and provide economic stability.

The  Federal Reserve Act 

400

To maximize efficiency, companies like Ford later used this method of manufacturing where workers perform a specific task repeatedly as parts move along a track.

assembly line?

400

John D. Rockefeller used this strategy to acquire or merge with nearly all his competitors in the oil industry to create Standard Oil

horizontal integration?

400

 This photojournalist’s book, How the Other Half Lives , used flash photography to expose the horrific living conditions of the urban poor.

Jacob Riis?

400

Theodore Roosevelt’s policy of distinguishing between "good trusts" and "bad trusts" to protect the public interest was known by this term.

Trust busting

400

This tragic 1911 industrial disaster led to a massive push for municipal reform  and stricter workplace safety regulations.

Triangle Shirtwaist fire

500

This communication device, patented by Alexander Graham Bell , revolutionized the speed of business transactions, surpassing the older telegram

Telephone

500

This pseudoscientific theory applied "survival of the fittest" to human society to justify the vast concentration of wealth and the lack of social welfare.

Social Darwinism?

500

 This 1882 law was the first significant federal legislation to restrict immigration based on a specific nationality.

 Chinese Exclusion Act


500

This radical leader of the National Woman’s Party used picketing and hunger strikes to pressure the government into passing the 19th Amendment

Alice Paul

500

 This 1883 law attempted to end the "spoils system" by requiring that many federal jobs be filled based on merit rather than political patronage.

What is the Pendleton Act