Deck 16: The Rise of Smokestack America

Question 1

The reaction of the Senate investigating committee to Thomas O'Donnell's testimony concerning his living and working conditions indicated that the senators

A) were prepared to take immediate action to remedy his circumstances.
B) would support a public housing bill.
C) clearly understood and sympathized with his problems.
D) had little understanding of the world in which he lived.

Answer 1

had little understanding of the world in which he lived.

Question 2

An important factor promoting industrial development in the United States during the last half of the nineteenth century was

A) a shift from the use of steam to electricity as the major source of power.
B) regulation of the railroads.
C) technological innovations.
D) an increase in the size of the average American family.

Answer 2

technological innovations.

Question 3

The Bessemer process

A) converted steam into power.
B) enabled steel manufacturers to reduce injuries.
C) transformed iron into steel more efficiently.
D) made a stronger, but more expensive steel.

Answer 3

transformed iron into steel more efficiently.

Question 4

Important in facilitating the conversion of American industry to mass production was

A) reduction in the use of coal.
B) a shift to the use of steam power.
C) increased use of water power.
D) an increase in the number of small businesses.

Question 5

One of the first businesses to reflect the advantages and problems associated with the corporate structure was the ________ industry.

A) oil
B) railroad
C) steel
D) milling

Question 6

An important factor in the rapid development of industry in the United States during the last half of the nineteenth century was

A) increasing competition in the oil business.
B) the availability of capital for investment purposes.
C) effective regulation of monopolistic business practices by the national government.
D) a stable economic cycle.

Question 7

The transformation of the American economy during the late nineteenth century resulted in

A) a stabilization of the economic cycle.
B) an increase in farm prices.
C) increased instability in the economic cycle.
D) an end to depressions in the United States.

Question 8

An important consequence of industrialization in the United States was

A) increased migration from the city to the farm.
B) widespread unemployment.
C) a decline in immigration to the United States.
D) an increase in the size of the American family.

Question 9

Black Americans who lived in the North between 1865 and 1900

A) enjoyed full economic opportunity with northern whites.
B) experienced racial discrimination in employment.
C) quickly lost interest in their religious institutions in their new urban setting.
D) returned en masse to the South.

Question 10

After the Civil War, the American middle class

A) had less leisure time than before the war.
B) demonstrated less interest in shopping than the working class.
C) enjoyed rising incomes.
D) found fewer job opportunities.

Question 11

During the late nineteenth century, the American middle class generally

A) found few new products on which to spend its increased income.
B) saw a decline in its standard of living.
C) enjoyed an improvement in its standard of living.
D) could maintain its standard of living with fewer members of the family employed.

Question 12

In the years from 1865 to 1900, American middle-class women

A) failed to gain any new freedoms.
B) gained new opportunities.
C) had less access to higher education than before the Civil War.
D) were forced to work primarily as servants.

Question 13

One reason that American women enjoyed greater freedom after the Civil War than before was because

A) the divorce rate declined.
B) they were having fewer babies.
C) they were readily accepted into professional occupations.
D) most American men accepted the new role of women outside the home.

Question 14

In the years from 1865 to 1900, middle-class men in America enjoyed

A) fewer career opportunities in the professions.
B) greater job opportunities.
C) greater opportunities as doctors and lawyers but not as engineers and architects.
D) few educational opportunities.

Question 15

The social ethic that prevailed in late nineteenth-century America stressed that

A) social class should determine social rank.
B) greed had more to do with success than good character did.
C) economic success was available to anyone who worked hard.
D) family background should determine social rank.

Question 16

Success and upward mobility in late nineteenth-century America were generally

A) more available to native-born, middle-class whites.
B) unlimited and equal for anyone, regardless of background.
C) out of reach for hard-working immigrants.
D) mythic and had no basis in reality.

Question 17

An important factor influencing industrial work in late nineteenth-century America was

A) increased demand for skilled labor as opposed to unskilled labor.
B) the decline of mass production.
C) ethnic diversity.
D) the ease with which native-born and immigrant workers cooperated.

Question 18

Among working-class Americans, native-born Protestants

A) competed with the Irish for the lower-ranking jobs.
B) were generally displaced from skilled jobs by immigrants.
C) filled most of the middle ranks of the occupational structure.
D) held a larger share of the skilled jobs.

Question 19

During the late nineteenth century, work in industrial America

A) required more skilled labor.
B) changed in its nature.
C) was little affected by ethnic diversity.
D) placed a high priority on craftsmanship.

Question 20

In general, between 1865 and 1900, working-class Americans

A) enjoyed the benefits of unemployment insurance.
B) substantially increased their share of the total wealth of the economy.
C) derived some benefits from the economic developments of the period.
D) could usually find steady work even though wages were low.

Question 21

By the end of the nineteenth century, the American working class

A) generally benefited from unemployment insurance.
B) became influenced by new immigrants from Europe.
C) consisted almost exclusively of skilled workers.
D) generally enjoyed steady employment.

