APUSH: Unit 6 -Key Terms

Dumbell Tenement

(mostly US/New York) lower class housing building with interconnecting rooms off a center hallway and a narrow central airshaft between buildings. Illegal by 1901. SIGNIFICANCE: led to overcrowding which promoted the spread of deadly diseases such as tuberculosis, typhoid, and cholera

Homestead Strike - The Amalgamated

Also known as the steel strike or Homestead massacre. It was an industrial lockout and strike which began on July 1, 1892. Significance: The strike became one of the biggest industrial disputes. It eventually led to a loss for both the workers and the union. Furthermore, the strike was ended only after the governor of Pennsylvania called the state militia in order to regain control.

American Protective Association

An organization created by nativists in 1887 that campaigned for laws to restrict immigration SIGNIFICANCE: largest anti-Catholic movement in the United States

Russell Conwell - "Acres of Diamonds"

Baptist minister and his lecture, supporter of "wealth is available to all" theory. gave this lecture more than 6000 times between 1880 and 1900 SIGNIFICANCE: advocated for the fact that everyone has an opportunity to become successful

Dime novels

Cheaply bound and widely circulated novels that became popular after the Civil War depicting such scenarios from the "Wild West" and other American tales. SIGNIFICANCE: popular entertainment in the United States due to the cheap price and the dramatic adventures of a heroic figure

Coney Island

Created as a way for working-class people to temporarily escape the hardships of the working, Coney Island became an amusement park with rides and attractions that contrasted the grim realities many were living. SIGNIFICANCE: epitome of mass culture

National Labor Union

Definition: 1866 - established by William Sylvis - wanted 8hr work days, banking reform, and an end to conviction labor - attempt to unite all laborers Significance: Unions raised the wages of their members both by forcing consumers to pay more for what they buy or do without and by costing some workers their jobs. They have the same harmful effect on the economy as other cartels, despite benefiting some workers instead of stock owners.

Wabash Case

Definition: 1886 supreme court case that decreed that individual states had no power to regulate interstate commerce Significance: Led to the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

American Federation of Labor

Definition: 1886; founded by Samuel Gompers; sought better wages, hrs, working conditions; skilled laborers, arose out of dissatisfaction with the Knights of Labor, rejected socialist and communist ideas, non-violent. Significance: They were consolidated into the ones that were irreplaceable so they had bargaining power and could enact change.

Knights of Labor

Definition: 1st effort to create National union. Open to everyone but lawyers and bankers. Vague program, no clear goals, weak leadership and organization. Failed Significance: A union that established the workers rights with many of its policies being adopted by the Populist movement.

Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor

Definition: A Century of Dishonor is a non-fiction book by Helen Hunt Jackson first published in 1881 that chronicled the experiences of Native Americans in the United States. Significance: The book focused on the injustices that surrounding Native Americans. It aroused public awareness of the federal government's long record of betraying and cheating Native Americans. However, it didn't help and instead prompted Dawes Act.

Andrew Carnegie

Definition: A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. By 1901, his company dominated the American steel industry. Significance: He and his British counterpart discovered that by blowing air into molten iron you could create a stronger substance called steel. He later dominated the steel industry and eventually sold his company for 400 million to J.P. Morgan before retiring for philanthropy.

Frederic Remington

Definition: A painter and sculptor who captured the romance of the west. He became one of the most beloved and successful artists of the nineteenth century. Significance: His paintings and sculptures portrayed the cowboy as a natural aristocrat living in a natural world in which all the normal supporting structures of "civilization" were missing.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Definition: A railroad owner who built a railway connecting Chicago and New York. He popularized the use of steel rails in his railroad, which made railroads safer and more economical. Significance: Self-made multi-millionaire who became one of the wealthiest Americans of the 19th century. In the 1860s, he shifted his focus to the railroad industry, where he built another empire and helped make railroad transportation more efficient.

Pullman Strike (1894)

Definition: A staged walkout strike by railroad workers upset by drastic wage cuts. The strike was led by socialist Eugene Debs but not supported by the American Federation of Labor. Eventually President Grover Cleveland intervened because it was interfering with mail delivery and federal troops forced an end to the strike. The strike highlighted both divisions within labor and the government's continuing willingness to use armed force to combat work stoppages. Significance: When the Pullman railroad car company laid off workers and slashed their wages, the American railway union led a national strike that shut down the country's railroad system. George Pullman called on the federal government to break the strike and get the trains running again.

