Name_______________________________________________ Period__________
Reading Guide Chapter 23: Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age (1869-1896)
The Era of Good Stealings
KNOW: Tweed Ring, Tammany Hall, Thomas Nast
1. Describe the corruption in the Grant administration:
 Jim Fisk and Jay Gould

Boss Tweed
A Carnival of Corruption
 Credit Mobilier scandal

Whisky Ring
Depression, Deflation, and Inflation
2. What effect did the panic of 1873 have on the American economy? (be specific about the causes and
results)
3. Describe the hard money vs cheap money debate.
Pallid Politics in the Gilded Age
4. Who gave this era its name, “the Gilded Age”?
5. What were the differences between the Republican and Democratic party during the Gilded Age? (focus
on ideology and geography)
6. What is patronage?
7. How did patronage effect the Republican party? Discuss the leaders of the factions and what they
supported.
The Hayes-Tilden Standoff, 1876
8. Who were the candidates in the election of 1876? Why did their parties pick them as their candidate?
The Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction
9. How did the election of 1876 lead to the Compromise of 1877?
10. Describe the Compromise of 1877 and the effect it had on Reconstruction.
The Birth of Jim Crow in the Post-Reconstruction South
KNOW: Plessy v Ferguson (1896), Jim Crow laws, Chinese Exclusion Act (1879 & 1882)
11. What discrimination did blacks face in the South? Be specific.
 Economic

Political

Social
12. What Supreme Court case validated the South’s segregationist ways?
Class Conflicts and Ethnic Clashes
13. Describe the experience of Chinese immigrants in the United States during the Gilded Age.
Garfield and Arthur
KNOW: Pendleton Act of 1883
14. What government reform happened in response to President Garfield’s death? How did it affect politics?
The Drumbeat of Discontent
KNOW: People’s party (populists), Homestead Strike
15. Who were the populists and what was their political platform?
16. Describe the strikes during the summer of 1892 and their outcomes.
17. How did the Populist movement affect Southern blacks?
Cleveland and Depression
KNOW: Gold Standard
18. What caused the depression of 1893?
19. How did the depression of 1893 impact the American economy?
Reading Guide Chapter 24: Industry Comes of Age (1865-1900)
The Iron Colt Becomes an Iron Horse
1. How were the early transcontinental railroads subsidized by the federal government?
Spanning the Continent with Rails
KNOW: Union Pacific Railroad, Central Pacific Railroad,
2. What impact did the railroad have on frontier towns?
3. Why was the transcontinental railroad considered to one of America’s most impressive undertakings?
Railroad Consolidation and Mechanization
4. What are the improvements and refinements that provided a boon to the railroads?
Revolution by Railways
KNOW: local time v standard time (time zones)
5. How did the railroads stimulate economic growth? Discuss all areas of the economy that it helped.
Wrongdoing in Railroading
6. Corruption was rampant in the railroading. Discuss the following forms of corruption:
 Stock watering

Bribery

Pool
Government Bridles the Iron Horse
7. What did the Supreme Court ruling in the Wabash case say about who can regulate the railroads?
8. What are the provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887?
The Trust Titan Emerges
KNOW: Trust
9. Define these creative entrepreneurial tactics:
 Vertical integration

Horizontal integration
10. What is the Bessemer process? How did it revolutionize the steel industry?
The Gospel of Wealth
KNOW: Gospel of Wealth
11. What is Social Darwinism?
Government Tackles the Trust Evil
12. How did the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 control monopolies?
South in the Age of Industry
KNOW: Henry W. Grady – New South
13. What were the obstacles to southern industrialization?
The Impact of the New Industrial Revolution of America
14. What impact did the new Industrial Revolution have on:
 Women

Social classes

Wage earners
Labor Limps Along
15. What were the goals of the new labor unions?
 National Labor Union

Knights of Labor

American Federation of Labor
Unhorsing the Knights of Labor
16. What was the Haymarket Square Episode? How did it lead to the end of the Knights of Labor?
Reading Guide Chapter 25: America Moves to the City (1865-1900)
The Urban Frontier
KNOW: Sister Carrie,
1. Analyze the factors that changed the American city in the second half of the nineteenth century:
 Architecture

