Question 1

In what ways did the changing economic system restructure American politics in the years following Reconstruction?

Accepted Answer

The answer of In what ways did the changing economic...

Question 2

Match the term with the definition.
-Congress created this regulatory agency designed to oversee the railroad industry after the Supreme Court decision in Wabash v. Illinois (1886) effectively denied states the right to regulate railroads. The agency proved weak and did not immediately pose a threat to the industry.

Accepted Answer

The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was created to oversee the railroad industry after the Supreme Court decision in Wabash v. Illinois denied states the right to regulate railroads. However, the agency proved weak and did not pose an immediate threat to the industry.

Question 3

Match the term with the definition.
-A period of enormous economic growth and ostentatious displays of wealth during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Industrialization dramatically changed in U.S. society and created a newly dominant group of rich entrepreneurs and an impoverished working class.

Accepted Answer

The term "Gilded Age" refers to the period of enormous economic growth and displays of wealth during the last quarter of the 19th century in the United States. Industrialization drastically changed U.S. society and created a newly dominant group of wealthy entrepreneurs along with an impoverished working class.

Question 4

Discuss the concept of social Darwinism. Include a summary of its roots and an explanation of the theory itself. How did Andrew Carnegie's gospel of wealth refine the concept?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Discuss the concept of social Darwinism. Include...

Question 5

Match the term with the definition.
-A system in which corporations give shares of their stock to trustees who hold the stocks "in trust" for their stockholders, thereby coordinating the industry to ensure profits to the participating corporations and curb competition.

Accepted Answer

The definition matches with the term "trust."

Question 6

Match the term with the definition.
-System of racial segregation in the South lasting from after the Civil War into the twentieth century. These laws segregated African Americans in public facilities such as trains and streetcars, curtailed their voting rights, and denied other basic civil rights.

Accepted Answer

The term "Jim Crow" refers to the system of racial segregation in the South, as described in the definition.

Question 7

Match the term with the definition.
-Investment sponsored by banks and bankers that typified the American business scene at the end of the nineteenth century. After the Panic of 1893, bankers stepped in and reorganized major industries to stabilize them, leaving power concentrated in the hands of a few influential capitalists.

Accepted Answer

The term "finance capitalism" refers to the investment sponsored by banks and bankers that came to typify the American business scene in the late 19th century. After the Panic of 1893, bankers reorganized major industries to stabilize them, leaving power in the hands of a few capitalists.

Question 8

Match the term with the definition.
-Patronage scheme in which politicians doled out government positions to their loyal supporters; it led to widespread corruption during the Gilded Age.

Accepted Answer

The spoils system refers to the patronage scheme in which government positions were handed out to loyal supporters. This practice led to widespread corruption during the Gilded Age.

Question 9

Match the term with the definition.
-Effort in the 1880s to end the spoils system and reduce government corruption. New legislation awarded government jobs under a merit system that required examinations for office and made it impossible to remove jobholders for political reasons.

Accepted Answer

The term described is civil service reform, which is the effort to end the spoils system and reduce government corruption through the implementation of a merit system for government jobs.

Question 10

Match the term with the definition.
-Founded in 1874 to advocate for total abstinence from alcohol, this organization provided important political training for women, which many used in the suffrage movement.

Accepted Answer

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in 1874 to advocate for total abstinence from alcohol and provided important political training for women, which many used in the suffrage movement.

Question 11

Match the term with the definition.
-The idea that the financially successful should use their wisdom, experience, and wealth as stewards for the poor. Andrew Carnegie promoted this view in an 1889 essay in which he maintained that the wealthy should serve as stewards for society as a whole.

Accepted Answer

The definition given matches the concept of the "gospel of wealth" which was promoted by Andrew Carnegie.

Question 12

Discuss the concept of laissez-faire as it was used in the late nineteenth century to describe the ideal relationship between the U.S. government and economy. How was the relationship between the two truly "laissez-faire" during the Gilded Age and how, on the other hand, did government actually work to build and strengthen corporate capitalism?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Discuss the concept of laissez-faire as it...