Scientific Management aka "Taylorism"

Definition: A theory of management which governs based on the principles of efficiency in order to improve productivity and minimize the amount of downtime. Was based off the book The Principles of Scientific Management by Frederick Taylor. Significance: The significance is that it did for management what Ford did for assembly by streamlining it.

Pool --> Trust/monopoly (its evolution)

Definition: Agreements to divide the business in a given area and share the profits. Significance: Kept prices high and competition low. The Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 made railroads publicly publish their prices and it outlawed the pool.

Thomas Edison

Definition: American inventor best known for inventing the electric light bulb, acoustic recording on wax cylinders, and motion pictures. Significance: His inventions allowed industry to continue indefinitely, and scientifically.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show

Definition: Among one the reasons for widespread admiration of the cowboy. Featured a Hero of popular dime novels for children. Significance: Exploited own fame and romanticized life of the cowboy. Helped keep image alive for generations, romance, glamour. The romanticized idea of the cowboy lasted for a very long time.

I.M. Singer and Company

Definition: An American manufacturer of domestic sewing machines, first established by Isaac Merritt Singer with New York lawyer Edward Clark. Significance: It was best known for its sewing machines and led to many improvements in the design of the sewing machine. Later became one fo the first American multi-national businesses.

J.P. Morgan

Definition: Banker who buys out Carnegie Steel and renames it to U.S. Steel. Was a philanthropist in a way; he gave all the money needed for WWI and was payed back. Was one of the "Robber barons" Significance: One of the most powerful bankers in his era, JP Morgan financed railroads and helped organize US steel, General Electric and other major corporations.

Joseph Glidden - barbed wire

Definition: Barbed Wire was first introduced by Joseph Glidden. Farming on plains presented special problems. Significance: Farmers needed to enclose their lands but had little materials. It Revolutionized fencing world, became standard farm equipment

Crazy Horse + Sitting Bull

Definition: Both led bands of warriors with each other when white officials ordered them to return to their reservations. Significance: Symbols of Native American Resistance. They led the Lakotas and Cheyennes against 256 government troops led by Colonel George Custer in Montana; the Indian resistance was overwhelmed by relentless American pursuit and a shortage of supplies.

Buffalo (How important it was to the Plain Indians)

Definition: Buffalo were the foundation of Plain Indian's life. They provided food, clothing, and weapons, and it also played a central role in their spiritual life. Significance: White people killed off tons of Buffalo, directly impacting native's daily life.

Californios + rancheros of the ranchos

Definition: Californios were Hispanic residents of California who were afraid of losing land to English-speaking immigrants. Significance: Rancheros wereMexican landowners in the southern part of California who managed to hang on to their land during white expansion because of the large market of cattle created by the anglo communities in the north of the state which the southern rancheros were raising. However, reckless expansion, growing indebtedness, and a severe drought in the 1860s devastated the Mexican ranching culture. By the 1880s the hispanic aristocracy of California largely ceased to exist.

Cowboys myth vs. reality:

Definition: Cattle handlers who drove large herds across the southern Great Plains. The era of the cowboy lasted from 1870 to the late 1880s. A lot of the cowboys were people of color. Significance: The conditions in which cowboys actually worked and their stories are not what the myth says them to be. Cowboys were romanticised and created a false perception of the West.

Big Four - Stanford, Huntington (Hopkins and Crocker not important)

Definition: Central Pacific Railroad, American company founded in 1861 by a group of California merchants known later as the "Big Four". They are best remembered for having built part of the first American transcontinental rail line. Significance: Played a major role in connecting the east and western coasts of the United States.

"Coolies"

Definition: Chinese indentured servants whose conditions were like slavery. They Moved to Hawaii, Australia, Latin America and United States looking for better lives Significance: These working conditions emerged during the gradual abolition of slavery. Coolies were used to replace slave labor. It showed white self-superiority.

