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The Gilded Age & the Progressive Era

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Overview

Summary of Events

Key People & Terms

Gilded Age Politics: 1877–1892

Industrialization: 1869–1901

The Labor Movement: 1866–1894

Gilded Age Society: 1870–1900

The West: 1860–1900

The Rise and Fall of Populism: 1892–1896

The Spanish-American War: 1898–1901

Roosevelt’s Big Stick Diplomacy: 1899–1908

Roosevelt and the Progressives: 1901–1908

The Taft Presidency: 1909–1912

Wilsonian Progressivism: 1913–1916

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The Gilded Age & the Progressive Era (1877–1917)

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1. Congress passed the Pendleton Act after

(A) The Wabash case

(B) The Battle of Wounded Knee

(D) The assassination of President Garfield

2. How did the Civil Service Commission eliminate the spoils system?

(A) By administering competitive exams to all applicants for federal jobs

(B) By hiring only applicants who were not in the same political party as the president

(D) By reducing the number of available civil service jobs

3. Coxey’s Army marched on Washington, D.C., in the hopes of winning

(A) Equal political rights for women

(B) Free coinage of silver

(D) The right to unionize

4. Populists campaigned for all of the following except

(A) Free silver

(B) Nationalized railroads

(D) A graduated income tax

5. The Pullman Strike of 1894

(A) Halted trains throughout the United States

(B) Made Eugene V. Debs a national figure

(D) All of the above

6. Some big businessmen such as Andrew Carnegie vertically integrated their corporations by

(A) Eliminating middlemen to control every aspect of production

(B) Buying out all competing firms to monopolize a single product

(D) Issuing uncompetitive rebates

7. John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil practiced horizontal integration by

(A) Eliminating middlemen to control every aspect of production

(B) Buying out all competing firms to monopolize a single product

(D) Issuing uncompetitive rebates

8. What act of Congress was prompted by the Supreme Court’s ruling in the 1886 Wabash case?

(A) Sherman Anti-Trust Act

(B) Interstate Commerce Act

(D) Comstock Law

9. Why was the Sherman Anti-Trust act significant?

(A) The federal government used the act to break up several unfair monopolies

(B) It was the first piece of federal anti-trust legislation

(D) All of the above

10. The western frontier at the end of the nineteenth century was most transformed by

(A) The mechanical mower-reaper

(B) The Homestead Act

(D) Railroads

11. The National Labor Union and the Knights of Labor were similar in that both represented

(A) Only skilled workers

(B) Only unskilled workers

(D) Only urban laborers

12. Membership in the Knights of Labor dwindled after

(A) The Pullman Strike

(B) The Depression of 1873

(D) The Haymarket Square Bombing

13. The American Federation of Labor differed from the Knights of Labor in that

(A) The Knights accepted both skilled and unskilled laborers, whereas the AFL accepted only skilled

(B) The AFL accepted only skilled laborers, whereas the Knights accepted only unskilled

(D) The AFL accepted skilled and unskilled laborers, whereas the Knights accepted only skilled laborers

14. From what region did most new immigrants in the United States come at the end of the nineteenth century?

(A) Germany and Ireland

(B) Latin America

(D) Southern and eastern Europe

15. Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois disagreed on the issue of racial equality in that

(A) Washington fought for social and economic equality, whereas Du Bois fought primarily for social equality

(B) Du Bois fought for both social and economic equality, whereas Washington fought for only economic equality

(D) Du Bois fought for political equality in the South, whereas Washington fought for political equality in the North

16. Congress passed the Dawes Severalty Act in 1887 in order to

(A) Preserve Native American culture

(B) Put Native Americans on reservations

(D) Encourage all Native Americans to move to Canada

17. Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle prompted Congress to pass the

(A) Warehouse and Adamson Acts

(B) Meat Inspection and Pure Food and Drug acts

(D) Newlands acts

18. What did historian Frederick Jackson Turner argue in 1893?

(A) The new wave of immigrants arriving in the United States was “unassimilable”

(B) Western expansion had had an enormous impact on American society and politics

(D) Women should not be allowed to vote because they were intellectually inferior to men

