Period Packets – Period 6: 1865 - 1898

Unit 6 – Chapters 23-26

Included in Each Period Packet:

-Key Concepts – an overview of what you need to know

-Main Themes – how the seven themes of the course apply to this period

-Vocabulary – important terms, people, places, etc.

-Chapter Reading Guide – pretty straight forward…

-Crash Course Guide – video guide to watch (they will be amazingly helpful)

-Review Concept Chart – how to get ready for the test.

PERIOD 5: 1865-1898 - Key Concepts

The transformation of the United States from an agricultural to an increasingly industrialized and urbanized society brought

about significant economic, political, diplomatic, social, environmental and cultural changes.

Key Concept 1: The rise of big business in the United States encouraged massive migrations and urbanization, sparked

government and popular efforts to reshape the U.S. economy and environment, and renewed debates over U.S. national

identity.

  1. Large-scale production — accompanied by massive technological change, expanding international communication networksand pro-growth government policies — fueled the development of a “Gilded Age” marked by an emphasis on consumption, marketing, and business consolidation.
  • Following the Civil War, government subsidies for transportation and communication systems opened new markets in North America, while technological innovations and redesigned financial and management structures such as monopolies sought to maximize the exploitation of natural resources and a growing labor force.
  • Businesses and foreign policymakers increasingly looked outside U.S. borders in an effort to gain greater influence and control over markets and natural resources in the Pacific, Asia and Latin America.
  • Business leaders consolidated corporations into trusts and holding companies and defended their resulting status and privilege through theories such as Social Darwinism.
  • As cities grew substantially in both size and in number, some segments of American society enjoyed lives of extravagant “conspicuous consumption” while many others lived in relative poverty.

II.As leaders of big business and their allies in government aimed to create a unified industrialized nation, they were challenged in different ways by demographic issues, regional differences and labor movements.

  • The industrial workforce expanded through migration across national borders and internal migration, leading to a more diverse workforce, lower wages, and an increase in child labor.
  • Labor and management battled forcontrol over wages and working conditions, with workers organizing local and national unions and/or directly confronting corporate power.
  • Despite the industrialization of some segments of the southern economy, a change promoted by southern leaders who called for a "New South,"agrarian sharecropping and tenant farming systems continued to dominate the region.

III.Westward migration, new systems of farming and transportation, and economic instability led to political and popular conflicts.

  • Government agencies and conservationist organizations contended with corporate interests over the extension of public control over natural resources, including land and water.
  • Farmers adapted to the new realities of mechanized agriculture and dependence on the evolving railroad system by creating local and regional organizations that sought to resist corporate control of agricultural markets.
  • The growth of corporate power in agriculture and economic instability in the farming sector inspired activists to create the People’s (Populist) Party, which called for political reform and a stronger governmental role in the American economic system.
  • Business interests battled conservationists as the latter sought to protect sections of unspoiled wilderness through the establishment of national parks and other conservationist and preservationist measures.

Key Concept 2: The emergence of an industrial culture in the United States led to both greater opportunities for, and

restrictions on, immigrants, minorities and women.

  1. International and internal migrations increased both urban and rural populations, but gender, racial, ethnic, religious and socioeconomic inequalities abounded, inspiring some reformers to attempt to address these inequities.
  • Increased migrations from Asia and southern and eastern Europe, as well as African American migrations within

and out of the South, accompanied the mass movement of people into the nation’s cities and the rural and

boomtown areas of the West.

  • Cities dramatically reflected divided social conditions among classes, races, ethnicities and cultures, but presented

economic opportunities as factories and new businesses proliferated.

  • Immigrants sought both to “Americanize” and to maintain their unique identities;along with others, such as some

African Americans and women, they were able to take advantage of new career opportunities even in the face of

widespread social prejudices.

  • In a urban atmosphere where the access to power was unequally distributed, political machines provided social

services in exchange for political support, settlement houses helped immigrants adapt to the new language and

customs, and women’s clubs and self-help groups targeted intellectual development and social and political

reform.

II.As transcontinental railroads were completed, bringing more settlers west, U.S. military actions, the destruction of the buffalo, the confinement of American Indians to reservations, and assimilationist policies reduced American Indians’ numbers and threatened native culture and identity.

  • Post–Civil War migration to the American West, encouraged by economic opportunities and government policies, caused the federal government to violate treaties with American Indian nations in order to expand the amount of land available to settlers.
  • The competition for land in the West among white settlers, Indians, and Mexican Americans led to an increase in violent conflict.
  • The U.S. government generally responded to American Indian resistance with military force, eventually dispersing tribes onto small reservations and hoping to end American Indian tribal identities through assimilation.

Key Concept 3: The “Gilded Age” witnessed new cultural and intellectual movements in tandem with political debates

over economic and social policies.