Chinese "tongs"

Definition: Chinese organizations that were secret societies. Some were violent criminal organizations, involved in opium trade and prostitution. Significance: They usually resided within the Chinatowns and were linked to crime.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Definition: Congress response to political pressure and growing violence- Banned Chinese immigration in U.S. for 10 years, barred Chinese already in U.S. from becoming naturalized citizens- Chinese population decreased by a lot Significance: Congress renewed the law for another ten years in 1892 and made it permanent in 1902. It had a dramatic effect on the Chinese population, which declined by more than 40 percent in the forty years after the act's passage.

Haymarket Square bombing

Definition: Demonstration by union workers where a bomb went off killing or injuries dozens. This event hurt the labor movement and the Knights of Labor Significance: Destroyed the Knights of Labor and established in the minds of the American people that all union workers were anarchists

Henry Ford - Moving assembly line

Definition: Faster & less expensive production of cars which involved specialized work for individuals Significance: This system was adopted by future big business in order to minimize costs and led to the rise of fast food chains which also adopted this style.

Comstock Lode

Definition: First major silver ore discovered in the US. Located in Virginia City, Nevada. Significance: Once news broke out, thousands swarmed out in pursuit of riches and set up boom towns.

Apaches + Geronimo

Definition: Geronimo was the leader of the Bedonkohe band of the Apache tribe Significance: Fought for decade longer but with each raid, Natives suffered the most. Geronimo surrendered after realizing odds not in his favor

Dawes Severalty Act (1887) + assimilation

Definition: Gradual elimination of most trial ownership of land and allotment of tracts to individual owners. Adult owners given U.S. citizenship, could not gain full title to property for 25 years. Tried to assimilate Indians, put kids in White boarding schools, encourage spread of Christianity. Significance: It was so corrupt that most land was never distributed to individuals. Native American culture was weeded out amongst the process of assimilation.

Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis

Definition: He said that humanity would continue to progress as long as there was new land to move into. The frontier provided a place for homeless and solved social problems. Significance: He overemphasized the importance of the frontier. He believed that the west was the most important part of America's history.

Samuel Gompers

Definition: He was the creator of the American Federation of Labor. He provided a stable and unified union for skilled workers. Significance: Gompers fostered the separation of the cigar makers and other craft unions from the Knights of Labor to form the AFL, of which he was president from 1886 to 1925. He distrusted reformers, fearing their influence would divert labour's efforts away from economic goals.

Horatio Alger + American Dream/"self-made man"

Definition: Horatio was the author of many novels which spoke of young boys who rose from poverty to become successful and this helped the American Dream become propagated as well as the ideology of the self made man. Significance: This shaped American culture in the United States and the values of the society.

Vertical vs. Horizontal Integration

Definition: Horizontal controls all the manufacturing process Vertical a supply chain are united through a common owner. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or (market-specific) service, and the products combine to satisfy a common need. Significance: Led to the creation of monopolies, which in turn led them being outlawed.

Reservations/"concentration" policy

Definition: Idea of establishing one great enclave that many tribes could live in; each tribe would be assigned its own defined reservation confirmed by separate treaties. Significance: This policy divided tribes up and made it easier for whites to control them. White people would use the reservations to instill western ideals on the native people. They also used them to separate them from society.

Laissez Faire (Edward ends)

Definition: Idea that government should play as small a role as possible in economic affairs. Significance: Free trade is an important principle of maximizing economic welfare and enabling countries to mutually profit from trade. It avoids the inefficiency and possible corruption of heavy government intervention in markets where bureaucrats have limited information.

Union Pacific RR + Central Pacific RR (Edward start)

Definition: In 1862, Congress hastily passed the Pacific Railroad Act. This act led to the creation of the Union pacific, which would lay rails west from Omaha, and the Central Pacific, which would start in Sacramento and build east. Significance: In 1869, The Presidents of the Union pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet in Promontory, Utah, and drive a ceremonial last spike into a rail line that connects their railroads. This made transcontinental railroad travel possible for the first time in U.S. history.

