Alfredo Casas

History 18
8/22/11
Chapter 17 Study Guide
1. GDP- Gross Domestic Product
2. Captains of Industry- Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Commodore Vanderbilt
3. Robber Barons- Medieval Europeans who held up the nation for ransom.
4. Entrepreneurs- someone who undertakes an enterprise who is responsible for all the risk and
outcome.
5. Gustavus Swift- recognized new possibilities for the meat industry.
6. Thomas Edison- Created several new branches of manufactures, telephone, telegraph,
phonograph, motion picture camera.
7. E. L Drake- discovered a large oil pool in western Pennsylvania
8. Andrew Carnegie- business man who lowered the price of steel overtime.
9. J.P Morgan- major public figure that the public trusted a lot. Able to put together a flock of
corporate mergers and turn them into giants
10. Investment Banks-An investment bank is a financial institution that assists individuals,
corporations and governments in raising capital by underwriting and/or acting as the client's agent
in the issuance of securities.
11. Jay Gould- robber baron that made money off corruption.
12. Railroads and Integrated National Market- stimulated the growth in cites and encouraged
European immigration.
13. Commodore Vanderbilt- NY railroad promoter began secretly to buy up stock from partner Eerie
to gain control.
14. John D. Rockefeller- created Standard Oil Company in Ohio and manages to turn a huge profit
because of cheap transportation rates.
15. Horatio Alger- author who had overcome adversity to achieve social respectability and economic
security.
16. Russell Conwell- Baptist minister who delivered a message to thousands of people that material
riches was a sign of god’s approval.
17. Laissez Faire- “free market” best policy for government to follow if its goal was economic
progress.
18. Charles Darwin- English naturalist who suggested that whichever specie was fitter survived.
19. Social Darwism- What applied to biological world applied to society.
20. Government Aid to Businesses- direct investments, tariffs, grants, tax policies favorable to savers
and investors.
21. Pacific Railroads Act 1862, 1864- federal government gave private property to railroad
companies over 30 million acres in Trans Mississippi west 1/10 of public domain.
22. E.C Knight Case- didn’t allow manufacturing businesses to set future rates.
23. Increasing wages- following civil war increased 50 percent in 1860-1890, following 25 years
increased 37 percent but just average.
24. Business Downturns-
25. Trade Unions-an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals
such as better working conditions.
26. Knights of Labor-The Knights promoted the social and cultural uplift of the workingman, rejected
Socialism and radicalism, demanded the eight-hour day, and promoted the producers ethic of
republicanism.
27. American Federation of Labor-one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It
 was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a
national labor association.
28. Karl Marx-a German philosopher, sociologist, economic historian, journalist, and revolutionary
socialist who developed the socio-political theory of Marxism. His ideas have since played a
significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement.
29. Homestead and Pullman Strikes- steel works at the Pullman factory were being mistreated and
treated like “slaves” the whole factory and town went into strike.
30. Eugene V. Debs-an American union leader, one of the founding members of the International
Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and several times the candidate of
the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States.
31. According to the Text, were most Americans fairly content with the Industrial System? Why or
why not