  1. Gilded Age politics were intimately tied to big business and focused nationally on economic issues—tariffs, currency, corporate expansion, and laissez-faire economic policy—that engendered numerous calls for reform.
  • Corruption in government — especially as it related to big business — energized the public to demand increased popular control and reform of local, state and national governments, ranging from minor changes to major overhauls of the capitalist system.
  • Increasingly prominent racist and nativist theories, along with Supreme Court decisions such as Plessy v. Ferguson, were used to justify violence as well as local and national policies of discrimination and segregation.

II.New cultural and intellectual movements both buttressed and challenged the social order of the Gilded Age.

  • Cultural and intellectual arguments justified the success of those at the top of the socioeconomic structure as both appropriate and inevitable, even as some leaders argued that the wealthy had some obligation to help the less fortunate.
  • A number of critics challenged the dominant corporate ethic in the United States and sometimes capitalism itself, offering alternate visions of the good society through utopianism and the Social Gospel.
  • Challenging their prescribed “place,” women and African American activists articulated alternative visions of political, social, and economic equality.

PERIOD 6: 1865-1898- Main Themes

Themes / Applied to this period
Identity / Capitalism! - Social Darwinism, Laissez-Faire economics.
Ideas about Opportunity! – created hard work, perseverance, self-reliance.
Large gaps between the Rich and Poor – reasons for it?
Manifest Destiny support continues.
Work, Exchange, and Technology / Industrialism of the North – use of immigrant population as workers
Monopolies and Robberbarons – exploitation of the capitalist system
Southern Economy - Sharecropping and Tenant Farming, limited manufacturing
Transportation/Communication – Transcontinental RR, telephone
Technology – Edison’s light bulb, barbed wire, refrigerator car, skyscrapers, etc.
Worker response to Monopolies – unionization and strikes (mostly ineffective)
Western work – Homesteaders, Buffalo, RR construction, ranchers, mining, etc.
Peopling / New wave of immigration – southern and eastern Europeans (East Coast), Chinese (West Coast)
Urbanization – living conditions are BAD
Western settlement – Oklahoma Land Rush, Homestead Act
Settlement vs. American Indians – Reservation system, conflict, assimilation (Dawes Act)
Politics and Power / Gilded Age - Patronage vs. Merit System - Pendleton Civil Service Act
Corruption in Leadership - Credit Moblier Scandal, Garfield Assassination, etc.
Politics controlled by businessmen (Robberbarons) - Billion Dollar Congress, Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Federal purview of the economy - Interstate Commerce Act
Political Machines - Boss Tweed/Tammany Hall, Thomas Nast
Anti-Monopolist response – Populist movement!
Jim Crow South – Disenfranchisement of rights
America in the World / American expansion of markets – Latin and South America
Environment and Geography / Industrialization of the North – pollution, urbanization, deforestation
Plantations of the south – War destruction of the environment
Western Settlement – “The Frontier is ended” devastation of western wilderness and animals.
Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture / Racism – Anti-Chinese, “New Immigrant” sentiment, African Americans
The Role of church/religion in helping the poor – Salvation Army, settlement houses, Methodist Church, etc.
Women – Temperance and Suffrage Movement continues, in the workforce, etc.
New forms of entertainment – baseball, golf, tennis, bicycles, amusement parks, etc.
Artistic movements – Realism, Naturalism, Regionalism.
Scientific Ideas – Pragmatism, etc.

PERIOD 6: 1865-1898 - Vocabulary

For each packet, you must be able to IDENTIFY and EXPLAIN THE CONTEXTUAL SIGNIFNICANCE of each term below. These may or may not be in the book. Use other resources (online) to accomplish this if necessary.

big businessurbanizationGilded Age subsidies monopolies Social Darwinism conspicuous consumption New South tenant farming sharecropping People’s (Populist) Party national parks Increased southern and eastern European immigration “Americanize” political machines settlement houses women’s clubs self-help groups transcontinental railroads assimilation policies laissez-faire economics Plessy v. Ferguson Social Gospel

PERIOD 6: 1865-1898 - Reading Guide (Chapter Twenty-Three)

  1. Why did Grant win the Election of 1868 and how did that eventually lead to an ineffectual presidency? Be sure to include the Panic of 1873 and the Credit Mobilier Scandal in your response.
  2. In your own words, describe the Gilded Age coined by Mark Twain. In your description, be sure to include the role of patronage, the Tweed Ring, and the Compromise of 1877.
  3. Complete the following chart on the conditions of post Reconstruction South.