Little Big Horn + Custer's Last Stand

Definition: In 1875 the Sioux rose up and left their reservation. White officials told them to return but they gathered in Montana and United 2 great leaders: Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. The tribal warriors surrounded and killed all of George Custer's men and himself. The Chiefs had gathered 2,500 warriors (largest Indian army at one time) Significance: Lieutenant Custer and his seventh Calvary charged into battle against Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne where he and his men were completely killed.

Alexander Graham Bell

Definition: Invented the telephone Significance: Revolutionized communication by making it instantaneous

Stephen Kearney + Taos Indian Rebellion

Definition: Kearney commanded American troops in New Mexico during Mexican War. Tried to establish territorial government out of 1000 Anglo-Americans, ignoring the 50,000 Hispanics. Significance: Indians rebelled and killed new governor and other Anglo-American officials before being subdued by US army forces because they were afraid that they were going to take their land.

Nez Perce - Chief Joseph

Definition: Leader of band who killed white settlers, persuaded his followers to flee from the expected retribution. Part of remarkable chase as they tried to flee to Canada. Finally caught just short of boundary, some escaped but Joseph gave up saying he is tired and heart sick, will not fight. Significance: The retreat of Chief Joseph is called the Nez Perce War. It is often considered one of the most masterful retreats in military history.

Promontory Point

Definition: Located in Utah, it is the point where the Union Pacific and Central pacific railroads met to connect the Atlantic and pacific states. Significance: Made transcontinental railroad travel possible for the first time in U.S. history.

"Fifty-Niners"

Definition: Name given to those who rushed to harvest the petroleum gushers in 1859. Some of these 59ers moved west to avoid the federal draft. Significance: The result was the birth of a new industry with its "petroleum plutocracy" and "coal oil Johnnies."

Railroad Strike of 1877

Definition: One of the worst outbreaks of labor violence erupted in 1877, during economic depression, when railroad companies cut wages in order to reduce costs. It shut down 2/3 of country's rail trackage. Strike quickly becoming national in scale. For the first time since 1830s federal troops used to end labor violence. More then 100 people killed. Significance: It was a response to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad cutting wages of workers for the third time in a year. Striking workers would not allow any of the trains, mainly freight trains, to roll until the third wage cut was revoked.

"Rocky Mountain School"

Definition: Painters Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran best known- Celebrated the New West, greatly inspired tourism Significance: Followed steps of Hudson River School. Portrayed majesty of western landscape and inspired tourism.

California Workingmen's Party

Definition: Political Party in California that was created in 1878, led by Denis Kearny, an irish immigrant. This party gained significant political power in the state in large part on the basis of its hostility to the Chinese. Significance: It opposed Chinese immigration. This party would fail due to Kearney's inability to lead a true revolution, but it did convince Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

American Socialist Party

Definition: Political party formed in 1901 and led by Eugene Debs that advocated replacing the nation's capitalist system. Significance: It disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America which had split from the main organization in 1899

"Stock Watering"

Definition: Price manipulation by strategic stock brokers of the late 1800s. The term for selling more stock than they actually owned in order to lower prices, then buying it back. Significance: It enabled railroad stock promoters to inflate their claims about a given line's assets and profitability and sell stocks and bonds in excess of the railroad's actual value.

Pinkerton Detective Agency

Definition: Private security force that specialized in antiunion activities; businesses' tool to break apart strikes Significance: As the company's profile gew, its iconic logo gave rise to the term "private eye" as a nickname for detectives

Long Drive (Chisholm Trail)

Definition: Refers to the overland transport of cattle by the cowboy over the three month period. Cattle were sold to settlers and Native Americans. Significance: the longhorn cattle driven north along it provided a steady source of income that helped the impoverished state recover from the Civil War.

John D. Rockefeller + Standard Oil

Definition: Rockefeller was a US industrialist who made a fortune in the oil business and gave half of it away. Significance: Standard oil gained a monopoly in the oil industry by buying rival refineries and developing companies for distributing and marketing its products around the globe.

Agrarian Malaise

Definition: Rural isolation, lonesomeness, inadequate education for children, lack of cultural activities, migration from farm to cities, economic uncertainty Significance: Farm families were virtually cut off from outside world. Urban culture was taking over farming. Rural families realized that instead of being backbone of America, their position was being overlooked

Henry George - Progress and Poverty

Definition: Said that poverty was the inevitable side-effect of progress. Significance: Henry promoted the "single tax" on land (avoided that term). His writing was immensely popular in the 19th century America, and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era.

