Summer Assignment Unit Summary
This unit concentrates on the history of America’s Gilded Age, industrial revolution, and settlement
of the West in the late nineteenth century. The unit emphasizes that as the majority of Americans
became wageworkers, the traditional dream of economic independence became obsolete. During the
Gilded Age, it became difficult, if not impossible, for Americans to view wage labor as a temporary
stop on the road to becoming an independent proprietor or farmer. The industrial revolution
brought tremendous urban growth, created a national market, and made captains of industry very
rich while exploiting the working class. Farming was transformed too, and the settlement of the
West after the Civil War resulted in the displacement of American Indians. Trying to keep their
land and freedom, the Indians fought the U.S. Calvary in a series of wars culminating at Wounded
Knee. Chief Joseph unsuccessfully led his people toward Canada, hoping to escape being placed on a
reservation. The unit discusses the politics of the Gilded Age, a period of political stalemate,
inaction, and corrupt city machines. Freedom in the Gilded Age is explored, looking closely at Social
Darwinism, the concept of “liberty of contract,” and the courts’ participation in defining freedom
during the industrial age. Responding to the hardships of industrialization were the Knights of
Labor, labor leader Ira Steward, and various social critics such as Henry George, Edward Bellamy,
and Walter Rauschenbusch. The Haymarket Affair and Henry George’s run for New York City
mayor, indicating that labor was attempting to become a permanent political force by the end of the
Gilded Age signal a time for change.
Thomas Edison
Social Gospel movement
Progress and Poverty John D. Rockefeller
Terence Powderly
How the Other Half Lives
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show
Social Darwinist
Sitting Bull
vertical integration
horizontal integration
Civil Service Act
Gilded Age
Elk v. Wilkins
bonanza farm
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Nicola Tesla
Andrew Carnegie
Knights of Labor
electric motor
Edward Bellamy
Walter Rauschenbusch Chief Joseph
Henry George
trusts
social gospel
Dawes Act
Social Darwinism
Tweed Ring
What were the effects of the first great depression between 1873 and 1897. What caused
it? How did Labor respond?
How does the emergence of the Ghost Dance reflect the experiences of the Indians? What
was the significance of Wounded Knee?
What was the reasoning behind the Supreme Court’s rulings in regard to industry. How was
the Court defining freedom?
How did the nature of work and the composition of the workforce change during the Gilded
Age?
What factors contributed to the rise of the labor movement in the nineteenth century?
How did agriculture change in the late nineteenth century?
During the Gilded Age, the nature of work and the composition of the workforce changed in
dramatic ways. How did American workers respond to these changes? How did they seek to
change and gain some control over their working lives?
This unit concentrates on the limitations of freedom, including those affecting farmers,
immigrants, blacks, women, and colonial subjects. The chapter opens with the Homestead Strike,
which demonstrated that neither a powerful union nor public opinion could influence the conduct of
the largest corporations. Farmers also illustrated that not everyone benefited from the prosperity
of the industrial revolution. The unit examines how the farmers mobilized into a political force
culminating in the 1892 organization of the Populist Party. Attempting to build a broad base, the
Populists courted labor, women, and black farmers, but their party dissolved after the defeat of
William Jennings Bryan in 1896. The American Federation of Labor took a more realistic approach
toward unionization than groups in labor’s past but was still hard pressed to find success.
What caused workers to go on strike at Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead Steel plant?
Describe the plan of the Farmers’ Alliance.
What were the goals of the Populist Party? Why were they considered radical in their day?
Who was Eugene Debs?
Booker T. Washington
Eugene Debs
Homestead Strike
William Jennings Bryan
Frances Willard
Populist Party
James Weaver
Samuel Gompers