101. What advice does Chief Joseph offer the white man in his 1879 speech in Washington, D.C.?
a. to leave the continent because the Indians are sure to fight immediately and hold their own
b. to treat all men, including Indians, the same way in order to live in peace
c. to make verbal promises to the Indians regarding property and peace
d. to ignore the Indians entirely as had been done for most of American history
e. to deny Indians the ability to travel and trade in exchange for much-needed supplies
Matching
TEST 1
___ 1. Thomas Edison
___ 2. Nicola Tesla
___ 3. Andrew Carnegie
___ 4. John D. Rockefeller
___ 5. William G. Sumner
___ 6. Terence Powderly
___ 7. Edward Bellamy
___ 8. Walter Rauschenbusch
___ 9. Chief Joseph
___ 10. Sitting Bull
___ 11. Jacob Riis
___ 12. Henry George
a. a figure of the Social Gospel movement
b. a steel industry giant
c. the author of Progress and Poverty
d. the head of the Knights of Labor
e. the inventor of the electric motor
f. the author of How the Other Half Lives
g. winner at the Battle of Little Bighorn
h. a utopian novelist
i. a Social Darwinist
j. an oil industry giant
k. a member of the Nez Percé
l. inventor who opened the first electric generating system in Manhattan
TEST 2
___ 1. trusts
___ 2. vertical integration
___ 3. horizontal integration
___ 4. social gospel
___ 5. Dawes Act
___ 6. conspicuous consumption
___ 7. Civil Service Act
___ 8. gilded
___ 9. Social Darwinism
___ 10. Tweed Ring
___ 11. Elk v. Wilkins
___ 12. bonanza farm
a. was a merit system for federal employees
b. believed that equality of wealth was required for freedom
c. was a corrupt political machine
d. functioned as a combination of corporations to establish a monopoly
e. established that Indians were not American citizens
f. buying out one’s competitors
g. controlling every phase of a business
h. broke up tribal lands into small parcels to be distributed to Indian families
i. spending money simply to show off wealth
j. espoused the idea of “survival of the fittest”
k. meant “covered in gold”
l. represented commercialized agriculture and was large in size
True/False
1. The idea for the Statue of Liberty originated as a response to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
2. According to the Census Bureau, by the turn of the twentieth century, most Americans worked for wages.
3. By 1880, a majority of Americans worked in nonfarm activities.
4. The spread of electricity was essential to industrial and urban growth.
5. The economy surged between 1870 and 1890, bringing prosperity and growth with only minor disruptions.
6. Both Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller amassed huge fortunes because they managed their companies
under entirely democratic principles.
7. American workers received lower pay than their European counterparts, but their working conditions were far
better.
8. The Second Industrial Revolution erased the stark economic differences and disparities in living conditions that
existed between social classes.
9. William G. Sumner, a Social Darwinist, believed the government existed to protect the property of men and the
honor of women.
10. The Morrill Land-Grant Act, passed during the Civil War, prohibited mining and railroad companies from
continued use of public lands.
11. Male farmers experienced the most hardship on the Great Plains, because farm women did not experience long
days in the fields.
12. John Wesley Powell warned that the western region’s arid land would require large -scale irrigation projects
and cooperative, communal farming to prosper.
13. Prior to 1870, Chinese immigrants in the American West came with their families.
14. Republican economic policies strongly favored the interests of northern industrialists.
15. The coming of the railroad to the Far West had little to do with the rapid expansion of corporate timber production.
16. The Dawes Act was an extension of the treaty system practiced by the American government since the
Revolutionary War.
17. Most nineteenth-century Indians were willing to assimilate and give up their tribal identity for citizenship.
18. Elk v. Wilkins (1884) agreed with lower court rulings that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments did not
apply to Indians.
19. By 1900, many Indians had become American citizens by accepting land allotments under the Dawes Act.
20. Lochner v. New York voided a state law establishing ten hours per day, or sixty per week, as the maximum
hours of work for bakers, claiming that it infringed on individual freedom.
21. The Knights of Labor raised the question of whether meaningful freedom could exist in a situation of extreme
economic inequality.
22. Looking Backward was the first book to popularize socialist ideas for an American audience.
23. Racial and ethnic groups added their own elements to the western myth, including celebrating the Mexican–
American outlaw Gregorio Cortez.
24. Voter participation during the Gilded Age was over 50 percent.
25. Every Republican candidate for president from 1860 to 1900, except James Blaine, had fought in the Civil War.
26. The Social Gospel movement focused on attacking individual sins such as drinking and Sabbath-breaking.
27. After the Haymarket Affair, employers took the opportunity to paint the labor movement as a dangerous and un–
American force prone to violence and controlled by foreign-born radicals.
28. The events of 1886 suggested that labor might be on the verge of establishing itself as a permanent political
force.
Short Answer
2. On what grounds did the Supreme Court rule against John Elk when he applied for citizenship? Provide a brief
description of the Elk v. Wilkins (1884) ruling. Please include Elk’s argument and the Court’s decision.
3. By the late nineteenth century, Indians had the right to become American citizens if they wished. Briefly
describe under which circumstances this was possible.
Essay
1. What role did the government play in defining, protecting, and/or limiting the liberty of American workers during
the Gilded Age?
2. Henry Demarest Lloyd wrote in Wealth against Commonwealth (1864), “Liberty and monopoly cannot live
together.” Based on your knowledge of the Gilded Age and the industrial revolution, assess the validity of this
statement.
3. Describe how the industrial revolution created new forms of freedom for some workers while restricting some
freedoms for others. How did industrialization affect all workers? Be careful not to generalize.
4. Sitting Bull stated, “The life my people want is a life of freedom.” Likewise, Chief Joseph simply asked the
government for equal rights enshrined by the laws. Describe what freedom meant to the Indians and how that
conflicted with the interests and values of most white Americans. Also, explain why white Americans did not
allow Indians the opportunity to have American citizenship.
5. Union leader John Mitchell explained that the court system was guaranteeing liberties that the workers did not
want and denying them the liberty that was of real value to them. Explain what he meant by this statement. How
were the courts defining liberty and freedom?
6. How did the labor movement launch a sustained assault on the understanding of freedom grounded in Social
Darwinism and in the liberty of contract?
7. The West experienced tremendous growth after the Civil War; nowhere was this more apparent than in California.
Write an essay on the consequences of population growth on the western landscape, looking at farming,
livelihoods, the impact of the railroad, the growth of Indian reservations, and the subjugation of Indian peoples.
8. Compare the motives and methods of the various social reformers active in the Gilded Age. How did the efforts of
thinkers such as Henry George, Laurence Gronlund, and Edward Bellamy differ from those of the Protestant and
Social Gospel reformers of the period? Were any of these approaches more successful than others? Why, or why not?
9. How did the second industrial revolution transform the economy of the American West? Discuss the specific ways
corporations affected economic development in the region, as well as the nature of the work itself and its impact
on western workers.
10. What might account for the emergence of a mythic “Wild” West during the Gilded Age? Given the rapid post–Civil
War expansion of industry beyond the Mississippi River, why would perceptions of a West, at once a lawless but
timeless romantic frontier dominated by cowboys and Indians, permeate American popular culture in the late
nineteenth century? (In composing your answer, consider the impact of the second industrial revolution.)
11. By the turn of the twentieth century, reformers from different social classes were arguing for increased government
intervention into the economy. Explain why this was the case and how expectations varied among the social
classes.