Unit 6: Growth and Innovation, 1878-1900

Unit Overview: Growth and Innovation

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 and rise of workers' unions

• Urbanization

• Race relations/NAACP and Women's Suffrage

• Education and entertainment at the turn of the century

Unit Essay: Growth and Innovation

In order to get credit for this project, you must write a well-developed essay on ONE of the following topics:

Growth and InnovationDBQ: In the post–Civil War United States, corporations grew significantly in number, size, and influence. Analyze the

impact of big business on the economy and politics and the responses of Americans to these changes. Confine

your answer to the period 1870 to 1900. (2012)

FRQ: Choose TWO of the following organizations and explain their strategies for advancing the interests of workers. To what extent were these organizations successful in achieving their objectives? Confine your answer to the period from 1875 to 1925: Knights of Labor; American Federation of Labor; Socialist Party of America; Industrial Workers of the World. (2009)

DBQ: For the years 1880 to 1925, analyze both the tensions surrounding the issue of immigration and the United States government’s response to these tensions. Use the following documents and your knowledge of the period from 1880 to 1925 to construct your answer. (2008)

FRQ: Following Reconstruction, many southern leaders promoted the idea of a “New South.” To what extent was this “New South” a reality by the time of the First World War? In your answer be sure to address TWO of the following: Economic development; Politics; Race Relations. (2008) 

FRQ: Explain how TWO of the following individuals responded to the economic and social problems created by industrialization during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Jane Addams; Andrew Carnegie; Samuel Gompers; Upton Sinclair. (2007) 

DBQ: Analyze the ways in which technology, government policy, and economic conditions changed American agriculture in the period 1865-1900. In your answer be sure to evaluate farmer’s responses to these changes. (2007) 

FRQ: For whom and to what extent was the American West a land of opportunity from 1865 to 1890? (2006)

FRQ: Analyze the primary causes of a population shift from a rural to an urban environment in the United States between 1875 and 1925. (2004) 

FRQ: Analyze the ways in which farmers and industrial workers responded to industrialization in the Gilded Age, 1865-1900 (2003) 

FRQ: Evaluate the impact of the Civil war on political and economic developments in TWO of the following regions: The South, The North, The West. Focus your answer on the period between 1865 and 1900 (2003)