Embedded Files
Unit Overview: American Industrialization and the Gilded Age
This unit covers the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. Important themes covered in the unit:
Industrialization and big business in the Gilded Age
The Populist movement
The heavy immigration of the era
Political machines
Urbanization
Race relations/NAACP and Women's Suffrage
Education and entertainment at the turn of the century
All supplemental materials relating to the unit may be found below and/or by clicking on the link.
Unit Essay: Industrial America
In order to complete this project you must write an essay on the following topic:
Industrial America:
By 1900 America had soared ahead of Great Britain and Germany to become the world's number one industrial power, as the transcontinental railroad, mechanized farming, and massive immigration at the end of the 19th century had super-heated its economy. America also played a decisive role in the allied victory in WWI, and by 1919 was recognized as one of the most powerful nations on earth...a long way from the colonial days and our early history. By the early twentieth century, America was industrial, politically and economically stable, and rapidly becoming the most powerful nation on earth. Using the knowledge of this era that you have gained from your lessons, write an essay of 600 words or more explaining how the Industrial Revolution of the late 19th century had transformed America politically, economically, and socially.
Helpful links for this essay:
Documentaries:
American Experience: Triangle Fire (1:07:51)
The Century Episode 1: Seeds of Change (47:44)
Short Videos:
The Populist Dream and the Peoples' Party (5:31)
Meatpacking, "The Jungle" (2:51)
Immigrant Experience, Seeds of Change (3:53)
Immigrants, Politics, and Political Machines (1:01)
Women's Suffrage Movement (2:27)
Progressive Era/Gilded Age Overview (3:23)
Unit Lectures:
American Industrialization, 1860-1914
Industrial America Essay Class
Unit Primary Sources:
20th Century History Unit 1 Key Terms
For this project you must define the terms listed below and explain each term's significance to the unit/era being studied. Your definition should be 2-3 sentences long and may be copied and pasted from a source like Wikipedia, but the significance of the term must be in your own words and based on your own understanding. To fill out a term's significance, ask yourself, "Why is this item included in my study of this unit? Why is this term in a history book?" The answer to this question is your term's significance.
Unit 1 Key Terms:
1. Gilded Age
2. Credit Mobilier
3. Transcontinental Railroad
4. Election of 1896
5. Populism
6. Women's Suffrage Movement
7. granges
8. Interstate Commerce Act
9. Tariff Act of 1890
10. Sherman Antitrust Act
11. Homestead Act
12. Samuel Morse
13. Alexander Graham Bell
14. Thomas Edison
15. William Westinghouse
16. Andrew Carnegie
17. Social Darwinism
18. Standard Oil
19. American Federation of Labor
20. Pullman Strike of 1894
Below is an example of a key term done with the proper format:
William the Conqueror: William I (c. 1028[2] – 9 September 1087), also known as William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant), was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II. Before his conquest of England, he was known as William the Bastard because of the illegitimacy of his birth.To press his claim to the English crown, William invaded England in 1066, leading an army of Normans, Bretons, Flemings, and Frenchmen (from Paris andÎle-de-France) to victory over the English forces of King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest.[3] (I copied and pasted this definition from Wikipedia)
Significance: William the Conqueror is significant because his conquest of England created the first nation state in Europe. His rearrangement of English feudal territories to give himself dramatically more power than the the barons and nobles around him caused him to be the most powerful monarch in Europe and eventually led to the rise of other nation states over the next few centuries. (These are my words based on my knowledge of English and European history.)
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