19. Why was President Garfield assassinated?

(A) A crazed Stalwart wanted Vice President Arthur to be president

(B) He had opposed civil service reform

(D) He had passed the McKinley Tariff

20. The Pendleton Act was passed to

(A) Lower the tariff rate from 50 percent to 30 percent

(B) Print more paper money to help poor farmers

(D) Reform the spoils system

21. The McKinley Tariff raised the tariff rate to about

(A) 30 percent

(B) 40 percent

(D) 60 percent

22. Why was the Republican Party politically weak throughout the Gilded Age?

(A) All the presidents were Democrats

(B) The bitter feuding between Half-Breeds and Stalwarts split the party

(D) Republicans were divided on the tariff issue

23. The Depression of 1893 depleted the U.S. Treasury so much that the federal government had to

(A) Give in to Populists’ demands and coin silver

(B) Print more paper money

(D) Levy the first national income tax

24. Tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt transformed the railroad industry completely by

(A) Issuing unfair rebates

(B) Inventing the diesel locomotive

(D) Using steel tracks

25. In which case did the Supreme Court rule that only the federal government could regulate interstate trade?

(A) The Northern Securities case

(B) Gideon v. Wainwright

(D) Roe v. Wade

26. Which tycoon made steel into one of the nation’s biggest industries?

(A) William Kelly

(B) Cornelius Vanderbilt

(D) All of the above

27. Many middle-class Americans disliked labor unions in the late nineteenth century because

(A) They falsely associated organized labor with socialists

(B) They saw union members as ungrateful employees

(D) All of the above

28. Why did membership in the National Labor Union fade in the mid-1870s?

(A) Most members joined the American Federation of Labor instead

(B) The Depression of 1873 made jobs scarce

(D) Americans didn’t like labor unions in the 1870s

29. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was most often used to prosecute

(A) Monopolistic corporations

(B) Labor unions

(D) Railroads

30. In which case did the Supreme Court legalize “separate but equal” public facilities for whites and blacks?

(A) The Wabash case

(B) Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

(D) Dred Scott v. Sanford

31. Social Darwinists believed that

(A) Wealthy people were rich because they had gotten lucky

(B) Wealthy people were the best people

(D) Everyone could become rich if they worked hard

32. Many farmers in the Midwest hated the railroad companies because they

(A) Issued unfair rebates to larger agricultural shippers

(B) Didn’t publish standard fares

(D) All of the above

33. The Populist movement was born out of the

(A) Farmers’ Alliance

(B) National Labor Union

(D) Nativist League

34. Cleveland’s second presidential term was plagued by all of the following crises except

(A) The Pullman Strike

(B) Coxey’s Army

(D) Depression of 1893

35. Which of the following men delivered the famous “Cross of Gold” speech?

(A) William McKinley

(B) James Garfield

(D) William Jennings Bryan

36. The Populists’ dream of free silver ended when Congress and McKinley passed

(A) The Gold Standard Act

(B) The Comstock Law

(D) The McKinley Tariff

37. What was the primary reason Benjamin Harrison lost the election of 1892?

(A) He was a Half-Breed

(B) He supported equal rights for blacks

(D) He had passed the Comstock Law

38. Members of the Ghost Dance Movement sought to

(A) Turn away white settlers and return to traditional ways of life

(B) Resolve differences with whites and assimilate into white American culture as quickly as possible

(D) Move all Native Americans to Canada

39. Roosevelt’s Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine effectively stipulated that

(A) European powers could establish no new colonies in the Western Hemisphere

(B) The United States could seize any land it needed in order to complete the Panama Canal

(D) Only the United States could intervene in Latin American affairs

40. All of the following inventions transformed American life in the late 1800s except

(A) The lightbulb

(B) The automobile

(D) The telephone

41. What was the main reason Woodrow Wilson won the election of 1912?

(A) Americans supported his Progressive policies

(B) Taft and Roosevelt divided Republican voters

(D) Taft had alienated too many voters

42. With which Native American tribes did the United States fight wars?

(A) Nez Percé

(B) Sioux

(D) All of the above

43. Which of the following affected African Americans most directly?

(A) The Pendleton Act

(B) The Comstock Law

(D) The Plessy v. Ferguson decision

44. Farmers were represented by all of the following except

(A) The Farmers’ Alliance

(B) The Grange

(D) The Populist movement

45. Roosevelt announced his Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine out of fear that

(A) European countries would use unpaid debts to exert influence in Latin America

(B) Pancho Villa would launch another raid on U.S. territory

(D) Victoriano Huerta would seize power in Mexico

46. Whom did Jane Addams’s Hull House strive to help?

(A) Urban immigrants

(B) Urban blacks

(D) Native Americans

47. As the head of which institution did Booker T. Washington push for improved education for blacks?

(A) Howard University

(B) Emory University

(D) American University

48. John Hay’s Open Door Notes requested that Japan and Europe

(A) Stay out of Latin American affairs

(B) Respect China’s territorial status and the principle of free trade

(D) Maintain the territorial status quo in Southeast Asia

49. Taft alienated progressive Republicans and voters by supporting the

(A) Payne-Aldrich Tariff

(B) Underwood Tariff

(D) Dingley Tariff

50. Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal domestic agenda called for

(A) Protecting consumers from harmful trusts

(B) Helping organized labor

(D) All of the above

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