Social Studies Assignment Sheet:
a
The West Transformed
The Railroad and The West
Chapter 17, Assignment 1 (17-1)
Read pp. 578-583
Key IDs: • subsidy • transcontinental railroad
1. How did mining encourage the growth of the American West?
2. How did the government encourage railroad companies to build tracks westward?
3. Who worked to build the transcontinental railroad? Describe their working conditions.
4. How did the transcontinental railroad and other rail lines affect the development of the West?
Farming in the West
Chapter 17, Assignment 2 (17-2)
Read pp. 595-599
Key IDs: • frontier • Homestead Act • inflation
1. How did the Homestead Act encourage farmers to migrate westward?
2. How did railroads help farmers in the West?
3. What economic problems did farmers experience on the frontier?
4. Many farmers were actually upset with railroads and railroad owners. Can you think of any
reasons why certain farmers might criticize certain railroads?
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter 17, Assignment 3 (17-3)
Read pp. 584-589
Key IDs: • reservation • Ghost Dance • Wounded Knee • Dawes Act
1. In what ways did plains Indians depend on the buffalo?
2. What happened to Native Americans as farmers, ranchers and miners moved into the West?
3. How did the U.S. government behave in making and keeping its treaties with Native Americans?
4. In what ways did the Ghost Dance inspire Native Americans?
5. One Native American chief reflected that, “a people’s dream died” at Wounded Knee. What do
you think he meant by this quote?
6. What was the goal of the Dawes Act? How did it affect Native Americans?
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Social Studies Assignment Sheet:
The Gilded Age
HW #18-1
Read pp. 608-613
A New Industrial Revolution
Key IDs: • assembly line • rebate • Bessemer process
1. In the late 1800s, how did westward expansion help in the nation’s industrial growth?
2. How did railroads aid in industrialization?
3. What practices did railroad companies use to gain advantages over their competition?
4. How did railroad companies’ policies help big companies but hurt farmers and small businesses?
5. How did patents help motivate individuals to develop new inventions?
6. What are the advantages to businesses that use mass production and the assembly line?
HW #18-2
Read pp. 382-383
The Industrial Revolution
pp. 311
Jefferson Charts a New Course
pp. 614-616
Big Business
Key IDs: • capitalists • laissez faire • corporation • monopoly • trust • free enterprise
• “robber baron” • “captain of industry”
1. How would you define laissez faire capitalism?
2. How might a corporation have an advantage over a business that is not a corporation?
3. Why might investors buy or sell stock?
4. Why did entrepreneurs want to control monopolies?
5. How might monopolies be dangerous to citizens and workers in society?
6. In what ways does business competition benefit consumers?
HW #18-3
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Read pp. 617-619
Organized Labor
• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire • labor union • collective bargaining
What dangers did factory workers face?
How is collective bargaining helpful to Unions?
How did labor unions work for better rights in the workplace?
Why do you think unions were so important to laborers in the late 19th century?
How did big business change the workplace and give rise to labor unions?
HW #18-4
Read pp. 625-629
The New Immigrants
Key IDs: • assimilation • “new immigrants” • nativism • anarchist
5. Why did many people leave their homelands for the U.S. in the late 1800s and early 1900s?
Give examples.
6. How did the “new immigrants” differ from the “old immigrants” – immigrants who arrived in
the mid-1800s?
7. How did immigrants try to assimilate?
8. Why did nativists oppose immigration? What were nativists’ fears?
9. How did nativists oppose immigration? Use specific evidence to answer this question.
HW #18-5
Read pp. 620-624
Cities Grow and Change
Key IDs: • settlement house • Hull House
1. How did increased industrialization lead to increased urbanization?
2. How did the lives of the urban poor compare to those of the middle class and the wealthy?
3. Describe the conditions in tenements.
4. How did reformers work to help the urban poor? Explain at least three specific examples.
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Social Studies Assignment Sheet:
The Progressive Era
HW #19-1
Read pp. 644-648, 666 (photographs)
The Gilded Age and Progressive Reform
[GA subtopics – Corruption and Reform]
Key IDs: • gilded • spoils system • Interstate Commerce Commission Sherman Antitrust Act
• city bosses • Progressives
• graduated income tax
• muckraker • Jacob Riis
1. How did the government begin to combat unfair political practices in the late 1800s?
2. How did the government begin to combat unfair business practices in the late 1800s?
3. How did political bosses corrupt city governments?
4. Why were city bosses so popular with the poor and immigrants?
5. Why was Boss Tweed so notorious?
6. What was the main goal of progressive reformers?
7. How did voters gain more power during the Progressive Era?
8. How did the muckrakers help the Progressives?
9. Identify three muckrakers and their contributions to the Progressive Era.
HW #19-2
Read pp. 649-653 Progressives in the White House
[GA subtopic Reform]
Key IDs: • trustbuster • Square Deal • conservation • William H. Taft • Woodrow Wilson
• Federal Trade Commission • Clayton Antitrust Act
1. How did Teddy Roosevelt become President?
2. How did Theodore Roosevelt feel about big business?
3. Why was known as a “trustbuster”? Did he want to destroy all trusts?
4. Describe three accomplishments of Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal.
5. What is the purpose of the Federal Trade Commission?
HW #19-3
Read pp. 656-659 The Rights of Women [GA subtopics – Reform]
Key IDs: • suffragists • 19th Amendment • WCTU • temperance movement
• 18th Amendment • prohibition
1. Why was a constitutional amendment so important to women suffragists?
2. What gains did women make in education?
3. How did supporters of the temperance movement influence the government?
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