Question 13

Match the term with the definition.
-Term used in the late nineteenth century by those who advocated minting silver dollars in addition to supporting the gold standard and the paper currency backed by gold. Western silver barons and poor farmers from the West and South hoped this would result in inflation, effectively providing them with debt relief.

Accepted Answer

The term "free silver" refers to the advocacy for the unlimited coinage of silver in order to increase the money supply and stimulate inflation. This was a key issue in the late nineteenth century, particularly among western silver miners and farmers who hoped it would lead to debt relief.

Question 14

Match the term with the definition.
-In this theory popularized in the late nineteenth century by Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner, only relentless competition could produce social progress, with wealth a sign of "fitness" and poverty one of "unfitness" for survival.

Accepted Answer

Social Darwinism is the theory that only the strongest and fittest individuals and businesses survive and thrive in society, just as in nature. It was popularized by Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner in the late nineteenth century.

Question 15

Discuss three ways that leading industrialists transformed American business in the late nineteenth century. Considering Ida Tarbell's criticism of John D. Rockefeller, should those industrialists be considered symbols of American business ingenuity or of ruthless business practices?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Discuss three ways that leading industrialists transformed...

Question 16

Match the term with the definition.
-1890 act that outlawed pools and trusts, ruling that businesses could no longer enter into agreements to restrict competition. Government inaction, combined with the Supreme Court's narrow reading of the act in the United States v. E. C. Knight Company decision, undermined the law's effectiveness.

Accepted Answer

The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 outlawed pools and trusts, ruling that businesses could no longer enter into agreements to restrict competition. However, government inaction and the Supreme Court's narrow reading of the act in United States v. E. C. Knight Company undermined its effectiveness.

Question 17

How did the notion of separate spheres for men and women shape late-nineteenth-century American politics? How did black and white women challenge dominant conceptions of their prescribed roles?

Accepted Answer

The answer of How did the notion of separate spheres...

Quiz 18: Railroads, Business, and Politics in the Gilded Age

In what ways did the changing economic system restructure American politics in the years following Reconstruction?

Discuss the concept of social Darwinism. Include a summary of its roots and an explanation of the theory itself. How did Andrew Carnegie's gospel of wealth refine the concept?

Match the term with the definition. -A system in which corporations give shares of their stock to trustees who hold the stocks "in trust" for their stockholders, thereby coordinating the industry to ensure profits to the participating corporations and curb competition.

Match the term with the definition. -System of racial segregation in the South lasting from after the Civil War into the twentieth century. These laws segregated African Americans in public facilities such as trains and streetcars, curtailed their voting rights, and denied other basic civil rights.

Match the term with the definition. -Patronage scheme in which politicians doled out government positions to their loyal supporters; it led to widespread corruption during the Gilded Age.

Match the term with the definition. -Effort in the 1880s to end the spoils system and reduce government corruption. New legislation awarded government jobs under a merit system that required examinations for office and made it impossible to remove jobholders for political reasons.

Match the term with the definition. -Founded in 1874 to advocate for total abstinence from alcohol, this organization provided important political training for women, which many used in the suffrage movement.

Match the term with the definition. -The idea that the financially successful should use their wisdom, experience, and wealth as stewards for the poor. Andrew Carnegie promoted this view in an 1889 essay in which he maintained that the wealthy should serve as stewards for society as a whole.

Match the term with the definition. -In this theory popularized in the late nineteenth century by Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner, only relentless competition could produce social progress, with wealth a sign of "fitness" and poverty one of "unfitness" for survival.

Discuss three ways that leading industrialists transformed American business in the late nineteenth century. Considering Ida Tarbell's criticism of John D. Rockefeller, should those industrialists be considered symbols of American business ingenuity or of ruthless business practices?

How did the notion of separate spheres for men and women shape late-nineteenth-century American politics? How did black and white women challenge dominant conceptions of their prescribed roles?