Event / Details / How it perpetuates the oppression of African Americans in the South?
Sharecropping
Jim Crow Laws
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Mass Lynching
The Grandfather Clause (p508)
  1. Analyze the political cartoon on page 498. How does this image and western immigration activity promote the creation of the Chinese Exclusion Act?
  2. In one concise sentence, summarize “Garfield and Arthur.”
  3. Evaluate the two presidencies of Grover Cleveland and rank (with support) his effectiveness in each term. Use the following terms in your ranking support: Laissez Faire, tariffs, the Populist Party, and the Depression of 1893.

PERIOD 6: 1865-1898 - Reading Guide (Chapter Twenty-Four)

Answer the following questions fully and completely.

  1. How did the Railroad revolutionize America? Include its construction, its impact of American Indian populations, its consolidation process, its price gauging, and government restrictions in your response.
  2. Create a four way comparison graphic organizer connecting the following types of Monopolies, Robberbarons, and industries. Then write a summary sentence synthesizing the correlating terms.

Ways to form a monopoly – Vertical integration, Horizontal Integration, Trusts, and Interlocking Directorates.

Industry – Steel, oil, banking, railroads.

Robberbarons – Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Morgan.

  1. Examine the political cartoon on page 524 and read the quote on page 525. From your examination, write one sentence in opposition of the Social Darwinism and one sentence in support of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
  2. In two concise sentences, summarize “The South in the Age of Industry.”
  3. Describe the changing role of women in the Industrial Age.
  4. Complete the follow chart on Early American Unionization.

Practice/Event/Organization / Describe Its/Their Goal / Evaluate its effectiveness in terms of Unionization
“Lock-out”/”Yellow Dog Contract”
National Labor Union
Knights of Labor/Mother Jones
Homestead Strike (in Ch. 23)
Haymarket Riot
Mother Jones
Pullman Strike (in Ch. 26)
American Federation of Labor/
Samuel Gompers
Closed Shops

PERIOD 6: 1865-1898 - Reading Guide (Chapter Twenty-Five)

Answer the following questions fully and completely.

  1. Compare and contrast the rural and urban life during the late 19th century. Speculate why urbanization increased so heavily due to the difference between rural and urban life.
  2. Who are the “new immigrants” and describe their experience (in the home and at work) upon entering the United States. Be sure to include Ellis Island, dumbbell tenements, sweat shops, and settlement houses in your response.
  3. Analyze the quote on page 550. Make two argumentative statements in opposition AND in support (one each) of the sentiment illustrated in the quote.
  1. Complete the chart on new ideas and movements in the late 1800’s.

Battle/Event / Goal of the movement / Leaders and their role
(if available) / What is the movement
Trying to fix/address?
Social Gospel Movement
Liberal Protestants
Salvation Army
YMCA/YWCA
Darwinism
Tuskegee Institute
NAACP
Land Grant Colleges
Pragmatism
Yellow Journalism
NAWSA
Women’s Clubs
WCTU
Realism
Naturalism
Regionalism
City Beautiful Movement
Shows – “Greatest Show on
Earth”, “Wild West”

PERIOD 6: 1865-1898 - Reading Guide (Chapter Twenty-Six)

Answer the following questions fully and completely.

  1. Create an outline illustrating the impact that Great Plains migration had on American Indian populations. Be sure to include the role of the Buffalo, major conflicts (the Battle of Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee, Sand Creek Massacre), Indian leaders, the reservation system, and the Dawes Act.
  2. In one concise sentence, summarize “Beef Bonanzas and the Long Drive.”
  3. Describe the life of a “Homesteader/Sodbuster.” Include the who, what, when, why, how and significance.
  4. Analyze the meaning of the “closing” of the frontier and “safety valve” in regards to western expansion. See page 590 to do this.
  5. Why was farming financially hard in the Great Plains? Be sure to explain the role of machinery, Bonanza Farms, Wall Street, geographic hardships, and the Railroad in your response.
  6. Create a timeline illustrating the events the populist movement. Here are the timeline entries you must include with a brief description: The Grange, Farmer’s Alliance, the Omaha Platform, The Cross of Gold Speech, Gold Bugs vs. Silverites campaign, and Election of 1896.

PERIOD 6: 1865-1898 - Crash Course Videos

For each period, watch the following videos. There are no questions to go with these videos, but they will be EMMENSLY VALUABLE in helping you contextualize and compare time periods!

1. The Industrial Economy: Crash Course US History #23

URL:

2. Westward Expansion: Crash Course US History #24

URL:

3. Growth, Cities, and Immigration: Crash Course US History #25

URL:

4. Gilded Age Politics: Crash Course US History #26

URL:

PERIOD 6: 1865-1898 - Theme Chart Review

Identify what is happening in each of the seven themes in this period. Descriptions should not be more than two sentences. Recognize that certain themes will be more prominent in certain time periods than in others.

Identify - Details, events, people, places, etc. / Descriptions – The Big Picture
Identity
Work, Exchange, Technology
Peopling
Politics and Power
America in the World
Environment and Geography
Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture