AP U.S. History
Unit 6: The Gilded Age & the Progressive Era (1865-1916)
Required Reading: Kennedy Chapters 23-26, 28, 29 (part); AMSCO 16-19, 21
Unit Test Date: Tuesday, February 2
COLLEGE BOARD KEY CONCEPTS
6.1) Technological advances, large-scale production methods, and
the opening of new markets encouraged the rise of industrial
capitalism in the United States.
6.2) The migrations that accompanied industrialization transformed
both urban and rural areas of the United States and caused dramatic
social and cultural change
6.3) The Gilded Age produced new cultural and intellectual
movements, public reform efforts, and political debates over
economic and social policies.
7.1) Growth expanded opportunity, while economic instability led to
new efforts to reform U.S. society and its economic system.
ACT QUALITY CORE STANDARDS
C.1.A. Evaluate the impact of new inventions and technologies of
the late 19th century.
C.1.B. Identify and evaluate the influences on business in the late
19th and early 20th centuries.
C.1.C. Identify labor and workforce issues of the late 19th century,
including perspectives of owners/managers and Social Darwinists.
C.1.D. Explain the challenges and contributions of immigrants of the
late 20th century.
C.1.E. Explain the causes and impact of urbanization in the late
nineteenth century.
C.1.F. Compare and contrast the experiences of African Americans in
various U.S. regions in the late 19th century.
C.1.G. Identify and evaluate the influences on the development of
the American West.
C.1.H. Analyze significant events for Native American tribes, and
their responses, in the late 19th century.
C.2.A. Identify and explain significant issues and components of the
Populist movement and their impacts.
C.2.B. Explain the origins and accomplishments of the Progressive
Movement.
C.2.C. Analyze the efforts to achieve women’s suffrage in the early
20th century.
KEY TERMS
For any 50 of the terms listed below, indicate the most specific date possible relative to the term, briefly describe which Thematic
Learning Objective the term best fits with, and write a clear, concise statement detailing the term’s main idea and significance. Note
– all terms on this list are important and are good examples to include when writing the Short Answer Questions, Long Essay, and
DBQ on the AP Exam. Remember, key terms must be hand written on individual index cards. (1 point each; extra credit for
completing more than 50)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
16th Amendment
17th amendment
18th Amendment
19th Amendment
Alexander Graham Bell
Alice Paul
American Federation of Labor
Andrew Carnegie
Angel Island
Anti-Saloon League
Atlanta Compromise
Barbed wire
Benjamin Harrison
Bessemer process
Booker T. Washington
Boss Tweed
Bull-Moose Progressives
Carrie Chapman Catt
Chester Arthur
Chinese Exclusion Act
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
Company towns
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cowboys
Coxey’s Army
Crazy Horse
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
Credit Mobilier Scandal
“Cross of Gold” speech
Dawes Act
Direct primaries
Election of 1912
Ellis Island
Eugene Debs
Farmers Alliance
Federal Reserve
Federal Trade Commission
Food and Drug Act
George Custer
George W. Carver
Gospel of Wealth
Grover Cleveland
Haymarket Riot
Homestead Act
Homestead Strike
Horatio Alger
Horizontal integration
Hull House
Ida B. Wells
Ida Tarbell
Initiative (political term)
Interstate Commerce Act of 1887
Interstate Commerce Commission
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
J.P. Morgan
Jacob Riis
James Garfield
Jane Addams
Jay Gould
John D. Rockefeller
Keating-Owens Child Labor Act
Knights of Labor
Little Big Horn
Lochner v. New York
Meat Inspection Act
Muckrakers
Munn v. Illinois
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
National American Woman Suffrage
Association
National Labor Union
Nativism
Old/New Immigrants
Pendleton Act of 1883
Plessy v. Ferguson
Political machines
Populist Party
Progressivism
Prohibition
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
Pullman Strike (1894)
Railroad Strike of 1877
Referendum
Robert La Follette
Rutherford B. Hays
Samuel Gompers
Sears & Roebuck
Sherman Antitrust Act
Silverites and Goldbugs
Sitting Bull
Social Darwinism
Social Gospel
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
Square Deal
Tammany Hall
Teddy Roosevelt
Tenements
The Grange
The Significance of the Frontier in
American History
Thomas Edison
Thomas Nast
Transcontinental Railroad
Trust-busting
Tuskegee Institute
100. United States v. E. C. Knight Co.
101. Upton Sinclair
102. Vertical Integration
103. W.E.B. DuBois
104. Wabash v. Illinois
105. William Howard Taft
106. William Jennings Bryan
107. Women’s Christian Temperance Union
108. Woodrow Wilson
109. Wounded Knee
110. Yellow-dog contracts
CHAPTER QUESTIONS
Chapter questions are designed to get you to extensively examine the main topics of each chapter while citing specific historical
examples and evidence. These are required to be answered in 5-7 sentences each and must be hand written. (5 points each)
Chapter 23
1.
2.
3.
4.
Explain the rise of class conflict between business and labor in the 1870s and the growing hostility to immigrants, especially
the Chinese.
Describe the economic crisis of the 1870s, and explain the growing conflict between hard-money and soft-money
advocates.
What were the causes and political results of the rise of agrarian protest in the 1880s and 1890s?
Why were the Populists’ attempts to form a coalition of white and black farmers and industrial workers ultimately
unsuccessful?
Chapter 24
1.
2.
3.
4.
Describe how the economy came to be dominated by giant “trusts,” such as those headed by Carnegie and Rockefeller in
the steel and oil industries AND what problems emerged as a result.
Indicate how industrialists and their supporters attempted to explain and justify great wealth and increasing class division
through “natural law” and the “Gospel of Wealth.”
Explain social changes brought by industrialization, including the altered position of working men and women.
What strains did the new industrialization bring to the American ideals of democracy and equality? Was the growth of huge
corporations and great fortunes a successful realization of American principles or a threat to them?
Chapter 25
1.
2.
3.
How did the “New Immigration” differ from the “Old Immigration,” and how did Americans respond to it?
Discuss the efforts of social reformers and churches to aid the New Immigrants and improve urban problems.
Explain the areas of the growing national debates about morality in the late 19th century, particularly in relation to the
changing roles of women and the family.
Chapter 26
1.
2.
3.
Explain the development and changes of federal policy toward Native Americans during the second half of the 19th century.
Explain how westward settlement ultimately led to the “closing of the frontier” and what role technology and the federal
government played in this development.
Describe the economic forces that drove farmers into debt, and how the Grange, the Farmers Alliance, and the Populist
Party organized to protest their opposition.
Chapter 28
1.
2.
3.
Explain how Progressivism was a response to the development of the new urban and industrial age in America.
Explain the critical role women played in progressive social reform, noting some of the major women reformers.
Compare the major policies and achievements of the three Progressive Presidents: Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson.
Chapter 29
1.
2.
Discuss the key issues of the 1912 election and the basic principles of Wilsonian Progressivism.
What were the results of Wilson’s great reform assault on the “triple wall of privilege”—the tariff, the banks, and the
trusts?