APUSH Second Industrial Revolution Notes

capital goods
Capital goods are objects that are used to produce other goods and services. They are important factors because they are key in developing a positive return from manufacturing other products and commodities.

Bessemer process
(1855) Patented in 1855 by Henry Bessemer, the Bessemer process was an inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron.

Gustavus Swift
(1839-1903) Founded a meat-packing empire in the Midwest during the late 19th century. He is credited with the development of the first practical ice-cooled railroad car (1878), which ushered in the "era of cheap beef."

vertical integration
Vertical integration is a process where each member of a hierarchy produces a different product or service and the products combine to satisfy a common need. It was popularized by Andrew Carnegie.

mass marketing
A market strategy that aims to provide products and services that will appeal to the whole market. It is the opposite of Niche marketing as it focuses on high sales and low prices.

Wabash v. Illinois (1886)
Was a Supreme Court decision that severely limited the rights of states to control interstate commerce. It led to the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission (See Interstate Commerce Act).

managerial revolution*
(etym. 1941) A concept which points to the shift, within the modern corporation, from the owner to the professional manager as the key figure in the enterprise. The concept originates in a book of that title by James Burnham (1941).

Frederick W. Taylor
(1856–1915) (1856–1915) was an engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency. He is regarded as the father of scientific management. Taylor was one of the intellectual leaders of the Efficiency Movement and his ideas were highly influential in the Progressive Era.

Terence V. Powderly
(1849 –1924)
(1849 –1924) was the leader of the Knights of Labor, a union devoted to worker’s rights and economic and social reform, from 1879 to 1893.

closed shop
A closed shop is a business in which union membership is a precondition to employment. It is opposed to the open shop, which does not consider union membership in hiring decisions.

Haymarket Square Riot
(1886) The Haymarket affair in Chicago began as a rally in support of striking workers. An unknown person threw a bomb at police and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of eight police officers and an unknown number of civilians. In the internationally publicized legal proceedings that followed, eight anarchists were tried for murder. Four were put to death, and one committed suicide in prison.

Samuel Gompers
(1850 - 1924) (1850 - 1924) was the founder of American Federation of Labor (AFL), and served as the AFL's president from 1886 until 1924. He favored unions comprised of skilled workers and was against "industrial unions.".

Eugene Debs
(1855 – 1926) (1855 – 1926) was one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), as well as candidate for President as a Socialist in 1900 up to 1920.

Wobblies (IWW)
(est. 1905) The Industrial Workers of the World, an international union established in 1905. The IWW contends that all workers should be united within a single union as a class and that the wage system should be abolished.

Homestead Strike
(1892) The Homestead Strike began on June 30, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892. The dispute occurred between the AA and the Carnegie Steel Company.


Pullman Strike
(1894) The Pullman Strike occurred when 3,000 Pullman Palace Car Company workers reacted to a 25% wage cut by going on a wildcat strike in Illinois on May 11, 1894, bringing traffic west of Chicago to a halt.

Interstate Commerce
Act (1887)
Signed into law by President Grover Cleveland, the Act created the ICC. The Interstate Commerce Act banned "personal discrimination" and gave the Commission the power to determine maximum "reasonable" rates.

yellow-dog contracts
A yellow-dog contract is an agreement between an employer and an employee in which the employee agrees, as a condition of employment, not to be a member of a labor union.