Desert Land Act (1877) + Timber and Stone Act (1878)

Definition: The Desert Land Act provided claimants could buy 640 acres at $1.25 per, provided they irrigated part of their holdings within 3 years. The Timber and Stone Act permitted homesteaders to receive grants of 160 additional acres if they planted 40 acres of trees on them. Significance:Both of these acts awarded land at a more affordable reach in exchange for things that would benefit the country as a whole, specifically in agriculture and natural resources.

Transcontinental Railroad

Definition: The First Transcontinental Railroad was a 1,912-mile continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay. Significance: over 12,000 Chinese and other minorities found work building this. This formed 90% of the labor force of the Central Pacific.

"Ghost/Sun Dance" + Battle of Wounded Knee

Definition: The dance of Indians helped them believe in a better life. It scared the white agents of reservations and warned the army of the dance. Significance: The Seventh Cavalry tried to round them up, fighting broke out and many Indians killed. It was a one-sided massacre.

"Indian Territory"

Definition: The land that Native Americans were displaced to West of the Mississippi Significance: Natives were removed from their land in the Southeast, their removal would lead to the Trail of Tears.

U.S. Steel

Definition: The largest steel company of the US, created by J.P. Morgan by merging Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel and several other steel companies together; at the time, the largest corporation in existence. Significance: Boosted America's economy significantly. Discovered that by blowing air into molten iron you could make a stronger alloy later named Steel.

Interlocking directorates

Definition: The practice of having executives or directors from one company serve on the Board of Directors of another company. J. P. Morgan introduced this practice to eliminate banking competition in the 1890s. Significance: Allow corporations to increase their influence by exerting power as a group, and to work together towards common goals. They help corporate executives maintain an advantage, and gain more power over workers and consumers, by reducing intraclass competition and increasing cooperation.

Social Darwinism <-- William Sumner + Herbert Specer

Definition: The theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals. Significance: Been used to justify imperialism, racism, eugenics, and social inequality.

Gospel of Wealth

Definition: This was a book written by Carnegie that described the responsibility of the rich to be philanthropists. This softened the harshness of Social Darwinism as well as promoted the idea of philanthropy. Significance:Carnegie believed that his wealth was given to him by divine intervention and that it was the responsibility of rich people to use their money to encourage good habits among the poor.

Petroleum (and its secondary industries)

Definition: a liquid mixture of hydrocarbons that is present in certain rock strata and can be extracted and refine to produce fuels including gasoline, kerosene, and diesel oil. Significance: Steel industry's need for lubrication developed into the petroleum industry, turned into commercial product after discovery of its possible use as fuel

Bessemer process + open-hearth steelmaking

Definition: an industrial process for making steel using a Bessemer converter to blast air through through molten iron and thus burning the excess carbon and impurities 2. a process for producing steel by oxidizing and removing the impurities in molten iron using external heat and a blast of air or oxygen. Significance: Both created new ways to create steel, contributing to waves of industrialization.

"Dry farming" aka Dryland farming

Definition: due to lack of rainfall on the plains farmers developed this technique to conserve limited moisture during dry weather by reducing or even eliminating runoff and evaporation. Significance: It increased soil absorption and retention of moisture.

Chinatowns

Definition: immigrant community for the Chinese. Functioned as benevolent societies, filled many roles that political machines often served in immigrant communities in eastern cities. Led by prominent merchants (Six Companies). Organizations became brokers, unions, arbitrators of disputes, defenders against outside persecution, dispensers of social service Significance: These towns helped Chinese people adjust and transition into a new society surrounded by people of the same culture, creating a community of support.