Question 22

Among the families of industrial workers during the late nineteenth century,

A) domestic servants enjoyed the greatest freedom and benefits.
B) white married women often worked outside the home.
C) few married white women worked outside the home.
D) children were seldom expected to work.

Question 23

Unlike married white women, married black women in late nineteenth-century America

A) showed greater concern that their children remain with them.
B) had more favorable employment opportunities.
C) were more often forced by societal conditions to work outside the house.
D) were unable to marry because of their economic situation.

Question 24

In the era between 1865 and 1900, American workers

A) successfully unionized the majority of the workforce.
B) seldom used the strike.
C) passively accepted their working conditions.
D) often protested against their working conditions.

Question 25

The primary goals of the typical worker in the United States in the last quarter of the nineteenth century were

A) unlimited riches and benefits.
B) to support socialist revolutions.
C) respectable wages and humane conditions.
D) highly competitive workplaces.

Question 26

All of the following statements describe the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 EXCEPT:

A) The strike was the first and bloodiest strike of the era.
B) The strike began as a result of a reduction in wages by company owners.
C) The strike spread throughout the nation.
D) The strike spread to Latin America and Europe.

Question 27

Which of the following issues did the National Labor Union support?

A) temperance
B) women's rights
C) labor cooperatives
D) All of the above.

Question 28

All of the following describes the American Federation of Labor EXCEPT:

A) It organized skilled trade workers.
B) It emphasized "bread and butter" issues, such as higher wages.
C) It had one million members by 1900.
D) It welcomed African American workers.

Question 29

The Homestead strike took place in the industrial field of

A) oil.
B) textile.
C) mining.
D) steel.

Question 30

The Homestead strike included all of the following developments EXCEPT:

A) The outcome of the strike was a major blow for organized labor.
B) Frick hired private guards to keep workers away from the factory.
C) Andrew Carnegie, the owner of Homestead, was killed.
D) Carnegie and Frick wanted to break the new union at the plant.

Question 31

What internal divisions did unions experience in the late 1800s and early 1900s?

A) Diverse work settings divided workers.
B) Ethnic differences divided workers.
C) Class and interest-based differences divided skilled from unskilled workers.
D) All of the above.

Question 32

In 1882, as part of a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment, Congress passed the

A) Chinese Exclusion Act.
B) American Railway Act.
C) Clayton Anti-trust Act.
D) Strike Act.

Question 33

The development and production of hard steel during the late nineteenth century fueled economic growth.

Question 34

Because of the rapid growth of the economy during the late nineteenth century, there was little unemployment among American workers during that period.

Question 35

In the period between the Civil War and the turn of the century, there was a general increase in the size of the American family.

Question 36

Between 1881 and 1905, there were over 36,000 strikes by more than 6 million workers in the U.S.

Question 37

The great railroad strike took place in 1887.

Question 38

Private companies resorted to state power to crush labor strikes during the era.

Question 39

The Knights of Labor denied African Americans entry into its ranks.

Question 40

Occupational mobility was unlimited for immigrants and non-white groups in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Question 41

Discuss the major factors that promoted the development of industrialization in the United States during the late nineteenth century.

Question 42

Discuss the development of the railroad business during the last half of the nineteenth century in the United States and explain how railroad companies manifested the structure and problems of American corporations during that period.

Question 43

Discuss the characteristics of the American population in the late nineteenth century and analyze the nature of immigration into the country during that period.

Question 44

Assume you were a member of a working-class American family during the late nineteenth century. Describe the conditions under which your family would probably have lived.

Question 45

Discuss the lifestyle of the typical middle-class American woman during the late nineteenth century.

Question 46

Assume you were a middle-class American man residing in an industrial city during the late nineteenth century. Describe the values you might hold and the opportunities which might be open to you.

Question 47

Discuss the composition of the American industrial working class during the late nineteenth century and indicate the hierarchy of jobs among the various groups that composed that working class.

Question 48

Suppose you were a typical industrial worker in the United States during the late nineteenth century. Describe the conditions under which you would probably be working.

Question 49

Discuss the various means by which industrial workers in late nineteenth-century America protested against what they considered to be unsatisfactory working conditions.

Question 50

Trace the attempts to organize American industrial labor on a national scale during the late nineteenth century and evaluate the success of those attempts.

Question 51

When ________ introduced the Bessemer process in his plants, the price of steel dropped.

Question 52

The individual who helped establish new management techniques for railroad companies, and hence other American corporations, during the late nineteenth century was ________.

Question 53

Using the strategy of horizontal integration, ________ achieved a near monopoly of the oil industry in late nineteenth-century America.

Question 54

The _____________ day became a cornerstone of the labor movement in the late 1800s.

Question 55

In 1886, the ________ bombing helped to increase the ranks of organized labor.

Question 56

In 1900, the International ________ Union was formed as an offshoot of the AFL.

Question 57

In 1892, ________ in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, struck for higher wages.

Question 58

The ____________ attempted to wrestle an eight-hour day from mining companies.

Question 59

White workers in the West blamed the ________ for economic hardships.