This is a license that gives an inventor the exclusive right to make, use, or sell an invention

for a set period of time

A patent

The invention of this in the late 1880s made oil even more valuable

The automobile

He developed affordable, in-home lighting

Thomas Edison

He developed a code of short and long electrical impulses that represented the letters of the

alphabet and perfected the telegraph

Samuel Morse

He invented the “talking telegraph” and set up the American Telephone & Telegraph Company

in 1885.

Alexander Graham Bell

This was finished after 7 years on May 10, 1869 in Promontory Summit (now Utah)

The transcontinental railroad

One new technology that improved the national railroad system

Steel rails, standardized tracks, standardized signals, air brakes, telegraph

system, national system of time zones

This term implies that business leaders built their fortunes by stealing from the public

Robber Barons

This term implies that business leaders serve their nation in a positive way—creating jobs,

establishing museums, etc.

Captains of Industry

He formed the Standard Oil Company in 1870

John D. Rockefeller

Andrew Carnegie’s belief that people should make as much money as they can and then after

they make it they should give it away

“gospel of wealth”

This theory held that those who were most “fit” would success and become rich

Social Darwinism

A market structure dominated by only a few large, profitable firms

oligopoly

Complete control of a product or service

monopoly

A loose association of businesses that make the same product

cartel

He established a steel company in 1889

Andrew Carnegie

Gaining control of the many different businesses that make up all phases of a

product’s development

Vertical consolidation

Congress passed this law in 1890 that limited the amount of control a business could have over an industry by outlawing

any combination of companies that restrained interstate trade or commerce

The Sherman Antitrust Act

The Sherman Antitrust Act ended up being applied against these groups

Labor unions

The economic and political philosophy that favors public instead of private control of

property and income

socialism

This national union organized all working men & women, skilled & unskilled, to pursue broad

social reforms

Knights of Labor

This national union was founded by Samuel Gompers as a craft union to pursue “bread and

butter” issues

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

The process by which workers negotiate as a group with employers

Collective bargaining

The nickname for the Industrial Workers of the World, a radical union of unskilled workers

Wobblies

At this 1886 strike in Chicago, anarchists joined the protest and thus many Americans came to associate

unions in general with violence and radicalism

Haymarket

This is a negative term for workers called in by employers to replace strikers

scabs

By June 1894 260,000 railway workers had joined this strike, which disrupted mail delivery, and was put down

by 2,500 federal troops sent by President Cleveland

Pullman Strike

This term was coined to describe the post-Reconstruction era and meant that a thin, glittering layer of prosperity covered the poverty & corruption of much of society

The Gilded Age

This French phrase means a hands-off approach to the economy

Laissez-Faire

This company gave cheap shares of valuable stock to Congress so that Congress would support more funding for railroad work

Credit Mobilier

Under this system individuals offer candidates votes & support and are then rewarded with

jobs & political favors

Spoils system

This president was assassinated by a disgruntled office seeker

James Garfield

President Chester Arthur passed this law which created a civil service commission to classify

government jobs and reform civil service

Pendleton Civil Service Act

The Interstate Commerce Commission was created to regulate this industry

Railroads

These were agreements among homeowners not to sell real estate to certain groups of

people

Restrictive Covenants

This group was totally banned from America after 1882 by nativist restrictions

Chinese

These were low cost apartment buildings designed to house as many families as possible

tenements

This reporter published How the Other Half Lives to describe life in the slums and generate

public support for reform

Jacob Riis

She founded a settlement house in Chicago to help people find jobs, provide health care, child

care, and education, etc.

Jane Addams

This social science studies how people interact with one another in a society

sociology