Plains Indians

Definition: most widespread Indian group in West. Made up of different tribal and language groups. They Lived by hunting buffalo, it was their economic basis for way of life. Significance: Their weaknesses included their inability of to unite against white aggression, they were outmanned and outgunned, they were distracted from battles with the whites by battles amongst themselves, they were vulnerable to eastern infectious diseases, and they had a dwindling food supply

Edward Bellamy - Looking Backward

Definition: rivaling Henry George, he wrote Looking Backward, a utopian novel, published in 1888, it described the experiences of a young Bostonian who went into a hypnotic sleep in 1887 and awoke in 2000, finding a new social order in which want, politics and vice were unknown. The society had emerged through peace and evolution, and all of the trusts of the 1800's joined together form one government controlled trust, which distributed the abundance of the industrial economy equally among all people. "Fraternal cooperation" replaced competition, there were no class divisions, and there was great nationalism. Significance: Bellamy's vision of a harmonious future world inspired the formation of numerous "Nationalist Clubs" dedicated to the propagation of Bellamy's political ideas.

Henry Clay Frick

Definition: was Carnegie's supplier of coke to fuel his steel mills as well as his right hand man. He was very anti-union. He was in charge of the mills when the Homestead Strike occurred. His decision to use strike breakers ignited the riot, and helped stain the image of unions. Significance: Frick played a major role in the information of the United States Steel Corporation in 1901 and later became a director. He also served as a director of a number of railroads

Boomtown --> Ghost Town

Definition:First economic boom in Far West came from mining.The News of gold or silver striking start stampede toward towns. Significance: People got in and got out. cooperations come in and dig deep into these towns in pursuit of the gold and silver. People abandoned the towns after they were done, thus they became ghost towns.

Brooklyn Bridge

Designed by John Roebling. Combines two structural systems, steal cables (tension) and the arches themselves (compression). established the structural basis for all modern suspension bridges SIGNIFICANCE: employed the first steel used in an American structure.

Gustavus Swift

Developer of an efficient system of mechanical refrigeration SIGNIFICANCE: provided a major stimulus to the growth of the cattle industry.

Wright Brothers

First to achieve a sustained, controlled flight in a powered airplane SIGNIFICANCE: the invention of the airplane was able to speed up journeys by a significant amount of time

National Consumer League

Formed in the 1890s under the leadership of Florence Kelley SIGNIFICANCE: attempted to mobilize the power of women as consumers to force retailers and manufacturers to improve wages and working conditions for women workers

Eugene Debs

Head of the American Railway Union and director of the Pullman strike; he was imprisoned along with his associates for ignoring a federal court injunction to stop striking. While in prison, he read Socialist literature and emerged as a Socialist leader in America. SIGNIFICANCE: helped motivate the American Left to organize political opposition to corporations and World War I

William and Henry James + "pragmatism"

Modern society should not rely on moral principals or ideals but on scientific inquiry. No institution was valid unless withstood test of experience. Reflected new cosmopolitan culture of city, receptive to new ideas such as evolution and pragmatism. Big schism between more traditional provincial culture of rural areas. SIGNIFICANCE: this recognized the importance of man power and emphasized the development of social and democratic values. it also gave importance to activity based learning

Macy's/Marshall Field's - department stores

R.H. Macy in NY and Marshall Field in Chicago made the largest department store to shop in urban centers Significance: result of the increased output of U.S. factories in addition to the invention of new consumer products which prompted businesses to find ways of selling their merchandise

"Birds of Passage"

Temporary immigrants who came to the United States to work and save money then returned home to their native countries during slack season. World War I interrupted the practice, trapping thousands of immigrant workers in the United States. SIGNIFICANCE: only 20%-30% of these migrants were able to return home. Of all the 20 million immigrants to the U.S., 25% of them were "Birds of Passage."

2nd Industrial Revolution vs. 1st Industrial Revolution (differences)

The 1st industrial revolution caused the growth of industries such as coal, iron, railroads and textiles, the 2nd witnessed the expansion of electricity, petroleum, and steel. Significance: Many of the changes occurred during this period had to do with new products simply replacing old ones. Urbanization increased rapidly, and the population moved into hastily built housing in cities to be nearer to the factories

New Immigration

The second major wave of immigration to the U.S.; between 1865-1910, 25 million new immigrants arrived. Unlike earlier immigration, which had come primarily from Western and Northern Europe, the New Immigrants came mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe, fleeing persecution and poverty. SIGNIFICANCE: Language barriers and cultural differences produced mistrust by Americans. First act that was based on the ethnicity of another was passed, Chinese Exclusion Act 1882.

