Industrial Giants & Business
The U.S. government policy of non-interference in business affairs.
What is laissez-faire?
The typical length of a daily factory shift for Gilded Age industrial workers.
What is 12 hours?
The famous entry point for millions of "new immigrants" arriving in New York Harbor.
What is Ellis Island?
Author Mark Twain coined this term for the era to show that glittering surface wealth hid poverty and corruption.
What is the Gilded Age?
The theory applying "survival of the fittest" to human society and business competition.
What is Social Darwinism?
The industry that became America's first "big business" and created standard time zones.
What is the railroad industry?
This union, formed in 1886 and led by Samuel Gompers, focused strictly on practical goals for skilled workers.
What is the American Federation of Labor (AFL)?
Overcrowded, unsafe, and poorly ventilated apartment buildings where urban factory workers lived.
What are tenements?
Powerful political organizations that controlled city governments by trading jobs and favors for votes.
What are political machines?
Andrew Carnegie's philosophy that the rich had a moral obligation to give away their fortunes to benefit the public.
What is the Gospel of Wealth?
Andrew Carnegie made his vast fortune by dominating this industry.
What is steel?
The 1886 Chicago protest that turned violent when a bomb was thrown, turning public opinion against labor unions.
What is the Haymarket Affair (or Haymarket Riot)?
Southern and Eastern Europe (Italy, Russian Jews, and Poland) were the primary origin regions for this group of immigrants.
Who are the "New Immigrants"?
The corrupt leader who ran Tammany Hall in New York City before being targeted by political cartoons.
Who is Boss Tweed?
Hostility toward immigrants in favor of native-born citizens.
What is nativism?
Controlling every step of production, from raw materials to final distribution, is known as this type of integration.
What is vertical integration?
The 1892 steel mill strike in Pennsylvania where workers fought against Pinkerton detectives.
What is the Homestead Strike?
The first U.S. law passed in 1882 to ban a specific nationality from immigrating.
What was the Chinese Exclusion Act?
The practice of giving government jobs to political supporters.
What is the spoils system?
The term used by critics to describe ruthless industrial leaders who exploited workers and crushed rivals.
What is a "Robber Baron"?
John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil used this business strategy, buying out direct competitors to eliminate competition.
What is horizontal integration?
During major Gilded Age strikes, the federal government almost always sided with this group.
Who are business owners (or factory bosses)?
The photojournalist who exposed slum conditions in his famous book How the Other Half Lives.
Who is Jacob Riis?
The 1883 law that required civil service jobs to be awarded based on merit exams rather than political favors.
What is the Pendleton Act?
Passed in 1890, this was the first federal law intended to outlaw trusts and monopolies, though it was rarely enforced at first.
What is the Sherman Antitrust Act?