The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People (Brinkley), 7th Edition

Chapter 17: Industrial Supremacy

Study Questions

Your Results:

1			What were the key late-nineteenth-century technological innovations in communications, office productivity, and ocean transportation?
2			What developments allowed the widespread use of electricity as a source of light and power to become commonplace by the turn of the century?
3			Explain the new Bessemer and open-hearth technologies developed for the large-scale production of durable steel. What impact did the vast expansion of steel production have on transportation industries in the late nineteenth century?
4			Describe how railroads took the lead in new patterns of business organization and management in the late nineteenth century. What legal and financial advantages does the corporation form of enterprise offer to business and investors?
5			Compare and contrast the vertical and horizontal integration strategies of business combination. Which approaches did Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller utilize? What "curse" of the business world was consolidation designed to attack?
6			Compare and contrast Social Darwinism and the Gospel of Wealth. Who was the principal proponent of the latter?
7			Contrast the earlier immigrants to the United States with those who came to dominate by the turn of the century. What attracted immigrants, especially the later groups, to the United States? How did native-born Americans and earlier immigrants react?
8			Compare and contrast the organization, membership, leadership, and programs of the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. Why did the AFL succeed, while the Knights disappeared?
9			Compare and contrast the Haymarket affair, Homestead strike, and Pullman strike. On balance, what was their effect on the organized labor movement?
10			What factors combined to help explain why organized labor remained relatively weak before World War I?

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