American Yawp: Unit 1 Study Guide with complete solutions (graded A)

Captains of Industry Owners and managers of large industrial enterprises who amassed personal fortunes and contributed these positively to the country in some way. This includes increasing productivity, expanding markets, providing more jobs, and through acts of philanthropy. Robber Barons Refers to the industrialists or big business owners who gained huge profits by paying their employees extremely low wages. They also drove their competitors out of business by selling their products cheaper than it cost to produce it. Then when they controlled the market, they hiked prices high above original price. 00:00 01:23 Social Darwinism In 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution through natural selection in On the Origin of Species, however it was only by the 1870s that the idea gained traction. Darwin's popularizer, British sociologist Herbert Spencer applied these theories to society and popularized the phrase survival of the fittest. According to Spencer, the fittest would be superior through economic success, while welfare and charity will lead to social degeneration, or the "survival of the weak." Considered a natural order that extended from laws of cosmos to industrial society Spencer's work Synthetic Philosophy sold 400,000 copies in the US by 1903, and elites such as Carnegie, Edison, Rockefeller were his fans. Knights of Labor This union found success in the 1880s by welcoming all laborers, including women but not lawyers, bankers, and liquor dealers. By 1886, they had 700,000 members. They envisioned a cooperative, producer-centered society rewarding labor and not capital. They focused on practical gains and called for an 8-hour day. Jay Gould's railroad company's workers struck after a member was fired, but the union was stopped by militiamen. Their membership dwindled after the Haymarket Riot in Chicago, where members set off a bomb, killing seven policemen. This caused national outrage and branded them as radicals. 8 Chicago anarchists were arrested even w/o evidence American Federation of Labor A conservative alternative to the KOL, it was an alliance of craft unions composed of skilled workers. Instead of a vision of a "producerist" economy, they advocated for a "pure and simple trade unionism," which wanted higher wages, fewer hours, and safer conditions. They tried to avoid strikes, but workers continued to do so. Homestead Strike (Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers) In 1892, this union struck at one of Carnegie's steel mills in Homestead, PA. After repeated wage cuts, they shut the plant down and occupied the mill. Since Carnegie was in the British Isles at the time, his right-hand man, Henry Clay Frick, shut the plant down and called in Pinkerton detectives who were besieged by workers. Pennsylvania's state militia broke the strike, killing the union.