Transportation

Electricity, indoor plumbing, telephones

Consumer habits

Apartments

Waste disposal

Crime

Slums
The New Immigration
KNOW: Old Immigrants v New Immigrants
2. Who were the new immigrants that came to America in the 1880’s?
3. How did the immigrants try to preserve their culture?
4. How did ‘native’ Americans respond to the new wave of immigrants?
Parties and Social Reformers Reach Out
KNOW: Hull House, settlement houses,
5. Why was taking care of immigrants big business for political machines?
6. What was the ‘social gospel’?
7. How did Jane Addams help the urban masses?
Narrowing the Welcome Mat
KNOW: Nativism, American Protective Association
8. Discuss the laws that Congress passed to limit immigration.
Darwin Disrupts the Churches
9. What was the religious reaction to Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theories?
The Lust for Learning
10. How did public education change during the Gilded Age?
Booker T. Washington and Education for Black People
KNOW: Tuskegee Institute
11. What was Booker T. Washington’s approach to dealing with racial issues? Why was it considered
‘accomodationist’ by some?
12. What was W.E.B. Du Bois’ approach to dealing with racial issues?
The Hallowed Halls of Ivory
13. How did the Morrill Act of 1862 encourage the growth of higher education?
14. What other factors helped the growth of higher education?
Families and Women in the City
15. How did urban living in the late nineteenth century change the American family?
16. What did Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in her book Women and Economics, call on women to do?
17. How did Carrie Chapman Catt change the focus of the women’s suffrage movement?
Prohibiting Alcohol and Promoting Reform
18. Many groups formed to encourage the prohibition of alcohol. List them as well as major figures and
tactics.
Reading Guide Chapter 26: The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution (1865-1896)
The Clash of Cultures on the Plains
KNOW: Reservation system
1. When white soldiers and settlers moved onto the plains in the decades before the Civil War—what problem
did they make worse?
2. What were the problems with the treaties signed with Native American Indians?
3. Who were the “buffalo soldiers”?
Receding Native Population
4. What happened at Sand Creek, Colorado in 1864 and what was the result?
5. Was Custer and his troops “massacred” or did they lose the “battle”?
6. Who led the Nez Perez Indians in their 1700 mile trek toward Canada?
7. What factors lead to the demise of the Indians across the west?
Bellowing Herds of Bison
8. What happened to the buffalo?
The End of the Trail
9. What is Helen Hunt Jackson’s book titled and what is it about?
10. Explain the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887.
11. What was the motto of the Carlisle Indian School?
12. How long is the Dawes Act enforced and what over turns it?
Mining: From Dishpan to Ore Breaker
13. What was the “Comstock lode” and who are “fifty-niners?”
Beef Bonanzas and the Long Drive
14. Explain the “long drive”.
The Farmers’ Frontier
15. Explain the Homestead Act of 1862 and its role in the settling of the west.
The Fading Frontier
17. Why is the westward-moving experience such a vital part of US History?
The Farm Becomes a Factory
18. How did farming change in the late 1800’s?
Deflation Dooms the Debtor
19. What role did deflation play in the life of the farmer?
Unhappy Farmers
20. What were some of the complaints of farmers in the late 1800’s?
The Farmers Take Their Stand
21. How did the Grange get started?
22. What were some of the political goals of the grangers?
Prelude to Populism
23. How did the Populist Party come to be?
24. What were some of the goals of the populists?
Coxey’s Army and the Pullman Strike
26. What was Coxey’s army?
27. What was the Pullman strike all about? Who was the leader and how did it end?
Golden McKinley and Silver Bryan
28. Who backed McKinley’s nomination for the Republicans and what role does this backer play?
29. What was the “Cross of Gold Speech?”
Class Conflict: Plowholders Versus Bondholders
30. What was so significant of the Free Silver Election of 1896?
31. Who wins in the election of 1896 besides McKinley?
Republican Stand-pattism Enthroned
32. What does the Gold Standard Act of 1900 accomplish?