Salvation Army

This welfare organization came to the US from England in 1880 and sought to provide food, shelter, and employment to the urban poor while preaching temperance and morality. SIGNIFICANCE: helped generations of urban evangelists to adapt traditional Christianity to city life

Modernists vs. Fundamentalists

Thought God was a "good guy" and that the universe was a nice place, vs. man was born a sinner SIGNIFICANCE: disputes over the role of religion and education

Morrill Land Grant Act (1887) - effect on colleges

act provided for direct annual appropriations to each state to further support land grant colleges. Each state could receive additional funds to more completely endow and support land grant colleges. SIGNIFICANCE: African Americans were to be admitted to land grant institutions. States could establish separate land grant colleges for African Americans.

Jacob Rils - How the Other Half Lives

an article by Jacob Riis in Scribner's Magazine that told the public about the lives of the immigrants and those who live in the tenements SIGNIFICANCE: Riis's fame helped home press the city to improve living conditions for the poor and to build parks and schools.

Sand Creek Massacre

an attack on a village of sleeping Cheyenne Indians by a regiment of Colorado militiamen on 29 November 1864 that resulted in the death of more than 200 tribal members Significance: caused by a campaign led by the famed scout Christopher "Kit" Carson that shattered the power of the Navajo

Public Health Service (1912)

created by the federal government in 1912, it was charged with preventing such occupational diseases as TB and anemia and carbon dioxide poisoning, which were common in the garment industry and other trades. SIGNIFICANCE: It tried to create common health standards for the factories, but because of its little power, it failed.

Winslow Homer/ John Singer Sargent/ James Whistler

famous American painters, Sargent and Homer were famous landscape painters while Whistler used modern allusion and sentimentality Significance: their study of color rather than the study of subject matter, influenced the development of modern art

Sioux Wars

lasted from 1876-1877. These were spectacular clashes between the Sioux Indians and white men. They were spurred by gold-greedy miners rushing into Sioux land. The white men were breaking their treaty with the Indians. The Sioux Indians were led by Sitting Bull and they were pushed by Custer's forces. Custer led these forces until he was killed at the battle at Little Bighorn. Significance: Many of the Indian were finally forced into Canada, where they were forced by starvation to surrender.

Spectator sports - Major League Baseball, football, basketball

major leisure activities, were mainly played by men, baseball became America's favorite pastime Significance: epitome of mass culture and leisure

Louis Sullivan - skyscrapers

most famous American architect, regarded as the spiritual father of modern American architecture and identified with the aesthetics of early skyscraper design. "form follows function", practicality before looks SIGNIFICANCE: contributed to the birth of the modern skyscraper

"City beautiful" movement --> central park

movement in environmental design that drew directly from the beaux arts school. architects from this movement strove to impart order on hectic, industrial centers by creating urban spaces that conveyed a sense of morality and civic pride, which many feared was absent from the frenzied new industrial world. SIGNIFICANCE: new york's central park was the first example of a movement to create urban parks.

Theodore Dreiser - Sister Carrie

new form of writing: journey of a girl who has to become a prostitute and eventually commits suicide. SIGNIFICANCE: exposed problem of urban life. Although THE city had strong allure and excitement, it was also a place of alienating impersonality and some degradation/exploitation.

Political Bosses (Boss Tweed + Tammany Hall)

new york democratic party/political machine; gained notoriety for corrupt practices SIGNIFICANCE: political machines came to power because of the rapid growth of cities-machines traded services to city-dwellers for votes at the polls. controlled the economy and society at this time, cronies as government officials

Mount Holyoke/Vassar/Wellesley

private liberal arts women's colleges, part of the Seven Sisters, that granted degrees to women that were equivalent to those given to men Significance: allowed women to go to college for the first time

Subways/Elevated Trains

solutions to the problem of mass transportation SIGNIFICANCE: allowed for mass travel in Boston, NYC, and Philadelphia

Suburbs

upper and middle classes moved to streetcar suburbs to escape pollution, crime, and poverty of the city Significance: reflected the class, race, cultural, and ethnic divisions in American society