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Boss Tweed
For many Americans living in the Gilded Age, Boss Tweed was a symbol of greed and corruption typical of many businessmen and politicians of the time. His strong ties to Gilded Age Urbanization are shown in the millions of dollars he extorted from city development projects under his control, such as Central Park, the Brooklyn bridge, and the creation of streets and sewers in a growing New York City. -
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Boss Tweed
For many Americans living in the Gilded Age, Boss Tweed was a symbol of greed and corruption typical of many businessmen and politicians of the time. His strong ties to Gilded Age Urbanization are shown in the millions of dollars he extorted from city development projects under his control, such as Central Park, the Brooklyn bridge, and the creation of streets and sewers in a growing New York City. -
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John D. Rockefeller
Founder of the Standard Oil Company; used horizontal integration to effectively buy out his competition -
John D. Rockefeller
Founder of the Standard Oil Company; used horizontal integration to effectively buy out his competition -
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Eugene V. Debbs
Labor leader who helped organize Pullman Strike; later became socialist leader and presidential candidate -
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism was a leading philosophy during the mid 1800s. It stated that only the strongest and the fittest would survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit should be allowed to die. Social Darwinists believed that the government should not interfere with social ills such as poverty. Their "law of the jungle" attitude is used to justify their beliefs that humans, like plants and animals, should compete in a struggle to survive. -
Labor Unions
The Gilded Age was a period of horrific labor violence, as industrialists and workers literally fought over control of the workplace. Workers organized the first large American labor unions during the Gilded Age.Employers were generally just as determined to stop unionization as workers were to organize unions, leading to frequent conflict.Constant strikes and violence eventually caused the middle class to become fed up with both union and businessmen -
Vertical and Horizontal integration
Gilded Age industrialization had its roots in the Civil War, which spurred Congress and the northern states to build more railroads and increased demand for a variety of manufactured goods. The forward-looking Congress of 1862 authorized construction of the first transcontinental railroad, connecting the Pacific and Atlantic lines. Originally, because railroading was such an expensive enterprise at the time, the federal government provided subsidies by the mile to railroad companies in exchange -
Political corruption
the use of power by government officials for illegitimate private gain. The political history of the Gilded Age is usually reduced to a tale of corruption and scandal. And indeed there were plenty of both to go around, at all levels of public life. -
Scottish-American
Scottish-American business tycoon and owner of the Carnegie Steel Company in Pittsburgh; used vertical integration to maintain market dominance -
Haymarket Riot
On May 4, 1886, a labor protest rally near Chicago’s Haymarket Square turned into a riot after someone threw a bomb at police. At least eight people died as a result of the violence that day. Despite a lack of evidence against them, eight radical labor activists were convicted in connection with the bombing. The Haymarket Riot was viewed a setback for the organized labor movement in America, which was fighting for such rights as the eight-hour workday. At the same time, the men convicted in conn -
Trusts & Anti-Trusts
the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to break up monopolistic business combinations, and the Interstate Commerce Act, to regulate railroad rates. State governments created commissions to regulate utilities and laws regulating work conditions. Several states filed suits against corporate trusts and tried to revoke the charges of firms that joined trusts. -
Political Machines
Political machines controlled the activities of political parties in the city in the Gilded Age.Ward bosses,precinct captains ,and the city boss worked to:1)ensure that their candidates were elected2)make sure that city government worked to their advantage. -
Eugene V. Debbs
Labor leader who helped organize Pullman Strike; later became socialist leader and presidential candidate -
Eugenics
Eugenics is an ideology of the Gilded Age and its aftermath. This was a period when the American elite championed a belief in Social Darwinism, a self-serving misreading of Darwin’s biological “survival of the fittest” hypothesis onto social relations, hierarchy. They believed that biology was destiny and that the white race sat atop the thrown of human evolution, civilization.
