Chapter 17: The Economy Transformed: The Rise of Big Business
1877-1887

     I. Industrialism
        (read Passages 1877-1909 right before beginning of Chapter 17)

     II. Railroads
          A. Innovations
          B. Funding
               1. government
               2. private
          C. Vanderbilt
          D. Impact of railroads
          E. Abuses by railroads
               1. Interstate Commerce Act

     III. Oil
          A. Rockefeller
               1. horizontal integration
               2. trusts

     IV. Steel
          A. Carnegie
               1. vertical integration

     V. Inventors and Inventions

     VI. Dangers of Industrialism
          A. Rise of labor unions
          B. Social Darwinism

     VII. Changing South and West
          A. Native Americans
          B. Mining, cattle and farming

     VIII. Politics and Public Policy

Key Terms

     standard gauge
     land grants
     Robber Baron/Captain of Industry
     pool
     rebate
     Interstate Commerce Commission
     Standard Oil of Ohio
     trust
     horizontal integration
     vertical integration
     Alexander Graham Bell
     Thomas Edison
     Knights of Labor
     American Federation of Labor
     Samuel Gompers
     Social Darwinism
     Helen Hunt Jackson/ Century of Dishonor
     Dawes Severalty Act
     patronage
     Pendleton Act of 1883
     Chinese Exclusion Act
     Rutherford B. Hayes
     James Garfield
     Chester A. Arthur
     Grover Cleveland

Study Questions

     1. Discuss the overall impact of the railroads and the ways in which it spurred industrialization in the late 1880s.

     2. How did railroads abuse their customers?  Explain what the government did to rectify the situation in 1887?

     3. Describe the dangers and problems faced by employees in the workplace in the late 1800s and explain why unions became important.

     4. Discuss the rise and subsequent decline of the cattle industry following the Civil War.

     5. Discuss the major political issues that Americans debated during the 1880s.